new car
so i bought a new car this week. we decided on a honda accord lx. buying a car is a pain in the ass, and i hope i don't have to do it again for at least 10 years.
i am not a big fan of sales people. i find car salesmen to be especially pushy, so i wanted to avoid dealing with them as much as possible. my brother suggested dealing with the internet sales departments instead of going in and meeting face to face. from his experience, they were willing to give better deals because their commissions weren't based on the final price of the car, but rather how many cars they sold. maybe it's different in new jersey, i don't know. my brother called herb chambers boston to get a quote over the phone so i would have something to compare to. he was given a sales price of $18,900 including the destination charge, which was pretty close to the invoice price. i started off by researching the vehicle on edmunds.com. from there i filled out the "free price quote" request, and my info was sent to four different dealerships in my area. this was my first mistake. i checked off the box that said "contact by email only", but in filling out the form i discovered it wouldn't let me leave the phone number blank. i do not have a home phone, only a cell phone so in instances like this i normally use my mother's number. but for some reason i put down my own number instead. within a half hour i had 3 phone calls. i checked my email about an hour later, and had about 10 messages--6 of them from the same woman, who was also one of the people who called me. half the messages said, "i tried to call you! give me a call when you get a chance!" i decided to ignore her because a) she seemed very, very pushy, and b) the dealership is an hour away. of the other 4 emails, one gave a quote, and the other three said, "Please call us!". i noted that two out of these three had tried to call me and left messages. i emailed these people back and told them that i was at work and could not talk on the phone so they would have to deal with me through email. one woman called me right away, and when i wouldn't answer my phone she sent me an email. she kept doing that every time i emailed her so i decided to ignore her as well. if you can't follow that one simple direction, why do i want to bother with you?
i got a couple other quotes, but they were a little too high for my tastes so i decided to email a few other dealerships directly. all of them were significantly higher than the quote my brother got over the phone, so on thursday i decided that i was going to go with herb chambers. the salesman had been calling him all week to see if i was still interested. so i called and asked for him directly, told him that he had spoken to my brother the week before regarding the honda accord lx and i wanted to purchase it at the price he quoted, $18,900. he claimed not to know what i was talking about. "let me check my records, that sounds really low. i don't think i'd quote a price like that to anyone.....no, the best price i could do would be $19,277." "but you talked to my brother and told him $18,900. you've been calling him all week!" "no, i don't have any record of that conversation..." i had been on the phone with my brother when he called this guy, so i knew he was lying. i hung up with him and called my brother and told him what happened and he got a little pissed so he decided to conference him in again. but when we called he was unavailable so my brother asked for someone else in the internet sales dept. he told her what i was looking for, and she told him, "that will be $18,977." my brother chuckled, and i told her, "that's interesting, because i just called 10 minutes ago and the guy i spoke to gave me a price that was $300 higher, even though he told my brother less last week. not to mention that he's been calling him all week, but denied knowing what i was talking about when i mentioned it." she stammered through some bs explanation about how they have dealer incentives of $300 that they can pass onto the customer at their discretion, and he must have chosen not to. i asked how i could be sure that that would still be the price if i went in, since this other guy didn't have a problem with giving us different numbers. she assured me that she was recording all the details of our conversation, so if i went in to see her and purchase the car, that would be the price. i was a little annoyed, but i needed to buy the car before the end of the month and they had given me the best deal by far so i told her i would be in on sunday to see her.
the next day i received an email from someone at boch honda, following up on an offer they had sent me the day before. i emailed her back to tell her thank you, but i received a much better offer from a different dealership so i was going to go with them instead. she asked the price i was given, to see if she could beat it, and when i told her she said she could do better. the price she gave me was $100 lower and that was good enough for me, so i gave her my credit card number to hold the car and told her i'd be in that night.
should have been a quick and easy transaction, right? wrong. the whole thing was just a pain in the ass. the salesman was one of the worst i've ever encountered. it's not that he was rude or anything. he just seemed so incompetent. i was so annoyed by the whole transaction that i wrote a letter of complaint to the gm.
Dear Mr. Cafarella,
I am writing to you in regards to my recent car buying experience at your dealership. I am normally not one to complain, but this has been one of the most aggravating and stressful experiences I have ever had, and I am extremely unhappy with the whole situation. I apologize in advance because this will be very long.
