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??Alamo BMW in S.A.

Joined
Jan 1, 2006
Messages
108
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0
Location
Kerrville, TX
First Name
David
Last Name
Wilson
Have any of you had any dealings with Alamo BMW in San Antonio? Good experiences? Bad experiences? How is the service dept.? Thanks in advance for any input.
 
I have no experience with them but the forums that I am on seem to prefer Lone Star BMW in Ausitn for sales, parts, and service. I do have direct experience with Lone Star for the last 9 years and I can verify that they are exceptional.

Example:

I had a serious surging problem on my LT (over 106K miles) and called them to order parts. They let me talk to a tech that walked me through trouble shooting what ended up to be a fuel pump failure. They had the part in stock and got it to me overnight with no overnight charges.

It just does not get any better than that.

Ron
 
I've visited. Everyone seemed nice enough. No salesmen on the floor following me around when I was looking at a couple of bikes. Nice facility. Bought a couple of t-shirts. So no bad experience but I dont own a Beemer or Trumpet so I dont know their service dept. too well.
 
I have no experience with them but the forums that I am on seem to prefer Lone Star BMW in Ausitn for sales, parts, and service. I do have direct experience with Lone Star for the last 9 years and I can verify that they are exceptional.

Example:

I had a serious surging problem on my LT (over 106K miles) and called them to order parts. They let me talk to a tech that walked me through trouble shooting what ended up to be a fuel pump failure. They had the part in stock and got it to me overnight with no overnight charges.

It just does not get any better than that.

Ron

I have been using Lone Star too...and like them a lot however they are 2 1/2 hrs. from my home and Alamo is about 50 minutes. I've been in Alamo a few times and have talked to some of the people there and only one of them treated/talked with me like I could be a potential customer. One day I walked in there in my work clothes, blue colar type, and no one even bothered to visit with me. So...I haven't been using Alamo but wanted to see if anyone had good things to say about them that might encourage me to use them since they are a lot closer to my home.
 
I will pipe in here. I live about 15 min away max. I have gone by a couple of times because I am seriously contemplating a BMW or Triumph as my next bike. I like the fact they don't harass you with sales pitches. When I did have questions I was answered and was told when I was ready to test ride to just give a call in advance and he would have bikes set up for me. He even offered his bike for me to ride which was nice. A few months back they had a Triumph demo day and the sprint was not one of the demo bikes. The guy went through the trouble to grab the one bike on the floor and take it back to get it ready for me to ride.

I don't know anything about service or parts but I gotta say I have been impressed with the sales people so far. The fact I am female and they did not blow me off like Cycle Plex often does is a good start.
 
I will pipe in here. I live about 15 min away max. I have gone by a couple of times because I am seriously contemplating a BMW or Triumph as my next bike. I like the fact they don't harass you with sales pitches. When I did have questions I was answered and was told when I was ready to test ride to just give a call in advance and he would have bikes set up for me. He even offered his bike for me to ride which was nice. A few months back they had a Triumph demo day and the sprint was not one of the demo bikes. The guy went through the trouble to grab the one bike on the floor and take it back to get it ready for me to ride.

I don't know anything about service or parts but I gotta say I have been impressed with the sales people so far. The fact I am female and they did not blow me off like Cycle Plex often does is a good start.

Thanks satxbiker,
Maybe the fact that I'm not female could be the reason they've been not so interested in me. Just joking really. Maybe I've just happened to drop in on bad days.
 
I purchased my 2005 V-Strom from them a couple of years ago and would never give them the time of day again. I was quoted a price from the sales guy via the phone. A friend towed her trailer over so I could buy the bike. When I got there the owners wife refused to honor the original deal. The deal I had was for them to match the KBB wholesale price. She wanted the retail price and told me to drive back to Houston empty handed if I didn't want the bike. She couldn't even pronounce the name right. She kept referring to it as a V Storm. I ended up buying it from them after 2 hours of negotiations and not wanting to go home empty handed. When we finished the sale I asked for the owners name or some hint where he/she was from and was told definitely from Odessa/Midland area and to look on TWT. Ends up the owner was from Bracketville and I found him on advrider.

