Filed under: Car Buying, Sedans/Saloons, Sports/GTs, Auction Action, BMW
BMW dealer auctions new M3 for $60K on eBay, doesn't want to honor the deal
UPDATE: 3-24-08 -- This was left on the original M3 forum thread by Ken, the nearly-defrauded winner of the eBay auction: "Sorry its taken so long to post a update. The site is very slow (understandably). This morning, BMW of Lincoln has agreed to sell me the car at a price of 60K, with certain conditions. I'll be going over the conditions with the dealership tommorow, and I hope to have everything finalized by tommorow afternoon." You can read the rest of his comment here. It's pretty cool what the Internet can do...
Apparently all is not kosher in corn country. BMW of Lincoln, Nebraska posted an auction on eBay for a brand new M3 Sedan for $60,000. Perhaps they were hoping for the kind of eBay madness that would push the price to six figures (something other dealers are doing right on the show floor). If that's what they were after, well, they didn't get it. The car was won by a gentleman in California for the listed price: $60,000.
The problem is that the dealer doesn't want to give him the car. Not long after the auction ended, the winning bidder got a call from BMW of Nebraska telling him the auction was "a mistake," and that he couldn't have the car. In spite of the fact that the dealership changed the Buy It Now price twice -- and so was paying attention to the auction -- and eBay rules that make it clear that if someone wins the auction then you must complete the transaction, the buyer is still trying to get someone to give him the car he won at the winning bid price. Follow the link for the full story, and to you, Dooma350, good luck. Thanks for the tip, Ken!
[Source: M3post.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Hike15 1:47PM (3/23/2008)
well seeing how its against ebay rules to do that, the guy who bought it could take legal action and has a good chance of winning
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Will Design for Food 12:06AM (3/24/2008)
The guy should definitely contact eBay first, then head straight to BMWNA. They set the rules for the dealers, and they'll probably try to set things right.
Terry 1:49PM (3/23/2008)
Here's a typical example of a greedy BMW dealer getting what they deserve. I really hope they get screwed over by the bidder.
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H4MM3R 1:55PM (3/23/2008)
Well said! Not to mention bad PR for BMW.
rpm773 2:00PM (3/23/2008)
Agreed, but the bidder isn't really "screwing" the dealer.
Fat chance he'll have getting the dealer to honor the deal. He ought to try to get someone at BMW/NA to help him out...in the interest of PR and customer relations.
AmericanTruckGuy 2:46PM (3/23/2008)
This isn't bad PR for BMW. BMW isn't selling the car. It's the DEALER. The fact is, BMW has no say in this as it's the DEALER who sells the car. BMW will tell the guy -- and did --that much. It's why dealers sell cars and BMW doesn't.
Now, if the dealer has a history of shady practices, BMW can pull it's dealership or fine it or due something to "correct" this shady behavior but the bidder is SOL in trying to get BMW NA to get him his car.
And as for the Better Business Bureau, well, they are a business too. It's a franchise where they strong arm other business to pay them to shield them from angry customers. They have no power other than to rate the company. The BBB is a joke.
AlexP 4:07PM (3/23/2008)
It still is bad PR for BMW. Seriously, do you expect everyone to know that BMW dealers run independently from BMW? I mean, I only learned it here.
Chevy gets bad PR from shady dealers, why wouldn't BMW?
WillDaThrill 5:35PM (3/23/2008)
Because people like to place blame on the company to make their cries louder. Unless it's a recall, it's not the company's fault.
It's like when you go to a grocery store and you realized you bought a bag of chips with a hole in it. You don't complain about it to Frito-Lay, you complain about it to the store that you bought it from.
Student Driver 12:04AM (3/24/2008)
Yeah, but there will probably be a $30,000 "documentation fee" to offset what they think they "deserve" for it.
GhostDoggy 9:54AM (3/24/2008)
I would not pin this solely on a greedy BMW dealer as there are a lot of new car dealers taking high-profile cars and selling them on auction websites. Jeez, I remember when the Saturn Sky came out and Saturn dealers breaking Saturn rules and marking them up $5G. Ah, but no one cares about GM. Right.
tek 2:08PM (3/23/2008)
While there is no legal requirement for the dealer to complete the transaction, as is involved with eBay (there may be other rules applying to dealerships according to state law) their own auction does say "WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CANCEL ANY BIDS AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON."
If this were the case, why didn't the dealer just end the auction early, cancel the bids, and say that the car was sold locally? Our buyer friend would have moved on!
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k.w.a 3:42PM (3/23/2008)
that's exactly the point. they didn't cancel 'til after he won. they owe him the car. im pretty sure that they legally have to give it to him. if he bid $120,000 then backed out after he won they would've sued the crap out of him, so they need to honor the auction rules even if it is not in their favor.
all i have to say is, he better take it somewhere else to get serviced!
iSpec 2:11PM (3/23/2008)
Judges/Juries don't like this sorta stuff coming through their court when there is a contract and one party forces the other to litigate. Damages and legal bills are in order to set a precedent for corporations who enter into contracts with consumers and then exercise bad faith.
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Dan Parmelee 2:14PM (3/23/2008)
Methinks it's in the dealer's best interest to just quietly honor it and chalk the whole experience as "lesson learned".
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tek 2:19PM (3/23/2008)
Even Microsoft didn't learn the lesson of bad PR when they tried to sue the 16 year old kid who had "Mike Rowe Soft.com" (that was his legal name). It blew up, they admitted the F@#kup.
sox 2:26PM (3/23/2008)
After reading the thread, I think the best option is to generate as much negative PR as possible. Now that it's on autoblog and has tons of exposure, perhaps we will get thousands of internet gearheads harassing BMW of Lincoln?
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Andy 2:34PM (3/23/2008)
If you read the original thread, there have already been people stepping up volunteering to help the guy out. I hope there will be an Autoblog update soon with a positive outcome.
dpb! 2:43PM (3/23/2008)
You lose some, you win some on ebay, and the dealer should have lost this one. It is a gamble. They can set a reserve price and they didn't. Their fault, they would pay.
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stang_fan 2:44PM (3/23/2008)
See, this is the part of E-Bay...well, actually the seller's part, that is majorly STUPID. If this dealer (or any other person on E-Bay) didn't want to sell this car for LESS than, let's say $100,000.00 why didn't they START the bidding at $99,999.99 ? I doubt they started at $59,999.99 if the "Buy it now" price HAD to be adjusted upwards TWICE. I'll bet one reason why was that they didn't want to look like they were price gouging. So now, they look like a pack of "welchers" instead....yeah, great move on this dealer's part. Lots of terrific PR to be had.
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BirdmanSTX 4:27PM (3/23/2008)
And I'm not sure how eBay motors works, but for normal auctions, you pay a listing fee based on the starting price of the auction. They were hoping a low price would bring multiple bids, and reduce their listing price (possibly).... and it just didn't work. Their mistake... like others have said, they could have canceled the auction right up to 1 second left... but they didn't. If they were watching it enough to adjust the Buy It Now price twice, I can't imagine how they let the auction end with a price they didn't want to sell it at...