On the afternoon of June 22, 2007 I negotiated a price for a 2007 Honda Accord LX with Danielle Werman. We initially corresponded via email, and then I spoke to her on the phone to put a $200 deposit down to hold the car for me. I went to Boch that very night to fill out all the paperwork. When I arrived, Ms. Werman came out and introduced another salesperson, David Humphrey, whom she said would be handling my sale. Mr. Humphrey seemed pleasant enough at first, but I was very put off by the fact that when we sat down, before I had even started filling out any paperwork, he mentioned that Honda would be sending me a customer satisfaction survey in a few weeks, and his commission depended on the scores that he received. I was told, “I can’t tell you what score to give me, but a 5 is good....a 4 is not. I really, really need this money for school.” That seemed a little inappropriate to me, but I just smiled and nodded. I had several questions while filling out the paperwork, but he did not have any answers for me. He just kept telling me, “They will deal with all of this in the finance department. After you finish here with me you’ll go in the back and they will take care of you there.” I don’t remember exactly what my questions were, but it seemed to me that he should have known the answer, or at least attempted to find out for me rather than tell me to wait and ask someone else.
I had brought in the license plates from my old car so I could transfer the registration rather than getting new plates, and I was told by Mr. Humphrey that the registry required a 24 hour hold for that type of transaction so the car would not be ready for pick up until Tuesday. The finance person (I think his name is Scott Ames? He talks very quickly so I wasn’t able to catch it) told me that it was more likely to be ready Monday since the hold started the minute I handed him the old plates. Either day was fine with me, but I asked Mr. Humphrey to call me and let me know. I emailed my insurance agent Monday morning to let him know that I had purchased a new vehicle and would be transferring my registration so he should expect paperwork from Boch sometime that day. I did not hear from Mr. Humphrey all day so I called him late Monday afternoon to check the status. He told me that there was some sort of hold up, but he would call back to let me know if the car would be ready on Tuesday. He did not call me back that night.
Tuesday morning I received a call around 9:45 a.m. from someone who identified himself as Hayden, a manager at Boch Honda. He explained that with the transfer of plates there was a certain form that I needed to sign, and wanted to know if I could come in that day. I told him that I could not get there until around 7:30, after I got out of work. I mentioned that I had been told I should be able to pick up the car that night, and asked if not having this form signed would delay that. He replied that if they couldn’t get it signed and to the registry before closing then it most likely would, and asked if I would be able to get there sooner. I explained that I was working and it was not possible for me to just leave in the middle of the day. I was a little upset because if I had been told about this earlier, like the night before when I spoke to Mr. Humphrey, I could have gone and taken care of it then so the car would be ready when promised. Hayden mentioned the possibility of having someone bring the forms to me at work so I could sign them, and said he would call me back and let me know. He called back a short time afterwards and said that there was no need for me to fill out any more forms and I could just come in that night, and I would be able to take the car home. I thought it was a little odd that Mr. Humphrey did not call me himself to tell me this since he was my salesperson, but I figured that since it was his day off then he had just given it to someone else to handle.
That evening my father and I drove to Boch and I went in and asked for Hayden. He came out, but said he just had one thing to finish and then he would be right out to help me. While I was waiting, Mr. Humphrey happened to walk through the showroom and noticed that I was standing there. He asked why I was there, because my car wasn’t ready, and he hadn’t called me. I told him that I had spoken to Hayden, who had told me it was ready. He offered to give me a rental, but I told him that I had been told my car was ready, and I expected to take it home that night. He then went and got another manager, who told me that Hayden had been out of line to call and tell me that the car was ready because the registration had not been processed, and there was no way they could let me take the car home that night, and I would have to be satisfied with a rental at their cost. I told him that it was very inconvenient for me to keep coming back, and the manager (whose name I did not get) said that he would have Mr. Humphrey personally deliver my car to me, and pick up the rental. I asked when they expected to have my registration completed, and I was told that it would definitely be ready Wednesday. All I had to do was let Mr. Humphrey know when I would be home and he would deliver it. At that time I asked about getting my copies of the paperwork that I had filled out for the purchase and financing. It was not given to me when I signed everything last Friday, and I wanted to make sure that I got it with delivery of the vehicle. Mr. Humphrey promised to bring it with him the next night.
