My wife and I tried to purchase a vehicle from Lee Hosier at Janzen GMC. I saw a vehicle on their lot and called about it around 1pm in the afternoon and made arrangements with Lee to come by after work and check it out. We went by about 5:15 and took a look and took it for a test drive. By the time they made me a trade offer it was after 6pm and my wife had already left to take home some groceries that she had in her car, so I told Lee I didn't want to keep him after hours and instructed him to call me first thing in the morning to finalize the deal. Their trade offer was slightly lower than I was hoping for, so I told him I would like to have a little more for the trade before I left, but I would take the trade offer home to my wife and felt confident we would make the deal the next morning. I even asked Lee if he had my phone number because I hadn't given it to him over the phone when I initially called about the vehicle! He assured me he had my number from his caller ID and that he would call me first thing the next morning. I never received a phone call the next morning and finally called Lee about 2pm the following day to see if we could finalize the deal only to find out they sold the vehicle that morning at approximately 9:30am to another person.
I was excited to do business locally and really liked Lee initially at the dealership when I met him, but this experience has totally soured me from Janzen GMC. A little common courtesy would have been appreciated. Extremely frustrated, I called the sales manager was told that I didn't have a hold on the vehicle because I had not started a financing application on it (after hours), accepted their initial trade offer (after hours without my wife present to discuss), or paid a deposit (which was never asked of me). Contrary to Lee's story, the sales manager told me that they had actually sold the vehicle the night before after I left the dealership, which is strange, because I left after 6pm and they were already closing up. Had I known I needed to place a deposit to hold it overnight into the following business day to continue the transaction and not keep their staff there after hours, I certainly would have done so! I felt like I was being courteous to them by not asking them to stay late and go through the ropes of financing late in the evening, but they couldn't give me that common courtesy back by giving me the promised phone call and giving me the opportunity to buy the vehicle from them.
I understand it's first come first serve, but I felt like we had a verbal agreement and understanding to continue our business the following morning as to not keep them after hours. Janzen's word means nothing and this shows me that their greed is most important to them, which I did not expect from a small town local dealership. Shop elsewhere, their word means nothing. read more