Lima Auto Mall

Very pleased with the overall process of purchaseing a 2013 Equinox. Mr Sanders was very knowledgeable about the vehicle we purchased and was able to answer all our questions. 2013 Equinox. Mr Sanders was very knowledgeable about the vehicle we purchased and was able to answer all our questions. More

Aaron came out and met us when we first started looking and helped us test drive different vehicles. He was able to answer all our questions and find what we wanted. He kept in touch with us. We are ver and helped us test drive different vehicles. He was able to answer all our questions and find what we wanted. He kept in touch with us. We are very happy with our purchase. Was a little more than expected to pay when we started looking and a little less mpg, but love everything else about the vehicle. Second time we were in, Aaron was very busy, but we did not have an appointment at that time. Very satisfited. More

What we thought was going to be our dream car, turned into a nightmare due to the (lack of) service we found at Lima Auto Mall. Don’t get us wrong, the staff was extremely nice and professional during th into a nightmare due to the (lack of) service we found at Lima Auto Mall. Don’t get us wrong, the staff was extremely nice and professional during the times we actually spoke to them, but we had so many issues that overshadowed that, that the entire experience was an unprofessional mess. When we first called and found the vehicle we wanted, they were great. They didn’t have to sell us on anything; we knew what we wanted—make, model, year, trim and miles. They worked with us to get a good financing rate, and ended up being competitive enough with our credit union that our credit union lowered their rates to be even more competitive, and we finally chose our credit union’s better rate. Things were going perfectly. We were very apprehensive with this being our first internet car buying experience, however, and purchasing a $30k vehicle without physically seeing it. We are out of state buyers and they assured us they had done this many times before and things always went smoothly. We found a shipping company that would send the vehicle for a lot less, but the folks at Lima again assured us that they had never had any issues with the company they used, and that the vehicle would be delivered to our door. We trusted them to provide the level of customer service that so many online reviews have given them. Our complaint is in regard to the expectations set by Lima Auto Mall themselves and consistently not following through to meet those expectations. Of course, every buyer wants to know when their stuff is going to arrive. Amazon, UPS, USPS and such have created tracking systems just for that purpose. When we said we wanted our vehicle, that we were ready to buy, we asked when it should arrive. We were told by Dave, our salesperson, that as soon as they received our check, they would ship the vehicle. We overnighted our initial payment…but no, turns out that there was more paperwork to fill out before the vehicle should ship. We thought it might be that way--made sense that there would be more papers--so we were then told that as soon as the paperwork was filled out the vehicle would ship. Again, this was not the case. These were not assumptions on our part, this is what we were told. After we confirmed they got the paperwork, we asked when we could again expect the vehicle to ship. We were told it would leave the next day (Friday). We asked for a confirmation of that, to let us know when the vehicle was picked up. We were told we would receive one. We never did. When we contacted the shipping company directly (on Saturday) to find out if the vehicle had shipped, we were told they had only just received paperwork from the dealership and that it hadn’t been assigned out yet. That would take 1-3 days and then we could expect 3-5 days before it would arrive. Again, we asked to be told when the vehicle shipped. On Tuesday we called and asked what was happening with the car. Dave told us that he looked out on the lot and the vehicle wasn’t there. But in speaking with Secured Transport, we were told it still wasn’t assigned out and that they would call when it was. This was relayed to Dave, who said the vehicle was in detail and would stay there until it was picked up. The next day (Wednesday) Secured called us to confirm this was assigned and confirmed for pick up on that coming Saturday. Saturday came and went—again, no confirmation or status update-- and the car was finally picked up on Monday: eleven days after being told that as soon as they received the paperwork back from us, the vehicle would ship. However, Lima didn’t call us to let us know the vehicle had finally been picked up. We called Secured Transport. It was only after our calls that we got word from Lima that the vehicle had been picked up. When asked what happened to the Saturday pick up, we were told the original truck broke down and they had to find a new truck and driver. Again, asked for written confirmation of pick up, were told we could get one, and we didn’t. We told Dave that we felt that at this point we felt they were not living up to their commitment to customer service and that we would like some kind of compensation for our time. He said he would talk to his manager and see what they could work out. He didn’t get back to us. At this point we called to talk to Joe Shaw, the General Sales Manager. He let us know that Dave was newer to the facility, and that he was incorrect, that they had to schedule a pickup with Secure Transport, the transportation company, so us being told that the vehicle would leave as soon as the paperwork came was wrong. They were at the mercy of Secure Transport when it came to when the vehicle could be shipped. We again asked if something could be done for us to make up for the failure to meet expectations. Joe said he would get back to us also. He also never did. We had been going around with only one vehicle for a month before we found the car we wanted, and now we were having to wait even longer. Had they set clear expectations that it could take a couple of weeks before we got the car, we would have been okay with that and made other arrangements. But we were constantly told one thing and then not followed up with when things didn’t go down that way. