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What is the worst dealer behavior that you've observed?

Strommen95

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Agreed.

The kid to whom I was assigned at the dealer, a Wrangler owner and ostensibly a Sales Associate, was polite and clueless in equal measure. I decided to order my Wrangler Sport based solely on my own knowledge, and personal observations during two test drives.

I made a mental count of the questions that I'd ask him, and his replies. For seven out of every ten questions I'd pose, even knowingly softball inquiries, he'd reply with "I believe so." That's a mildly pleasant way of saying that one doesn't know the answer.

He added nothing of value to the transaction.

What's worse, or actually humorous, are the tone-deaf e-mails that he's been sending to me, in the weeks after I signed the order sheet and wrote the deposit check as he watched. With that timing in mind, here's the actual texts:

"Dear [redacted],

I am contacting you to find out if there are any lingering questions I can answer for you regarding the Jeep Wrangler you inquired about.

If you have already purchased a vehicle, please let me know and I will take you off of my follow-up list. If you are still in the market, I would love to have the opportunity to earn your business."


-and-

"Hi [redacted],

I know you were in our dealership recently, but we have just received new limited-time incentives that may be of interest to you.

Combined with our monthly specials, this can save you substantially on your next Jeep. In addition, we are offering new markdowns on select pre-owned inventory.

Please give me a call as soon as possible so I can go over these new incentives with you before they expire."


If I have already purchased a vehicle?

Mate, buy a clue.

Oh, I am looking forward to the day I take delivery of the vehicle. My pre-inspection process is going to be fun. I'll make sure of it.
Those are automated emails made by the dealer in his name. He's not sending them.
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Heimkehr

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Those are automated emails made by the dealer in his name. He's not sending them.
I had wondered if that was the case. Perhaps it is so.

The problem here is that Junior was just clueless enough in person that such e-mails wouldn't have been a departure for him.

I don't plan to call him, or the dealership, out on it. Nothing to be gained, really.
 

Anthony120

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My nightmare was actually how i ended up in a Jeep! I was initially looking into leasing a Honda for 2 years as this was my first car purchase out of college and wasn't really looking to break the bank. I was working for about a year but was commuting into NYC so i figured a low mileage lease on a Civic was the way to go, or so i thought. Keep in mind Im now one year out of college working at my first job.

So after finding a civic Si, I schedule a test drive and put a deposit on the car, I provide my information to run my credit. Three days pass and they say everything checked out but the lease was a few dollars more per month. OK, no problem right? Wrong, I asked what the new monthly payment would be but kept getting the run around. So this immediately set off red flags. I contact the manager who I initially spoke with and could not even get the price out of him, he had some nonsense excuse like "I cant talk numbers directly over the phone" etc. Finally the next day I was able to get the sales manager to tell me the lease price is just under three times more than what was initially discussed!

Ok so I know how credit works, or as much as anyone knows about that sorcery, but something seems a little off. My credit was was not prefect but it was not low enough to warrant that much of a price change. I ask for the money factor on the lease and instead get a counter offer for about twice as high as initially discussed. After many frustrating phone calls and getting no where with the dealership, managers, or sales rep, I demanded my deposit back and that was that. Now the dealership is calling me again and again with better offers but I continue to refuse anything but my deposit refunded. When I get home from work, I find out the manager contacted my Father after I refused to negotiate the price! He told my father the initial lease plus $15 more per month was their final offer as the money factor came back slightly higher than was initially expected. We simply laughed it off and requested the deposit back once again as we calmly explained that we would have picked the car up that day if we didn't get the run around.

Once the deposit was received I contacted Fitzpatrick's Jeep in Ansonia CT and could not have been treated better. I went from leasing a Civic to purchasing my first Jeep due to this horrible experience! Every time I pass Babylon Honda I'm tempted to send them a cake to thank them for my JLR which I am in love with :giggle:
 

Ingrum

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I emailed several dealerships looking for a black Honda Pilot with a beige interior. One emailed back with a list of options and the price that was fair.