I did not hear from Mr. Humphrey at all on Wednesday, and I called him at 6:00 p.m. that evening to let him know that I was on my way home so he could deliver the car after 7:00 p.m.. He said he was waiting to hear from someone, and he would call me back. When he called me back several minutes later he told me that there was a hold up with the processing. He gave me some story about how it was stuck in accounting, or something like that, and since his manager was out another manager was trying to help him, but that manager was putting his own team first so there really wasn’t much he could do at that point, and he was really sorry but he would not be able to deliver the car that night but I could keep the rental for another day at their cost. He also said that his manager was putting together some sort of an apology package for me, and they would give me that with the car. I asked him when he expected to have my car ready for delivery, and he said definitely on Thursday, so I asked him to call me and let me know. I also said that I would be coming in with my fiance to pick it up rather than having him deliver it.
Around 9:45 a.m. on Thursday morning I received a call from my insurance agent informing me that she had just spoken to Mr. Humphrey, who had asked her to call me. She explained to me that they had not received any paperwork from Boch until about 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, when they had already left for the day, and the first thing they did on Thursday morning was fax the information back to Boch, so this would be the second time that she sent it. I was to let her know if the processing wasn’t done that day, since they had already done their part, and there was no reason it should be held up any longer. Again, I did not receive any calls from Mr. Humphrey all day so I called him at 4:30 p.m. to check the status and to make sure that I would be able to pick up the vehicle that night. He told me that finally everything was taken care of, and I could come in that night. Then he proceeded to tell me that it was my insurance agent’s fault that things were not processed the day before, because they didn’t send it back to Boch in time. I explained to Mr. Humphrey that the paperwork hadn’t even been sent to my agent until well after they and the registry had closed for the day so there was no way it would have been done anyway. He kept insisting that the delay was their fault, because the paperwork had been sent and they didn’t return it until that day, even though I tried telling him they were already closed when Boch sent it to them. My patience had already been wearing thin with Mr. Humphrey so I just told him I would speak with him when I came for the car. I called my insurance agent after hanging up with Mr. Humphrey and they confirmed that they did not receive a fax from Boch until 5:30 p.m., after they had closed for the day on Wednesday, and they faxed it back to Boch twice on Thursday morning, once around 8:30 a.m., and the second time after Mr. Humphrey called them, around 10:00 a.m.. My fiance happened to walk into their office while I was speaking with them and he saw the time stamps from the fax machine himself. Even if he hadn’t, I still would have believed what they told me over what Mr. Humphrey claimed. I have known my insurance agents since I was six years old, and I know what type of people they are, and how they run their business. For Mr. Humphrey to try and pass the blame to them for his failings is insulting to them, and to me.
My fiance and I showed up at 7:30 p.m., and Mr. Humphrey greeted us in the showroom before ushering us outside to the car. He handed me my keys, along with the registration and inspection report. I handed the keys to the rental vehicle back to him, and asked him about the package that he said his manager had put together for me. I had expected that his manager would also be there, but he told me that he didn’t have the package, and his manager had left for the day so he didn’t know anything about what was in it, or where it was. He said, “Maybe he’ll mail it to you, or you can come back to get it.” That was a little infuriating because I felt that his manager should have been there to apologize personally for the delays, or at the very least, left the apology package with Mr. Humphrey. I then asked him where my paperwork was. He had no idea so he went inside to ask Mr. Ames. When he returned he informed us that it had been sent via FedEx, and we should have received the package that day. My fiance works nights and is home all day with our children so if any packages get delivered he would know. We did not receive anything, but he kept insisting that it was delivered. So I asked him to give me the tracking number so we could figure out what happened to it. He went back into the finance office and returned with Mr. Ames who explained to us that everything was locked up in accounting and he couldn’t get to it, but we should have the package at home. I reiterated that we had not received any sort of package from UPS or FedEx, and asked if he could just make photocopies of all the paperwork. He said that he could not, but when my fiance pointed out to him that those papers were supposed to be given to us with the delivery of the car he relented and told me that we could go into his office and print new ones. I asked Mr. Ames to email me this morning with the tracking number of the missing package so we could try and figure out what happened to it. The documents have my personal information on it, and I want to make sure that it doesn’t get into the wrong hands. He took my email address and promised that he would contact me this morning. It is now almost 3:00 p.m. and I still haven’t heard from him.
