Bad Lexus Dealer experience!
08-10-06, 05:29 PM
#1
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Bad Lexus Dealer experience!
The Dealer is THOMPSON LEXUS of DOYLESTOWN PA.
I strongly urge anyone considering a lexus to stay away from this dealer or watch your deal VERY carefully.
After ordering a UL Es350 back at the end of June I left a $1,000 deposit with the dealer, negotiations continued on the price until finally we agreed on 31,000 out the door ( tax tags , etc ) including my trade. but NOT including my deposit. I was very clear about this with the salesman who actually left the dealership while i was waiting for my car to arrive.
When the car came in another salesperson called me to let me know the car had arrived, and at that time i tried to confirm the price at which time they tried to tell me they might not be able to give me the agreed upon price for my trade, a price which they guaranteed they would honor at the time of the trade ( they told me they would honor the price for 60 days ) since they knew it would take a while to get the car.
After some heated phone calls they called me back to say they would honor the price and i could pick up the car last night.
I called the salesman back to reverify that the deposit was not applied to the price i had negotiated with the previous salesman. She assured me it was not.
So I went last night to get the car and when they showed me the paperwork to sign, my deposit had been magically applied and leaving a balance of $31,000.
I hit the roof with the salesperson to the point she went to get the sales manager who proceeded to give me every excuse he could think of ( my car was worth less, he was taking a loss on the deal, what a joke that 1 was ) and that the deposit had ALWAYS been part of the deal.
Then he finally offered to drop the price $500.00 as if he was doing me a favor. I thought about it then decided i had had enough and walked away from the deal angry as hell.
Needless to say i wont deal with this dealer ever again and i recommend no one else does either.
They have soured me on Lexus to the point i wont buy one now.
I know thats extreme but it just isnt worth it to me.
Best of luck everyone and i hope you never have an experience like this one.
It's back to Acura for me. A dealer and service i can trust.
I strongly urge anyone considering a lexus to stay away from this dealer or watch your deal VERY carefully.
After ordering a UL Es350 back at the end of June I left a $1,000 deposit with the dealer, negotiations continued on the price until finally we agreed on 31,000 out the door ( tax tags , etc ) including my trade. but NOT including my deposit. I was very clear about this with the salesman who actually left the dealership while i was waiting for my car to arrive.
When the car came in another salesperson called me to let me know the car had arrived, and at that time i tried to confirm the price at which time they tried to tell me they might not be able to give me the agreed upon price for my trade, a price which they guaranteed they would honor at the time of the trade ( they told me they would honor the price for 60 days ) since they knew it would take a while to get the car.
After some heated phone calls they called me back to say they would honor the price and i could pick up the car last night.
I called the salesman back to reverify that the deposit was not applied to the price i had negotiated with the previous salesman. She assured me it was not.
So I went last night to get the car and when they showed me the paperwork to sign, my deposit had been magically applied and leaving a balance of $31,000.
I hit the roof with the salesperson to the point she went to get the sales manager who proceeded to give me every excuse he could think of ( my car was worth less, he was taking a loss on the deal, what a joke that 1 was ) and that the deposit had ALWAYS been part of the deal.
Then he finally offered to drop the price $500.00 as if he was doing me a favor. I thought about it then decided i had had enough and walked away from the deal angry as hell.
Needless to say i wont deal with this dealer ever again and i recommend no one else does either.
They have soured me on Lexus to the point i wont buy one now.
I know thats extreme but it just isnt worth it to me.
Best of luck everyone and i hope you never have an experience like this one.
It's back to Acura for me. A dealer and service i can trust.
08-10-06, 05:52 PM
#2
Lexus Champion
Originally Posted by Thaishark
The Dealer is THOMPSON LEXUS of DOYLESTOWN PA.
I strongly urge anyone considering a lexus to stay away from this dealer or watch your deal VERY carefully.
After ordering a UL Es350 back at the end of June I left a $1,000 deposit with the dealer, negotiations continued on the price until finally we agreed on 31,000 out the door ( tax tags , etc ) including my trade. but NOT including my deposit. I was very clear about this with the salesman who actually left the dealership while i was waiting for my car to arrive.
When the car came in another salesperson called me to let me know the car had arrived, and at that time i tried to confirm the price at which time they tried to tell me they might not be able to give me the agreed upon price for my trade, a price which they guaranteed they would honor at the time of the trade ( they told me they would honor the price for 60 days ) since they knew it would take a while to get the car.
After some heated phone calls they called me back to say they would honor the price and i could pick up the car last night.
