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Originally Posted by SakhirM4
Quote:
Originally Posted by BMW F22
Just providing my experience with CCA.
I’ve been on this forums since 2005 and finally signed up with BMWCCA in 2014. In all that time, I never needed to reach out for anything. Well, recently I reached out to the ombudsman service inquire help on an issue with the dealer and BMWNA.
I got an email from one of the volunteers who was on vacation so he forwarded the case to the other 2 volunteers. After the first day or so, I didn’t hear from them for a week. When I followed up, all I got was “did you try opening a PUNA case?” I said yes and explained it to them and got “well, other than that, there’s really nothing else we can do.” Needless to say I was pretty disappointed.
According to BMWCCA’s wording (and I’M paraphrasing), “when all attempts have failed, the ombudsman services will be there to help.” Well, they definitely wasn’t much help. I’m not trying to bash anyone. I’m simply stating my experience for those that are thinking about signing up. The rebate is nice and I’ve enjoyed meeting people at CCA’s Cars and Coffee. As an enthusiast though, I was pretty disappointed in the “help” that I received.
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Originally Posted by BMW F22
Agreed. Considering that we pay to be a member, even if it's not much, I expected a bit more.
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Vehicle rebates, discounts, roadside assistance, forums, club services, free classifieds, Roundel monthly magazine, local chapter, local chapter events and newsletters are all benefits of BMW CCA membership, not just Ombudsman service provided by volunteers. A vehicle rebate alone would pay for 10-20 years of club membership!
It is too bad that you had the experience that you did with the Ombudsman service, but there is much more to membership than that. I have been a member for 37 years and have found it to be a very rewarding experience - worth far more than the cost of membership. |
I'm not saying that people shouldn't join. There are other benefits as you've mentioned. How much value one places on each benefit is subjective. For me, I've never used the rebate because my last car was ED and it wasn't on the list when I bought it. Roundel magazine is kind of cool but I usually just skim through them. So really I couldn't care less about those benefits.
I joined mainly for the support that I thought I would receive (an insurance policy if you will). It just sucked when I reached out for the first time and felt like they didn't do anything. As others have chimed in, apparently I'm not the only person who has had a bad experience with CCA. I'm starting to see a trend here: first BMW AG stops caring about the core group of enthusiasts in pursue of global sales and now it seems like BMWCCA is following the same path.