BMW dealership honours AI chatbot's $27K buyback offer
After revoking a quote made by its own AI, the dealership reversed course when CBC got involved, raising questions about corporate liability for bot mistakes.
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A BMW Toronto dealership initially backed away from a $27,162.79 buyback offer made by its AI chatbot, but reversed that decision after hearing from CBC News.
Zack Giacomelli, a 31-year-old funeral director, had submitted a buyback inquiry for his 2021 BMW after the car required major repairs. The dealership's chatbot, Quinn, responded with sympathy and a firm offer via text. When Giacomelli countered with $28,500, Quinn seemed open to it.
Then the dealership called. A sales consultant explained that Quinn wasn't a person but an AI chatbot, and the offer was invalid. The actual buyback, they said, would be at most $20,000—a gap of more than $7,000 from what the bot had promised.
The question of whether an AI can bind a company to a contract isn't academic anymore. In a 2024 case, Air Canada was forced to honour a bereavement-fare rebate after its chatbot gave a passenger incorrect information. The British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal ruled that the airline was liable, just as it would be for an employee's mistake.
"A bot is just like an employee," said Tanya Walker, a Toronto litigation lawyer. "I don't think companies really realize the magnitude and the power that a bot can have."
Under pressure, BMW Toronto reinstated the chatbot's original $27,162.79 offer. But Giacomelli's frustration points to a broader issue: as companies race to deploy AI, the legal and ethical ground remains unsettled. Who's responsible when the bot goes rogue—the company, the platform, or the customer? For now, at least one dealership decided liability wasn't worth the fight.