Instead of typing out my review, let me just share the note that I sent to General Motors about my…read morerecent visit to Williams Chevrolet (10/8/21)
Last Friday my wife and I visited the dealership and looked at a 2013 Equinox. We liked the vehicle, but weren't in full agreement about the price they wanted to give us on our trade of the 2018 Trax LT we own. So in the past five days since last Friday, James Robinson (the salesman) and I have been going back and forth via email trying to meet somewhere neutral on the trade value of our Trax. The price they were offering is significantly lower than the Kelly Blue Book value we found on the KBB website.
When we described the Trax on the KBB site in "good" condition, the trade value range was $13,945 - $15,630. When we described the Trax in "very good" condition, the trade value range was $14,420 - $16,132. We showed these numbers to the salesman, but the best they were willing to give us was $13,500. Our Trax is in PERFECT condition, inside and out. No crashes, no accidents, nothing. The interior is immaculate. The only thing they found negative about it was the front tires needed to be replaced. And James said it was going to cost FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS to recondition it for showing on the lot. But I still couldn't understand why they were trying to low-ball us on the trade value so badly.
But today, we decided we liked the 2013 Equinox at Williams Used Cars so much, we were going to accept their low offer on our Trax of $13,500. Because my wife REALLY liked it after the test drive. And I have the offer saved in my email, which serves as a binding contract of what Williams was willing to offer. This morning James emailed me and wanted to know if I would accept their offer for our Trax of $13,500 since his manager refused to give us anything near the book value.
At exactly 3:43pm today (Wednesday), James Robinson and I spoke on the phone and I told him we would accept his offer, and buy the Equinox tonight. I told him I would be there around 5:30pm. Then at exactly 4:43 (one hour later) he called me and told me "no need to come in tonight, we just sold the Equinox to someone else."
At this point, my wife and I were furious and we went to the dealership to speak with the manager there. His name is Chris, and he told me he wasn't aware that we were coming down there at 5:30pm. So I guess the salesman didn't tell him a car was going to be sold within the hour. I asked him how a business can promise someone a sale, after five days of negotiating the price, and then a half hour before the sale, cancel it and take the car right from underneath us. He told me "I made a judgement call, and took the money." (his exact words) Meaning, even though they knew we were on our way there, they sold it to someone else.
I then said he needs to find us something comparable, at similar pricing and similar options. And he said "I can't find another vehicle like that" - I asked him to check the network online to find something there, and got the same response "There's nothing around with the options that car had at that price"
So here we are, getting absolutely lousy service from TWO different Chevrolet dealerships. Williams Chevrolet NEW car sales is one place we stopped at back in 2018 when we bought our Trax from Bob Bell. The woman we dealt with back then at Williams was snooty, and unwilling to help us with our questions. We showed her the online sale price that Bob Bell was offering on a 2018 Trax LT and she said there was no way they could sell one for that price. She tried to put us in a stripped down Trax LS for the same price Bob Bell was advertising a Trax LT. So we left Williams New Cars then and decided we'd never go back there again.
But most importantly, please do not believe the story that Chris (Williams used car manager) will tell you that there was some confusion whether we were going to buy a car today or not. That is how he tried to explain his way out of it tonight. THERE WAS NO CONFUSION on our end, based on what the salesman told me on the phone.
At 3:43 today, I told James Robinson we would be there TONIGHT to buy that 2013 Equinox. James Robinson told me over the phone "Okay, I will see you tonight" and then they sold it to somebody else. That is the bottom line. The price haggling over the trade had already concluded. I told James we would accept their LOW offer of $13,500 because my wife liked the car that much! I could tell he had already rehearsed his response to us, saying "ohh well you said you wanted to look at another car, and didn't like our trade offer" - That is BS. I told James Robinson we would be there at 5:30 to buy the Equinox, and he said OKAY.
I asked Chris before I left tonight, what sort of online reviews and feedback does he think they deserve, after how they treated a customer today-- And he replied "I can't control what kind of reviews you leave online"
Giving them ONE star is being too nice.