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Review 3/31/2010
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We recently concluded an extremely unsatisfactory experience, attempting to buy a new car from this dealership. We wanted to share our experience as information for others who may be considering doing business with this company.
We visited the dealership in late-December 2009 and test drove a vehicle that was close to what we were looking for, but not exact. We were pursuaded to order a vehicle to our liking from the factory and assured that we would have delivery in 4-6 weeks. We placed the order on 12/31, including a significant purchase deposit by credit card. About a month later, we received a voice mail stating that it would now be at least 10 weeks before our car would be in. About a month after that, we received another voice mail stating that it would now be a total of 13 weeks before we would see our car. In the last week of March (13 weeks after placing the order), we left multiple voice mail messages at the dealership, requesting a status update. We received no return phone calls for over a week. When we were finally able to reach a live person at the dealership (someone in the Finance office, not our sales person), we were told that it now looked like our car would not go into production until late-April and we probably wouldn't see it until late-May or June. At this point, we stated that this was simply unacceptable and we wanted to cancel the order and get a refund of our deposit. Initially, we were told that we couldn't do that. Then they insisted that we bring in the credit card so they could swipe it to issue the credit. Since we live more than 2 hours away, we pushed back and they finally agreed to manually enter the credit....but they stalled doing it for another 24 hours. Finally, more than 14 weeks after we placed an order for what should have been a 4 week process, we were extricated from the deal.
A couple of lessons learned and information to share:
1. This dealer intentionally withheld information about our order status from the very first day. Although they consistently blamed the delay on the factory, I have since learned that the dealer was responsible for the excessive delay. They should have just been up front with us....told us the truth...and given us our alternatives (find another car, etc). Instead, we were - literally - strung along for more than 3 months.
2. Corporate GMC was very responsive on their customer service line. However, they have limited ability to intervene in sales issues. Most of their interventions have to do with service or warranty issues.
3. There is absolutely no excuse for failing to return a customer's phone calls - none. To this day, we haven't even received a 'we're sorry' from the dealership. It was as if they could care less that we were informed or that our questions were answered.
4. Credit cards are a good way to do deposits. The credit card company (VISA in this case) was very willing and prepared to help us get our money back. In fact, the whole thing was going to be sent to their fraud department (promising a sale, taking money, and not delivering the promised product). However, in general there is a 90 day limit to protest a charge or to seek their assistance on a charged item. We figured this out on day 87....and almost missed the deadline! Your credit card company can be a big help, but you need to get to them in time.
Just in case someone at Coachella Valley Pontiac Buick GMC reads this review, this is all about customer service, customer communications, and ethical sales practices. All of this could have been alleviated with good, effective, complete communication of accurate information from you to your customers (us).
I hope our experience is helpful for others.
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