My fiance stayed in the showroom while Mr. Ames and I went back to his office. I had expected Mr. Humphrey to wait around for me or at least be in the area, but when I returned he was nowhere to be seen. I looked around for him, but he was not in the area so we just left. It was about 8:30 at this point and we still had to go eat dinner and then pick up our children from the babysitter. He called over an hour later and left me a message saying that he missed seeing me before I left, and he just wanted to make sure that everything was ok with the car, and that I was happy. I had been very annoyed with everything that had transpired up to this point so I did not return his call.
This morning while on my way to work I received a call from Boch Rental saying that they noticed I had returned the vehicle, but they couldn’t find the keys. I specifically remember handing those keys back to Mr. Humphrey as I had been told to do, so I don’t understand why they were not returned to the rental agency. I explained that to them, and they said they would ask him again. I called back a little while later to see if they had found them, and apparently he forgot that I gave them to him, but remembered he had them when they asked him again. That was the last straw for me.
Mr. Humphrey called me again around 11:00 a.m. this morning and left me another message, but I am too annoyed to speak to him. I’m very upset that he has not bothered to call me all week to keep me updated on the status of my car, and I have had to call him any time I wanted any information, but now that the car has been delivered and he’s worried about his review he’s constantly calling me to see what he can do to make me happy. This is something he should have been doing all along, not just after the fact when he knows I’m upset with him.
I had originally planned on buying my car from Herb Chambers Honda of Boston, but decided to buy from Boch Honda instead because Ms. Werman beat their price by $100, and also because of the fact that your dealership was the number one in sales in the United States last year. I thought that with such an impressive record it would mean you had outstanding customer service, but I am terribly disappointed by the service I have received. Once I signed the purchase papers it seemed as though the communication dropped off, and what should have been a simple transfer for my registration turned into something extremely complicated for some reason. At this point I almost wish I had just paid the extra $100 and went with the other dealership. Saving that money is not worth all of the aggravation that I have been put through with this purchase. I understand that things happen sometimes, but it’s very upsetting to me that I was not kept informed of any delays until I called and asked. Getting any information at all was like trying to pull a tooth, and things were not handled to my satisfaction. I worked in customer service for many years and have dealt with some nightmare customers so I sympathize with those who have to deal with people day in and day out. At the same time, however, I also hold them to a higher standard because I feel that good customers should be treated accordingly. I am not an unreasonable person. I don’t feel that I have made any outrageous demands, and I feel I have been very patient given the circumstances. My father and several other family members and friends have purchased their vehicles from your dealership and have had good experiences so I thought it would be the same for me. I am extremely disappointed that it was not.
I’m sorry for rambling on and on. I’m not sure what the survey I’ll be getting entails, but I cannot in good conscience give stellar marks for my experience here, and I wanted to be able to explain why. It is not my intention to get anyone in trouble or for them to lose their jobs over this, but I hope you can understand my point of view. I have not encountered such horrible service in a long time, and I feel that maybe certain members of your team would benefit with some re-training. This has been a very frustrating week for me, and although I love the car, thinking about what I went through to get it annoys me to no end.
Thank you very much for your time.
Aimee C
i had nothing to do at work yesterday so i spent most of the day writing that, lol. about an hour after i sent it honda america called me to do their survey. i wasn't expecting to be called so soon and i was really hoping to work things out with the dealership before taking that survey, but since they didn't have time to respond yet i ended up giving the sales guy some pretty low marks. i wouldn't have minded the delays so much if he had just kept me informed, but he would never ever freaking pick up the phone to call me, and i hate that. why am i chasing you down? you're the one who's trying to earn your money here. i received a call this morning from his direct manager. he apologized, and told me that it was no excuse, but they were growing so rapidly that their registration department is bogged down and behind schedule so it was really out of dave's control. and i told him that was fine, but I STILL SHOULD HAVE BEEN KEPT INFORMED. he just didn't get it. so he said he was sending me a fedex on monday with a card for some free oil changes, but other than that, and apologizing for everything, he didn't know what else he could do to make this a good experience for me. i have no idea what to say to that. i don't want it to seem like i'm fishing for free stuff, because i'm not. i told him i had to talk it over with j, and i would call him back. i think i'll just have him deal with j. i'm too annoyed by the whole thing. he won't know what hit him.
