Most people would agree that "Fundamental honesty is the keystone of business"
Don't expect this in the least from "M Motorsport" of Long Beach, California 90804. Here's a snapshot of my experience:
- Test drove vehicle and made cash offer of 10K on a 12.5K sticker price.
- Countered to 11.5K, but a 1K difference in price was not enough to close the deal. Kindly thanked them for the opportunity, left, and was happy moving on.
- Received a follow-up call from "M Motorsport" the very-next-day with an invitation to buy the vehicle for $11,900 ($600 discount) -Best they can do per manager's approval; I said let's make it 12K even, to not take-away from the sale's person $100 commission.
- On the call, we agreed and confirmed the sale price of 12K, contingent on acquiring the vehicle's inspection report (since car is sold "as is").
- In my mind, this meant 12K + Tax + Title + License fee and minimal document preparation fee.
- Next, along with the inspection report, I received the Purchase Order (PO) from "M Motorsport", which I carefully reviewed, and noticed an additional "Vehicle code" cost of $500.
- Followed-up immediately and stated that the inspection report and the PO all look good, with exception of the $500 Vehicle code cost that would need to be removed from the PO in-order-to move forward with the purchase. "M Motorsport" then agreed to work with their finance department to remove the additional charge.
- I followed up for 3 continuous-days to get status on getting a revised purchase order (w/o the $500 Vehicle Code charge), since "M Motorsport" took no timely initiative to update me on status, which was quite unexpected in my book, especially from a car dealership
Note: At this point, I directly asked them if the purchase was going to happen today, since I had grown tired of the their lack of follow-up or failure to communicate with me on status.
- Finally, "M Motorsport" assured me that they were still revising the purchase order and that I would hear from them as soon as possible.
- Here was their response after the 3-days of scrambling. "We sold the vehicle to someone else that agreed to pay full-price".
- Really! - The Vehicle was sold to someone else, mid-stream during the purchase order phase with another customer - such respectable conduct, outstanding and professional business practice, wouldn't you say?
- Why wasn't "M Motorsport" transparent and honest with me --a valued customer (so I thought)? They could have been honest-sincere with their intentions by stating up-font that they DO NOT negotiate prices at all and that the vehicle I was buying could only be sold at the firm sticker price of 12.5K, period; Any sensible person would have respected, appreciated, and understood this up-front, but they chose to string me along while looking to and actually selling this vehicle to someone else in the middle of the purchase order phase we had in motion
This by-far was the most irresponsible-flat-out reprehensible business practice I've ever experienced anywhere. What's right about this at any-level? How can anyone be OK with doing business with a dealership, where unethical business practices are perfectly acceptable to them.
*** Here's some honest advice - Don't buy into "M Motorsport's - Long Beach" lip service and their review responses where they state "How can we make your experience 5-stars"
Warren Buffet sums it up well - "Honesty is a very expensive gift, don't expect it from cheap people"... read more