CheckSando

Let me start off by saying, before I do what I do now...I sold cars for a few years. I loved it. The people who trained me always showed me the correct way of working with customers. Always making the customer feel welcome, confident, assured, liked and all that great stuff. Buying a car is a huge step. I was trained to make it as painless as possible. I really miss making people that happy.

Now....I decided to buy my new HHR, and make it REALLY EASY on the dealership. I knew what I wanted, and I knew what I should be paying.

In fact other than a small part of this story...money has nothing to do with why I did what I did.


The day I told myself I wanted an HHR I called the dealership closest to my house and asked to speak with a salesman....after a 10 min hold (while I am at work) some guy picks up and says.... "Hello?" What, no intro??

I told him I would like to come by this evening after work to look at an HHR. He said...." well....im not gunna be here...but someone will, they can help you, we close at 9"

Ok....no sale for him.

After work I head to the dealer....It was about 8pm and I called to verify directions.
"Hello, ____ Chevy"
...yeah I was calling to get directions to your store.
" sales or service?"...
... uh Sales...
" yeah were gettin ready to close in a min, where are you?"
CLOSE AT 8:15??? im thinking.....they sure dont want to sell cars there do they?
I said never mind...you just lost an easy sale...bye. Then I hung up.
Im not interested in someone who doesn't want to sell a car and is worried about getting home and watching LOST.

The next day I just decide to show up:
I walk in at about 7pm, just in case they wanted to close up early again.

I walk all the way from the parking area...straight to the middle of the showroom floor, and stand there for a couple min. (Never would have made it in the door without a hello at a good dealership)

Finally I make eye contact with some guy with headphones on. He walks up to me and says:
"are you looking for someone?"
yes...Im interested in driving the black HHR you have out front.
"what one?!?"
the one parked right out front.
"i dont know what one you are talking about walk out and show me"
(a good salesman would have sat me down, got me a drink and walked out to get a vin and a key for me)
So I point one out and he says:
"you wanna drive it or something?"
-Im thinking to myself.....tell me how much..Ill get a check cut tomorrow.

Anyway..his lackadaisical attitude continued all evening, I drove the car and left.

I called the next day to have the finance manager tell me what to get the check amount cut for.

She was a *****..like she couldnt take time to fax over my buyers order to make my sale a little easier on her. Every little thing I asked for she copped a big attitude. I can understand her being bummed that I was getting financing through my Credit Union, but she treated me like garbage the rest of the sales process.

I almost took my business elsewhere, until they showed me what they were giving me for my trade.

Turns out it was too much.

I didnt know that until I showed up that night with the check.

They tried to back out of the deal..( keep in mind, every time I talked with them, they treated me like utter garbage.) I infact stayed very quiet almost the entire deal. So they have no reason to be treating me this way. Thats when I decided to tell them how I felt about how they had been treating me.

I told the salesman I wanted to talk with the GSM or the GM about this garbage.

I went in and the GM wouldnt even introduce himself.

"is there something you wanted?"
yeah, Im a little upset about how your dealership has been acting the last couple of days, and now they want to back out of the deal. I didnt do anything wrong.
"you expect me to lose money on this deal?!?!"
You know, If thats what It takes to make someone happy, I would imagine..YES!
"Just take your new car and go"
I actually called him an ******* and left his office, there was another couple out side waiting in the finance office...I was sure they heard the whole thing.

THERE IS A LOT MORE TO THIS STORY, I JUST GOT TIRED OF TYPING.

I was trying to think of everything I could to get them back for how they treated me and my girlfriend.

THEN, I got a survey in the mail.....and I KNOW how important these are for dealerships. One bad mark can really mess them up.

I smacked them on this survey....ALL horrible marks, except for the I love Chevy parts.

In the comments section I wrote this...and I know the dealership gets the comments sections emailed to them. ( we would read them in sales meetings)

I wrote the following exactly:

I will never return to this Horrible Dealership again, not even for service! The salesman didnt care, the finance lady was a *****, and the GM was an *******!! ****tiest service I have ever seen!! I sold cars for years, I was horrified at their customer service I HATE YOU ______ CHEVROLET!!! If you didnt mess up the money to give me more for my trade, I would have went somewhere else. DICK HEADS!

I hope they read that aloud at the next meeting

x-ray1950

I am really glad my sales experience wasn't like yours, sales staff took me out for lunch after the test drive!!

06 Black lt2 loaded with everything!!

MikeX

Well, I am with you bro on that, what a joke. That is why I ALWAYS do emails to the fleet or internet guy first before EVER walking into a dealership. I hate talking to people like that, and while you do have good salespeople out there, you can't predict beforehand if you will get one. At least you got the HHR, that's a plus and you're here, so welcome!

scaleguy

Wow, your experience did seriously suck, too bad because the dealership where I bought mine did all of the right stuff and I left feeling like a valued customer, with a new HHR!!!

Firewatcher

No offense, but after the first 5 minutes I would have walked and that would have been the end of it. I did that at a dealership a few years ago. Same general beginning. Nobody cared. A salesman finally asked me what I wanted. He was snotty. I turned and headed for the door. Salesman asked "where are you going?" I said "to find some customer service". I went to a dealership that was a bit more inconvenient to get to and have never looked back, The BEST relationship I have ever had with a car dealership.

