Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Community Volkswagen/BMW's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

close

Find a Location

Community Volkswagen/BMW has 2 locations, listed below.

*This company may be headquartered in or have additional locations in another country. Please click on the country abbreviation in the search box below to change to a different country location.

BBB accredited

Near

Country

USUnited States

Please enter a valid location.

Filter

• 

  Community Volkswagen/BMW

  2150 S College Dr Santa Maria, CA 93455-1350

• 

  Community Volkswagen/BMW

  P.O. Box 1945 Santa Maria, CA 93456

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/14/2025

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I bought my Volkswagen Golf at Community Volkswagen of Santa Maria in 2014 with all cash. There's no lease or any financing with this car. However this dealer still put a lien holder on the car. This was a mistake on their side. Because of this, I never received the title for this car. I did not ask for it because I was actually not aware of this until I decided to sell my car a few months ago. I tried to replace the title with DMV but DMV record showed that there's a lien holder on this car. So I contacted this dealer to sort this out. They said they mistakenly put a lien holder on this car and would fix it by asking the lien holder to send a lien release letter to me. I first contacted them on 2/18/2025. However, as of now I have not received the lien release letter. I have been following up with them every week since the first contact regarding the lien release letter but they kept pushing the timeline and just told me to wait. They should fix this mistake immediately. I understand that they are waiting for the lien holder to send the letter but they should work with them more closely to sort this out as this is causing me issues and it's their mistake. I should not be the person paying for their mistake.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/23/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  RE: 2019 VW Tiguan
  VIN # 3VV1B********6007
  
  
  
  To Whom It May Concern:
  
  I am writing to complain about a situation that happened with theVW dealership (Community Volkswagen of Santa Maria) located at **** *. College Dr. Santa Maria, Ca 93456. I was told by the Service Manager, E******* ******, that I would be reimbursed for my 4 tows that happened with my daughters and my 2019 Tiguan, plus many other charges, which I will detail in the situation below:
  On August 7th my daughter was driving the Tiguan and the Ignition Switch Failure warning light came on, and the vehicle shut down at a stop light. She had to wait about 10 minutes and then was able to start the car, but it shut down again. She had it towed using our Triple AAA tow. We still have a 72000-mile warranty and assumed the ignition switch would be replaced under warranty. VW service diagnosed it as low voltage with the battery and reprogrammed the battery and charged us $179.000 explaining that this was not covered under the warranty.
  On August 13th, the same Ignition Switch warning light came on and the car shut down again. My daughter thankfully was not on the freeway, but on a road where she was able to pull over safely. She had it towed again, using our Triple AAA tow under our membership. This time VW service diagnosed it as a software update which they performed. The service manager, E******* ****** let us know that we would be reimbursed for the $179.00 for the previous incorrect diagnosis and $410 for gas and our time since the VW dealership is about 60 miles from our home. We have not been reimbursed…
  On August 17th the ignition switch failure warning light came on again and car shut down. This time my daughter was very distraught and crying, as she was on her way to work and had to get it towed again, using our Triple AAA membership… thankfully I was able to get her to work etc. VW Service this time diagnosed it needing a new starter which they replaced.
  On August 23, the ignition switch failure warning light came on again… Again, my daughter was driving and had to use our last tow under our Triple AAA membership… VW service finally diagnosed this as the IGNITION SWITCH FAILURE… E******* ******, said they would fix it and let us know we would be reimbursed for all 4 tows, $410 good will and $179 for the battery charge and gas, and that he needed corporate approval, but it would take approximately 2-3 weeks. . it has now been 8 weeks and no word from. I complained to VW corporate but they left it up to him. All he sent was the $410 good will but nothing else he promised. I have emailed him 3 times in the past 4 weeks and have not heard a thing. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/19/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Around 8/21/23 I took my vehicle back in for service because my brakes were scraping against the metal. I was upset because the week prior I had just taken my vehicle for scheduled service, and I was appalled the service center missed my brakes not working properly.
  I was told it was going to be 2 weeks min up to 3 weeks to get my rotors in. When I left my vehicle I asked if the car would remain locked and secured. I was told yes.
  I kept a nightstick on the driver's side door for safety, after I picked up my car, I immediately noticed that it was missing. I called the BMW center, and I was told they "would ask if anyone took my stick" I couldn't believe how rude they were. I called again and asked to speak with the GM he simply said he would check the cameras. No one apologized, nor were they embarrassed that a staff member would steal an item from a customer's car while in service.
  My husband also called several times regarding this and we never received a call back. We will never go back to this center.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/08/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  They were told to fix (attached) trouble codes and instead they scanned them and only fixed a few even though i handed them a print out of exactly what I wanted fixed (i had only a week of a warranty to fix this in my newly bought car) the car is there now and they refuse to fix it and they want it taken elsewhere, idk what to do. They wont answer any of my questions related to them not taking my list of codes seriously. and they clearly are trying to not take responsibility. I have A TON of documents about this and id rather you guys fix this before I get into a lawsuit .
  
  one document shows what i wanted done ( I EVEN HIGHLIGHTED THE ITEMS) and they told me because they didnt see those same codes at the moment they just disregarded it, warranty has expired and now i find the codes are still active and were not physically looked into, only scanned. THESE GUYS NEED TO BE SUED btw they did about 4,000 dollars of work to my car in the last 3 months so this isnt small money.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/15/2023

   As stated from previous conversations with Rudy and Emmanuel,  We could not verify any codes stored after we scanned your vehicle.  We cannot repair something without verification.  Any Extended Service Contract Company will require verification of a problem before they will provide coverage of the repair.  No verification, no coverage.  A copy of codes stored from your personal scanner does not provide any verfication for coverage by your Extended Service Contract Company.  If we cannot verify any codes, they will deny the claim.  So were you asking us to repair items based upon your scanner codes that we could not verify and have the Extended Service Contract Company pay the bill?  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/18/2023

  
  
  
  
  Complaint: 20572454
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because: If a customer brings a list of codes and says he has a small amount of time to get them all fixed, I would think you would communicate that and look further since I was specific about having that code fixed (which you listed as "some trouble codes" which didn't reflect at all what the customer stated.  Generally a "you may have to drive it around to make the code regenerate" or something at a minimum would be nice to know.  Instead it looked like it was fixed because it wasn't currently showing as a code, that means you didn't listen to the customers complaint properly.  If a customer asks to have a code THEY sent you checked into, id think that means you would look at the valve that relates to that code that was sent to you.  Its sloppy work and you disregarded the customers need and lied about what the customer stated, or at least did not accurately reflect the words and paper I gave to you.  The only work you did to diagnose the code list I gave you (as far as these A/C thermal codes) was to simply also scan it, not investigating further, until I complained that it wasn't fixed, you guys saw the code on your scanner that time (another 179 dollars) and decided to look further into it.  You disregarded my sheet of codes when the warranty was active to fix them and now you are acting like this isn't your fault. That is the problem.  You then told me to take my business elsewhere after telling me to bring it in again.  You did the SAME diagnostic as prior and basically said to take my business elsewhere.  You also put the wrong speaker into the vehicle on one of the visits.   Something needs to be done about this.  I deleted the public reviews because I assumed this would obviously be handled but no.   They DID properly replace my radiator and condenser but none of the other things were fixed properly.  I was also told i am not allowed to talk to the tech which also would have EASILY cleared this up months ago before any of this.  
  

  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  C***** ****
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/20/2023

  We will not repair something provided from a customer without verification from our scanners .  We were unable to duplicate the codes provided.  The only way we would repair something at your request would be for you to guarantee payment for all repairs.