Fred Mueller Mazda

Fred Mueller Mazda responded

Dear Cardude- Please accept our apologies for any confusion you experienced during your interaction with our store. We appreciate this opportunity to respond publicly. In your review, you noted explicitly that we had clarified, early on, that "service fee" and what you referred to in your review as "documentary fee" (actually "documentation", or "doc" fee for short) were interchangeable terms, referring to the same charge of $269.00 we had initially disclosed. Noting, then, those labels used interchangeably during the course of our discussions should have come as no surprise, nor caused any confusion. The cost of this fee did not change throughout our conversations, and the only changes in pricing during our negotiation was a slight discount on the vehicle price we conceded to in effort to close the sale. At no point did we increase our asking price of the vehicle, nor add any charges that had not previously been discussed. Unfortunately, our offered discount fell far short of reaching the very low price (far below our invoice) you were offering to pay. We understand and apologize that this caused you frustration. In the end, we indicated that we would not be able to accommodate your pricing request, and wished you luck in pursuing your purchase elsewhere. As a locally-owned, franchise dealer in our 40th year of business, we maintain very high metrics of customer satisfaction, which is very important to us and our business model. We regret the fact that you are unhappy with your experience. However, after reviewing this case, we are confident that at no point were any "bait and switch" or other unprofessional tactics employed by our sales team. We stand behind our thousands of satisfied clients, our reputation, and our staff.

Cardude responded

If customer satisfaction is important to your business model, why did my email to General Manager Joe Mueller go unanswered? That’s most certainly an unprofessional business tactic. At no point did your store offer the vehicle “far below” invoice price. In fact, from the beginning Justin’s pricing was invoice PLUS a $500 markup… and the amount increased from there. Another unprofessional business tactic is misrepresenting the facts of this deal, which you have done in your response. Since you seem to not remember the specifics of my interactions with your store, I appreciate the opportunity to respond publicly and remind Justin of what he committed. The vehicle in question was an inbound 2021 CX-5 Carbon Edition with no port, dealer, or other added or installed options. I was provided with pricing as invoice cost of $30,400 + $500 dealer markup + a $269 service fee (or doc fee as you refer to). Justin told me that I’d be out the door for around $31,000. Tax, title and license costs were my responsibility and would be handled directly with the state as I would register this car outside of Wisconsin. When I asked Justin to see invoice he deflected my inquiry and told me “We’ll if it doesn’t sell before it arrives we can talk about it then.” Not exactly a pleasant and smooth interaction, and likely where your store hid the additional markup that came at purchase time. At the time that I attempted to purchase the vehicle, the out the door price included a document fee (or service fee) of $269, however the total out the door price increased up to $31,619, a significant increase from the initial pricing of $31,000! At no point in time did Justin or anyone else attempt to give a “slight discount on the vehicle price” … “in effort to close the sale”, which is also misrepresented in your response. I reminded Justin that the pricing he provided to me initially differed, and that I’d be happy to provide a deposit if he would honor his initial deal. At this point I was told that the deal is off the table and to take my business elsewhere. Call it what you want, but the end result is the same. Your store inflated the out the door price at the 11th hour. Justin gave an initial price of $31,000 and then increased it to $31,619, which is the very definition of a bait and switch tactics. Note to perspective customers of Fred Mueller Mazda that are still reading: If this dealership does not wish to provide the invoice for the vehicle, other dealers will. My experience with Fred Mueller Mazda was that the end pricing didn’t match what was originally quoted. Where they hid that increase (doc fee, service fee, invoice price, vehicle price, etc.) is irrelevant. Pay very close attention to the exact amounts throughout interactions with Fred Mueller, as in my case the costs became less favorable.