CheckSando

Yep,

If it wasnt for the deal they gave me. They seriously messed up on the trade. I would have walked.

I would like to call up there every now and again, just to call the GM a dick.

Now THATS service with a smile!

dbarberaz

Sorry to hear about how you got trated. WE had no problems at all. Found the call online, emailed the internet dept got the price went the next morning on a Sunday, looked at the car and got the deal done. We have even had follow up calls from everyone we delt with to see how we liked the car.
When it is time to trade in the wifes van I will go to the same dip.ealersh

SIHHR

I had a really bad experience when I bought my car. They had no clue that they sold me a 2LT. I had to call chevy to verfiy my model. I still never even got the actally sticker of my car. Plus I found out I was owed a spoiler, yet they tried to see me one. They forgot to tell me that the spolier was part of the package. I also do not bring in my car in for service where I bought it at. Plus I gave them a bad review.

cowboybornlate

That is just terrible... I don't think that GM will be there long. My uncle was the service manager for the last 15 years at dealership where I've bought my 6 previous vehicles, not to mention the fact that my Father bought four trucks for his business in the last 5 years there. They have a new GM, straight out of college and doesn't have a clue. My uncle retired right before I bought my HHR. I went there to buy mine as I've always dealt with the same sales person the last ten years and he had always done me right. Well, I went in to look around, found one I was willing to settle on, it had a few more options that I was looking for, but then they wouldn't budge on the price. Matter of fact, my sales guy said it would be the sticker price PLUS $200 for the window tint (what a rip, $200 for the front two windows???) I told them that would not work. They did not have anything else on the lot in the price range I was looking for 17K-18K. I asked if they could work a dealer trade and they refused to do that. So I left, went home and got on the Vehicle Locator on the Chevy website, found what I was looking for at another dealership, called out of the blue on a salesman there and come to find out they had sold the one I found online. However, the salesman told me that he would find me one. He called me the next morning and said he found one, a 1LT, 2.2 plain jane. He would have to do a dealer trade for it and it was just a hair over the 17K I wanted to spend. I told him to get it and I was driving it away 24 hours later the next morning. They had to transport it 150 miles from the other dealership. So, I could live with the 150 miles on my odometer when I picked it up. They also financed me with GMAC at 3.9% which I thought was awesome as I had a dent and knick on my credit. This dealership is WAY out of my way but they have a sister dealership that is a bit closer, so I use it for service. Each time I have taken it by, twice and received a follow up call from my service tech both times to make sure I was satisfied with my service. I called my old sales guy and told him what I'd found and what kind of service I'd gotten. He explained that the new GM had tied their hands on dealer trades and price reductions. I kinda felt bad for him, but I did recommend that he might wanna think about changing to a dealership that would allow him to sell vehicles the way he had the past 10 years I had dealt with him. I don't know if he will change or not, but I can tell you, I will never buy another vehicle from them. I found a new dealership that believes in customer service! I'm sold on them until they do me wrong....

CBL

adamlowery

I've only bought 2 cars besides me hhr. Both used ( I was poor) and it was here in the city. Got good deals. Service was decentm but nothing that stood out. I was ready to buy my hhr in august of 05 when they were still hard to get. I called at first and talked to a guy and set up an appointment to come in, they were decent on the phone. I get there, test drive it. I said i wanted an orange one and they said they could get one for me. I test drove a 1lt with everything i wanted besides the color. msrp was 19,100 even though it didnt say that on the car i knew what it was. We get ready to do the paperwork and they throw the figure down in front of me. 24,850.....I just kinda looked at it...Is this including a million mile warranty or something. He says no its just including the 36,000 mile warranty. then i told him my father works at gm and i get the gm employee discount and he said "Too bad, we wont honor it" I said thanks for your time and started walking out. The sales manager caught me and asked me what the problem was. I told him about the price and he said...oh well we have to sell it for that much every dealership is. And i said trust me I'll find one that isnt. And I made sure to tell him, that both of my parents and my brother were about to buy new cars and they just lost out on about 100,000 worth of sale. I finally found a dealership i love. I went there, test drove the car, it was a 2lt and i told them what i wanted. they let me keep their 2lt hhr overnight to make sure i liked it. The next day I came to bring it back, they had my found my exact car about 150 miles away. msrp was 19.,300 i think and they gave me a price of 17,100. They didnt even charge me for them to send a guy to go get my car and ontop of that gave me $150 dollars cash bc they didnt tow it instead. I ended up getting 2.9% and I'm only 21 i dont have very much credit, but what i do have is good. Ontop of all of this each time i refer someone to my salesguy he gives me $250 if he makes the sale...I've made 5 so far lol. Thats a nice chunk of cash. Oh yeah my mother ended up buying a cobalt ss, my dad bought a 4x4 truck or something like that (i dont really care about trucks) and my brother bought the same thing he did but with some extra packages and a dealer installed lift kit. I'm glad i found a good dealership