My experience this past weekend with Showcase Honda was easily the worst experience I have ever had…read morewith a car dealership (already such a low bar), and probably the worst I have ever had with any sales organization of any kind.
I'm willing to bet that I speak for most Americans when I say I HATE shopping for a car. I would rather eat gas station sushi. I would rather walk across a football field of legos barefoot. BUT, I had to buy a car for my family this weekend. I already knew basically what kind of car I wanted, what features I needed, what my budget was. I looked around online and found a car I was really happy with at Showcase Honda.
I didn't want to spend half a day in the dealership. My Grandson is only a week old and I wanted to go over to their house and spend the day with them. But I need the car taken care of this weekend so our family can function heading into the week. So I call the dealership, let them know I just want to buy it, I'll to it online, send over the contract, I'll wire the money, I don't want to haggle on the price, I don't want to come see it, I don't want to take it for a test drive, but I do want to buy it asap and I am super serious. I'll pay extra for it to be delivered to my house, I don't want to spend any additional time on this project than I have already spent. I'm literally holding the money in my hands.
I'm texting with someone from the online sales team and I schedule a call for 10 AM the next morning, as it was getting later in the day on Friday night. Saturday morning i'm waiting by my phone at 9:45 to wrap this deal up and no one calls. Thats okay, they just opened, I'm sure they need to get a coffee....10:15 and still no one, 10:30 and still no one. So finally I call them and get on the phone with one of the sales managers. I'm sorry, I didn't take down his name, I wish I did. I think it was Steve. It doesn't matter. He tells me he would love to help me finalize the deal on that specific car, he will draw up the paperwork and they will put it through the car wash and have it ready for us as soon as we get there! I quickly explained (Again, and feeling strange because surely a large successful dealership like this uses a CRM with notes about their leads?!) I re explained to him that I don't want to come in, I want to do it all online, I'll pay full price, I don't want to haggle, send the paperwork and the wire instructions and I'm ready to close right now.
He said okay, he would get the paperwork ready and get back to me soon. An hour later I hadn't heard anything, but a different sales person texts me, asks for my ID and the correct spelling of our names, which again, I thought was strange as we had done the online loan application to see if we could get a better deal financing the car vs paying cash. So they had all of our information already, but I gave it to him again. He said he was working on the contract but it never came. About an hour later I text again and say I'm excited to wrap this deal up, whats the issue, what do they need from me next? No response. 30 minutes after that I called and he said "Oh yeah, the sales manager is going to call you right now, he is just finishing up another call and he is going to call you to finish this up."
An hour later, still no call. I try calling and texting again. Nothing. Finally, around 4 PM, after I have wasted my entire day, I get a different sales manager who calls me. After I have spent my entire day away from my Grandson trying to beg this dealership to take my money. This sales manager let me know that they actually sold the car last night and its not available. I asked him why have I been getting the run around all day, and he tells me that it isn't his fault because he was not the sales manager on duty at that time.
I'm sure they are going to counter with this, so I'm just going to come out and say it. Yes, I raised my voice at this point. I was angry that this dealership seemingly intentionally had wasted the most previous asset I have. The one single thing I was desperate to protect: Time. And they stole it from me and I lost my temper.
I don't care whose fault it is. What I care about is that I wasted 6 hours of my day when they could have chosen honestly and transparency, and it is the perfect picture of what I (and I think other Americans) HATE the most about buying a car.