My husband, me and our two children, ages 6 and 7 ...

My husband, me and our two children, ages 6 and 7 were traveling on the Taconic at night on our way upstate to our weekend home in late October, 2017 when we hit a deer, head-on. The whole front end of our car was destroyed. We live in NYC, but the nearest BMW collision center is Keeler in Latham/Albany. Our car was in the shop for more than a month and then we got a call in December that it was complete and we could pick it up. When we picked up the car, we were assured everything was tested and working and that it went through the proper inspections.

Through several snow and rain storms in December through January our windshield washer fluid didn't work. We chalked it up to being frozen (even though we bought the type that shouldn't freeze). There were a few other glitches with the annoying audible alerts having to do with parking obstacles (or so we thought) that we chalked up to snow blocking something or building up on a sensor and the air conditioner or blower was not working.

In February, the "Drive Train Malfunction" light went on (we were again on the Taconic). I googled what that meant since it's not in the car's user manual -- and it is a serious issue. We brought the car to the nearest BMW service center (Pittsfield, MA). They inspected the vehicle and told us that the entire under-shield of the car was missing.....the mechanic told us it appeared that whomever put our car back together forgot to reconnect the windshield washer fluid pump and to install the piece that shields the underside of the car from debris getting into it when driving. (Now we knew why the issues mentioned in the paragraph above occurred).

I called Keeler to tell them about this. They asked me which weekday I could bring the car to Albany (150 miles from our home) as the collision center is closed on weekends. I explained that we only went upstate on weekends and that would be impossible. They offered to pick up the car in NYC and return it to us, but we did not want to put an extra 300 miles on our leased vehicle (with a mileage cap), so we called the New York City BMW dealership who told us to bring the car to them, they would fix it at no cost to us, and that they would deal with Keeler.

When I called Keeler to discuss having the car fixed near our home , my "customer service liaison" said "but we have the part here." I asked if it was the one they forgot to put back on our car in December and she then told me that IT HAD BEEN ON BACK ORDER. All along, we thought that Keeler was unaware that the part was missing from our car. To find out that they knew about it all along made me IRATE. We are lucky we weren't in a serious accident and killed because of their incompetence! I asked Why didn't they tell us our car was missing a part when we picked it up? Why did they let us take the car ? Why did they tell us it was fixed? And, after the fact, why weren't we called when the part came in? She said "I'm going to transfer you to my supervisor now".

Upon speaking to the supervisor/manager at Keeler, he told me that it was written clearly on the paperwork that we should have been given the option of taking the car and then bringing it back when the part arrives, or leaving it there until it was complete. While apologetic, he could offer no reason as to why this potentially life-threatening mistake happened.

Our car was finally put back together at the NYC BMW but not without issues of its own.