We show up at the dealership. I see the closing statement. Not the price we had seen before. Added some BS dealer options. Protection package. Paint sealant. Back and forth. Ok, they will take them off. Sign this and we'll cross them out. No. I want to see a revised version. Ok. Sign this piece of paper and we'll revise everything and get the car. No. I'm not signing anything until I see the car.

Hour passes. Wife and two toddlers are getting ready to go nuclear on the showroom.

Car pulls up. Maroon with black interior. No. That's not the car. They say, oh. Take this one, sign the papers and we will bring you the other car tomorrow.

"We are done here" and we all walk out.

Never sign anything until you see the car.
 

Goosed

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Agreed.

The kid to whom I was assigned at the dealer, a Wrangler owner and ostensibly a Sales Associate, was polite and clueless in equal measure. I decided to order my Wrangler Sport based solely on my own knowledge, and personal observations during two test drives.

I made a mental count of the questions that I'd ask him, and his replies. For seven out of every ten questions I'd pose, even knowingly softball inquiries, he'd reply with "I believe so." That's a mildly pleasant way of saying that one doesn't know the answer.

He added nothing of value to the transaction.

What's worse, or actually humorous, are the tone-deaf e-mails that he's been sending to me, in the weeks after I signed the order sheet and wrote the deposit check as he watched. With that timing in mind, here's the actual texts:

"Dear [redacted],

I am contacting you to find out if there are any lingering questions I can answer for you regarding the Jeep Wrangler you inquired about.

If you have already purchased a vehicle, please let me know and I will take you off of my follow-up list. If you are still in the market, I would love to have the opportunity to earn your business."


-and-

"Hi [redacted],

I know you were in our dealership recently, but we have just received new limited-time incentives that may be of interest to you.

Combined with our monthly specials, this can save you substantially on your next Jeep. In addition, we are offering new markdowns on select pre-owned inventory.

Please give me a call as soon as possible so I can go over these new incentives with you before they expire."


If I have already purchased a vehicle?

Mate, buy a clue.

Oh, I am looking forward to the day I take delivery of the vehicle. My pre-inspection process is going to be fun. I'll make sure of it.
These are probably those auto generated BS marketing emails, and since you haven’t taken official delivery the marketing team that sends the. Out probably don’t have a clue about your order pending.
 

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BadWolf

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I’m getting older, still work 6 days, love my Jeep naked but was getting tired of the soft top/hard top switch every 6 months.
Did the research on the Sky One and decide to pull the trigger.
Boring Sunday, June 2019 I say to my wife “wanna take a ride to the dealership? I’m probably gonna upgrade.”
Get to the dealer around 11:50, I say hello and tell the girl at the front desk we’re looking into trading in. She says “I’m a little short on dealers right now.” I say ok I’ll wait. There’s 3 dealers at 3 different tables talking to families.
About 12:20 the first guy finishes up shakes hands, says good luck to the customer. I say to my wife “ok it’s showtime”.
No BS the dude walks right past our table and doesn’t say a word to us. He goes outside and is just standing there with hands in pocket. I said maybe he’s on break. Within 15 minutes the other 2 dealers finish and join the first guy outside.
Around 12:40 my wife said “go tell the girl or those dealers we’re waiting”. I said nope, no f**kin way. I’m the customer they should come to me.
We sit there till 1:05, still no one including the girl has said a word to us. I say to the wife “let’s go”.
We drive to another dealership about 10 miles away and by 3:00 they had a $50,000 dollar sale.
It’s amazing how poor help can ruin a business.
As someone who has worked in one customer service job or another his entire life, I would like to point out that what some people refer to as "poor help" is actually poor management that don't properly train their people.
 

Sontavaman

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I had a Nissan salesman in Odessa Tx, try to tell me Me that the deal was final because they took my car keys and made me a trade in offer on my Miata. The offer was bs and I told them to return the keys. The guy told me that it was to late I gave them the keys and the offer was final. I then explained to him that when I called the police and accused them of stealing my car he could explain to them how ownership and theft worked. He tried to feed me some bs about people called the cops all the time, and they would not respond to dealerships as business was business. My buddy showed him his badge and asked him if he was ready to test his theory. Needless to say he returned my keys. I bought a Dakota In Dallas.
 

