To whom it may concern,
I was in the market to get a new truck, knew the time was right and that the prices would be more in my favor. I have been in the business and still have several friends in the business.
I shopped around, looking for the orange color and gave specific requirements as to what I wanted on my truck. I was movng up from an 01 SLT Quad cab 1500 to the 4x4 I always wanted. I wanted it to be tall, strong looking and pretty. I had real high hopes.
David Fuller of Blue Bonnet (BB) Dodge (New Braunsfels VIN 1D7HU18N58S553469) emailed me his price 24.5K and Donald Gillogly of Maxwell Dodge (Austin) told me he could beat it by 750 or 23,750. I was tired of looking and dealing so I went with Maxell.
Irrelavent point: Maxwell had to get the orange truck from another dealer but David had his on the lot.
I went and discussed that I wanted a few extra items to make my truck look great and Don and the Sales manager confired to come up with the pricing. I did not know if they came with the truck but we will get to that. I have this paper in the Sales managers hand writing. At this point, and its in writing: Maxwells trucks MSRP was 36,820 as provided by Don and the Sales manager (Jason or James I believe).
We agreed on this Option Itemization:
Tires (Nitto 325x60 R20) and wheels (20 IDX) and a lift (1/2 spacer on front): $2695 this was just like a white & tan 2500 they had on the lot
Tow hitch: $425
Fog Lights: $250
Wheel Flares: $580
Folding Flat load floor: $100 (taken off the MSRP of another truck)
Nerf Bars: $525
Leather Seats: $1200
So I had a deal. I thought I had to add the lights and tow to it, thought the MSRP was one # and all was ok. It wasnt.
The next day I went in, late afternoon with my wife and kids, to Maxwell and began the deal process 7-29. This is where things went a bit bad.
At this point we worked on the numbers a bit more, mostly on my trade. 01 Dodge 1500 SLT. They had early on said 130% of Kelly Blue Book (KBB) value. At this time my truck was in fair condition, new tires, new tranny but not great. They went to the least amount of KBB which was $3780. I thought ok fine heres where they are trying to recoupe some $ on the deal. I noticed that they however did not choose the correct SLT, PW, locks, tow package, limited slip, etc that were on the truck in their KBB estimate. (They did this all off the online KBB website) Don said that was in their commercial to leave everything off and to do the least amount of KBB. I asked for that in writing and it was never provided and ignored. I then asked to select the correct options in KBB and it was over 1K more in my favor. We then haggled a bit more and came to a somewhat middle of the road value on my trade. I never did receive a copy of the what I can only consider fake commercial statements.
We were then finally ready to go to financing.
We knew we were A paper as we run a business and pay our bills. (We were later verified, by BB Dodge, by me having a score of 730 & my wife 700)
It was late & Robear Hicks was our Finance person there at Maxwell. He said he could not get into Chrysler Credit (CC), but had seen our credit and knew CC would give us the great rate of 6.99. When repeatedly asked he said this was the best they, CC, do. We then said we would go find our financing elsewhere, they then said the truck would be $1000 more w/o CC credit. This was the first mention of this anywhere! We haggled on this and being upset & tired we gave in. This was bait and switch. At this point we should have walked. Come to find out he was lying as was evidenced 1 day later when I got a 5.9 rate from BB Dodge. At this point we signed and left.
The next day I picked up their loaner truck, they took mine and I waited for my truck to come in from San Antonio (Ancira Dodge). I should mention that with the Hemi in this 4x2 loaner, I was never able to get above 11.5 mpg in the supposedly rated 13-17hwy mpg.
Friday the truck arrived late and I went to see it, it was about 6:30 pm at night. As I was walking around the truck, I noticed the trailer tow hitch already there. I asked Don, why he charged me extra for something already on the MSRP. He told me they must have just installed it. I called him on the fact that noone was in Service to install it and that it was dirty, etc and he then began backtracking. I told him I wanted that resolved. He said ok. My son, who happened to overhear the discussion was in front of the truck and said, Hey Dad, it has fog lights already here too. I then looked at Don and said what in the world is going on? He had now charged me extra for 2 things, already on the truck! I asked Don to fix this immediately and he said it was late, could he work it out in the morning? I said fine but I wanted this cleared up.
The next day I waited and waited 8-1. At about 1pm I showed up at Maxell and went over to the truck as I was begining to suspect something was awefully wrong. I checked the truck to ensure the MSRP had included the Tow and Lights I had asked for thus backing up my claim they had double charged me. They were there. I took pictures. I then noticed the MSRP on the truck was 36,705. This was another huge error in their favor.
I then went in to the Sales manager, told him who I was etc. I asked him for the defintion of MSRP. He finally agreed it included the options on the truck. I never got around to the mistaked of why the 2 MSRPs (their original one of 36820 and the real one of 36705) was different. 1 mistake is human error but 3, especially when they are all in their favor. At this point the Director came in, asked me if he could cut me a check, for the options, and get me out of the door with just the truck. He was making no money on this deal. I said I had financed something with the wrong MSRP and that I also did not want to finance non-existant stuff. He then said he could let me out of the deal. I said I wanted out and that I felt this was bait and switch.
After much deliberation Ive come to the realization that this was a complete bait and switch from the beginning. From the wrong MSRP, extra charges for existing items, to the 1% percentage point Robear charged us that was the best deal they had. Lies and deceipt from start to finish.
I then went back to David 8-1-08, he gave me a new MSRP, less than the original! For the same truck we had previously discussed, of 24,130 and said to come see him. I did, which I should have done from the beginning. The price was what it was, the listing of options was what it was etc. No tricks, no bait and switch, just an honest deal. I left that night a new owner. David gives me faith there are a few honest people still around in the business.
I have never been treated so completely dishonest in my life. I have never run into a racket such as this and total disregard for my time. I am completely dissatisfied in owning a new truck at this point and still w/o the options to make it like it should be. I have never been involved in a bait and switch operation but I now know how it feels. Im supposed to be loving this truck but I am so upset with the way my wife and I were treated it just looks like another vehicle to me at this point. A large paper weight in my driveway.
I have all of this in their handwriting and all of the paper work from both sides. What I am completely dumbfounded by is the fact Maxwell is a 5 star classification on Dodges website. If this is 5 star treatment something is really wrong with Maxwell, Dodge & Chrysler.
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