I think the experience of trying to buy a car from this company ranks among the worst I have had in my life. I walked in to the dealership yesterday prepared to lease yet another VW. I sat down with a sales consultant ( I will leave the names out of this), She ran me through the models and I had already decided on the model and trim line I wanted before even setting foot in the door. After 3 or 4 trips to her sales manager, she finally came out of his office with him in tow. I had given them my price range that I wanted to be in for the lease, and they obviously said it was too low, and so starts the typical negotiation process. After close to an hour, we were no further ahead, so I opted to leave. That afternoon I emailed the sales consultant with exactly what I wanted for a car, and to give me the best lease rate possible. The response was shocking.
"Unfortunately your ideal payment per month on the XXXXX is unrealistic.
I wish you best the of luck in your car shopping."
Unfortunately, she didn't understand that a low ball offer is the start of the negotiation, and there is usually some common ground that you reach, and then, the ink hits the page.
So, I visited another VW dealership in hopes they were more open to negotiation. They were. The only hitch was that the car I wanted was at Steele. At first, Steele agreed to sell the car to the other dealership and it was a done deal, we shook on it. 2 hours later, Steele wanted me to say in writing that I was not going to buy from them. From that, they changed their mind and decided not to sell the car to the other dealership, but rather hold it hostage. And so ended my love affair with all things VW, this dealership has cost VW Canada a customer, and more so, I have decided to make it my personal crusade to share my experience with anyone and everyone both in person and on social media.
The sheer arrogance of the staff to agree to sell the car then withdraw their offer astounds me. The sad part of the whole ordeal is that VW is an excellent manufacturer, but for the actions of the Steele employees, I will never cross the threshold of any of their dealerships again. If you are considering a VW, please do yourself a favor, go somewhere else.
Update - After filing a complaint with VW Canada, the general manager called personally to hear my side of the issue and agreed to make it right. My hats off to the general manager for pulling on his big boy pants and fixing this, but shame on the sales consultant and sales manager to let this happen. read more