The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
The Good:
First I'd like to say, there ARE, (at least SOME) good deals to be had at Mel Clayton Ford; I got one in December when we bought our new 05 Taurus. The deal we negotiated was the deal we got, everything went very well & we were Very happy with the car &, (until now), Mel Clayton Ford. B.T.W. The salesman who sold it to us isn't there anymore; HE says it's because they lied to him.
We took both our 05 Taurus & our 01 F150 in for service, the truck had 90,000 miles on it and the warranty was about to run out so we wanted a good inspection on the major components. We had been considering trading so when they found problems we decided to shop for a 05-06 new/demo/used. New 06 was a little to high, they didn't have a new 05 Supercrew Lariat or used/demo 06. We ended up looking at a 05 F150 Supercrew Lariat with 18000 miles on it (Demo?), it had most of what we wanted, It but had scratches, a ding in the side, skinned door edges, a deep scrape in the bumper cap, a BAD scuff on the passenger side dash panel, (someone's footrest), and a crack in the dash, face panel (same side (knee I expect) (must have been used for vacation), & 18000 miles (that's a year and a half of driving for Us). I consider THIS truck USED & let them know it; I informed the Salesman, (Gene Nemeth) they would have to make me a really good deal for me to take it, (no response). We get inside and rather than negotiate he immediately handed us off to a negotiator / sales manager (Ernie, (I've been told he's no longer there). MSRP on the truck was $36,355.00, I told him about the damage and we inspected it, (he kinda blew it off) I told him my truck was in real good condition & was in for service it had problems so I only wanted 10,000 trade (that's Kelly Blue Book) for good condition the repairs could have been done under warranty for about 1,000.00, (so I was being generous). And I offered him 24,000, after trade, w/Tax, title, license & fees, (Out The Door). We haggled a bit, I ask him twice to just show me a new one, he wouldn't. Kept trying to make the payment & interest more important than the price. I was ready to walk when he made this offer. The dealership would repair all the scratches, the ding & the damages to the dash & completely detail the truck, Give me 8,500 trade for My truck and take 27,000, Out The Door). A little more than I wanted but, Well & Good. WISH I had walked, thought about it, but they weren't even done with the car although we had been waiting there for like 6 hours, (they were waiting on the carpet to dry).
OUR Bad: Finance Dept.
* A.O.C. = amount on Finance Contract
Negotiated, Signed, Agreed Price
AFTER trade, Tax, Title & Doc Fees 27,000.00
Trade, (*A.O.C.) 8,500.00
Sales Tax, (*A.O.C.) 2,506.55
License & Registration, (*A.O.C.) 292.75
Title Fee, (*A.O.C.) 4.00
Mel Clayton Document Fee, (*A.O.C.) 379.00
Sale Price 38,682.30
After our last deal, We thought it was a done deal now, all that was left was to right it up, add on the warranty, service contract, loan insurance, Lo Jack & pressure monitor valve caps and we're done. What could go wrong, we had, after all, dealt with them before, with No Problems.
We wanted the GE warranty 4 star plan W / the electronics & power tech options, Service contract for 24 month scheduled maintenance, Lo Jack, GAP Insurance, Tire Pressure Monitors and Death & Disability loan insurance.
Sale Price 38,682.30
Warranty, (from warr. Contract) 1,995.00
Service, (from service contract) 395.00
LoJack & ValveCaps, (from receipt) 640.00
Credit Life & Disability, (*A.O.C.) 1,932.82
GAP Insurance, (*A.O.C.) 600.00
New Total Sale Price 44,245.12
-Trade 8,500.00
-Cash 640.00
-Tax, Titl, Lic, Docs 3,182.30
Amount Financed 31,922.82
But, (poor fools that we are, (No glasses, tired, (10 hours now), in a hurry at this point) we didn't notice the discrepancy until Later, at home. Finance Person, (Kirt DelValle) had written the contract up so we were financing $39,011.10, Or $7088.28 Too MUCH! We could have had a NEW, 06, in the color we wanted with more options, for THAT much more. But YEP, We signed it. As far as Mel Clayton & the bank are concerned it's a done deal.
The Ugly: Service Department.
