Dealership uses AI to negotiate with customers and is forced to honor bad deal closed by artificial intelligence

A BMW dealership in Toronto, Canada, has decided to honor a customer to buy back a car through an artificial intelligence chatbot . The decision came after the shopkeepers tried to cancel the proposal and only went back when the case reached the press. The robot had proposed, for a customer’s SUV, about R$ 99 thousand (C$ 27,162.79) — more than R$ 26 thousand above what the store intended to pay.

The case involves Zack Giacomelli, owner of a 2021 BMW X3 bought at BMW Toronto in 2023. With the SUV in the workshop for repairs, he went to the dealership to find out if it would buy back the vehicle. In text messages with “Quinn,” who introduced himself as a store clerk, he received an offer equivalent to the exact amount to pay off the loan.

Excited, Giacomelli still risked a counterproposal of about R$ 104 thousand (C$ 28,500). “Quinn” replied that the value seemed reasonable, that “the team” would evaluate and even suggested closing the deal at 3:30 pm. Shortly after, however, a salesman called to cancel everything: “Quinn” was a chatbot that had made a mistake, and the actual offer for the car would be only R$ 73 thousand (C$ 20 thousand). “I was devastated,” the customer told the CBC network.

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The episode reignited the discussion about the responsibility of companies for what their automated systems inform. In 2024, for example, Air Canada was forced by a court to comply with erroneous information given by its own chatbot. For lawyer Tanya Walker, heard by CBC, a bot is equivalent to an employee: if it makes a mistake, the company responds.

After being contacted by the broadcaster, BMW Toronto changed its stance and agreed to pay the original offer, of R$ 99 thousand (C$ 27,162.79). According to sales manager Scott Shadbolt, the problem started with an employee’s miscommunication, which made the system interpret the financing settlement amount as if it were the buyback proposal. The store said that “Quinn” was never programmed to negotiate contracts alone, only to pass on offers made by humans, and that he will make it clear when the customer is talking to an AI.

The situation differs from another well-known case, in which a chatbot at a Chevrolet dealership was tricked by a user into “selling” a Tahoe for $1. This time, there was no trick: the robot made the offer on its own.