After his 2021 BMW required major repairs, Zack Giacomelli (pictured) decided he wanted to sell the car back to BMW Toronto, the same dealership from which he bought the car in 2023. At first, the buy-back process seemed easy. After submitting an online inquiry, Zack got a text from Quinn at BMW Toronto, who made a firm buy-back offer of $27,162.79. Zack, a 31-year-old funeral director, was satisfied with the offer, as it was just enough to cover what he still owed on the car. He said he was feeling really good about the offer, but that good feeling didn’t last long. Moments later, a sales consultant from BMW Toronto called to revoke the offer, explaining that Quinn wasn’t a real person, but rather an artificial intelligence chat-bot that had made the offer in error. Zack’s shock turned to anger when the dealership told him the buy-back offer would be, at best, $20,000. Part of Zack’s frustration stemmed from the fact that he was never informed that he was communicating with a chat-bot. Since Canadian law stipulates that companies can be held liable if AI chat-bots dole out bad information, BMW Toronto reinstated Quinn’s original offer of $27,162.79. BMW Toronto sales manager Scott Shadbolt explained that Quinn had misunderstood the amount Zach owed on the car as the amount BMW would pay to buy back the car. He further explained that Quinn was never programmed to independently negotiate contracts, only to relay human-generated buy-back offers. Moving forward, only human employees at BMW Toronto will present customers with buy-back offers.
