Beaver Toyota St. Augustine

SEE POSITIVE UPDATES BELOW: Exhibited behavior that SEE POSITIVE UPDATES BELOW: Exhibited behavior that strongly suggests a bias toward women. Specifically ,behavior like calling my husband back on SEE POSITIVE UPDATES BELOW: Exhibited behavior that strongly suggests a bias toward women. Specifically ,behavior like calling my husband back on at least three different occasions during the course of this transaction, waiting until my husband was present to begin negotiating, yet continuing to negotiate when I had to step away to take a call. Overall condescending. I purchased a vehicle for my daughter in April. Relatively painless process aside from the usual tactics. During this deal my husband happened to be with us through the whole process. I returned in September to inquire about purchasing two additional vehicles. Criteria was provided but little to no follow up. I ended up purchasing a vehicle at another dealership. My interest was that the dealership is supposedly "locally" family owned and community oriented. It was my intention to develop a relationship with a locally owned dealership. So, I returned yet again to purchase the second vehicle I wanted to buy, a Prius. I returned another time to test drive which went well. Faron Gallon was the salesperson. He was the same person I dealt with when we purchased our daughter's car. He was very informative and friendly. When I decided on the car I wanted he asked that I come back and made sure to ask that my husband be there as well. We returned the following Saturday. Santa was at the dealership that day. We took some pictures with Santa with our 5 year old ,etc. Then my husband had to take our son to the restroom. They were gone about 20 min. While I sat, waiting. It wasn't until my husband sat down that they would begin negotiation. During the process I received an important call on my cell phone that I needed to take, I stepped away and they continued to try to negotiate without me being there. We were unable to close the deal on the car I preferred. They instead offered another vehicle that was just in another color that they were willing to make the deal on because the car had been sitting on the lot longer, money they had in it, etc. I contacted the salesperson personally let him know I wanted to take the deal on the second choice car. We all but had a deal sealed. I had the check cut , made the appointment for 1PM. I tried to make the appointment for earlier in the day but the salesperson told me he had another appointment at 10:30AM so, I agreed to 1PM. At 11 AM on the day of my appointment Faron called to tell me the car had sold. Very disappointed because I did all the research , visited the dealership on 3 different occasions for this deal, to have it sold out from underneath me. This communicated a lack of customer loyalty. I had been particularly interested in purchasing Prius vehicles from Beaver Toyota because I own and operate a green cleaning business. Our company, Conscious Clean, is integrating the utilization of hybrids in our modest, yet growing fleet. Many of our clients are minded individuals , it seemed as though it could have been a win win local business relationship. So I relented in trying to start from the drawing board. Although I had been very clear about the criteria , this was ignored time and time again. Offering high mileage vehicles, wrong models, etc. this went on for the past week. No comparable offers made that vaguely resembled the offer that we had already negotiated. Dec 27th, I called to speak to Mr May. He advised he was really busy, didn't mean to be rude but would call me back in 20 min. 2 hours later I called back. He apologized, etc. After speaking to Mr May, he was cordial, but basically gave me the brush off ,continually pushing a lease. Finally, I was passed off to Francisco, the used car manager, who was present at the negotiation for the vehicle I ultimately went back to return to purchase, to find it had been sold. Then the pushing of the higher mileage vehicles re-commenced, older models, etc. During the conversation I had with. Francisco he explained "Sweetheart , sweetheart you don't understand . In order to purchase a car for what you want you need a car with the asking price 10,000." (Keep in mind we had all but another deal wrapped up until it was sold from underneath me for a car with the asking price if 15800 a week ago.) He actually said that with my trade (2005 Honda Odyssey, regularly maintained) that they had already agreed said to give me 4500 and the 7000 cash , I would need to purchase a car with a 10,000 asking price. Um, I am not a math major but, I can add. Note: I had already agreed to pay tax,title, and their dealer fee separately. ( which Fran did agree to charge the same 599 that Honda offered) He and I went round and round a few times with lots of sweetheart you just don't understand BS. He was right , I don't understand how I can give you my trade that YOU say is worth only 4500 then 7000 cash yet, should be looking for a car that has a 10000 asking price. Really?!? Francisco closed by inviting me to the dealership tomorrow so that I can see it on the computer to understand. I explained that I understood that there are many factors that drive the market. They were ready to make the deal on the other vehicle and if the perfect storm happens again :right car, right price, right mileage, has been sitting on the lot long enough, etc. Call me. He advised he had 300+ vehicles to look through and would call me back in 2 hours. No call back. Tip: They boast that their dealer fee is 699, the lowest in the industry. Its 599 next door at Honda. Alas, I am going to have to go with another dealership. My impression is that this dealership is more interested in exploiting individuals that they can make finance charges off and less interested in working with other local business owners that in theory would be great marketing for them and us. My husband and I have been here since 1985 and 1986. We attended high school and college here in Saint Augustine. We have seen many carpetbaggers come and go. I really thought this dealership was different. Typically, I would not put so much into a simple review , but if you are fortunate enough to not need to get gouged on financing , and are looking to develop a lucrative , loyalty based business relationship with a dealership (particularly if you are a woman, "sweetheart") don't waste your time. However, if anyone has any recommendations on a dealership please feel free to share. *************************************************************************************************************************************** UPDATE 12/31/2013: Abby from Beaver has called in an attempt to remedy this situation. She has represented that she is trying very hard to find a comparable deal to retain our business. She did offer an apology "We are sorry you feel that you were treated different because you are a women, that is not our policy." Even though typically I wouldn't accept an apologize for how "I feel", instead of the behavior that caused the need for an apology, I did communicate that I am open to the idea of healing the relationship and give them the opportunity to remedy what has been done. In part, because as I have been to many dealerships I am finding more often than not that this is not just a Beaver Toyota phenomenon, it is an industry problem. According to an article written in Forbes by Maddy Dychtwald for Forbes magazine (5/2010), women buy 52% of all cars and influence 85% of car buying decisions. Who knows maybe this will change at least the way one dealership, Beaver Toyota, views and treats future potential women buyers. I have been made a decent offer on a vehicle, but nothing on the lot that I could actually see, drive, etc. It has been represented that this car will not be on the lot until Friday. Acknowledging that there is a bias would be a nice step in the right direction. In their defense , this could be because they really don't have anything on the lot that meets the criteria I require. (although their website does have a few vehicles that seemingly would be decent alternatives) That being said, I have no way of knowing what they have in those cars, etc. I understand they need to make money. I will update with the resolution when I have it. ******************************************************************************* UPDATE- 1/11/2014 Abby Turney contacted me and with the help of Fran did find an alternative vehicle. But found an alternative nonetheless. I ended up buying something that was already on the lot. Fran did apologize personally, as did George May. That did mean a lot to me. The Beaver Toyota people seem to see and understand the importance of addressing the concerns of their customers. I hope to do business in the future. While going through the car buying process, I have found that sexism is quite commonplace. At least the people at Beaver, are intuitive and wise enough to want to acknowledge and take steps to avoid things like this from happening in the future. Making a negative experience a positive one , was first and foremost for Abby in particular. I appreciate greatly her efforts and her success in healing this business relationship. In my dealings with Beaver, I have found out that they do donate to local charities as we do at Conscious Clean. I do hope they keep up the good work. More