i am not a big fan of sales people. i find car salesmen to be especially pushy, so i wanted to avoid dealing with them as much as possible. my brother suggested dealing with the internet sales departments instead of going in and meeting face to face. from his experience, they were willing to give better deals because their commissions weren't based on the final price of the car, but rather how many cars they sold. maybe it's different in new jersey, i don't know. my brother called herb chambers boston to get a quote over the phone so i would have something to compare to. he was given a sales price of $18,900 including the destination charge, which was pretty close to the invoice price. i started off by researching the vehicle on edmunds.com. from there i filled out the "free price quote" request, and my info was sent to four different dealerships in my area. this was my first mistake. i checked off the box that said "contact by email only", but in filling out the form i discovered it wouldn't let me leave the phone number blank. i do not have a home phone, only a cell phone so in instances like this i normally use my mother's number. but for some reason i put down my own number instead. within a half hour i had 3 phone calls. i checked my email about an hour later, and had about 10 messages--6 of them from the same woman, who was also one of the people who called me. half the messages said, "i tried to call you! give me a call when you get a chance!" i decided to ignore her because a) she seemed very, very pushy, and b) the dealership is an hour away. of the other 4 emails, one gave a quote, and the other three said, "Please call us!". i noted that two out of these three had tried to call me and left messages. i emailed these people back and told them that i was at work and could not talk on the phone so they would have to deal with me through email. one woman called me right away, and when i wouldn't answer my phone she sent me an email. she kept doing that every time i emailed her so i decided to ignore her as well. if you can't follow that one simple direction, why do i want to bother with you?
i got a couple other quotes, but they were a little too high for my tastes so i decided to email a few other dealerships directly. all of them were significantly higher than the quote my brother got over the phone, so on thursday i decided that i was going to go with herb chambers. the salesman had been calling him all week to see if i was still interested. so i called and asked for him directly, told him that he had spoken to my brother the week before regarding the honda accord lx and i wanted to purchase it at the price he quoted, $18,900. he claimed not to know what i was talking about. "let me check my records, that sounds really low. i don't think i'd quote a price like that to anyone.....no, the best price i could do would be $19,277." "but you talked to my brother and told him $18,900. you've been calling him all week!" "no, i don't have any record of that conversation..." i had been on the phone with my brother when he called this guy, so i knew he was lying. i hung up with him and called my brother and told him what happened and he got a little pissed so he decided to conference him in again. but when we called he was unavailable so my brother asked for someone else in the internet sales dept. he told her what i was looking for, and she told him, "that will be $18,977." my brother chuckled, and i told her, "that's interesting, because i just called 10 minutes ago and the guy i spoke to gave me a price that was $300 higher, even though he told my brother less last week. not to mention that he's been calling him all week, but denied knowing what i was talking about when i mentioned it." she stammered through some bs explanation about how they have dealer incentives of $300 that they can pass onto the customer at their discretion, and he must have chosen not to. i asked how i could be sure that that would still be the price if i went in, since this other guy didn't have a problem with giving us different numbers. she assured me that she was recording all the details of our conversation, so if i went in to see her and purchase the car, that would be the price. i was a little annoyed, but i needed to buy the car before the end of the month and they had given me the best deal by far so i told her i would be in on sunday to see her.
the next day i received an email from someone at boch honda, following up on an offer they had sent me the day before. i emailed her back to tell her thank you, but i received a much better offer from a different dealership so i was going to go with them instead. she asked the price i was given, to see if she could beat it, and when i told her she said she could do better. the price she gave me was $100 lower and that was good enough for me, so i gave her my credit card number to hold the car and told her i'd be in that night.
should have been a quick and easy transaction, right? wrong. the whole thing was just a pain in the ass. the salesman was one of the worst i've ever encountered. it's not that he was rude or anything. he just seemed so incompetent. i was so annoyed by the whole transaction that i wrote a letter of complaint to the gm.
Dear Mr. Cafarella,
I am writing to you in regards to my recent car buying experience at your dealership. I am normally not one to complain, but this has been one of the most aggravating and stressful experiences I have ever had, and I am extremely unhappy with the whole situation. I apologize in advance because this will be very long.
