Hawthorne Chevrolet

Buyer Beware If you are considering purchasing a vehicle with Hawthorne Chevrolet and, by extension, using the financing company, GM Financial, that they use for t If you are considering purchasing a vehicle with Hawthorne Chevrolet and, by extension, using the financing company, GM Financial, that they use for there leases, I would highly recommend thinking twice about your purchase and reading this honest review before making your decision. Because of the experience that I had with both of these businesses, I would strongly advise that you look elsewhere for your next vehicle. There are several dealerships in the area that I have used in the past that never would have displayed the same level of unprofessionalism and ineptitude that I experienced with Chevy and GM in the past few weeks. If you scroll back through this comment section, you will likely find a review from me when I first purchased my vehicle with Hawthorne Chevy. I, like many of the reviewers on here, was satisfied with my purchase and the sales team with whom I worked. Now, a few months later, I feel that it is my responsibility as a customer to follow up and warn others of the experience that I later had. Hopefully this review will rescue some readers from suffering the same fate that I did. In May of 2018, I was leaving for work early in the morning only to discover that my car was missing from my driveway. Naturally, as any reasonable person would, I thought that my car had been stolen in the night. Having to abruptly take off from work to figure out what happened, I called the local police only to discover that my car was repossessed due to delinquent payments. This, of course, came as quite a shock as I created an account with GM Financial, just as my sales representative at Hawthorne Chevy instructed me to, and scheduled for automatic payments to be withdrawn from my account each month. I have never missed a payment on anything in my life and would never allow my car to be repossessed – especially considering the monthly payment is by far the lowest one that I have. The strange part was that I never once received any sort of indication that my payments were not being made. I continued to receive advertisements from Hawthorne Chevy and GM, but not one message about my actual account. Trying to get into contact with anyone from GM or Hawthorne Chevy was nearly impossible that day. I was disconnected at least six times while waiting on hold and when I finally did get a representative on the phone, and I explained my situation, I was treated like a delinquent. The tone that the representatives took was dehumanizing and belittling. After nearly a full day of making phone calls, I discovered that my car had been taken to a repossession lot more than an hour away from where I live. Again, I received virtually no notification that my payments were late or that the car was repossessed. The company that took the car didn’t even leave a notice. Thus, began a pattern of questionable business practices that I believe demonstrates my mistreatment as a customer. I was told that the only way to reacquire my vehicle was to wire my missed payments in full (in addition to towing and holding fees) via Western Union before my car was sold at auction. Because the monthly payment on the car was pretty low, the fees were actually more expensive than the three months of alleged missed payments that I owed. I returned to Hawthorne Chevrolet that day and spoke with both the sales representative that sold me the vehicle, as well as the finance director, both agreeing that the circumstances surrounding the repossession of the vehicle sounded odd. That night, I wired the requested funds in full to GM. I spent several hours on the phone with customer service, once again being transferred from representative to representative with no one able to provide any sort of clear explanation for how this issue occurred. I had to take off from work once again the following Monday to reacquire the vehicle as the car could only be picked up before 3:00 p.m. After spending more than six hours on the phone with GM (mostly on hold), I finally got the information that I needed to reclaim my vehicle. It seemed, from my perspective, that there was no procedure in place for a person to be reinstated and reclaim their car. It is a system designed for the customer to fail with workers who have no communication with one another. I followed up with Hawthorne Chevy later that day (again, after they seemed to be dodging my calls) and received a phone number for me to call so that I could speak with the manager of the GM reinstatement department. I was incredibly upset that I had to pay nearly $800.00 in fees just to get my car back, but I was MUCH more concerned by how this would impact my credit score going forward. The manager’s advise during my phone conversation with her was extremely questionable. She, much like the representatives at Hawthorne Chevy, suggested that GM went through a “systems change” in early 2018 that resulted in several other complaints much like the one that I was reporting. She claimed that “many people” who created GM accounts or set up payment plans during the transitional period from my area experienced issues with their payments being cancelled and the ending dates of automatic payment pays being “depopulated” on the online payment calendars within customer accounts. I later learned that my mother (who also purchased a car from the same dealership as me only a few weeks earlier) experienced the same issue. She signed up for automatic payments in early 2018 and received a late notice via phone claiming that her payment for her first month was not submitted. She immediately created another account online and re-enrolled in automatic payments. I, on the other hand, never received any sort of notification via mail, e-mail, phone, or otherwise that there was any issue with my account. Because the monthly payment was so low, I never realized that they were not being withdrawn. It was extremely frustrating that Hawthorne Chevy blamed GM for their negligence with the account and GM blamed Hawthorne Chevy for not providing them with a completed list of contact IDs to reach me through. Neither side took ownership of this problem and left me to waste days upon days trying to sort it out. I explained my concerns to reinstatement manager about my credit score and how repossession could impact me in the long term. Given to totality of my situation, she told me that I had every right to be upset and should certainly file a dispute with the Credit Bureau and reach out to the Better Business Bureau. I asked her if GM could simply submit a form verifying that it was an error on their part, but she advised me that I should file complaints. The oddest part of the conversation was when she explained that the repossession may or may not be reported at all – an unfair state of uncertainty to place a customer in. She explained that due to the string of errors that were taking place, late payments and other glitches were not being reported at all, but GM had once again (conveniently) began reporting credit issues that week that I was having the issue. She told me to repeatedly check my credit score to see if GM submitted paperwork that would negatively impact my credit for the next 2 months before filing a dispute claim. I eventually saw that GM HAD filed that paperwork and my credit score dropped by nearly 100 points! Finally, to add to this already stressful situation, the GM manager informed me that my online account was locked and that I would not be able to make a payment. She proceeded to tell me that if I did not make a payment in the next four days, my car would again be repossessed! I offered to send my check for the month of May certified mail, but she claimed that they might not get it in time. I feel that this type of business practice is preposterous and, again, designed for the customer to fail. I had to spend several hours on the phone, once again, just to get them to take my payment and send me a personal e-mail to confirm that it was received. Personally, I feel that I was grossly mistreated as a customer in this situation and the procedure and business practices of GM and Hawthorne Chevy demonstrated gross misconduct that forced me to spend more money on towing and other fees than I actually owed on the car itself. It seems to me that I was set up for failure right from when I signed for my lease. Even as I was desperately trying to get my car back, these businesses seemed to have virtually no protocol for doing so, nor did they really seem to care. I know that this is quite a long review, and I certainly don't mean to hurt the reputations of any specific employees, but I also don’t want anyone else to go through the same horrifying situation as me. Chevy might be running a nice sale that looks appealing, but it’s just not worth it. Do yourself the favor and take the advise that I wish someone gave me! Invest your time and money in a business that has your back rather than one that is simply setting you up to fail. More