BMW ECO 2012 ripoff!!

[Manic]

Ek hoor non BMW bikes word nie eers toegelaat nie         

Nooit! 

Man fok hulle, na 5 BMW bikes en nou kyk hulle my skeef uit.....

Bleh bleh........

[Brodes]

Right, so the bottom line is:
How much will BMW have to spend on advertising and promotion to undo the damage to it's brand arising from this discussion in front of this very focussed (DS biker) audience.
More/less than the refund would have cost? Good/bad decision in hindsight?

[J-dog]

To get back to me being pissed off with the organisers of the ECO. I do not expect special treatment from them due to the reason why I chose to cancel our bookings. The email response that I have received from David de Bruyn this week, stated short and sweet and in a typical 'one line response', that we will not receive a refund. I tried to contact him on 28 September after I spoke to Sonja at Maluti Adventures. She informed me that there were people on a waiting list and that our bookings will be filled without any problems and that we will receive our refunds ( accommodation and entry fees ) minus the admin charges. David has been out of the country at the time and I left a voicemessage for him and Coetzee Zietsman on the day. Neither of them came back to me.

The ECO only allows 600 entries due to the carbon footprint that is being left behind after the weekend. They plant 600 trees to try and offset this carbon footprint. 640 paid and confirmed bookings were made. We all had to scramble and pay the entry fees within a couple off days after the booking has been accepted. BMW Clubs has wrongfully accepted another 40 entries and money after the deadline of 600 entries were reached. Last year, the PTA BMW Club accepted more bookings on their forum from friends of theirs. They made an exception for them and openly stated that they will "bend" the rules to accommodate these people.

The right way to have handled the bookings would have been to only accepted the first 600 paid entries. People can then be placed on a waiting list and in the event of someone having to cancel, the person on the waiting list would then pay for their entry. An admin charge would then be deducted from the person that canceled and the balance paid back.

The dealings of the organisers of the ECO in this regard is money driven and they have forgotten why it is called the ECO Challenge. This is the reason why I called it a ripoff. It is not about me not receiving a refund, it is not about why I cancelled and R1600 is not going to make me any poorer than what I am at the moment. The bad taste left in my mouth is because of the way that they have handled it. We can not all hide behind Terms and Conditions. People that only think about their own wellbeing and that are not wise enough to look at the bigger picture. BMW is a big brand. It does not concern them if they have upset one or maybe 100 of their loyal clients, because there will always be more new clients that they can impress and that will support their brand.

These are harsh words and sadly also true facts. I, for one, will not support them anymore due to this incident. I own my third BMW motorcycle and will maybe buy another one someday. When I sold my R1200GSA in January of this year, I wanted to replace it with a KTM. The only reason why I bought the F800GS, were because my wife (Poplap) has a BMW and because I wanted to keep on attending the ECO challenges for another couple of years.

I did not want the Dogs to start fighting with each other due to this thread. This forum are also used for sharing good and bad experiences and for ranting and moaning. This is a social media where we all have one thing in common, DS bikes. There is always competition between the brands. If you do not like what I have stated in this thread, then do not reply to the thread. Easy as that, look away and move on. Do not tell me that my opinion of the situation that I have experienced is wrong. We are all different and we all have different opinions of brands and dealerships.

I hope this clears up a couple off points and explains why I called the ECO a ripoff. It is my opinion and I will stick with it.  

nice post Minzi, and I'm with you 100$

[2StrokeDan]

Ek hoor non BMW bikes word nie eers toegelaat nie         

Nooit! 

Man fok hulle, na 5 BMW bikes en nou kyk hulle my skeef uit.....

Bleh bleh........

Hulle kyk jou nie nou skeef uit nie......dis net jou BMW fiets wat hulle jou tussen hulle laat duld het.

[Fudmucker]

MINZI, let this go and move on, life is too short...
I get what you are saying, also get the T's and C's thing, but there is a point where it is better to just walk away.