They are the most messed up retailer I could imagine.
 
I purchased my 2005 V-Strom from them a couple of years ago and would never give them the time of day again. I was quoted a price from the sales guy via the phone. A friend towed her trailer over so I could buy the bike. When I got there the owners wife refused to honor the original deal. The deal I had was for them to match the KBB wholesale price. She wanted the retail price and told me to drive back to Houston empty handed if I didn't want the bike. She couldn't even pronounce the name right. She kept referring to it as a V Storm. I ended up buying it from them after 2 hours of negotiations and not wanting to go home empty handed. When we finished the sale I asked for the owners name or some hint where he/she was from and was told definitely from Odessa/Midland area and to look on TWT. Ends up the owner was from Bracketville and I found him on advrider.

They are the most messed up retailer I could imagine.

Maybe I should just continue the two and a half hour drive to Lone Star in Austin and forget about Alamo.
 
I live in San Antonio but I do business with Lone Star BMW in Austin. Great guys, great service. I can't say I have found the same at Alamo BMW.
 
Just had a bad experience at Alamo myself:

So, I recently got back from taking my new BMW down to Alamo for my 'included' run-in service, and here is my story.

I had decided a few months ago I wanted to see if I could find a good deal on a BMW r1xxxgs. I was mostly interested in 2002-ish r1150gs Adventures, or 2008+ r1200gs (either adventure or not). After shopping around a bit, and checking out a few, I was getting disheartened by the overall condition of the ones that were good 'deals' (i.e. priced aggressively), or the miles, and basically came to the conclusion that they do NOT depreciate very favorably for used purchase unless you luck into a cupcake. I did see a few of those out there, but I kept missing them. I decided that I would consider a new 2012 since BMW was offering a $1000 dealer rebate on their remaining '12s. I wasn't sure I'd find one that I liked, but figured I'd look.

In negotiating to purchase the r1200gs I had found a few dealers in snow-belt states closing out their 2012's. I was particularly interested in the 'Rallye' model, and focused on those. I found a few likely candidates in Ohio, New Hampshire, Arizona and New Mexico. I also found one at Alamo BMW in San Antonio, but they weren't advertising a discount at all beyond the $1000 rebate. I sent emails/left messages at each of the dealers and started contacting all of them. I confirmed the prices, got my financing together, and generally lined things up to purchase. At that point I contacted Alamo to confirm they still had the Rallye, and they did. I sent them my list of 'comps' and asked if they could match the cheapest since I'd prefer to buy local-ish. The salesman - Jim - said they couldn't, BUT he did offer a small discount putting them in the ballpark, and said they'd include the run-in service. My research online suggested that prices for the run-in service varied between $170-300, so that and not having to fly/ride a bike back from some far-off locale sealed the deal. We made the appointment and I picked up the bike on December 29th. I paid a price that I was very comfortable with given the prices I was seeing '08+ r1200gs's sell for online.

It had 0 miles when I got it, and the break in service is supposed to be performed at 600-ish. I scheduled the service for this weekend figuring that'd be about the time I should hit 600 miles. I went a bit long, 750 miles by the time I got to Alamo this morning. The ride down there was great, a few tight radius twisties, and many really good sweepers lie on the 620/71/12/32/473/474 route that I took between here and there. It was a bit chilly traveling thru the hill country at 8:00am, but was at least above freezing, and I am used to commuting in the cold. I got there promptly at 10:00 for my appointment and asked if they had a demo I could run down to Rudy's (3-4 miles round trip) for Tacos, and they didn't :( so I just camped out in the waiting area watching SpeedTV. It took them about an hour to get to my bike (10:00 appt), but they still finished not long after 12:00 - maybe 12:30 or so. That is when things went wrong. They presented me an invoice for $280.58. The invoice also was for two hours labor... they must have rounded up?