Kyanche

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One of the first Chrysler dealers I dealt with long ago back in the family's 300C days would give free oil changes. About 3 years into ownership, they told me that the car needed a new steering rack because the billows were all torn up. They made a big fuss about how unsafe it was, and how I shouldn't drive it home. I didn't... I drove it to a shop I knew from a few visits. We got it on the lift and the damn things still looked new.
 

KCBRUIN

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I bought a new 2016 black hard rock JKUR from a dealership. During the winter months my wife complained that her heated seat wasn’t heated. I took it to the dealership after messing with it. The service manager called me up and said it was working within spec. I said it didn’t heat up at all, and told him I’d left the vehicle running for 45 min and it never got warm. He said the passenger seat, and only the passenger seat, had a weight sensor that would only let the seat warm up if someone was actually sitting in it. He suggested I have my wife sit in the seat and drive around for 30-45 min and it would be warm to the touch. I asked if it would be about 98.6 degrees after 45 min and then told him what I thought about his competence and intelligence level. I sold that Jeep and later made the mistake of returning to that dealer. I tried to buy a brand new Charger 392 Daytona. My salesman was no longer there. I test drove it, and asked them to make me an offer. They made me an offer and I said wash that bit@! I’m on the way. When I got there they had a 5.7 liter model in it’s place and the paper work ready to be filled out. I’m currently trying to buy a loaded 2021 JLUR plus a lift and all the goodies from anywhere in the country that isn’t Lee’s Summit Chrysler in Lee‘s Summit Mo.
 

aldo98229

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Welcome to the forum!

Yeah, better be careful with those f*ckers.

Next time you tell them you want to buy a Jeep Wrangler 392 with heated seats and steering wheel...they will pull up in a JL with 4 cylinders and 392 miles on the odometer... that has been baking out in the sun... :LOL:
 

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steelponycowboy

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Did I mention a salesman at an Earnhardt dealership in the Phoenix area throwing the keys on the roof of the building when the deal went south. Did I mention the threat of kicking his ass made him get a ladder and the keys?
 

steelponycowboy

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10,000 between the cost of a 2020 and 2021, someone is full of chit and I don't think it is the dealer. Base price went up $500 and several options went up maybe 5 to 10 percent. At the most it might be $1000 higher but no way 10. I did a Gladiator build using 2020 and 2021 which you can now do and with just about every option the cost difference was just over $1000.
 

MyDaughters20JL

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10,000 between the cost of a 2020 and 2021, someone is full of chit and I don't think it is the dealer. Base price went up $500 and several options went up maybe 5 to 10 percent. At the most it might be $1000 higher but no way 10. I did a Gladiator build using 2020 and 2021 which you can now do and with just about every option the cost difference was just over $1000.
Because the 21s now have the technology package included. That was one of the price increases, the difference between the 2021 in the be at base MSRP was another one, increase in price plus their mark up everything else it was about $10,000. The note that she signed when she ordered the jeep back in June was for 38 the sheet that they just brought out to have her sign was for 48 and tell me how 38 to 48 is not a $10,000 increase
On top of the fact that she has multiple emails from the dealer and the sales people telling her that she will not have to pay any difference between the 20 and 21 because it was their fault for sitting on the order for 10 days yet they refused to honor that as well
 

MyDaughters20JL

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10,000 between the cost of a 2020 and 2021, someone is full of chit and I don't think it is the dealer. Base price went up $500 and several options went up maybe 5 to 10 percent. At the most it might be $1000 higher but no way 10. I did a Gladiator build using 2020 and 2021 which you can now do and with just about every option the cost difference was just over $1000.
And to be honest I did not look at all the itemized charges when it came out: however there is a 2020 Sahara with a sticker price of 58,000 and an “adjusted market value“ of an additional $9000 added. Perhaps dealer markup Destiination charges whatever are part of that 10,000 I don’t know
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