Can no longer recommend...PK

I did my ED last year with Philippe at South Bay BMW in LA. The purchase was good but the Customer Service they provide after the fact does not exist. Trying to purchase an Extended Warr has been nothing but a headache, no replies to email or return phone calls. I did recieve a quote from PK but when I called to purchase it, his finance manager doubled the price. Not a happy camper with PK OR south Bay BMW!

Sorry you have not had a good experience.

This is completely contrary to my experience with PK, the people that work for him, and the dealership in general. Philippe is a great guy, and he, and South Bay, have always acted professionally and with complete integrity in my dealings with them.

I just returned from another ED, and the entire process could not have been any smoother, thanks in large part to Philippe.

Maybe there was a misunderstanding.

No misunderstanding, just poor(no) Customer Service.

It's strange that the amount is twice that quoted. Are you sure it wasn't an annual quote, but you are buying 2 years - thus double the price?

I don't recall ever seeing ANYONE markup extended warranty by 100%. Perhaps PK made a mistake as I mentioned - we're all human. How much was the quote, for how long, and which model/year?

I just did my second ED with PK and it was a great experience from start to finish. You said that the experience was good when you bought the car, I assume that means everything was smooth and you got a good price. Now you're going to trash him on Bimmerfest over an extended warranty? If there is no misunderstanding, maybe there is a reason he won't return your emails.

Unfortunately, I have to agree. I recently did a ED with PK and, at first, everything went smoothly. But then he turned me over to someone else who did not do a good job of handling the deal and paperwork. They made me wait long past an appointment time, changed the quote at the last minute, and generally were not good about returning emails.

The delivery itself went smoothly, but when I got back and started asking questions about tracking, PK didn't respond to me. His partner finally did get back to me with the shipping information for my car a week after I was able to get it myself without him.

Not the worst experience by any stretch, but certainly not the 5 star experience everyone had recommended to me. I'd say if you do ED with South Bay, expect that it will be "fine" but most definitely not "excellent."

I also had some problems, but spoke to Philippe who agreed they were unacceptable and told me he had recently started passing off his EDs to another person at the dealership. He said he had been receiving complaints from various people, so he was taking EDs back over personally to ensure a smoother experience for all. Hopefully he follows through on that and there aren't any future issues.

Originally Posted by rickb55

No misunderstanding, just poor(no) Customer Service.

I have no reason to doubt you, but I do not know any of the facts of the situation. However, my own extensive dealings with PK over the past few years have been, without exception, fantastic. There have been a couple of bumps along the way, including a service department issue or two; and in all cases, Philippe and South Bay went above and beyond what was required to make things right. I have had nothing but excellent customer service from Philippe and South Bay.

I take posting something negative about someone, possibly directly affecting their livelihood, to be a serious thing; and often one person's set of "facts" does not match the other party's "facts". How many times have we seen posts here and elsewhere initially presenting a very one sided black and white picture of a situation, only to discover as the story unfolds that usually there is a lot more grey area in the dispute than simple black and white or right and wrong?

Innocent misunderstandings or mistakes happen; I trust by the absolute nature of your initial post, as well as this response, that you are completely confident in the accuracy of your post, and there is no room for any different interpretation of the facts. I also assume you gave PK and his associates every opportunity to remedy the situation before you posted this negative post.

Innocent misunderstandings or mistakes happen; I trust by the absolute nature of your initial post, as well as this response, that you are completely confident in the accuracy of your post, and there is no room for any different interpretation of the facts. I also assume you gave PK and his associates every opportunity to remedy the situation before you posted this negative post.[/QUOTE]

Every opportunity was given for a response. The quotes given for the 3rd party extended Warr (Fidelity) were:
6/100 -- $2695
7/100 -- $2795
7/70 -- $2295

He referred me to his finance person who basically said 'No Way', go talk to PK and quickly hung up. 3 VM's were left, 3 emails sent to PK asking for an explanation and NO RESPONSE yet. The price given by the finance person was doubled what was quoted and was rather rude.