On the afternoon of June 22, 2007 I negotiated a price for a 2007 Honda Accord LX with Danielle Werman. We initially corresponded via email, and then I spoke to her on the phone to put a $200 deposit down to hold the car for me. I went to Boch that very night to fill out all the paperwork. When I arrived, Ms. Werman came out and introduced another salesperson, David Humphrey, whom she said would be handling my sale. Mr. Humphrey seemed pleasant enough at first, but I was very put off by the fact that when we sat down, before I had even started filling out any paperwork, he mentioned that Honda would be sending me a customer satisfaction survey in a few weeks, and his commission depended on the scores that he received. I was told, “I can’t tell you what score to give me, but a 5 is good....a 4 is not. I really, really need this money for school.” That seemed a little inappropriate to me, but I just smiled and nodded. I had several questions while filling out the paperwork, but he did not have any answers for me. He just kept telling me, “They will deal with all of this in the finance department. After you finish here with me you’ll go in the back and they will take care of you there.” I don’t remember exactly what my questions were, but it seemed to me that he should have known the answer, or at least attempted to find out for me rather than tell me to wait and ask someone else.
I had brought in the license plates from my old car so I could transfer the registration rather than getting new plates, and I was told by Mr. Humphrey that the registry required a 24 hour hold for that type of transaction so the car would not be ready for pick up until Tuesday. The finance person (I think his name is Scott Ames? He talks very quickly so I wasn’t able to catch it) told me that it was more likely to be ready Monday since the hold started the minute I handed him the old plates. Either day was fine with me, but I asked Mr. Humphrey to call me and let me know. I emailed my insurance agent Monday morning to let him know that I had purchased a new vehicle and would be transferring my registration so he should expect paperwork from Boch sometime that day. I did not hear from Mr. Humphrey all day so I called him late Monday afternoon to check the status. He told me that there was some sort of hold up, but he would call back to let me know if the car would be ready on Tuesday. He did not call me back that night.
Tuesday morning I received a call around 9:45 a.m. from someone who identified himself as Hayden, a manager at Boch Honda. He explained that with the transfer of plates there was a certain form that I needed to sign, and wanted to know if I could come in that day. I told him that I could not get there until around 7:30, after I got out of work. I mentioned that I had been told I should be able to pick up the car that night, and asked if not having this form signed would delay that. He replied that if they couldn’t get it signed and to the registry before closing then it most likely would, and asked if I would be able to get there sooner. I explained that I was working and it was not possible for me to just leave in the middle of the day. I was a little upset because if I had been told about this earlier, like the night before when I spoke to Mr. Humphrey, I could have gone and taken care of it then so the car would be ready when promised. Hayden mentioned the possibility of having someone bring the forms to me at work so I could sign them, and said he would call me back and let me know. He called back a short time afterwards and said that there was no need for me to fill out any more forms and I could just come in that night, and I would be able to take the car home. I thought it was a little odd that Mr. Humphrey did not call me himself to tell me this since he was my salesperson, but I figured that since it was his day off then he had just given it to someone else to handle.
That evening my father and I drove to Boch and I went in and asked for Hayden. He came out, but said he just had one thing to finish and then he would be right out to help me. While I was waiting, Mr. Humphrey happened to walk through the showroom and noticed that I was standing there. He asked why I was there, because my car wasn’t ready, and he hadn’t called me. I told him that I had spoken to Hayden, who had told me it was ready. He offered to give me a rental, but I told him that I had been told my car was ready, and I expected to take it home that night. He then went and got another manager, who told me that Hayden had been out of line to call and tell me that the car was ready because the registration had not been processed, and there was no way they could let me take the car home that night, and I would have to be satisfied with a rental at their cost. I told him that it was very inconvenient for me to keep coming back, and the manager (whose name I did not get) said that he would have Mr. Humphrey personally deliver my car to me, and pick up the rental. I asked when they expected to have my registration completed, and I was told that it would definitely be ready Wednesday. All I had to do was let Mr. Humphrey know when I would be home and he would deliver it. At that time I asked about getting my copies of the paperwork that I had filled out for the purchase and financing. It was not given to me when I signed everything last Friday, and I wanted to make sure that I got it with delivery of the vehicle. Mr. Humphrey promised to bring it with him the next night.
