Disappointed in Iowa

[alasad]

I have been monitoring this site now for almost 5 months. On thing I have noticed is that there seems to be a lot of unethical Toyota Dealers out there that want to take advantage of the high demand and limited availability of the Prius. I ordered a pkg#4 prius amost 5 months ago and was planning on taking delivery last week. The letter below is what I sent to the dealerships main store. It pretty much tells the story. Great site by the way, lots of good info.


Clemons Autogroup
1720 S Marshall
Boone, IA 50036
PH: (515) 432-5150

Dear Mr. Clemons,
I am writing you concerning an experience I had at your Fairfield Dealership. After an Internet inquiry to Jonathan (Internet Sales) on January 12th I went to the dealership and inquired about ordering a Toyota Prius. Jonathan was not there that evening so I spoke to Jeff Bailey (Sales Manager) and Butch McKay (Sales) I was told that due to short supply there would be an undetermined wait, which I was prepared for. I had my 2004 Dodge Ram Hemi QC appraised by Jeff Bailey the General Manager and was given a quoted price of $23,316 for a Pkg#4 Prius. Jeff was going to allow me $18,000 for my Dodge which was pretty low for the low mileage (less than 9k) and the condition of the truck. He also told me that I would better off to sell it outright.
A couple of days later I returned to the dealership and agreed to purchase the Prius for $23,316, I understood what I would be allowed for trade for my Dodge and planned on trying to sell it privately. Jonathan reviewed the buyer’s agreement with me, having me initial the various disclaimers. I signed and he signed it as the dealer representative, I placed a $200.00 deposit on the vehicle at that time.
I sold my Dodge privately and let Jeff know that. During this time frame Jonathan left the dealership and Butch become the primary sales person. I checked periodically with Butch on the status of the vehicle. Finally toward the end of April Jeff said the car was due to arrive at port on May 6. A couple of weeks later Butch called me and let me know that the car had been turned over to transportation and was enroute with an estimated arrival date of 18-25 May. At that time I asked him about the price, he said it was approximately $24,381. I told him at the time, about 2 weeks prior to estimated delivery that my buyers agreement was for $23,316, if there was something other than that to let me know so we could get it straightened out, he said he would check his copy of the buyers agreement and let me know if there was a problem. I heard nothing back from him.
On about May 24 the car arrived at the dealership, I spoke to Butch on May 25th, I again mentioned to Butch about what the buyers agreement stated and that is what I was planning on. We decided that I would take delivery at 10:00 am on Friday May 26th. About mid-afternoon on the 25th Butch called and told me that Jonathan (who is no longer there) had made a “mistake” on the deal and that MSRP on the car was $24,381. I told him that Jonathan never wrote up the deal it was him (Butch) and Jeff Bailey who had when I had my truck appraised. I also told him that after over 30 years of working in the automotive field as a dealership technician, service writer, service manager, service director and warranty claims clerk that I know that every deal is personally approved by the Sales Manager. So basically they wanted an additional $1000 for the car.
I asked Butch what the buyers agreement was for, something that I as a customer was expected to honor but the dealership didn’t have to? I also told him that I could have purchased a pkg#4 Prius at Deery Bros in Burlington for $23,300 ($1000 below the MSRP) but didn’t since I felt I needed to honor the agreement. He told me he would have Jeff call me. Later that afternoon Butch called back and told me that Jeff agreed to split the $1,000 difference with me, he also told me that the car at Deery Brothers must have been pkg #3. I told him that I was very aware of what I had looked at, there was no doubt it was a pkg#4 as noted on the window sticker. Butch also told me that the deal I was given was with trade of my Dodge Ram, if this was the case why would Jeff encouraged me to sell my truck outright, there was nothing mentioned about a higher price without trade in fact the opposite is usually the case. He also tried to tell me that the price of the car had went up since it was ordered, I know this is not true since I have monitored the price of the car on the Toyota website since I ordered it. At this point I told him I would have to think about the additional $500 for the car and let him know the next day. That evening I went to Deery Bros in Burlington and was offered a Pkg#7 for $1500 below MSRP. I never bought the car since it had more options than I wanted. I use this just as an example of what I know can be done.
I am very disappointed in the dealerships handling of this situation. I agreed to the price with no haggling. I placed my order, signed the buyer’s agreement and placed my deposit in good faith. I sold my Dodge truck privately, which was to my advantage but I was under the impression that the dealership would rather not trade for it. I waited patiently for the car to arrive (almost 5 months) even though I could have purchased the same equipped car in stock from a competing dealership for the price I had agreed to.
My impression of the Clemons Dealership is that it has demonstrated that it has little integrity and poor business ethics. I believed the buyers agreement to be a mutual agreement between both parties, evidently it is there only at the dealerships convenience. If it’s not to their advantage it means nothing. I am not out to smear the Clemons Dealership but I do come in contact with a lot people at my workplace, many asking for my opinions about various dealerships, usually I am pretty neutral, but in this case I will feel obligated to share my experience as a forewarning to them Caveat Emptor.
As a matter of principle I could not bring myself to give the extra $500, I know the dealership can easily sell the vehicle for MSRP. If the dealership was not making money by selling the car at $1000 under MSRP I could understand the concern, but I know that is not the case. I find it interesting that the sales manager would not take the time to call to explain his position.
I have no expectations of Clemons as a result of this letter; I only wanted to share my experience and my disappointment. I hope that this is not typical of how your dealership’s conduct business. I had hoped to do business with Clemons of Fairfield and was excited about taking delivery of the Prius. There are a lot of car buying choices available to the consumer. I believe an organization is only as good as its ethics and integrity. It seems that dealerships take pride in customer service and building customer loyalty that is great but in most cases it seems its only lip service, like they say “talk is cheap”. Thanks for your indulgence in reading this letter, I just wanted to share my disappointment in the situation.