If he made a mistake, then admit it and we can go forward and work something out, but silence pisses me off when folks pride themselves on 'Great Customer Service'.

Originally Posted by SoCal Scott

I also had some problems, but spoke to Philippe who agreed they were unacceptable and told me he had recently started passing off his EDs to another person at the dealership. He said he had been receiving complaints from various people, so he was taking EDs back over personally to ensure a smoother experience for all. Hopefully he follows through on that and there aren't any future issues.

I'm going to have to agree with Socal Scott and Hsot0... My experience with south bay bmw has not been 5 star or spectacular or even close. I have not been dealing with PK directly but one of the guys in his department and my paperwork and financing did not go smooth at all.
The first mishap came when I was about to complete my financing (30 days before delivery), my CA tells me a higher price than we agreed upon when I originally placed the order. The reason being is that I added an option to my order AFTER 1/3/11 so the base price went up. This all makes sense however they did not mention any of this to me when I added this option and if I had known that it was going to raise my price $500 I might have left my order alone. BAD communication if you ask me.... Also they even called me on the day before my delivery while I was in Munich to tell me that they screwed up on my financing rate and they needed to change it again (higher of course). To frustrate me further they had no idea where my car was in the tracking process and I had to locate my car myself.... they never even bothered to tell me where my car is/was during re delivery. I even asked last week and I got some generic answer that once the car arrives at port it takes 10-14 days through customs then 2-4 days on a truck.

In any case I should have my M3 in the next 10 days I hope but I will probably not be patronizing South Bay BMW in the future.

Originally Posted by fishskis

I have no reason to doubt you, but I do not know any of the facts of the situation. However, my own extensive dealings with PK over the past few years have been, without exception, fantastic. There have been a couple of bumps along the way, including a service department issue or two; and in all cases, Philippe and South Bay went above and beyond what was required to make things right. I have had nothing but excellent customer service from Philippe and South Bay.

I take posting something negative about someone, possibly directly affecting their livelihood, to be a serious thing; and often one person's set of "facts" does not match the other party's "facts". How many times have we seen posts here and elsewhere initially presenting a very one sided black and white picture of a situation, only to discover as the story unfolds that usually there is a lot more grey area in the dispute than simple black and white or right and wrong?

Innocent misunderstandings or mistakes happen; I trust by the absolute nature of your initial post, as well as this response, that you are completely confident in the accuracy of your post, and there is no room for any different interpretation of the facts. I also assume you gave PK and his associates every opportunity to remedy the situation before you posted this negative post.

I think the bad experience is non PK related. He is saying PK is fine. It is the finance dept be bad.

I wonder if we're hitting a wall here. Deals are getting so thin that CAs/Dealers are only able to make money with high volume, same resources. In which case customer service suffers. I doubt taking a more active role will also work - it's a short term measure that is unsustainable.

I still think that a 2x quote is ridiculous and would like PK to chime in.

don't think PK comes on here at all anymore.
Anyways i've had 5 deliveries from PK, all went super smooth.
Then again he gives me a fair price, and i don't bug him til i get my car redelivered.
all the resources for tracking and such can all be found through bimmerfest or bimmerpost.
there's no reason to be buggin your CA, they don't have access to more detailed information either.

Soon I will be back in the BMW business, and able to offer all of you an alternative.. No joke.

Originally Posted by tonmonde

there's no reason to be buggin your CA, they don't have access to more detailed information either.

CA is there to help you and answer all your questions. THIS IS HIS JOB!!!
I knew PK only from this forum, never met him personally. In the last 5-6 yrs, I read only good reviews of happy customers. This is first time, someone post message that can't recommend PK for ED business anymore. When I see more posts from Bimmerfest users and response from PK him self - I will start take sites. Until then...

Originally Posted by chrischeung

I wonder if we're hitting a wall here. Deals are getting so thin that CAs/Dealers are only able to make money with high volume, same resources. In which case customer service suffers. I doubt taking a more active role will also work - it's a short term measure that is unsustainable.

