Caveat Emptor Seattle BMW (and owner Steve Norman) (archive)

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my experience with Seattle BMW was the worst I've ever had (or heard of) with any dealership. They were dishonest and dealt in bad faith. To make a long story short(ish), my "salesperson", Michael Zillinger, took my deposit and mishandled my order (and ordering a car is not exactly rocket science especially when you're a paid "professional"). Sales Manager, Steve Bates, supposedly rectified the situation after urging me to stick with MZ and assured me he would ensure the order was taken care of properly. Three months later, the wrong car came in (wrong interior). MZ insisted he had my order correct matching the wrong interior of the car, and claimed I was wrong! SB had the order correct (contradicting MZ) but blamed me for a complicated order (of a car! LOL).

I brought this issue to the attention of Seattle BMW owner, Steve Norman, expecting rapid customer response.

Instead, Norman accused me of all sorts of things, refused to back up his accusations with drill-down to relevant details, wasn't interested in my experience *at*all*, stonewalled me on any discussion to resolve the issues, and basically made me a scapegoat for himself and his incompetent staff.

Result: Norman (literally) refused to sell me a car after I raised these problems to his attention. Reason (yes, he even told me this!!!): I would hurt Seattle BMW's customer service record by not giving them an excellent rating (at least he was correct on that point). (ARE YOU LISTENING BMW NA?) He told me I was not a BMW customer (even though they had taken my deposit) and then *refused* to sell me a car. Basically he wanted to jack up his ratings by avoiding a "bad" rating. BMW NA never would know (BMW NA ARE YOU LISTENING?). To quote Steve Norman from his newsletter: "I will do everything possible to earn an EXCELLENT rating from you." ... including refuse to sell a customer a pre-ordered, deposit-down car ... I still have the $250 check/bribe from Seattle BMW which Norman gave me as buy-off on my involuntary loan (i.e., $1000 deposit) to them.

So, how much of a scam is Seattle BMW pulling on BMW NA? Michael Zillinger received the 1998 Spirit Award from Steve Norman, and Zillinger/Norman both bolloxed my deal from fall - December "98. Apparently, Norman needed another highly rated salesperson at Seattle, regardless of competence level.

Needless to say, my M3 order went elsewhere. I never ordered a 328i (since Winter would be over by the time any properly spec'ed 328i would arrive).

As for alternative dealerships, Bellevue BMW marks their cars up exorbitantly (which bothers me) and has very few sales people on the floor the times I've visited. They usually have a large selection though. My order is with Northwest BMW which is a little out of the way. Despite Norman et al., I apparently will be a BMW customer after all... and for an M3 not 328i (thank you Norman!).

Moral of the story: I now take the competence and character of my salesperson very seriously to avoid just such a situation again.

My salesperson at Northwest BMW is on the national board of top salespeople for BMW. She appears to me very low-key, honest and professional. If you want her name, e-mail me privately, as I don't want her name associated with any of the shady characters from Seattle BMW.

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