Sincerely

[ghostofjk]

Very good. By this letter are you hoping that Clemons will end up selling you the car at the pre-agreed-upon price?

[alasad]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ghostofjk @ May 31 2006, 05:12 PM) [snapback]263645[/snapback]</div>

Very good. By this letter are you hoping that Clemons will end up selling you the car at the pre-agreed-upon price?
[/b]

Like I said in the letter I have no expectations of that dealership. At best I would like to think that someone at their Fairfield store might get at least questioned about the situation. I have had several people tell me I should press the issue with the signed buyers agreement, but quite honestly after almost 5 months of waiting I pretty fed up with the whole situation. Having worked in and around auto dealerships for 30+ years I have found that dealers/managers/sales people seem to be a pretty two-faced bunch as a whole, and everything usually comes down to making an extra buck at the end of the month. Sadly I have spoken to several Toyota Dealers within 100miles or so of where I live and I have decided I don't want to do business with any of them. I guess I will wait and see what new develops occur in hybrid technology. I would venture to guess that the next generation of hybrids will be quite a bit improved with the lithium-ion battery, plug-in option and hopefully an E-85 capability.

[keydiver]

Do you have a friend that's a lawyer? I "friendly" letter may bring them to their senses. What good is a contract, if they won't honor it?

[TonyPSchaefer]

Alasad,
I hope you don't mind but I took a few liberties with your letter. Basicaly, I have learned that when people see that many words, they immediately glaze over. On the other hand, when they see bulleted lists, they immediately read those lists and if interested they move on to the rest of the text.

If I have interpretted your story correctly, I have rewritten it as such:

Dear Mr. Clemons,
I would like for you to become aware of activities taking place at your Fairfield Dealership which I can only describe as shady at best, bait-and-switch at worse, but at least a breach of contract.

On January 12, 2006, I met Jeff Bailey and Butch McKay. At that time I placed a $200 down payment for a 2006 Toyota Prius, package 4. The agreed upon price was $23,316. I signed a “buyer’s agreement” which detailed the following conditions:
• The price of the 2006 Toyota Prius, package 4 is $23,316
• I placed a $200 down payment applicable towards the purchase of the Prius
• There will be no trade-in vehicle applicable towards the purchase of the Prius
• My name was added to the waiting list, delivery date uncertain at that time

Near the end of April, I spoke with Jeff Bailey again about the delivery of the car. He told me the following two pieces of information:
• The estimated delivery date of the Prius was May 18 – 25
• Contrary to the “Buyer’s agreement”, the price had increased to $24,381

The car arrived on May 24. On May 25, Butch McKay informed me that Jonathon of Internet Sales, who had left the dealership, had made a mistake. Contrary to the fact that Butch himself had created the buyer’s agreement, he clung to his alibi and stayed firm to the newly elevated price. As a consolation, Butch later offered to split the $1,000 price increase with me.

Mr. Clemens, I know there is a Toyota Prius that suits my needs with a lower price currently at the Burlington Deery Bros. dealership. Had I not signed the buyer’s agreement with your dealership, I would have purchased that vehicle. Now that I understand how your employees treat perspective customers, I wish I had not signed that agreement nor placed the down payment. Even if your employees and I can reach an amiable resolution, I know that I will not return to that dealership for any vehicle service.

As is so often true when a customer receives poor service, I will do what I can to make sure at least twenty perspective vehicle buyers hear my story.

Thank you for your time and good luck in the future.
Sincerely,[/b]

Of course, if you're going to send a letter like this, you'd better be able to prove that every claim you make is 100% factual and provable.

Good luck and I hope you are soon a happy Prius owner on your own terms.

[alasad]

I thought it only fair to post the response I received from the president of the Clemons auto group, he was very prompt in replying.

Dear Michael,

I received your letter today and I am sorry for your experience. I don't know exactly what happened or how we got here, but I do appreciate you bringing the problem to my attention; if I don't know there is a problem, I can't fix it. I also apprieciate your candor and civility.

I am out of the office today, but I will investigate to see what happened and where the breakdown in either communication or process occured. Mistakes happen, we are all human. But what it very disappointing is sometimes certain people will have a personal conflict with one individual employee and all of the sudden generally brand all other employees or owners in a negative fashion. Obviously that is immature and unfair, especially when they haven't even met most of the people the are attempting to "smear". I sense you understand the difference. We do work very hard on the customer experience, and care very much about their satisfaction - but every once in a while there is a breakdown or miscommunication. It's not necessarily whether a problem occurs or not- because they inevitably will - it's how you solve it and fix the process so it doesn't happen again. Obviously I care, or I wouldn't even have taken the time to write this letter. But more importantly I care because long-term customer patronage is the key to success in any kind of organization.

