A star, even a single one, would imply I have something positive to say... here is my response to a possible auto-email coming from Dustin Egbers, the GM after a horrific experience. I sent the email on July 28th... crickets as of August 5th.
Dustin, I am a little surprised to hear from you. Let me explain why.
On Friday 7/8, I was searching for used Jeep Wranglers on CarGurus. I noticed a Jeep you just received in inventory (think it came in the day prior - at White 2015 Jeep Sahara 4-door with approx 48k miles). I contacted your team to inquire if the Jeep was still in stock and one of your sales personnel, Alex Sarabia, promptly let me know it was still available and proactively sent me a quick video of the vehicle with him in the video... great way to build the relationship.
I let Alex know we were driving from McKinney to see the vehicle. We texted on the drive and my wife and I arrived around 7pm. Alex did his due diligence to qualify that we truly were "in market" to purchase a vehicle... i.e. intent to purchase quickly, financial means and consideration that I would trade in a vehicle as part of the purchase. We text drove the vehicle with Alex. During the text drive, we noted several items: (1) badly scratched window tint on several windows (2) some wobble in the steering wheel when driving, and loose/loud right powered side step.
We came back into the office and then spoke with the sales manager, Ray Delgado, that I would return Saturday morning with intent to (1) have your team value my trade in - 2016 xxxx (2) have my daughter view the vehicle (3) provide time for your team to perform the 152-pt inspection. (I was told that the vehicle just arrived and though detailed, it had not gone through inspection.)
When we arrived Saturday morning (7/9), Alex did a great job meeting us and introducing me to your general sales manager, Chase Bradley, who pulled the VIN and inspected the xxx. I first met with the original sales manager, Ray, who tried to pull a fast one and attempted to add $1495 in "prep fees" to the stated online price of the vehicle and provided a low-ball trade-in value for the xxx (I previously told Ray that I had already run a KBB/CarFax trade in offer and had multiple offers for the vehicle at significantly higher value.) The $1495 "prep fees" almost had me walking out the door - pure "Shady Ray" . He then came back with a revised offer sheet which still wasn't close.
A few minutes later, Chase Bradley walked back into the office and replaced the Ray. Chase and I had a good conversation and were able to negotiate a deal: (1) $40k trade-in value for the xxx - he stated AND knew he could immediately, with minimal prep, turn around and sell the xxx for $44,900 which would still be $1k-$3k below the rest of the market (2) I didn't ask for ANY discount to the list price of the Jeep (3) Chase agreed to fix the wheel wobble, retint the windows, and fix the loose right side automated step and (4) the deal was contingent upon me seeing the vehicle inspection report - supposedly it still wasn't done; no rationale buyer would purchase w/out seeing the inspection report - i.e. what if there were 4mm left on the brakes or something else???
I initialled the offer sheet and Chase and I had a handshake - well, really, a fist bump - on the deal. Chase stated that he had a xxx and that he was excited to have the vehicle hit his inventory.
I left the dealership about noon (12pm) with Chase and Alex telling me that they would call me as soon as the vehicle inspection was done, and, that it could be Monday before the vehicle was ready b/c the window tint and other fixes could take a day.
I heard nothing Saturday afternoon. No problem. I then sent an email to Alex Monday (7/11) a little after 1pm.
I didn't get a response from Alex, but instead got a call a while later from Shady Ray. He stated that "we can't sell you the vehicle b/c there are $6k in repairs that need to be made to the vehicle. He couldn't, in good faith, sell the vehicle to anyone." When I asked what the specific repairs were and could he forward me the inspection report, he made a bunch of excuses, couldn't articulate what they were... just that his service shop told him there were issues. He promptly hung up.
Where there is smoke, there is fire. I can smell BS and he stunk to high heaven of it. I waited for a couple hours, then, I (1) had my son call the dealership and (2) had a friend do the same thing.... feel free to pull your call logs from around 5pm Monday 7/11. They both inquired about the Jeep and were told, sorry, the Jeep has been sold.
Bottom line:
(1) Ray and Chase BOTH have questionable, at best, morale compasses... who makes a deal, only to break that deal, and then lie about it??? I certainly know 2 people. AND, amazingly, I was trying to look up names to call to have a conversation and I found Chase Bradley on Linkedin... he saw that I viewed his profile and then had the cojones to try to connect with me on LinkedIn... really???
(2) In today's environment when negative social sentiment is readily shared and re-shared across digital landscapes, you must know that I have the capacity and now the motivation to share my experience and I will share my experience to whomever will listen up the corporate ladder at Berkshire Hathaway Automotive.
(3) When I mentioned to a friend that 7/8 Friday night that my wife and I were heading over to Westway Ford to check out a vehicle, he warned me he had a bad experience there... shame on me for ignoring his warning.
So... if you've read this novela... I ask the question... do you REALLY want my feedback? Or is this an automated nurture email that is triggered 6 days after I got an equally annoying email from an unsuspecting sales person, Daniel Gordon on 7/22 (look at your AMS contact logs on my contact record; or I can certainly forward the email from Daniel). SURELY my record would be tagged as "do not contact... we screwed this person over" in your dealer management system??? Alex, sure as the sun will rise, isn't going to contact me. With all of his 2 months experience, he lost out on "ringing the bell' and earning a commission on the sale of the vehicle to me. But who am I, but one of the possible 300 used car sales a month your team does.
2 reviews 