Hey guys.... going to be a longer post here. Looking for some advice
Had a deposit on a Focus RS and the sale turned sour. Ended up buying from somebody else and dealer refused to give measly $500 deposit back
Longer CLIFFS*
1. Place $500 deposit on Focus RS June 2016. Out of state for me by 6hr drive
2. Crappy communication and realization of numerous poor reviews gives me wet feet.
3. Tries to cancel preorder August 2016. Ask for deposit back, but said I dont expect it. Left GM a voicemail about it
4. Leaves multiple voicemails even at one point I had another RS forum member that wanted to take over my order
5. Zero calls, 0, zip, nada
6. Fast forward 5 months, Xmas eve I believe, they call me to tell me to pick up my RS
7. I say WTF, you never answered calls. They said we never got calls, come pick up your RS.
8. Given no time to private sell my ST, I told them I may need a month. They insure me our buyers agreement meant they couldn't sell my car to anybody else. They tell me it doesn't expire. Communication still incredibly poor
9. Dealer insures me they are unable to sell my RS to anybody else as the vehicle is under my name, but then lists my car for sale on their website after about 3-4 weeks.
10. Local trusted dealer comes to me and offers me an identical RS for a better price. No issues with out of state tax or temp plates/transportation. I ended up buying the RS locally
11. I ask first dealership to take "my car" off their website as its not for sale. I offer them an option to cancel our written agreement and refund me the money. They declined and insisted they will wait for me to sell my ST.
12. Fast forward one year, they have officially sold "my" vehicle to somebody else
I tried a charge-back with Discover and ended up losing the case. I haven't had the money for 18 months so its not like I miss it. Am I in the wrong here? I did sign a contract and was told the deposit was non-refundable. But they also signed a buyers agreement with me on that vehicle and told me they wouldn't be able to sell the vehicle.
Yes I bought from a different dealer. Maybe that makes me a prick? I just couldn't bring myself to trust this dealership for an out of state purchase at that point. At the time the RS was incredibly difficult to find allocations for, especially at reasonable MSRP. This dealership originally asked $5000 over, of which I talked them down to $500 over
I am debating about leaving some negative reviews on FB and Google about my experience. Is it derserved?
Here is my draft down below
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Honesty and communication.
Can we agree that those two traits are ABSOLUTELY necessary to form a relationship between the buyer and the dealership? In MY experience, Dana Ford Lincoln exhibits neither of those traits.
Ever see the actual review distribution chart for this dealership here on Google? Its atrocious, simple as that. I'm here to tell you that there is ABSOLUTELY a valid reason for all those 1 star reviews.
Let me start by listing some of my local Ford Dealer's google review scores and then I'll compare those scores to Dana Ford Lincoln
Londonderry Ford - 4.9
Autofair Ford - 4.5
Unique Ford - 4.6
Portsmouth Ford - 4.4
Grappone Ford - 4.5
Monadnock Ford - 4.5
Dana Ford Lincoln - 3.6
On Facebook reviews alone (also a score of 3.6/5 by chance), nearly 23% of reviewers have rated them a 1 star. Would you buy something on Amazon that had 23% 1 star reviews? I know I wouldn't
Honestly, I debated back and forth about not even sharing the details of my story because so many others have already shared theirs and how they left this dealership simply disappointed!
In short, this dealership let their greed over a measly $500 deposit ruin my experience. If I could stop one buyer from buying a car here, they would already be in the hole with a "penny wise pound foolish" way of doing business.
I would avoid this dealer if at all possible. It was a costly mistake for me and I hope I can stop somebody else from making the same mistake in the future.
If you take anything from this review, simply understand that there is absolutely a reason for their very poor reviews on both Google and Facebook.
******************************************************
Had a deposit on a Focus RS and the sale turned sour. Ended up buying from somebody else and dealer refused to give measly $500 deposit back
Longer CLIFFS*
1. Place $500 deposit on Focus RS June 2016. Out of state for me by 6hr drive
2. Crappy communication and realization of numerous poor reviews gives me wet feet.
3. Tries to cancel preorder August 2016. Ask for deposit back, but said I dont expect it. Left GM a voicemail about it
4. Leaves multiple voicemails even at one point I had another RS forum member that wanted to take over my order
5. Zero calls, 0, zip, nada
6. Fast forward 5 months, Xmas eve I believe, they call me to tell me to pick up my RS
7. I say WTF, you never answered calls. They said we never got calls, come pick up your RS.
8. Given no time to private sell my ST, I told them I may need a month. They insure me our buyers agreement meant they couldn't sell my car to anybody else. They tell me it doesn't expire. Communication still incredibly poor
9. Dealer insures me they are unable to sell my RS to anybody else as the vehicle is under my name, but then lists my car for sale on their website after about 3-4 weeks.
10. Local trusted dealer comes to me and offers me an identical RS for a better price. No issues with out of state tax or temp plates/transportation. I ended up buying the RS locally
11. I ask first dealership to take "my car" off their website as its not for sale. I offer them an option to cancel our written agreement and refund me the money. They declined and insisted they will wait for me to sell my ST.
12. Fast forward one year, they have officially sold "my" vehicle to somebody else
I tried a charge-back with Discover and ended up losing the case. I haven't had the money for 18 months so its not like I miss it. Am I in the wrong here? I did sign a contract and was told the deposit was non-refundable. But they also signed a buyers agreement with me on that vehicle and told me they wouldn't be able to sell the vehicle.
Yes I bought from a different dealer. Maybe that makes me a prick? I just couldn't bring myself to trust this dealership for an out of state purchase at that point. At the time the RS was incredibly difficult to find allocations for, especially at reasonable MSRP. This dealership originally asked $5000 over, of which I talked them down to $500 over
I am debating about leaving some negative reviews on FB and Google about my experience. Is it derserved?
Here is my draft down below
*****************************************************
Honesty and communication.
Can we agree that those two traits are ABSOLUTELY necessary to form a relationship between the buyer and the dealership? In MY experience, Dana Ford Lincoln exhibits neither of those traits.
Ever see the actual review distribution chart for this dealership here on Google? Its atrocious, simple as that. I'm here to tell you that there is ABSOLUTELY a valid reason for all those 1 star reviews.
Let me start by listing some of my local Ford Dealer's google review scores and then I'll compare those scores to Dana Ford Lincoln
Londonderry Ford - 4.9
Autofair Ford - 4.5
Unique Ford - 4.6
Portsmouth Ford - 4.4
Grappone Ford - 4.5
Monadnock Ford - 4.5
Dana Ford Lincoln - 3.6
On Facebook reviews alone (also a score of 3.6/5 by chance), nearly 23% of reviewers have rated them a 1 star. Would you buy something on Amazon that had 23% 1 star reviews? I know I wouldn't
Honestly, I debated back and forth about not even sharing the details of my story because so many others have already shared theirs and how they left this dealership simply disappointed!
In short, this dealership let their greed over a measly $500 deposit ruin my experience. If I could stop one buyer from buying a car here, they would already be in the hole with a "penny wise pound foolish" way of doing business.
I would avoid this dealer if at all possible. It was a costly mistake for me and I hope I can stop somebody else from making the same mistake in the future.
If you take anything from this review, simply understand that there is absolutely a reason for their very poor reviews on both Google and Facebook.
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