I still think that a 2x quote is ridiculous and would like PK to chime in.

Yep, PK is a good guy. The problem is he can't do everything and he can't grade everyone's homework. It's like being a manager, you recruit as best as possible, motivate the team, indoctrinate them on "how it's done", watch as close as possible, and pray. Sometimes you get a non-player who has to be found out, painful to the customer, and weeded out, painful to everyone else. It's life, people are human, some are bound to disappoint. That's even more true outside the core team. PK can't be held responsible for all of South Bay's staff (who I think are generally good but it is a car business and not a car enthusiast business -- those are pretty much gone leaving only hard core people like PK to give us some bright spots).

Now before you think I'm a PK-fan boy I'll be the first to say that there is/was a guy on his team that pissed me off, twice. If he's still around he won't have anything to do with my next delivery. Does/did this guy reflect on PK? Yes, just like a bad employee would reflect upon me as the manager. Was it bad enough to complain? No, perfection is only practiced by executives and neither PK or I are. Then again maybe I should have and the OP might have had a better experience?

Now I can't excuse some sort of 2x price play but I wonder who the OP ended up dealing with? Perhaps one of the F&I guys, of which there seems to be beaucoup turnover, perhaps because of all of us getting buy rates and leaving nothing for them to make money off of (not that I have a problem with that -- I secretly hate all F&I guys for screwing me all those years I didn't know what I was doing). I would find out who actually does the extended warranty deals and talk with them. That would be the Marketing Department. Then again if they don't know you and your history...

It's all about relationships, and not just with one person. At the risk of compromising my position I can say I almost certainly would never buy a BMW at a place other than South Bay. They're not perfect but I have a 12-year/9-car relationship with Sales, Parts, Service, Marketing, and Inventory Management. I've outlasted many client advisors and sales managers, but not all, the good ones that is. I work exclusively with one service advisor, and he's a cantankerous SOB at times (but I love him). The GM knows who I am and isn't put off by my sloppy shorts, t-shirt, and generally disheveled 50-year old bum appearance.

They've become family of a sort and guess what, they treat me like family too.

Did ED with PK in October last year. Before then, bought X5 from PK. Pk is a nice and personable guy in general, and all my dealing with him was straightforward from the beginning to the end. However, communicating with him has been less than desirable, i.e. not returning emails, no response to voicemail, etc. If I ever get him on the phone, then everything went smoothly. i guess PK was overloaded and overworked. Havn't talked to him for the last several months..

Originally Posted by ///M Rakete

Yep, PK is a good guy. The problem is he can't do everything and he can't grade everyone's homework. It's like being a manager, you recruit as best as possible, motivate the team, indoctrinate them on "how it's done", watch as close as possible, and pray. Sometimes you get a non-player who has to be found out, painful to the customer, and weeded out, painful to everyone else. It's life, people are human, some are bound to disappoint. That's even more true outside the core team. PK can't be held responsible for all of South Bay's staff (who I think are generally good but it is a car business and not a car enthusiast business -- those are pretty much gone leaving only hard core people like PK to give us some bright spots).

Now before you think I'm a PK-fan boy I'll be the first to say that there is/was a guy on his team that pissed me off, twice. If he's still around he won't have anything to do with my next delivery. Does/did this guy reflect on PK? Yes, just like a bad employee would reflect upon me as the manager. Was it bad enough to complain? No, perfection is only practiced by executives and neither PK or I are. Then again maybe I should have and the OP might have had a better experience?


Now I can't excuse some sort of 2x price play but with? Perhaps one of the F&I guys, of which there seems to be beaucoup turnover, perhaps because

It's all about relationships, and not just with one person. At the risk of compromising my position I

They've become family of a sort and guess what, they treat me like family too.

My issue was not just with the finance team but with one of pk's colleagues. I just felt that the communication was lacking for the level of service they claim to provide and for the amount of money I am spending. In today's economy I believe customer service is huge and part of the reason we return to a dealer we've worked with when they treat us well.
That being said, I'd like to know when I can pick up my car