Minzi, your long post was not a clarifying closing remark, but rather an opening broadside of a lot new statements and allegations.  I'm not going to leap to anyone's defence.

People put words into other's mouths.  If they are not around to counter the allegation, then the allegation is taken as fact - as one can see from my posts.

Let's just leave this issue and agree to disagree.
There are usually three sides to every situation - the third one being Truth.
We can all take a lesson from this situation to enhance our lives.
Ride safe.

[KiLRoy]

I dont touch anything with ECO in its name. Its using emotions about the environment to take my money. Marketing ploy. Can kiss my eco butt. Also dont do brand specific/only stuff - thats for insecure wannabees...

Just my opinion..

[J-dog]

I dont touch anything with ECO in its name. Its using emotions about the environment to take my money. Marketing ploy. Can kiss my eco butt. Also dont do brand specific/only stuff - thats for insecure wannabees...

Just my opinion..

I agree. Prefer to chop down trees to make a braai after roosting river beds and doing burnouts on rare species nesting beds.

Just my take on things.

[KiLRoy]

Dont forget a nice Bottlenose dolphin spit on a Yellowood fire while oing your oil change in the woods.

Just offset it by planting a tree - all is forgiven then...   nice Black Wattle tree? Make oxygen too, you know.

[J-dog]

  so true. pathetic really.

[KiLRoy]

And one day when we are not making any carbon, all the trees will die. Then people ill beg us to rev the V8s to safe a tree...

Farking hippies...  Sommer moer them with a tree..

[poplap]

MINZI, let this go and move on, life is too short...
I get what you are saying, also get the T's and C's thing, but there is a point where it is better to just walk away.

Minzi, your long post was not a clarifying closing remark, but rather an opening broadside of a lot new statements and allegations.  I'm not going to leap to anyone's defence.

People put words into other's mouths.  If they are not around to counter the allegation, then the allegation is taken as fact - as one can see from my posts.

Let's just leave this issue and agree to disagree.
There are usually three sides to every situation - the third one being Truth.
We can all take a lesson from this situation to enhance our lives.
Ride safe.

The statement made was the experience that we had with BMW Clubs. If our experience bothers you so much, then follow the advice and move on. What do you stand to gain or loose by commenting negatively on someone else's experience? Are we not allowed to share an experience anymore because we might upset someone or they might not agree with our opinions?

[MINZI]

MINZI, let this go and move on, life is too short...
I get what you are saying, also get the T's and C's thing, but there is a point where it is better to just walk away.

Minzi, your long post was not a clarifying closing remark, but rather an opening broadside of a lot new statements and allegations.  I'm not going to leap to anyone's defence.

People put words into other's mouths.  If they are not around to counter the allegation, then the allegation is taken as fact - as one can see from my posts.

Let's just leave this issue and agree to disagree.
There are usually three sides to every situation - the third one being Truth.
We can all take a lesson from this situation to enhance our lives.
Ride safe.

To answer your allegations, my long post has been meant as a closing remark by explaining what I experienced. It was not meant to start a new debate, except maybe by you. What do you mean that people put word in other's mouths, where have I done that? They were around to counter that so called allegations, but never gave a productive answer.
You make the allegation that I am lying about my experience. How would you know? You were not part in the discussions with them, you have not read the e-mails that were sent and received. That is a really kak statement to make.
What lesson should I take from this situation? Are you my teacher or mentor now all of a sudden? I shared an experience with fellow Dogs and then you come and tell me that I am wrong in doing so and voicing my opinion. At least I have the balls to support my point of view and stand by what I believe in. But, as said before, we all have different personalities and experience things differently. I would not tell a person that his opinion is wrong if he has experienced something different to what I have.

[Buddy]

My thinking remains that it's poor form from BMW and poor PR.

I will now always have a negative view of the BMW Eco Challenge - they don't do the right thing.

