Freedom Ford

Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Freedom Ford:
I was interested in trading in my Ranger for a 2004 F-150 FX4 and decided to go check out this dealership. As soon as I showed up on the lot, I was attacked by 5 salesmen. I felt like a bee hive and they were bears attacking me. We went and looked at the trucks. He didn’t really allow us to mess with the trucks at all and we were fed up with him and his attitude. We decided to leave but as we were leaving, we decided to ask him how much he would give us for our 2002 Ranger (Biggest mistake we have ever made in our life). He took the keys to the truck and had us wait in their “holding” room for lack of a better term. He had us waiting in their room for over 40 minutes. I finally decided to go see what was going on and he came over and told us it was worth $8,500 (Mind you it was new and we still owed about 12,500 to Ford.) I was absolutely stunned to hear this. He then proceeded to tell us that the price for the F-150 we were looking at was about $33,000 out the door. The other dealership which I will name at the end of this review had it for $28,500. Fed up, we tried to leave but remembered that he took the keys to the truck when he was going to get it appraised. He kept us there an extra 20-25 minutes trying to get us to buy the truck and wouldn’t give us the keys to my truck. Finally I told him even if he were to give us the truck for free, and pay off my Ranger, I still wouldn’t buy the truck from such a horrible dealership. He was speechless and went and got the keys from the manager that was holding them. Just as we thought hell was over, we started getting phone calls from him for the next week wondering if we were interested in the truck. We never returned his calls and he finally stopped calling.

PLEASE do not buy any vehicle from these people. Go to Karl Flammer Ford just up the road in Tarpon Springs and you will have a night and day difference with the whole car/truck buying experience.


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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Freedom Ford:
Deceptive sales tactics are encouraged/supported/displayed by management.

After a test drive, Andy accepted my price of $14k on a 2000 Explorer - asked for and received a $5k down payment check made payable to Freedom Ford, which he took to the cashier.

I waited, thinking he was gathering the necessary paperwork to get me on the road. Instead, he returned with a sales manager (Paul) to talk about how much they were going to sell me the truck for.

I had already seen "Paul" through the glass looking at my check and the paperwork, so when I asked him what he was talking about, he told me that "the way we work things at Freedom is like buying a house, you've submitted an offer and we're going to think about it." When I asked him where my down payment check was he pretended not to know anything about it and looked to Andy to answer the question.

It was obvious they intended to run me around so I asked for my check back. With that they became very patronizing to the point that I had to begin shouting that I wanted my check back so I could leave.

When I asked Andy why he said we had a deal and took my check if in fact we had no deal, all he kept saying was he never said we had a deal. And still he did not produce my check.

It took a bit more yelling until someone went back to the cashier and retrieved my check. By then I had 3 250 lb dudes rushing me telling me I was going to be arrested.

Once I had my check in hand I couldn't leave fast enough - unfortunately, I left without picking up the paperwork that had my signature on it. When I turned around and went back inside the same bouncers about jumped me - screaming at me to leave - so, I had to scream over the top of them that I expected my signature to be destroyed. They just kept screaming at the receptionist to call the police.

I would never have believed such a story had I not lived it. Of course hind-sight is 20/20. This morning I found numerous complaints about the boys at Freedom Ford and their deceptive tactics, dating back to 1999. That's pretty bad. My next call is to Ford Motor Company.






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