I did not hear from Mr. Humphrey at all on Wednesday, and I called him at 6:00 p.m. that evening to let him know that I was on my way home so he could deliver the car after 7:00 p.m.. He said he was waiting to hear from someone, and he would call me back. When he called me back several minutes later he told me that there was a hold up with the processing. He gave me some story about how it was stuck in accounting, or something like that, and since his manager was out another manager was trying to help him, but that manager was putting his own team first so there really wasn’t much he could do at that point, and he was really sorry but he would not be able to deliver the car that night but I could keep the rental for another day at their cost. He also said that his manager was putting together some sort of an apology package for me, and they would give me that with the car. I asked him when he expected to have my car ready for delivery, and he said definitely on Thursday, so I asked him to call me and let me know. I also said that I would be coming in with my fiance to pick it up rather than having him deliver it.
Around 9:45 a.m. on Thursday morning I received a call from my insurance agent informing me that she had just spoken to Mr. Humphrey, who had asked her to call me. She explained to me that they had not received any paperwork from Boch until about 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, when they had already left for the day, and the first thing they did on Thursday morning was fax the information back to Boch, so this would be the second time that she sent it. I was to let her know if the processing wasn’t done that day, since they had already done their part, and there was no reason it should be held up any longer. Again, I did not receive any calls from Mr. Humphrey all day so I called him at 4:30 p.m. to check the status and to make sure that I would be able to pick up the vehicle that night. He told me that finally everything was taken care of, and I could come in that night. Then he proceeded to tell me that it was my insurance agent’s fault that things were not processed the day before, because they didn’t send it back to Boch in time. I explained to Mr. Humphrey that the paperwork hadn’t even been sent to my agent until well after they and the registry had closed for the day so there was no way it would have been done anyway. He kept insisting that the delay was their fault, because the paperwork had been sent and they didn’t return it until that day, even though I tried telling him they were already closed when Boch sent it to them. My patience had already been wearing thin with Mr. Humphrey so I just told him I would speak with him when I came for the car. I called my insurance agent after hanging up with Mr. Humphrey and they confirmed that they did not receive a fax from Boch until 5:30 p.m., after they had closed for the day on Wednesday, and they faxed it back to Boch twice on Thursday morning, once around 8:30 a.m., and the second time after Mr. Humphrey called them, around 10:00 a.m.. My fiance happened to walk into their office while I was speaking with them and he saw the time stamps from the fax machine himself. Even if he hadn’t, I still would have believed what they told me over what Mr. Humphrey claimed. I have known my insurance agents since I was six years old, and I know what type of people they are, and how they run their business. For Mr. Humphrey to try and pass the blame to them for his failings is insulting to them, and to me.
My fiance and I showed up at 7:30 p.m., and Mr. Humphrey greeted us in the showroom before ushering us outside to the car. He handed me my keys, along with the registration and inspection report. I handed the keys to the rental vehicle back to him, and asked him about the package that he said his manager had put together for me. I had expected that his manager would also be there, but he told me that he didn’t have the package, and his manager had left for the day so he didn’t know anything about what was in it, or where it was. He said, “Maybe he’ll mail it to you, or you can come back to get it.” That was a little infuriating because I felt that his manager should have been there to apologize personally for the delays, or at the very least, left the apology package with Mr. Humphrey. I then asked him where my paperwork was. He had no idea so he went inside to ask Mr. Ames. When he returned he informed us that it had been sent via FedEx, and we should have received the package that day. My fiance works nights and is home all day with our children so if any packages get delivered he would know. We did not receive anything, but he kept insisting that it was delivered. So I asked him to give me the tracking number so we could figure out what happened to it. He went back into the finance office and returned with Mr. Ames who explained to us that everything was locked up in accounting and he couldn’t get to it, but we should have the package at home. I reiterated that we had not received any sort of package from UPS or FedEx, and asked if he could just make photocopies of all the paperwork. He said that he could not, but when my fiance pointed out to him that those papers were supposed to be given to us with the delivery of the car he relented and told me that we could go into his office and print new ones. I asked Mr. Ames to email me this morning with the tracking number of the missing package so we could try and figure out what happened to it. The documents have my personal information on it, and I want to make sure that it doesn’t get into the wrong hands. He took my email address and promised that he would contact me this morning. It is now almost 3:00 p.m. and I still haven’t heard from him.
