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Public Relations
Buffalo BMW protestPosted by Eric Mu, July 17, 2008 7:20 PM
 Southern Metropolis Daily July 16, 2008 July 16's Southern Metropolis Daily reported on a woman in Guangzhou who hitched her BMW to a water buffalo and led the beast around downtown to protest the car company's refusal to replace her defective car. This rather unusual protest technique has been tried before. Last October, Mr.Zhao from Hefei, Anhui staged a similar show after BMW denied his repeated request to replace or refund his defective BMW X5. He posted a statement of intent and photos of his protest on a online forum. Below is a translation of his post: I bought this X5 BMW in 2004. The car cost me almost one million yuan. Because I trusted the BMW brand, I bought the car thinking it would bring convenience to my commute. Instead, it has caused numerous problems over the last three years. The problems have included ignition failure, brake failure, loss of power and loss of directional control of vehicle while driving. These problems have often posted a serious threat to my safety. Mr. Zhao did indeed carry out his threat to hitch his BMW to bulls and pull it around town, but we could find no pictures of him carrying out the second stage of his plan. Links and Sources
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Comments on Buffalo BMW protest
gotta say, sounds like a pretty effective plan... wouldn't surprise me if the dude got his million kuai back
WHAT? Poor thing.
This woman needs to pull her own damn BMW around town.
Perhaps he should also email these photos to BMW's headquarter in Germany.
Unfortunately, I think that with the second stage of the plan announced as "at that point I will not accept any compensation by BMW" it seems much more likely to me that BMW would just have sat still - as Mr. Zhao says they had been doing before - and wait until the media attention blew over, rather than pay up. In corporate thinking, one unhappy customer who smashes his car would be weighed against a lot of other customers who still buy BMW cars - and who the company would be afraid of encouraging to demand their money back, too.
Not fair maybe, but in my opinion more likely.
China needs a "Lemon Law" similar to those in effect in various iterations in the U.S. to protect consumers.
That said, was Mr Zhao's X-5 really a BMW or one of those SCEOs I see on the streets mocked up to look like BMW X-5s??? ;^)
Unlikely that any multinational company would allow such bad publicity in their biggest market for the cost of one car, unless they really had a good reason to.
""at that point I will not accept any compensation by BMW" it seems much more likely to me that BMW would just have sat still "
I've seen this kind of tactic before.
A Mrs Wang from Xian was so unhappy that her Chang'an Star had to be repaired more than 50 times in one year she paraded the vehicle through the streets pulled behind a donkey.
link
It is common in china to have competitors sponsor "shows" of this kind.
What about the poor buffalo?
This sort of behaviour is not uncommon in China and the media is biased and will print virtually anything it wants on behalf of the vehicle owner (probably through "back-handers" off the owner) without checking out the other half of the story.There seems to be no perception of what the warranty is there for and will demand 5/10 year warranty extensions,5 years free servicing,compensation or a complete vehicle replacement,etc.,sometimes for the most insignificant of issues.This is the proverbial land of thick skin and hard-faces.