The lack of customer service and communication between employees is appalling. Our first experience was with Steve Block. We had been emailing him expressing our interest in a vehicle. We had several back and forth emails with him, but when we called he still had no idea who we were. This made us feel like we were just a sale and our names were not important. We gave the benefit of the doubt and made an appointment to drive an SUV. When we arrived he did have the car pulled out in front waiting for us and that was greatly appreciated, however our experience went downhill from there. We were initially insulted by the amount that was quoted for our trade-in and had to immediately walk out. To Steve’s credit he said he did a little more research and contacted us back with a little bit of a higher quote. Even though I understand that this is part of the negotiation tools sales people use, I still did appreciate the follow up. We tried to work a deal with him but were unsuccessful. We told him that if he could get the numbers to work to please contact us. We were surprised to see that the next day the price of the vehicle was lowered to $400 BELOW what we had initially offered. Maybe he wasn’t aware of the upcoming price decrease, but this is just one of the ways the dealership needs to improve communication between its departments.
We did really like the vehicle therefore were willing to overlook the lack of follow-through and proactively called the dealer ourselves. We were told that Steve wouldn’t be in until later so started the process of purchasing the vehicle from Paul to avoid missing out on the car. Paul checked the system first to ensure that the vehicle was still available and confirmed that we could make the purchase. We were told that all we needed to send was our Driver’s license and insurance card. I faxed over the information as well as provided the contact info for the credit union that was providing the financing. We told him that we would be putting down $6,000 (and if a deposit was needed to secure the vehicle I would have assumed he would have told us and taken the payment information). He put the car in shop to check on a concern we had and told us when the vehicle would be ready. We confirmed that we would be there to sign the paperwork. He also checked in with Paul an hour before to ensure the vehicle was ready, as we live 45 min away from the dealer and had to pick up my father to drive our vehicle back. He again verified the preferred way for the down payment, inquiring if we needed a cashiers check, money order or cash. We were told that a personal check would work and headed out to the dealership. Five minutes before our appointment time, he was contacted by Paul to say that we wouldn’t be able to buy the vehicle and that apparently it had been sold online. We had already been involved in the process for 5 hours, and confirmed the vehicle would be ready. This was a huge waste of time for me, my husband and my father. Paul had said the final decision was made above his pay grade, by upper level management and that the car would be sold to the online bidder rather than honor the agreement with us. No reasonable explanation could be given and we were told to just contact the manager.
When my husband returned home he reached out the GM, Donna, who said she would look into it further and call him right back. But she never did, she just had the used car sales manager, Dick Morgan call us back. Just to clarify we now had been passed from Steve, to Paul, to Donna, to Dick; so much for owning a customer issue. The poor excuse that was given by Dick was that it had already been sold online and just nobody knew about it. Since the online buyer had already initiated a wire for a deposit then the car would go to him. Again, I reiterate that we would have been able to put a deposit down if we had been informed of this policy, but again are left short-handed due to a lack of communication. Then he had the audacity to say that he couldn’t just sell the vehicle to us because it would cost him $1000. I know the costs of a wire fee and if this $1000 fee is something the dealership wrote into the contract then they should own up to the mistake and pay the $1000. The only assistance the used car manager offered was if there was something else on the lot that we wanted then he would help us make that purchase. I’m not sure about you, but I know that there is absolutely NO WAY I would give someone who has treated me without respect, and acts without integrity $50,000. You would have to be out of your mind! Maybe we were wrong to extend Jerry’s the benefit of the doubt as much as we did. Maybe it was our fault for expecting this company to conduct business professionally. Maybe we were supposed to somehow automatically know their policies and procedures. Maybe, but probably not. I understand the world of “the customer is always right” does not exist at Jerry's and I would say that the sole responsibility of this horrible experience lies within the dealership and its team. It is my impression that the customer comes last to this group; that its sole mission statement is to make sale at any cost to the consumer.
We sent a similar outline of this experience to the owners and management of Jerry's. We were contacted by the manager who said they would love to rectify the situation and make it right with us. We were willing to give them the opportunity to correct it. We were told that they would try and locate a similar vehicle and get back to us after the weekend. Our next correspondence was 3 weeks later. We had already purchased another vehicle by this time. Clearly, making it right wasn't top priority even after our feedback. Just another example of lack of communication, ball dropping, and horrible customer service that seems to be the way of life of Jerry's. Save yourself the trouble and go somewhere else!
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