The following bait-and-switch occurred on the evening of - kgarza
The following bait-and-switch occurred on the evening of November 7th. I emailed the General Manager to redress the issue and waited ten days for a response; I still have received no response from John Hautman, the General Manager. It is November 17th. On November 7th, a representative from DCH Toyota of Oxnard named Melany (I’m not sure of her last name because she isn’t listed on their site’s website) reached out to us regarding some online inquiries I’ve been putting out. She asked us if we’d be willing to wait for a vehicle to arrive in December. We said yes as we are in no rush. She then sent me a spec sheet of the vehicle, the type that lists all the packages and fees and such. We sent in an offer for that vehicle, the same offer we’ve had a few other dealerships take us up on. She said, in writing, that she would look into it with her manager (Christian Medel), and then got back to us a half hour later with an offer that was an even better price for us.
Here's where the issue begins. I then clarified with her, in writing, that we wanted a guaranteed out-the-door price when we arrived there in person—the offer she sent us—with no potential “bait-and-switch” situations happening when we arrived. I had to be crystal clear about this because we’ve been bait-and-switched before and it’s infuriating. She then responded, in writing, (I have screenshots of this message from her) “You can have our word that nothing will change. Finance will offer things to you because that is their job but, on our end, everything is what we told you. Vehicle is arriving in December and in order for us to mark it sold we need a signed contract with the numbers we agreed upon, and we will also take a $2k nonrefundable deposit.” That sounded great, so I reiterated the offer, verbatim, that she sent me for the spec sheet of the car that she sent me to ensure with crystal clarity that I was not going to show up to the dealership on November 7th with any potential situation occurring where the vehicle I was ordering was in any way, shape, or form different than the spec sheet I was sent. She said, in writing, “Yes, please. Come on in.” We then arranged for a 6:30 meeting time.
When we showed up, someone in the front directed us to Melany, who sat us down with a Miguel Alacantar (I’m not sure if it’s Alcantar or Alacantar—Alacantar is what is listed on the store website). Having only known Miguel for the brief time we were there, I’d say he’s an awesome guy with integrity—the kind of guy I would want working in sales because he’s candid with customers and up front about how the fine print of the sale works. With Miguel we came to the head of the problem: Miguel explained that the offer we were given by Melany, approved by her manager, Christian Medel, was not actually the out-the-door price of the car for what was listed on the spec sheet (the price and spec sheet that we discussed, in writing, before coming in so that we would not potentially have this very situation occur while we were there). Sure enough, some of the items listed on the spec sheet are actually “extra,” we were told, because they are installed at the dealership, and we would have to be charged more than the offer we were sent, in writing, if we wanted those items. I explained briefly to Miguel that this was the very thing I was trying to avoid, and that’s why I went to painstaking crystal-clear lengths, in writing, to ensure that this would not happen. He took a few minutes to head to the back to address it with Melany and Christian, and he came back with Christian in tow.
Rather than address the concern itself, Christian then proceeded to just reiterate the same thing that Miguel told me minutes prior in the very same words: these items listed on the spec sheet, the spec sheet that we clarified, in writing, was what our offer was for, are extra, and the offer we were sent did not actually include those items, but we could pay extra for them if we wanted. No apologies. Just lies.
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