We went to Koons Sterling Ford in Sterling, Virginia to purchase a new truck. We took a F250 Ford Super Duty Crew Cab truck for a test drive and heard a noise coming from the dashboard. We were told it was a belt and they would pull it into the service bay and fix it. They told us they took the belt off and applied dressing and the noise was gone. We had them document the noise and that they were aware that it was there but had been fixed and if it came back they would take care of it. It was closing time when we finally got all of the paperwork done and contracts signed and when we left everyone else left behind us. We got out on the highway and within 2 minutes the noise started. We made a U turn and headed back to the dealership. As we were pulling in the salesman we dealt with towards the end tried to take off running to the back but must have remembered he didn't lock the door. He came back out as I was walking in the door. He was sweating and looked like he was going to have a heart attack. He apoligized over and over again and gave us his cell phone number telling us to call him if we broke down. Turns out the number he gave us was not in service. We are from Pennsylvania and were picking this truck up ourselves as a favor to the dealer we usually deal with in our area. As soon as we got home we took it to our dealership and they ordered a heater core thinking that was the problem. Turns out the heater core wasn't the problem. A flow back valve on the heater core hose was missing and was never put on when it went through the assembly line. That right there tells us nobody looked at this truck at the dealership. They knew there was a problem but did nothing about and figured we were from out of state so what did they care. I called and spoke to Tom Murry in financing and told him I was upset that we had to take a brand new truck in for servicing the day after we got it. He got smart with me and I told him not to do anything with the truck we traded in because I was bringing this one back. He told me tough luck and I signed a contract so there was nothing I could do. I told him he sold me a lemon and that I was going to look into the lemon laws. He told me the state of Virginia has no lemon laws which I later found out they do. He had me so mad that I told him maybe I was having buyers remorse and he said you signed the contract you can't do anything and if you contact a lawyer we will have you in arbitration for a long time.
When it came time to sign the contract they wanted to give us new plates but we told them we had just sent in for our plates through the department of transportation and only needed to transfer them. They said no we can't do that. We argued with them for a while and then agreed that if they could be transferred they would refund the difference. We paid 192.00 for new plates that we didn't need and now they are trying to give us a check for 8.81 as the difference. We had just paid to renew our plates that could have just been transferred to the new truck but instead they got us for another 192.00 we ended up paying over 400.00 for plates. We ended up going home with our plates and a set of temporary Virginia plates on the front and back of the truck.
I would never deal with or reccomend Koons Sterling Ford. We started off with one salesman and then were told that another salesman who hadn't worked there very long would finish the deal. We were there for hours and on the way home the first salesman we dealt with called us and he couldn't believe were only a 1/2 hour into our trip back home. He said heck I thought you would have been almost home by now. We said no we were there for hours being moved around from one desk to another. We told him that the noise came back and of course he apoligized also. We now know why we were kept there so long. They didn't want us to leave until closing time so that when we heard the noise again everyone would be gone. We told him about Tim trying to run in the back and he just laughed. Tim assured us he would look into all of this. He said he was a reporter for 30 years and didn't need the job at the dealership. He agreed we were treated badly and was going to get to the bottom of it but of course we never heard from him again. We feel they knew there was a problem with this truck and they put the new guy on it knowing something was wrong with it. They figured once they all left we would just go home and they would never have to deal with us again.
John
Irwin, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
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