I was asked 4 times to leave a review about my experience so feel free to read this or don't, honestly I'm just happy we're done with Antwerpen. I'll describe my experience below:
I would not recommend Antwerpen Volkswagen to anyone looking for an easy experience in purchasing a vehicle. This is not meant to be a rant by any means, the car is honestly fine, just a warning that if you come here you will have a tough time.
I flew into town to help my mother-in-law buy a pre-owned 2024 Tiguan for herself. We already pretty much knew which car we were looking for and were prepared to pay in cash and be in and out...... but it was far from that easy. The salesperson had no answers to a single one of my (relatively easy) questions about the vehicle: Front Wheel Drive? Not sure. Wireless CarPlay? Not sure. When does the warranty expire? Not sure. Why does she get commission on selling me the car I knew more about than she did? Not sure.
**She was sure to try to sell my mother-in-law a warranty on top of the current warranty (that has 3 years left!) conveniently when I walked away to take a phone call. Coincidence? Up to you.
The car didn't have any floor mats at all, so I asked if we're paying the asking price, could they please throw in rubber mats (not exactly asking for the world, here) and it was a fight the whole way. I was told "we don't do that here" and I had to explain to a different sales person how it would really be a sign of good faith here to just throw us a bone for what we've been dealing with and they agreed which was a pleasant surprise.
She informed me after we paid that the car only had one key (that's on me for not asking, so make sure you ask first!). I (stupidly) asked how to get another key for my mother-in-law, and she told me to "just give parts a call next week and they'll order it for her". Easy right? Wrong. I called on Monday and was told the sales person was mistaken and my mother in law would need to drive here in person, show the title, get the key ordered, go home, come back, have it programmed, and then she'd be all set. Obviously I had flown home already and didn't want to put her through all that, so I spoke to a sales manager (Sam maybe?) and explained the whole situation. He was understanding and said he's sorry she didn't know the process and he could get the key ordered as a special 1-time scenario but we'd still have to come in to get it programmed. I told him I appreciate it and I'd be back in a few weeks for thanksgiving so that would be good timing to get it done.
I called the Monday of Thanksgiving week to ensure the key was ready and they informed me they ordered the wrong key so it wasn't there.
They got the correct key ordered and informed me that I could go and get it programmed for her if she sends an email to the service person with her license approving me to go get it. I showed up to the dealer when the correct key arrived and of course they said they weren't sure what I was talking about, and that I would have to verify that the email was sent to the service person who wasn't there before they could do anything. Nobody left a note or said anything about the fact that I would be picking up the key and getting it programmed for her.
Like I said, everything is decently ok now since we have the backup key which was ($400 with install) but no part of this was easy. Had the sales person known more and they just helped us order the key while we were sitting here for 5 hours and thrown in floor mats without a whole argument, this would have been a customer service success and we'd service the car at Antwerpen moving forward. I just don't want other people to be taken advantage of.
Ideas that could help you in the future from one business operator to another:
1. Educate your sales people on the kinds of cars you sell and they features they have. I'm no expert, but I'm guessing it will help you sell more cars! Between us, I would have been easily upsold to another model by a competent sales person if someone showed me the benefits of the Atlas.
2. If someone comes in and pays full price and asks for a $120 basic item to be thrown in (mats), make a deal! You're car sales people- trust me, the $120 loss is worth keeping future service business.
3. If you're selling a car that only has one key, either throw in a second key or (if you're too cheap for that), inform the buyer early so they can get that process started instead of spending an entire day at the dealer and have to fly back into town and jump through hoops to pick it up.
I wasn't asking for the world here, just some simple communication and human decency. read more