I said - "Hey, Jim said the initial service is included!" They said "No problem, let us go check your file" - they checked the file and there was no documentation that the service was included. They showed me that I had signed off on their 'we owe' accessory form as nothing being owed(I thought it was for accessories), so they said 'Pay up sucka!" I should have made sure I got good documentation of the free service, a coupon or something… :(

After speaking with both owners (Kermit and Suzanne) - they refused to waive the charges and I refused to pay, so I called the Sheriff to take a report. Alamo offered to split the cost of the service with me, and the Sheriff said I was welcome to leave, but couldn't take the bike unless I came to terms with the shop. The Sheriff documented that they had offered to reduce the service charge to $140.29, so I paid the $140.29 and got out of there asap (at around 2:00). Sheriff said I am welcome to take it up in civil/small claims. I already filed with the BBB and will contact my card to see if they can initiate a dispute on Tuesday - I just have to make sure they won't lien the bike, hopefully the credit card people can hash it out.

The ride home was awesome, weather was in the high 50's low 60's the whole way, the curves were even better without the fog of the morning, and I was able to get my average mpg up to 44.3 and my average speed up a few mph as well :)

Lesson learned - no matter how excited to take delivery when buying a new bike, make sure EVERYTHING included in the deal IN WRITING - especially with Alamo BMW/Triumph. BTW - they still owe me a key since one of the two keys they gave me was split at the keyring loop - I don't expect to receive it now, because nothing was in writing... I am glad Lone Star is local to me for the future.

BTW - I LOVE the bike, so even though I will gladly avoid Alamo at all costs from here on out, I couldn't be happier with my Rallye :zen:
 
There are 3 BMW dealers in Houston, one maybe 3 miles from my home and after visiting all, I bought mine from Lone Star in Austin.
I am also buying the replacement bike from them too.
 
When looking for my RT I visited Alamo BMW looking for a closer dealership. (2 hours away)

My experience was not bad but was not good either. Long story short, I got my RT at the same place I got my GS. (LSBMW 3.5 Hours away) I will ride the extra miles to do business with LSBMW and know I'm being treated right.
 
I've bought bikes from both Lone Star and Alamo. They both have their pluses and minuses. My brother purchased his RT from Alamo in 2010 and recently has been pleased with their service. I think they have a new service manager. You can read our blog on service problems from both dealers if you'd like. One blog title falls under the comparison between the LT and the Ultra. Although we have had issues with both we continue to support both of them.
 
I purchased a new 90th Anniversary R1200RT from Lone Star BMW in February and they did a great job on my first time back to them (not the 600 mile service) and did some extra GPS wire re-routing w/o even asking for it. Good visit.
 
I purchased a new 90th Anniversary R1200RT from Lone Star BMW in February and they did a great job on my first time back to them (not the 600 mile service) and did some extra GPS wire re-routing w/o even asking for it. Good visit.

It is one of the reason I deal only with LSBMW. They go above and beyond.
 
My first appointment at Lone Star is next week and service has been exceptional already. I suffered through a disappointing experience with my purchase at another dealer and after seeing my post on the new bike their service manager contacted me through this forum and offered a free inspection of my bike at no charge to put my mind at ease. I went ahead and scheduled a full fluid change to go along with the inspection.

I also called them after the purchase (and before being contacted directly) to check the service history on the bike (after reviewing the service manual and discovering they were the selling dealer) and Lone Star offered to provide me with their service history on the bike as well.
 
poor experience for me

I had a poor experience two month ago with one of the sales guy. He was suppose to be seasoned. Complete waste of time.
 
I've had excellent experiences with Alamo over the years, both sales and service. In fact, better experiences than anywhere else. Most recent warranty service was July '13. Work was done right and as fast as BMW parts shipping allowed. Tech was personable and shared knowledge. No complaints whatsoever, other than I wish they were still located on Broadway.
 
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