I called the salesman back to reverify that the deposit was not applied to the price i had negotiated with the previous salesman. She assured me it was not.
So I went last night to get the car and when they showed me the paperwork to sign, my deposit had been magically applied and leaving a balance of $31,000.
I hit the roof with the salesperson to the point she went to get the sales manager who proceeded to give me every excuse he could think of ( my car was worth less, he was taking a loss on the deal, what a joke that 1 was ) and that the deposit had ALWAYS been part of the deal.
Then he finally offered to drop the price $500.00 as if he was doing me a favor. I thought about it then decided i had had enough and walked away from the deal angry as hell.
Needless to say i wont deal with this dealer ever again and i recommend no one else does either.
They have soured me on Lexus to the point i wont buy one now.
I know thats extreme but it just isnt worth it to me.
Best of luck everyone and i hope you never have an experience like this one.
It's back to Acura for me. A dealer and service i can trust.
I strongly urge anyone considering a lexus to stay away from this dealer or watch your deal VERY carefully.
After ordering a UL Es350 back at the end of June I left a $1,000 deposit with the dealer, negotiations continued on the price until finally we agreed on 31,000 out the door ( tax tags , etc ) including my trade. but NOT including my deposit. I was very clear about this with the salesman who actually left the dealership while i was waiting for my car to arrive.
When the car came in another salesperson called me to let me know the car had arrived, and at that time i tried to confirm the price at which time they tried to tell me they might not be able to give me the agreed upon price for my trade, a price which they guaranteed they would honor at the time of the trade ( they told me they would honor the price for 60 days ) since they knew it would take a while to get the car.
After some heated phone calls they called me back to say they would honor the price and i could pick up the car last night.
I called the salesman back to reverify that the deposit was not applied to the price i had negotiated with the previous salesman. She assured me it was not.
So I went last night to get the car and when they showed me the paperwork to sign, my deposit had been magically applied and leaving a balance of $31,000.
I hit the roof with the salesperson to the point she went to get the sales manager who proceeded to give me every excuse he could think of ( my car was worth less, he was taking a loss on the deal, what a joke that 1 was ) and that the deposit had ALWAYS been part of the deal.
Then he finally offered to drop the price $500.00 as if he was doing me a favor. I thought about it then decided i had had enough and walked away from the deal angry as hell.
Needless to say i wont deal with this dealer ever again and i recommend no one else does either.
They have soured me on Lexus to the point i wont buy one now.
I know thats extreme but it just isnt worth it to me.
Best of luck everyone and i hope you never have an experience like this one.
It's back to Acura for me. A dealer and service i can trust.
08-10-06, 06:01 PM
#3
Thaishark - I feel your pain. I'd urge you though to consider going to another Lexus dealer and 'trying" them before you run to Acura. Doing the deal to buy the car is probably the worst experience there is with Lexus, and many times that can be fairly painless. You hit a bad dealer. It happens. I wouldn't shop with them either after what you've written. But I can tell you that the Lexus dealers near me are really wonderful places. I almost feel at home there. I can play with, sit in, touch and test drive almost anything without any pressure to buy. And no Acura is going to equal the ES350.
If you can find a dealer that makes you feel really comfortable just visiting them without even buying anything, then you've probably found a great dealer to buy with!
If you can find a dealer that makes you feel really comfortable just visiting them without even buying anything, then you've probably found a great dealer to buy with!
08-10-06, 06:03 PM
#4
I also had a bad experience at my local dealership and ending up buying through another dealership 25 miles away. One that didn't jack me around with high payments and BS. One that was straight forward with me and did not insult my intelligence and..... the one who delivered my car as promised.
It is an awesome car! Don't let the actions of one dealership/salesman take that away from you.
It is an awesome car! Don't let the actions of one dealership/salesman take that away from you.
Last edited by CaBlonde; 08-10-06 at 06:22 PM.
08-10-06, 06:28 PM
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Few days ago i started a thread about my experience at a dealership. I had called the service department to see if i brought my own oil and filter, if and how much they would charge me. The jerk tell me "do you bring your own chicken to the restaurant" It was a good thing that i didnt buy the car from them and neither am i buying any other lexus from them.
08-10-06, 06:44 PM
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When you put your $1000 down and negotiated the deal, didn't you do a preliminary contract. The way it worked for me was we settled on the price, they put it on paper and then it showed my $500 deposit being creditted and subtracted on the bottom. Once you settled on a price did you get anything in writing?