As I stated before, they had agreed to fix the problems with the truck, all I had to do was bring it in for the Body Shop to look at it and set up an appointment for them and Service to take care of everything. Took me a week to get back but I set it up. Lo Jack still hadn't shown for installation; I was told they would have it done while they had it; it would take them 3 or 4 days; I ask that they do the 20,000 mile warranty service while they had it and do 3000 mile service (oil & filter, lube, air filter, rotate & balance tires). 9 days later, I got it back; there was no authorization for the work so it took them a couple of days to get it, the dash panel hadn't come in so I would have to wait on that; everything else though looked good. Lo Jack was seen on the lot but know one new if it had been installed, talked to Kirt, He thought so but couldn't get hold of anyone to find out, Still didn't have the tire pressure monitors; He would get them and mail them to me. I get home & check the service bill & there's nothing about maintenance, only the warranty service, I check the oil change sticker (unchanged). I make an appointment to have the dash panel installed, have some accessories installed and get the service done. I get this letter from GE warranty changing the contract number & asking me to call if what I got from the dealer doesn't match there records. I get out the warranty. Nothing is marked so I call; Yes I DO have the 4 star plan BUT, I do NOT have the Power & Electronics Options & I have to see the dealer to correct it.
It Gets Uglier:
I have the appointment for the next day so I figure I'll try and straighten it all out then, (including voice my opinion about the $7,088.00 and the fact that I DIDN'T get the deal I negotiated, but basically GAVE them my $10,000.00 truck! I take it in and drop it off. Kirt isn't there. I get a call the next day to tell me they can't get it all done before the weekend but the Service is done, so I can pick it up and bring it back Monday, No Problem, I can catch Kirt. I get there and find out they changed the oil and filter but that's all; the service contract only covers oil Changes! NOW, I'm upset! I've been screwed on the purchase, screwed on my warranty, screwed on my service contract, Lo Jack, AND screwed on my tire pressure monitors, WHICH, I had already offered to just take a refund, (They were No Big Deal, (Until NOW)!!
So I go in and find Kirt, I start getting a LITTLE loud & made reference to the Screwing I got between the front of the house and the back of the house, at which point He says he wants to help but If I continue being loud he will have me escorted out and wish me "Safe Driving" As much as I was tempted by THAT statement, (There was even a Phoenix P.D.in the service area) (snicker); I gave him a grin (You know the one; it's the grin you get when you bite your tongue a little to hard & taste the blood) & counted to 20.
We started with the Service and Warranty contracts, He said I was supposed to have the coverage I had ask for and he would get it straightened out. He made a couple of phone calls and left messages to be contacted. He also called again about the tire pressure monitors, (AGAIN I offered to take a refund), "No, I'll get them for you, it will only take me a couple of days", (AGAIN)!
Now about the Purchase Contract:
He explains how the bank will only cover Set Amounts for extras on the loan & how my wife and I hadn't wanted to put any cash up front so he had to roll part of the cost for loan insurance, warranty, service contract, GAP insurance, and Lo Jack/valve caps into the price of the truck.
He explains (on paper, (and I have it, hee hee), how the warranty for $1995.00 was actually $3995.00, the service contract for $395.00 cost $1995.00, the GAP insurance for $600.00 cost $1600.00, the Lo Jack & valve caps for $640.00 cost $795.00, (wait, I paid cash for this & got a discount to make it 640.00), and the Life & Disability for $736.30 cost $1537.00, (wait, I paid $1932.82), so he had added $4995.00 to the price of the truck to offset the difference. HUH??? What he added was $7088.28; WHERE, did the OTHER, $2093.28 come from? And besides, shouldn't the trade-in eat up the extra add-ons like warranty, insurance, service contract & GAP? At this point though I'm too mad to think OR talk! I figure I'd better bite my tongue until I can check things out a little better & get the warranty & service contract straight, AND, get my truck back & completed before I go TOO far! (There's that (nasty taste) grin again. I got the truck done and back Thursday 02/02/06 but I didn't have time to confront Kirt again yet.in the mean time I checked on Lo Jack, It wasn't installed & they don't have a purchase or work order for it. I checked back with GE on the warranty; they haven't heard anything about it. It's Wednesday 02/08/06 I checked back on everything; Nothings changed! I left messages for Kirt in Finance, the Finance Manager, & The Dealership Manager/Customer Service, No Response, Sunday is the my deadline. Monday morning, 02/13/06 at 9:30 AM I'll be across the street from Mel Clayton Ford at Denny's with signs and handouts for everyone who wants them.
Although I may have ONE witness (my daughter) I would gladly buy breakfast & lunch for a couple of local usacomplaints.com advocates to join me.
:-)
BTW: I DID pick up the e-mail addy's for Ford Motor Corporation, Thanks!
OH; PLEASE visit my NEW website.
"www.melclaytonford.net"
Bill
Mesa, Arizona
U.S.A.
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