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the experience. Instead of us being handed off to Secure Transport and calling us when the vehicle was picked up, we had to call Secure Transport ourselves. Turns out that Secure Transport doesn’t actually transport the vehicles, they just contract out to other shipping/transport companies. We were given the name of Cheyenne Logistics and told we could expect a call from their driver the day before the vehicle was to arrive, but that we could expect it in 3 to 5 days. This was Monday. Wednesday came and at the end of business we called Cheyenne Logistics about the status so that we could plan for when the car might arrive. The woman from Cheyenne logistics was great, very friendly. As it was after hours for her and she was not actually at work, she told us to call her back the next day and she would have all the info we needed. We did just that. Imagine our surprise, however, when we were told the vehicle had been delivered Wednesday morning. Our jaws hit the floor. Where was the car sent? We sure didn’t have it. It was sent to Iowa (we live in Idaho.) We instantly called Secure Transport. Oops. Turns out there were two of the same year, make and model of car being sent out from Lima Auto Mall on that day. Secure Transport gave us the wrong information. Our vehicle was being sent by Victory Transport and we could expect it to be there in 7 to 10 days. At this point we weren’t even sure if the right vehicle was being sent to us. Secure gave us the name and phone number of the driver. We called him and he said that we could probably expect the car Friday evening or Saturday. We tried a couple of times to call Joe Shaw at Lima Auto Mall during that Friday to again discuss the situation, but always got his voice mail. As we had had such bad luck with getting calls back in the past, we opted not to leave messages. Friday night at 7 pm the driver called us. He was about 3 hours outside of town. Where would we like to meet him to pick up the vehicle? Wait—weren’t we told that the vehicle would be delivered to our doorstep? We asked him about that. Not only did he say he did not have our address, he said that it probably wouldn’t be good for him to drive his truck into our neighborhood and that he usually just met the people somewhere to deliver the car. We were confused. We just spent $1500 to have our vehicle delivered, and now we needed to meet him somewhere, after dark to get our car? When we spoke to him again around 10 pm, we let him know we had three little kids who were all in bed right now, and we couldn’t really go somewhere to meet him. Can’t he just bring his truck into the neighborhood? No, because he was driving a 100 ft car transport with eight other cars on it. No way would it fit into our neighborhood. He asked if there was somewhere nearby that he could go. We told him that there was a Walgreen’s about a block from our house that he could park at. He said he would do that and then drive our car over to us, and then we could drive him back. We didn’t know him. It was late at night, and we have kids at home. It seemed really sketchy. We had the expectation that the car was going to be delivered to our house. There was no way we were going to drive him back to his truck. We gave him directions to the Walgreen’s and then waited for him to arrive. We could see out of our window when he got there and then we went over to meet him, letting a neighbor watch our sleeping kids. The driver was also very pleasant. He got our vehicle off of the rails for us, gave us the key. We signed for it and made it home at 11 pm. After two weeks of waiting after the paperwork was received by Lima Auto Mall, we finally had our vehicle. If only that were the end of the experience. Our excitement over finally getting the car was quickly diminished when we noticed some things about the car. First, we only got one key and one key FOB. We searched all over the car for a second key. Nothing. The floor mats we had specifically asked about prior to purchase, missing from the second row. The vehicle that Dave told us wasn’t on the lot because it was being “detailed?” Grease marks on the carpet that can be scratched off with your fingernail. French fries in the steel runners for the moveable seats. A black Sharpie marker under one of the seats. No “new car” smell here. The car was understandably extremely dirty from the cross country trip. We are hoping that the reason why the wiper fluid doesn’t work is because the dispensers are clogged from that dirt. We have tried to clean them out using compressed air, but it seems that the motor for the fluid pump isn’t working. We will know more when we take our certified vehicle in one week after receiving it to have it repaired. But the biggest problem once we received the car? No temporary registration. So even after receiving our vehicle we still couldn’t drive it. Our DMVs are closed over the weekends and the car arrived late Friday night. We contacted Dave the next morning to see what he could do. He let us know that he could overnight it to us, and we asked that he email it as well, and gave him our email address via text. He said absolutely, that he could. We asked again, that once it was sent, that he please send us confirmation and let us know that it had been done. Eight hours later we still had no response from him. We tried to call the Auto Mall and they were closed, so we sent Dave a text asking about the email. He said that he sent it, saying that the registration would be overnighted. That is great, but that wasn’t what we asked for…we wanted to registration emailed to us as well, and we wanted him to let us know that he had sent it. Regardless, we still didn’t have an email from him one way or the other. He suggested that we check our spam folder, but this email address doesn’t have one. Trying to give the benefit of the doubt, we thought we just might not have received it and the message was stalled somewhere out in the ethernet. The next day, Sunday, brought no changes: still no email and no “overnighted” registration either. We sent him a text asking if he sent the email to a .com email or .org—remember we had texted him the email address. It should have gone to .org. He let us know that he did indeed send it to .com…but he didn’t resend the email to the correct email address. On Monday morning we went to the DMV and were able to get a temporary registration for the car. Finally we could legally drive our vehicle, three days after we actually got it. And guess what? Tuesday our “overnighted” temp registration finally arrived. It had indeed been overnighted, but was sent on Monday, not Saturday as one might have expected from the conversation. Tuesday morning another salesperson from the dealership called, seeing that they had missed a call from one of our numbers. We spoke to him about all our frustrations and issues. He said he would definitely check into it. True to form, we have yet to hear back from him. The issue here is not one of being treated rudely, abusively, getting cheated or swindled. We love our new vehicle. As we have said, everyone has been extremely friendly and polite—it is about expectations as customers, expectations that the business itself set up, not being fulfilled—Lima Auto Mall not doing the things they said they would. If you don’t plan to get back to us, that is fine, be upfront about it. But not returning calls, not getting back when you say you are going to, that kind of behavior is unacceptable. More