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08-10-06, 11:06 PM
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Usually I don't recommend putting any deposits on a new car purchase unless you can really trust the salesman and the dealer. I was pretty lucky that I could get hold of an SGM ES350 with the options and color combination that I wanted without putting in any deposit to 'hold' the car. A lot of dealerships will try and get you to put a deposit with them as they would be able to hold on to you and play pricing games with an uninformed customer.
08-11-06, 04:22 AM
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If I can be honest here for a moment there are a couple of things that jump out at me.
First, all your calling back to the dealership to "reconfirm" your price tells me that you knew damn well there was something hinky about the whole deal from the jump.
Second, you probably couldn't have made too many more basic errors in your attempt to purchase this car. You gave them $1000 in cash or a check and walked out without a receipt signed by the salesperson/sales manager???!!! Had it been a credit card charge that would have been easy. Just contest it and you're home free. Remember, with a credit card company, YOU'RE the customer and they want to make you happy....not the merchant.
When I bought my car I negotiated a lease price and a trade in price for my current vehicle. I left them a $500 deposit and this was all clearly stipulated in a receipt I was given that was signed by both the salesperson and the sales manager. Pickup couldn't have been easier. I paid $300 more (on my credit card) when I walked in and drove out with the car less than 45 minutes later after the salesman walked me through the car's basic functions and set up the bluetooth with my phone.
Your experience had nothing to do with Lexus. You did an exceedingly poor job of purchasing and this same scenario could (and likely would) have played out at any other dealership.
First, all your calling back to the dealership to "reconfirm" your price tells me that you knew damn well there was something hinky about the whole deal from the jump.
Second, you probably couldn't have made too many more basic errors in your attempt to purchase this car. You gave them $1000 in cash or a check and walked out without a receipt signed by the salesperson/sales manager???!!! Had it been a credit card charge that would have been easy. Just contest it and you're home free. Remember, with a credit card company, YOU'RE the customer and they want to make you happy....not the merchant.
When I bought my car I negotiated a lease price and a trade in price for my current vehicle. I left them a $500 deposit and this was all clearly stipulated in a receipt I was given that was signed by both the salesperson and the sales manager. Pickup couldn't have been easier. I paid $300 more (on my credit card) when I walked in and drove out with the car less than 45 minutes later after the salesman walked me through the car's basic functions and set up the bluetooth with my phone.
Your experience had nothing to do with Lexus. You did an exceedingly poor job of purchasing and this same scenario could (and likely would) have played out at any other dealership.
Last edited by PsychDoc; 08-11-06 at 07:30 AM.
08-11-06, 06:10 AM
#11
I must have missed something. You got a quote for a UL Package for $31,000 including tax and license?
Oops, I see my error now. That included your trade.
Oops, I see my error now. That included your trade.
Last edited by Ingram4868; 08-11-06 at 06:13 AM.
08-11-06, 06:37 AM
#12
Lexus Test Driver
My Lexus dealership started paperwork on preliminary contract even before price negotiation. There, every little detail of car options and price was spelled out, everything up and including fees and taxes and my deposit. When I was happy with it, I initialed it. Even with a receipt of deposit, I think I still had a power to cancel it if I'm not happy upon receiving the car. That $1k deposit was way too much, every Lexus dealer I heard of takes $500.
08-11-06, 08:16 AM
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My dealer(Charles Barker Lexus in VA Beach) also has a $1K deposit, but they made it very clear that it was fully refundable for any reason. I also used a CC for a back-up but it was never an issue. Best car purchasing experience to date. Jeff Dunlap was our sales assoc. Great guy and now a new golf partner.
Dave
Dave
08-11-06, 08:37 AM
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Originally Posted by dagatone
My dealer(Charles Barker Lexus in VA Beach) also has a $1K deposit, but they made it very clear that it was fully refundable for any reason. I also used a CC for a back-up but it was never an issue. Best car purchasing experience to date. Jeff Dunlap was our sales assoc. Great guy and now a new golf partner.
Dave
Dave
08-11-06, 08:40 AM
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I always negotiate first, then make deposit - not the other way around. My basic intuition tells me that I'd lose my negotiaton power after making the deposit.
Tell your dealership that you will file a case with the Small Claims Court if they are unable to settle this with you. Make sure you have some sort of proof of deposit to show at the time of filing the case.
Tell your dealership that you will file a case with the Small Claims Court if they are unable to settle this with you. Make sure you have some sort of proof of deposit to show at the time of filing the case.
Last edited by Redefined; 08-11-06 at 08:43 AM.