My Review Of Germain Toyota of Columbus:
RUN!, don't walk away, RUN away from this "dealership" if you
want to buy a car.
My nightmare with Germain of Columbus(forgive the bile that
forms in my throat when I speak there name), begins with my car
being hit and totaled by a semi. I had been looking online for
a few months to find a replacement for my beloved 2006 Grand
Prix GT. Finally one day I saw a 2007 Grand Prix GT online at
Germain of Columbus. It only had 35,000 miles on it and the
carfax seemed perfect. The car looked flawless, the only catch
was that I live in IL, about 500 miles away. I called the
dealership and was greeted by a Mr. David Backherm.
He said not to worry about the
distance, "he sells cars out of state all the time". After much
deliberation, we worked out a deal to have the car delivered for
free, wow I thought, a dealership that really wants to make me
happy, I was sooooo wrong. Before I agreed to start any
paperwork, MR. Backhand assured me this car was perfect, no
problems at all,completely mechanically sound, and if any did arise I would have a 60 day 2000
mile guarantee. The first day he started the paper work he
entered my social security number wrong, because
of the mistake he would do it the following day. The paper work
all went through, since I had never bought a car like this before I made sure
of all the detail were in order before the "DEAL". I would be
paying the taxes and registration myself, because Ohio has no
taxes on cars. He was allegedly taking care of everything else,
including the title. I waited patiently for the car to be
delivered at 1:00 pm on the day it was being delivered. I took
the day off work to be here to inspect the car. The delivery
drivers were 4 hours late. They arrived with a filthy car,
telling my wife and I to "go wash it" when we were test driving
it. Other than the car being filthy, everything else seemed in
order, until we tested the remote start key fob. It was broken,
in fact it even had a sticker on the back(which I kept) stating
it was broken. No problems the delivery guys said "they will
just cut you a check to have it fixed at a GM dealer near you".
I called Mr. David Backhand, who promised to me before I signed
the paperwork, that they would buy me a new remote key fob. I
signed the paperwork, they put temp plates on the car that were
good for 25 days. I was told the title would be mailed in 21
days, and then I would have all the proper paper work to go
register and pay taxes at the DMV before the temp plates
expired.
Two days before my plates expired I called Mr. Backhand
to see why I hadn't received any of the paperwork. I told him
the taxes were due now and my plates were going to expire. He
said I would have the paperwork in a day. The next day I
received a copy of the title and took a day off work to go to
the DMV to register and pay taxes on it. The DMV informed me
that the copy I had got in the mail was useless, and that I
needed to also pay to title it in IL. What? Backhand assured me
that this was already taken care of. Another lie. I called the
dealership to ask what was going on, couldn't get a hold of David
of course but I was told that the dealership would not pay to
extend my temp. plates. I went back into the DMV, they refused
to register it without the real title. It was 2 days before
Thanksgiving and my plates would be expiring the day before
Thanksgiving. I would not be able to drive my new car to my
families house for the holiday. Another cost I would have to pay
for an extension of temp plates, the DMV said the dealership had
to pay for the extension, the dealership refused. At this point I
contacted the bank, they felt so bad about the ordeal that they
mailed the title directly to me. A half hour before the DMV
closed I was able to rush over there(I could not take another
day off work) and finally got it registered, titled which costed
me an addition $120.00 (that David Backhand said I would not have to
pay), and paid the taxes.
I thought I was done having to do David Backherms job
for him. NOPE!!!! On November 29th I sent an email asking why
after a month I hadn't been reimbursed for the remote key fob.
And actually that's a whole different story on its own. One month
before he said they would just buy me a new key fob and to get a
quote. I got a quote of $250.00. But I still had two remotes
from my totaled car that were programmable to my new car. They
quoted me a much lower number of $130.00 to reprogram my
remotes. David Backhand agreed to have them both reprogrammed since he
would be saving money to use my old remotes instead of paying
more for a new one. Our local GM dealer I went to cut us another deal
and only charged $65.00 to reprogram the remotes. "Just fax me
that bill and I'll get you a check out" David said on November 1,
2012. I waited one month as I mentioned above before emailing him
to ask what the problem was, why I had never been repaid. He
said to SEND THE BILL AGAIN, this is a month after he said he
already got the bill and my check had been mailed. I faxed it
again.
That night I pulled into my driveway hearing a loud
squealing belt whine. This was listed on the inspection sheet.
Upon further investigation I noticed my new car, that I had paid
over $13000.00 for, with only 35,000 miles on it was leaking
coolant. I called David Backhand first thing the next day. I was already
mad about being lied to continuously about the refund check. Getting him to answer the phone after calling several times was irritating as xxxx. I
informed him of the bigger problem letting him know that that
weekend(it was thursday) was my families Christmas, I needed the
car fixed NOW. He did not call me back, he did not answer one of
the three numbers he gave me to call. I called back for the
tenth time and was informed by Mr Backhand that I would have
to drive my car that was leaking coolant 500 plus miles to the
dealership to have it fixed! Are you kidding me he wanted me to
risk blowing the engine in a car that was leaking coolant, to
drive 1000 plus round trip???? I finally was transferred to a
Robert, (at this point after not being able to get David on the
phone after calling for 2 day, I was now being told that he, the
salesman was delivering cars, another lie). They were now
going to send me a check to have it fixed in my state after I
had to take more time off work to take in in and get a quote to
have it fixed. Robert seemed angered by this whole ordeal. It
was now Friday, I would be missing my family Christmas on the
weekend at this point. He promised that first thing Monday the
check would be overnighted by Fedex, I would be able to have my
car fixed and be driving it by that Tuesday. Today is Wednesday.
I called Fedex twice yesterday, my wife waited at home all day
for the check. Fedex informed me nothing was being sent to my
address. Lived at this point I called again today and was told
by Robert that they made a mistake and put the check in the
regular mail. What kind of business is this???? They lie like
they breathe, after being lied to over and over we started to have the feeling, if their lips are moving they are lying. Robert, the most helpful person alive at Germain, figured out what was going on finally, he emailed pictures of the checks that were put in the regular mail because I didn't believe anything they said at this point. I got the checks Thursday and had the car fixed Saturday. While they were fixing it they found more problems with my "mechanically sound car". The wheel bearing are really bad. The tires Backhand said were"like new" are almst completely dead. I'm sure the $700.00 suspension work that needs to be done is not covered by the warranty. And I don't need the headache of dealing with these people again. My other car had 75,000 miles on it compared to the 35,000 on this one , it never had any problems, and I think these issues should of all been fixed prior to them selling it to me.
I would certainly look else where if you need to buy a car... If you aren't terrified of this dealership yet from my real life experience, do more further investigations on your own. Go to the BBBs website and read the vile things they have done to other paying clients. I wish I would of before buying this car. Read more of the reviews from others that had the same problem of being continuously lied to. And please take the good reviews as a grain of salt, they are probanly as manufactured as all the lies I was told.
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