My fiance stayed in the showroom while Mr. Ames and I went back to his office. I had expected Mr. Humphrey to wait around for me or at least be in the area, but when I returned he was nowhere to be seen. I looked around for him, but he was not in the area so we just left. It was about 8:30 at this point and we still had to go eat dinner and then pick up our children from the babysitter. He called over an hour later and left me a message saying that he missed seeing me before I left, and he just wanted to make sure that everything was ok with the car, and that I was happy. I had been very annoyed with everything that had transpired up to this point so I did not return his call.
This morning while on my way to work I received a call from Boch Rental saying that they noticed I had returned the vehicle, but they couldn’t find the keys. I specifically remember handing those keys back to Mr. Humphrey as I had been told to do, so I don’t understand why they were not returned to the rental agency. I explained that to them, and they said they would ask him again. I called back a little while later to see if they had found them, and apparently he forgot that I gave them to him, but remembered he had them when they asked him again. That was the last straw for me.
Mr. Humphrey called me again around 11:00 a.m. this morning and left me another message, but I am too annoyed to speak to him. I’m very upset that he has not bothered to call me all week to keep me updated on the status of my car, and I have had to call him any time I wanted any information, but now that the car has been delivered and he’s worried about his review he’s constantly calling me to see what he can do to make me happy. This is something he should have been doing all along, not just after the fact when he knows I’m upset with him.
I had originally planned on buying my car from Herb Chambers Honda of Boston, but decided to buy from Boch Honda instead because Ms. Werman beat their price by $100, and also because of the fact that your dealership was the number one in sales in the United States last year. I thought that with such an impressive record it would mean you had outstanding customer service, but I am terribly disappointed by the service I have received. Once I signed the purchase papers it seemed as though the communication dropped off, and what should have been a simple transfer for my registration turned into something extremely complicated for some reason. At this point I almost wish I had just paid the extra $100 and went with the other dealership. Saving that money is not worth all of the aggravation that I have been put through with this purchase. I understand that things happen sometimes, but it’s very upsetting to me that I was not kept informed of any delays until I called and asked. Getting any information at all was like trying to pull a tooth, and things were not handled to my satisfaction. I worked in customer service for many years and have dealt with some nightmare customers so I sympathize with those who have to deal with people day in and day out. At the same time, however, I also hold them to a higher standard because I feel that good customers should be treated accordingly. I am not an unreasonable person. I don’t feel that I have made any outrageous demands, and I feel I have been very patient given the circumstances. My father and several other family members and friends have purchased their vehicles from your dealership and have had good experiences so I thought it would be the same for me. I am extremely disappointed that it was not.
I’m sorry for rambling on and on. I’m not sure what the survey I’ll be getting entails, but I cannot in good conscience give stellar marks for my experience here, and I wanted to be able to explain why. It is not my intention to get anyone in trouble or for them to lose their jobs over this, but I hope you can understand my point of view. I have not encountered such horrible service in a long time, and I feel that maybe certain members of your team would benefit with some re-training. This has been a very frustrating week for me, and although I love the car, thinking about what I went through to get it annoys me to no end.
Thank you very much for your time.
Aimee C
i had nothing to do at work yesterday so i spent most of the day writing that, lol. about an hour after i sent it honda america called me to do their survey. i wasn't expecting to be called so soon and i was really hoping to work things out with the dealership before taking that survey, but since they didn't have time to respond yet i ended up giving the sales guy some pretty low marks. i wouldn't have minded the delays so much if he had just kept me informed, but he would never ever freaking pick up the phone to call me, and i hate that. why am i chasing you down? you're the one who's trying to earn your money here. i received a call this morning from his direct manager. he apologized, and told me that it was no excuse, but they were growing so rapidly that their registration department is bogged down and behind schedule so it was really out of dave's control. and i told him that was fine, but I STILL SHOULD HAVE BEEN KEPT INFORMED. he just didn't get it. so he said he was sending me a fedex on monday with a card for some free oil changes, but other than that, and apologizing for everything, he didn't know what else he could do to make this a good experience for me. i have no idea what to say to that. i don't want it to seem like i'm fishing for free stuff, because i'm not. i told him i had to talk it over with j, and i would call him back. i think i'll just have him deal with j. i'm too annoyed by the whole thing. he won't know what hit him.