My husband and I purchased a used vehicle from Rte 44 Toyota after much wheeling, dealing, and schmoozing from sales manager Tony Roma. We explained that we needed a larger sedan to fit our children, and that it needed to get good gas mileage and told him what we could afford for monthly payments. So Tony finds a "repo", a 2003 Ford Taurus with only 39k miles on it (after I had repeatedly told them that a brand new Yaris would never work for our family size, it is just too small) Tony assured us that he had secured financing, we signed the purchase and sales agreement; I took possession of the Ford and the dealership took possession of my trade (Saturn). I was told to return Tuesday when they would give me a loaner, while they took care of the license plate change, inspection sticker, oil change etc.
When I arrived at 1:15pm on Tuesday-on my lunch hour-the service department did not have me listed as having an appointment. I explained what I needed done and that the paperwork was in the glove box. They took my keys and paged my salesman. The salesman was paged repeatedly.in the meantime I had Tony Roma paged. Tony had requested a fire department t-shirt from my husband, and since at the time we were pleased with the vehicle, we agreed. Tony came out and I gave him the shirt and thanked him for helping us out. Then Tony disappeared.
Then my salesman came out and told me that he had bad news. The financing had fallen through on the Ford. I was shocked. I asked him how this could happen when we signed all the paperwork already. He informed me that the bank denied it because Rte 44 Toyota was charging me way more than the vehicle was worth. (charged us $12,005 before trade in value, and we later discovered on that the fair price was $8400!) I told the salesman to just lower the price and he said that the dealership would not do it, but please come talk to his sales manager with him for a moment. I told him that I needed to go back to work now, then told the sales manager the same thing. The smarmy sales manager tried to convince me to buy a Yaris instead, at least go take a look. I informed him that I did not have time to look at cars, I had to get back to work but after work and my doctors appointment, I would come back at 430pm. I was told that was fine and they would get the Ford for me.
20 minutes later, the salesman comes back and says he is giving me back my Saturn, because the Ford is up on the lift getting an oil change. WHAT? I told him that I had belongings, including my childs carseat in the Ford and that I was not leaving without getting my things out of the Ford.
Again I am left to stew and fume. I went to Tony Roma, who was sitting with another salesman and asked him to speak with him a moment. I asked him what exactly was going on and that this was shady and wrong. He claimed to know nothing about it. I told him that I was done with this dealership, to get me my car, my license plates, and my belongings NOW and give me back the shirt. I need to leave. He ran off like the cockroach that he is, with a promise to find out where the vehicles were. When I spotted him hiding behind a pillar speaking to another salesman, I spoke to my husband via cell phone and he informed me to call the police department, which I did.
Throughout all this, my boss was flipping out that i was not back to work, everyone in the dealership was screwing me around, and I was stuck with no cars, no keys, no plates, no belongings.
When the salesman pulled up in my Saturn, 2 hours after I first arrived, it had no plates, and the Ford (and my belongings) was still MIA. At that point the police arrived.
Smarmy sales manager tried to give the cop a line that my credit was bad and that was why financing fell through. LIE! They overcharged pure and simple. Cheating lying thieves. The cop, who was great, told him he didnt care about my credit, where is the Ford? And when he learned it was on the lift still he asked "For an hour and a half?" The police officer told the sales manager to get the Ford down from the lift Now, and let me get my belongings NOW and to put my plates back on my Saturn NOW. Finally, these dishonest nasty jerks actually moved and within 15 minutes I had my belongings, my plates, and my Saturn back. I cannot imagine how much longer I owuld have been held hostage if the police had not intervened.
Route 44 Toyota tried to rip us off. Hindsight being what it is, we should have questioned the price, asked for a report etc. What they did, how they treated me, was unconscionable, shady, illegal, and wrong on so many levels. I would never ever do business with these crooks again.
To top it off, we reported them to the BBB... Their response was that I was there for 15-20 minutes, Tony Roma was not there that day at all-it was his day off! Lies! Don't go to Rte 44 Toyota unless you want to be robbed! I don't know how these people sleep at night.
44toyotasux
Carver, Massachusetts
U.S.A.
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