After going 15 years without buying a new truck, I decided to do so and after hearing good things…read morefrom friend's of mine, I went to Michigan City Dodge. After a few days of back and forth, we were in a certain price range I liked for a new 2017 Dodge 1500 Sport limited edition. It's a very nice truck and they offered me a price on a Friday evening, I countered their offer and a while later I was called back and told that they were going to have a meeting Saturday morning and would let me know if the manager had accepted my counter offer. Saturday, mid morning I received a call from Salesman- Burke Foster (nice guy who did well up to this time) who told me I should have taken their offer the day before because it's now $1,000 more. I couldn't believe this tactic, became a bit upset and told Burke I was walking away and that the offer from the day before was fair and I would have taken it but was just seeing how low I could get them. He then became interested once again and after further back and forth between Burke and his sales manager, a final price was agreed upon over the telephone.
I told them I'd be in within an hour, sign the paperwork and take custody of the truck. Once I arrived, I gave Burke my down payment and he walked away, coming back to the desk a short time later. I waited about one hour after this before seeing the "guy" who finalizes the paperwork. He dragged me through the worst nonsense I have ever dealt with at a car dealership by continually pressuring me to buy extended warranties, even after I continued to tell him I wasn't interested, that the factory warranty was good with me. After about 45 minutes in his office and signing several regular forms typical when buying a new vehicle, he gave me the last form showing the final price of the truck...and guess what...it was $500 more than we agreed upon. I became upset, took a breath, wanted to use the restroom to chill a moment and think this through, so I stood up and went to walk out but couldn't get out of his glass office. He got out of his chair and said he had to open the door because it needed his hand/fingerprint signature in order to unlock the door. (really?) After using the restroom and coming back, Burke and the sale manager saw I was upset and asked me what was wrong. I explained everything and then they explained that the sales manager made a mistake when telling me the price on the phone and they refused to lower it to the price we agreed upon. I thought about having gone through all of this and decided I liked the truck enough to go ahead with the sale. When Burke began going over the options of the truck with me, he even said it was unusual that I was in that office for so long. He was well aware of my displeasure but asked me to write good reviews for them.
Again, I am extremely happy with my truck, beautiful copper pearl coat limited edition. A few days later Burke emailed me asking how the truck was, so I responded pretty much like this email I'm writing now. He called me the next day and asked what he could do to make my experience a happy one and I told him they could do a spray-in bed liner or side steps as negotiated prior to the sale. Well, I am happy to say that after all that and then talking to the main manager, they did the bed liner for me, which makes up for the extra $500 I gave them. I will never go through a sale like that ever again and I hope they change some of their practices, but I am happy with my truck.
I will continue to have the truck serviced there and see how that goes. Maybe they can prove to me that they are a 5-star rated business!