My wife and I took our teenage daughter to Faulkner Pontiac Buick GMC last week, looking for a new car for her before she enters college. Our daughter saw a bright yellow 2007 GT that really caught her eye. The sales manager, Kevin Rogers, told us that this car was loaded with options and promotions for easy purchase.
As it turned out, he built my daughter up, got her all excited about owning her first car, and then offered us virtually no deal. When we realized that we were at least $1500 dollars apart, we abandoned the effort to buy the GT and left.
The next day, Kevin called and told us that he had a red Pontiac coming in, not a GT but a lesser model, a G5. He said that this car would be about $1500 less than the GT, making it more affordable for our family. I asked why this car was $1500 cheaper. He emphasized that there were only three differences between the two cars: 1) the G5 had a little less horsepower, 2) the G5 had smaller wheels, and 3) the G5 was a little lower to the ground.in the words of this sales manager, Kevin Rogers, "Nothing your daughter would ever notice."
We drove back and let our daughter take the red car for a two-minute test drive, just to make sure that it rode as well as the GT. Again, the sales manager emphasized that everything else in this G5 was the same as the GT from the night before, and he said he could easily get the G5 in yellow by tomorrow from another dealer. I should have known not to believe this man because, during the negotiations that followed, he tried to sell me the extended warranty plan for $1440, even though I knew it was only $660. When I caught him in his "miscalculation, " he ran into another office to check the price of the extended warranty and came back and told me he "made a mistake." More "errors" would follow, only I did not know it until days later.
We finally made the deal and shook hands on it. When we took possession of the car the following week, my daughter noticed — when we were already home — that there was no 6-CD changer - just a SINGLE CD changer. This was not one of the differences the sales manager mentioned when he compared the two cars for us. When I called Kevin to question this, he said that he was "human" and "may have inadvertently overlooked it, " but refused to change the CDs because he gave me "too good a deal on the car and there was no money left in the deal." He also told me that it was my responsibility to notice the equipment listed on the sticker before making such a large purchase, despite what he told me earlier about the equipment.
I demanded satisfaction, and in the next few hours, I received rude telephone calls from the sales manager again and then from Pat Duffy, a man who introduced himself as the general manager, although he is listed as just another sales manager on the web site. He told me that the problem was mine, not his, since I did not take the time to scrutinize the window sticker. He said that his sales manager, Kevin Rogers, denied ever making the claim that there were only three differences between the cars. Mr. Duffy also said that, in the past, his salespeople have, in fact, made that mistake of failing to tell people about the different sound systems between the GT and the G5, and he had to "eat the $600 and make the switch to keep customers happy, " but he was not doing that anymore! When I told him I was going to the top of the GM ladder to complain, our conversation was over.
A few minutes later, I received one final call from this awful dealership, this time from Al Sherwood, the President. He was as rude and sarcastic as a person could be. For a person in his position, he should be a problem solver, not a condescending snob. When I told him I was very aggravated, rather than offer a solution to the problem, he said, "How about if I call you tomorrow when you're a little calmer?" He then went on to play a major semantics game, saying that the responsibility for this error was with the buyer for "ASSUMING WHAT THE SALES MANAGER SAID WAS ACCURATE." He went on to say that the sales people sell so many cars to so many people that they simply can't keep track of all the things that are said during negotiations, and he simply has to believe that his sales manager, Kevin Rogers, never said anything about there being only three differences between the two cars.
He then became insulting, suggesting that "A smart buyer would know that you can't save $1500 just on less horsepower and tire size." He was practically laughing at me, especially when I told him how disappointed and disillusioned my daughter was, especially after believing what Kevin Rogers told us at the beginning. "President" Sherwood just snickered at that comment and told me that, in the future, I should NOT ASSUME what anyone says is the truth, even, I guess, if it's one of his employees representing Faulkner Autos and General Motors.
What a bunch of liars and bullies! After they get your money, they don't even want to know your name. Don't go there unless you want to be misled, lied to, and insulted!
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