 

[Fudmucker]

To answer your allegations, my long post has been meant as a closing remark by explaining what I experienced. It was not meant to start a new debate, except maybe by you. What do you mean that people put word in other's mouths, where have I done that? They were around to counter that so called allegations, but never gave a productive answer.
You make the allegation that I am lying about my experience. How would you know? You were not part in the discussions with them, you have not read the e-mails that were sent and received. That is a really kak statement to make.
What lesson should I take from this situation? Are you my teacher or mentor now all of a sudden? I shared an experience with fellow Dogs and then you come and tell me that I am wrong in doing so and voicing my opinion. At least I have the balls to support my point of view and stand by what I believe in. But, as said before, we all have different personalities and experience things differently. I would not tell a person that his opinion is wrong if he has experienced something different to what I have.

"You make the allegation that I am lying about my experience."

I made no such allegation whatsoever. Please show me where I said that?
That is exactly what I mean by putting words in other people's mouths.
Why are you wanting to turn this into something personal?

My experience of the ECO is indeed something different to yours.
I do stand by what I believe.
I do have the balls to support my view - as I did in my posts - and unless I am reading you totally incorrectly,
you are telling me my opinion is wrong because I do not agree with you.

[MINZI]

To answer your allegations, my long post has been meant as a closing remark by explaining what I experienced. It was not meant to start a new debate, except maybe by you. What do you mean that people put word in other's mouths, where have I done that? They were around to counter that so called allegations, but never gave a productive answer.
You make the allegation that I am lying about my experience. How would you know? You were not part in the discussions with them, you have not read the e-mails that were sent and received. That is a really kak statement to make.
What lesson should I take from this situation? Are you my teacher or mentor now all of a sudden? I shared an experience with fellow Dogs and then you come and tell me that I am wrong in doing so and voicing my opinion. At least I have the balls to support my point of view and stand by what I believe in. But, as said before, we all have different personalities and experience things differently. I would not tell a person that his opinion is wrong if he has experienced something different to what I have.

"You make the allegation that I am lying about my experience."

I made no such allegation whatsoever. Please show me where I said that?
That is exactly what I mean by putting words in other people's mouths.
Why are you wanting to turn this into something personal?

My experience of the ECO is indeed something different to yours.
I do stand by what I believe.
I do have the balls to support my view - as I did in my posts - and unless I am reading you totally incorrectly,
you are telling me my opinion is wrong because I do not agree with you.

There are usually three sides to every situation - the third one being Truth.[b][/b] This is what I am reffering to. It sounds as if you are implying that I am not telling the truth about my experience with this situation.

Why are you wanting to turn this into something personal?[b][/b] I never turned this into a personal matter, you did. I shared my experience with this forum, and you could not respect another person's experience and view on a matter that you have no interest in.

Now,do us all a favour, if you do not have any positive input in this matter, go stirr in R&P please.

My experience with the ECO has been 100% positive until now. If you feel so positive about the ECO, why are you here on the forum and not in Clocolan? I am not telling you that your opinion is wrong, I am trying to defend my opinion. So, go take a chill pill and relax, because you do not really want to get personal with me.

[Rynet]

So we were talking about Rugby earlier. I walked past a notice board earlier and found some curry cup final tickets pinned to the board . I was very excited because I can certainly use the pins . 

[MINZI]

 

[ButchH]

So we were talking about Rugby earlier. I walked past a notice board earlier and found some curry cup final tickets pinned to the board . I was very excited because I can certainly use the pins . 

Ka.. Funny

[eikeboom]

It is not too late for Red Rover to still make this a BMW marketing win.

In my opinion it is already too late.
For the readers of this thread anyway, after all the negative publicity this issue has attracted.

[Odd Dog]

So we were talking about Rugby earlier. I walked past a notice board earlier and found some curry cup final tickets pinned to the board . I was very excited because I can certainly use the pins . 

  nice one, nice timing!