We will be back in touch soon. Thank you again for the opportunity.

Respectfully;

Joe Clemons
Clemons Auto Group

[TonyPSchaefer]

It's good that he wrote back. Interesting how many times he mentions that we're human and mistakes happen.

Since he says that he'll be in touch, sit tight and see what he comes back with.

[alasad]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Jun 5 2006, 12:14 PM) [snapback]266028[/snapback]</div>

It's good that he wrote back. Interesting how many times he mentions that we're human and mistakes happen.

Since he says that he'll be in touch, sit tight and see what he comes back with.
[/b]

I thought I would give a quick update on how my experience with the dealer has progressed. I was called Friday (June 9) by the sales manager (Jeff) from the Fairfield dealership. He was very apologetic and said he wanted to do whatever it would take to earn back my business. He admitted that they had "screwed up" and would like to make it right with me if possible. He implied that someone other than himself had caused the problem, that people dont' always do what they are told, but since he was the sales/general manager he would take responsibility. I really don't believe that he wasn't involved with the decision not to sell the car to me at the agreed price I have never seen a salesperson make those type of decisions on their own. But I was pretty supprised by the call.

He went on to say that he had spent the morning with his Toyota Rep and that he had convinced him to allocate two Prius's, both package 4's. Unfortunately the colors were driftwood pearl and barceolona red not the silver pine mica that I had waited almost 5 months for. He said they should be at the dealership in about 6 weeks.

I asked him what the price was and he said he would sell the car to me for the same price that was on the purchase agreement. He asked which car I would want of the two, I told him the driftwood pearl if I was to purchase from them. I told him that I would consider it. I spent a few minutes venting my disappointment and frustration about the whole mess. He told me that until he heard different he would consider the driftwood prius sold to me and he would understand if I called them and told them to screw themselves.

After thinking about it a few days I really don't think they are doing much to make it right. They are offering to sell me the same package I had ordered but a different color and I have to wait another 6 weeks on top of that. I guess if they would have called and offered me a package 5 for the same price..or a free XM that would show me they were serious about winning my business back. The only rewarding thing from this whole situation is that I would like to think that the sales manager may have got his butt chewed a bit by Mr. Clemons. I was supprised that I got a reponse like that. Of course they still have my deposit money, not really sure what I will do next. I pretty tired of the whole mess. I don't really believe they are a bad dealership I just don't understand the thought process that caused the whole situation. Anyway hopefully this will pretty much end this mess.

[bgdrewsif]

All I can suggest is to ABSOLUTELY NOT purchase from this dealership...If this had happened to me, I would do what I had heard of someone else doing, I would take my car, park in a HIGHLY VISIBLE an HEAVILY TRAFFICED area, and advertise with big signs what happened to you and which dealership did it... call the local news stations and newspapers, get your story out there.... If you become a big enough thorn in this dearships rear end and send them enough bad publicity, they will somehow quickly find you a #4 silver pine mica and perhaps for significantly less...

And yes, I really would hav done that if I had gotten the shaft like you did... only a few times in my life have I been scorned that mad and I really have made holy heck for businesses before... I have even been mentioned in several area newspapers for causing the local sprawl-mart to lose over $100,000 in sales and for diverting a lot of customers from my local booger king. Lets just say I will NEVER patronize either of those businesses again...

And I also hope you still plan to get a prius...I drove over 130 miles this weekend form Bowling Green to Catawba Island/Port Clinton and back around NW ohio and I averaged 49.6 MPG... I love my Package #4 barcelona red prius... and If you are willing to, you might want to give the barcelona red a look, I get TONS of comments from all sorts of people about how great my car looks... especially on the color!

Again, I am so sorry that you have had to endure this unfortunate experience, but just hang in there because the Prius is worth the pain and suffering...

[tacomel]

I'm not sure what your buyer's agreement says with regard to a refund of your
down payment or any penalty for non-acceptance. I suspect that because they're
going to miss the delivery date by six weeks or more, that you have an out,
even if your agreement says otherwise.

It wouldn't hurt you, therefore, to shop around a little bit more. Consider
expanding your radius beyond your immediate area. Since you are in Iowa, you
could consider looking in the Chicago area. There are a bunch of dealers who
probably have much higher volume than the ones in your area -- of course I am
not sure of this but compared to Madison, where I'm from, this was the case.
I recently purchased two Prii from dealers in northern Illinois, with a wait
of 18 hours and 4 days, respectively. I'd recommend either of the dealers that
I bought from - see order tracking forum - and it doesn't hurt to give them a
call. I know that Fox Lake had several coming in within the next weeks that
were not spoken for, but I don't recall the packages because I didn't look too
hard.

Concur with the previous poster that you don't want to deal with this dealership
any more, either for sales or service.