Benefits of Certified Pre-Owned

Over the past week I have had the worst customer service experience with BMW of El Paso. BMW was running a special on 2022 – 2024 CPO i4s. The local dealership did not have anything that I liked so I decided to look at dealerships farther away. I found a vehicle in this location, so I decided to call them to see if the car was available. I spoke with Manuel Diaz, and he confirmed that the car was in their lot and was available. Because I had already test drove an i4 and this specific car had a clean history, I decided to purchase the vehicle. Manuel was unaware of the finance special and asked me to send him evidence of the special I was referring to. It was strange since it is not only advertised on the BMW USA website, but also on their own website. After sending him a screenshot of the deal, we decided to get the purchasing process going. Manuel recommended I put a $1,000 deposit on the vehicle while I sent them the documents they needed to see if I would qualify for that offer, which I did. We then discussed the payment plans and the monthly payments. I informed him that I intended to put up $10K for downpayment. He informed me to hold off on transferring the money, which I obliged (this was on a Friday) The next day, I reached out to Manuel about possibility of reducing the asking price and he indicated that the price was firm and I needed to decide because there were several other “leads” (his words). He also indicated that if I wasn’t happy, he could refund me my deposit. I decided to purchase the vehicle for the asking price. I called my bank about the wire transfer and they informed me that you can submit the transfer, but it won’t go through until Monday. I texted Manuel verbatim “My bank said that I can transfer it today but it won’t be sent until the following business day, which is Monday. Should I transfer the money and forward you a receipt of transfer?” to which he replied, “Yes please”. I transferred the money and sent him the receipt as requested. I was ready for the contract to be sent. Only, I received a call late in the afternoon saying that their Real ID system was not working and they can’t hold a car from one month to the next. Mind you, this was Saturday October 31st. It’s not like they are holding the car for two extra weeks. I explained to them that they are not holding the car for me since I already transferred a large downpayment, which would indicate my intentions of buying the care, unseen. Then they came up with a new excuse that the finance deal might not be available next month. Based on their multiple excuses, I know that they were already trying to sell the car to someone else. On Tuesday, I checked the BMW website and the finance special was extended to the next month. I called the dealership because I had not been refunded my deposit, which they were supposed to do on Saturday since they evidently can’t hold cars for a day or two, nor received any receipt that my down payment was refunded. Since they kept my money back, I’m assuming that we can continue the process. I called them and, wouldn’t you know, the car was sold on Saturday, while I still had a valid deposit and had already transferred the money to them. Be warned the Manuel and the rest of the team at BMW of El Paso have ZERO integrity. I called BMW USA to inquire about how their special worked and they informed me that if the contract was signed, they would honor the finance deal. They also found it strange why the dealership did not send the contract for me to sign on that Saturday through DocuSign. Only after I called them and yelled at them, did they refund my initial deposit, which they should have refunded on Saturday, when they sold the car to someone else. I still have not received my wire transfer, which also should have been sent to me on Monday. Now they are preventing me from purchasing another vehicle because I need that money as a down payment.