On Saturday, June 6th, my wife and I entered the Jack Daniels Kia dealership in Fair Lawn, after previous discussions on the Kia Rondo. At this time, working with salesperson Wayne, we discussed the purchase of what we thought was a 2009 Rondo with $1,000 out of pocket, the return and final payment of our 2006 Chevrolet Equinox, and a $300 per month payment. Wayne asked me about my creed rating and I told him it was in the low 700s. After some final negotiation, we agreed to purchase (what we thought was a 2009) the Rondo for $309 and change with the addition of roof rack cross members at 2:30pm. Wayne had asked if we would consider paying $725 out-of-pocket and bringing back the Equinox and making the last payment. We agreed. Additionally, Wayne had mentioned that we needed speak to the finance person about loan rates and other issues such as adding at no cost maintenance issues such as free oil changes for the life of the car. This was in response to my question why Hyundai was offering such a deal and not Kia?
We were told that the finance person was tied up and could see us at about 4:00 pm., so we agreed to Wayne's suggestion, after giving our deposit, to return the Equinox to expedite this purchase. Wayne offered and we agreed to be picked up when this was completed. We were picked up and returned to the Jack Daniels dealership at approximately 4:00 pm after calling numerous times. We were finished with the return, had lunch, and made the first call to be picked up at about 3:25 pm.
When we got back, we were asked to wait in the Audi lounge and the finance person would see us shortly to finalize the deal. We waited until approximately 4:30 and when nobody responded, I called Wayne to ask what was the delay. He said he would come over to assist. At 4:45, still no response, so I walked to the reception desk and saw Wayne and the finance person eating. I was told that they were almost ready to see us. At about 5:05 pm, we still were not called in to discuss this purchase. I called Wayne again and he said he would find out. Shortly after, the finance person came into the lounge and asked to speak with me. We went outside and she began to tell me that one report on my credit record was 707 and another was 680. (I'm not sure I remember the exact numbers, but this is close.) She began to inform me that if I went with a 60-month program I could save a couple of thousands of dollars in interest. I explained to her that I fully understand what she was saying, however, but as I told Wayne from the start, we needed to be at $300 per month and that even the $9.00 increase was more than we wanted to spend.
She kept saying that we could save money, but I again told her that our budget was $300/month and if this was a problem, we should have addressed this before we took our car back. We now had no car. She said ok and left.
At about 5:20, we heard nothing and I went to the finance office only to be told that the paperwork was with the General Manager. I asked for his name and again went to the reception desk and asked to talk with the General Manager. At 5:30 I still had no response and was ready to go back to the reception desk when a person I new came into the lounge area. Apparently, he is a previously owned sales manager, and seeing my frustration and anger, offered to help. At about 5:40, we were told that the paper work was approved. Upon signing, not with the finance person, we confirmed the agreed upon price, but noticed that the vehicle was a not a 2009. We also noticed that the interest was 9.5% for 66 months. I asked why and got no answer.in investigating this purchase, I know that Kia is offering a 72-month loan at 4.5%. Because we never were given a chance to discuss this with the finance person, and we no longer had a car, and the dealership closed at 6:00 and we had a previous engagement that night at 6:30, (we told everyone involved that we had this previous engagement, one of the reasons we agreed to drop of the car to expedite this transaction) we felt we had no choice but to sign this deal.
After signing this deal, we stood outside wondering were to pick up the vehicle, and at about 5:55 I called Wayne to find out. He said he was gassing it up and he would be right there. At about 6:05, we saw Wayne and he showed us where he parked the car. He was very apologetic and I believe that little of this was his fault. One exception is that we were led to believe that this was a 2009 vehicle. This is partly because we were given 2009 brochure and asked questions based on the 2009 brochures data. We were not told this was a 2008 vehicle.
When we got to the car, we saw damage to the right side rear window weather strip, the vehicle was very dirty along every window, and there were some black marks inside the vehicle. Wayne had a detailer come over to clean the car and during this exercise, to make matters even worse, another salesperson apparently in a hurry, yelled over in our direction and demanded that the vehicle be moved as it was blocking his customers way. I informed him that we waited hours to get this transaction completed and we were not moving until this was completed. Wayne, seeing that the detailing was going to take more time than anyone wanted to take, offered to re-detail the vehicle, to address the weather stripping, and any other issue when we brought the vehicle back to get the plates and have the roof rack cross members installed. I reminded him that I have a problem with the high interest payments and the fact that we were forced to sign this agreement due to the long wait period and the fact that the dealership was closing and we had a previous engagement. He said he would investigate and get back to us.
I cannot believe that a long established and prominent dealership would treat customers so badly. Maybe it is because we purchased a Kia and not an Audi. I was hesitant to purchase a Kia, but because it was from Jack Daniels, I believed they would not let us down. Well, Jack Daniels let us down from the first day. I hope that this is not indicative of our future relationship and that I will not have to continue this grievance.
The level of disrespect at the Finance and General Manager level of this Jack Daniels dealership, given to my wife and I is absolutely unacceptable. I feel that Jack Daniels should make up for this demonstrated behavior.
0 comments