I was contacted by the "internet department" at Hillside Honda, as I had previously assisted my brother in law with his car search. I was in the market for a 2009 2WD Honda Pilot. I had been working with a dealer in Southern NJ, but could not get to the numbers that I needed in order to make the purchase work.
I was contacted by Raquel Dunn, in the Internet Department, and went through EXACTLY what I was looking for, and what I could pay for it. Raquel assured me that if I came in (about a 2 1/2 hour drive without traffic) they could make the deal. I called back and spoke with her 2 or 3 more times, and she assured me that it would be worth the trip to come up.
Not wanting to spend 6 hours on the road uselessly, I asked to speak with one of the Sales Managers and was put on the phone with Mr. Mohammad Choudhury, and went through the exercise again of explaining what I was looking for, and the complete details of the deal that would be necessary. Mr Choudhury assured me that if I came in, they would be able to make the deal.
So, that being said, I re-arranged an entire work week, to show up in the showroom early that Monday morning. I spent almost 5 hours there, and surprise, surprise, they could not make the deal. We were approximately $2500 appart, and they kept on insisting that I should downgrade in order to get to the number, that they had already assured me that they could meet.
At the end of this session, another Sales Manager (Michael Robitaille) got involved and got me within $2000 of the price I needed.
I left the dealership extremely aggravated. I had done some research and knew that there were only 6 2WD Pilots in the Northeast area, one of which was in Babylon, New York (Long Island). I went to this dealer to just see what the 2WD vehicle looked like (and to check out the color) and was asked to see if they could make the deal. During the discussion, they told me that the pricing I had been given by Hillside was a mistake and they could not make the deal.
So... I ended up going back to Hillside, and against my better instincts signed off on the purchase at $2000 over what they had promised. After taking a 6 hour trip out of my way, I did not want to go back empty handed. Well... 5 hours and 4 sales agreements (which all had to be ammended due to "mathematical errors") later, I put a deposit on the car, and filled out the loan paperwork.
Two days later, while I'm waiting to hear that:
A) My loan has been approved (which wasn't an issue as my credit score is in the 830's).
B) That they had transferred the car in from Babylon Honda
I received a phone call from Raquel Dunn, asking why I had not purchased the car? I told her I had, but she informed me that they were showing the deal as "busted" in their system, for the reason that they could not find a car.
At that point, I called into Richard Colliver's office at American Honda Motors to get assistance, as I knew at this point that they were trying to screw me over and back out of the deal. With the assistance of the Zone Manager, the vehicle was miraculously transferred and I was able to pick up my vehicle (after a 3.5 hour ordeal, where we had to revise the sales contract for a 5th time due to "errant mathematics") a day later than I wanted to.
This dealer did everything possible to ensure that I would want to cancel this deal, going as far as making me get a duplicate title for the trade-in vehicle (which took me a half a day to accomplish and which I had to pay an additional $25 for) even though it is common knowledge that this is held by the finance company until the loan is payed off, and was therefore unnecessary. I went out of my way to ensure that the pay-off was done (sent the money Western Union), and had the release sent immediately to me, and to Hillside Honda the very next morning.
The car was delivered with water spots, grease marks, and plastic sticking out from all over the interior. You know the car wasn't detailed, since the hold-downs for the floor mats (the same kind of plastic do-hicky that holds the sale tags on your new clothes) were still attaching the matts to the floors. There were scratches on the drivers side mirror, rear hatch, Passenger 1/4 panel, and a swirl mark (which looks like someone wrote on paper with a pen, while resting it on the car, on the drivers front 1/4 panel. They informed me that if I wanted to wait over an hour, that their "detail" people would be back from lunch and could look at the car. Since I was over 3.5 hours away from home in weekend traffic, I could not wait and had to leave.
Now the ultimate insult. Three weeks later, driving around with no inspection sticker, Interstate Transit Tags, which can not be read through the tinted glass, and no regular plates, I have been stopped 4 times by the police to check if this vehicle is registered.
I was assured that last week I would receive my registration. I did receive a package (which I had to go and pick up from Fed-Ex 15 miles away on Saturday) since the brain surgeons at Hillside sent a package requiring an adult signiture to a place where they knew that no-one is home during the day.
Guess what.in violation of Federal and State Privacy Laws, for Two states no less, I am sitting here with the Name, Address, Telephone Numbers, Registration, Licence Plates, and Lease information for another Hillside Honda customer from Lakewood, NJ, and she has mine.
These people are so arrogant, and so careless it leaves me speachless. You should avoid doing business with these people at all costs, as they couldn't find the definition of business ethics even if they had a dictionary, and are extremely cavalier with how they handle your personal information
Abear
Cherry Hill, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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