Southern States Subaru

A year ago I had Southern States Imports service department look at my 99 Passat because the AC was blowing warm. They called me within a few hours and told me the orifice tube was clogged and they department look at my 99 Passat because the AC was blowing warm. They called me within a few hours and told me the orifice tube was clogged and they would clean it out and recharge the system for $225. The mechanic also got on the phone with me and explained this (I had told them I was a mechanic myself in my earlier days) and he also said that if the AC stops working again they'd need to replace the orifice tube - which made sense. They cleaned it out and got me on my way for the quoted price - all is good so far. A year later (the next summer) the AC stopped working again. Pretty sure I knew what was going on I called them and brought it back in for service explaining the previous year's repair in detail. They called me back a few hours after I dropped it off and said it was ready. When I asked what the total was I almost fell off my chair - nearly $500 this time! I said nothing over the phone but instead went directly to the service managers office when I went to pick up the car. I explained to him that the AC was repaired last year in which the EXACT same procedure was performed, except this time they replace the orifice tube instead of blowing it out with air. The part cost $50 so I would expect the bill to be $275 or thereabouts. I also brought last years bill with me as proof which he carefully reviewed. He then said he would go talk with the mechanic and see what's up. He came back 20 min later and said he wasn't sure why the bill was so different, but by this point I was pretty sure I did: in my 20 minutes alone in his office I had plenty of time to read the large whiteboard hung in plain site on his wall. On it, there was a list of each service writers names along with the number of repair orders they closed and the average service hours billed per repair order. In big letters below this list it read: "Target work order hours: 2.5" - not coincidentally the exact amount of labor hours applied to my bill (last year's bill was just 1 hour). To make a long story short, he dropped my bill to $275. I think he was a good guy but didn't realize that his program was providing an incentive for either the service writers or the mechanics to pad their work orders in order to hit some profitability goals. I've heard of other such programs at other dealerships - so I know it isn't just Southern States. More

We went the Southern States Buick Mazda Pre-Owned in Raleigh, NC (on Wake Forest Rd.) Friday June 29, 2007. We were in house to look at/purchase the 2007 Mazda CX-7. My husband and I had done our resear Raleigh, NC (on Wake Forest Rd.) Friday June 29, 2007. We were in house to look at/purchase the 2007 Mazda CX-7. My husband and I had done our research, knew what we wanted, everything. We test drove the car, and everything appeared to be great. Well once we started talking numbers, the salesman gave us an outrageous monthly payment. Now coming from someone who had purchased a brand new Mazda 3 less then a year back, I knew where my payments should be at, including the interest rate (roughly). No one could give us an answer as to where they were producing this ungastly number. I said to the sales rep, "can't you drop some on the price to work with our monthly payment?" and he replied with a shocking, "well I could have him take MAYBE $1,000 off, but that will only drop the monthly payment by $20 per month...". I said "well that is something!!!!" Amongst us, during our conversation, the dealership had closed with us in there. TV off, people gone, and lights out before we were even finished talking. As they rush us out the door and assure us they will call us the following day with an explanation of the monthly payment and interest rate. Needless to say, there was no phone call! We went to another dealership, which offered wonderful service, however the same vehicle was much more expensive (HOWEVER, they managed to give us a monthly payment about $80 less per month on a vehicle priced $10,000 higher...Hmmmmm?!)Well, the rep from SSBM called us and wanted to ignore our original conversation and try and push us into another vehicle, as a lease! When purchasing a vehicle, don't YOU want to be the one to pick it out?? We drove down to Raleigh, and warned them we were on our way and to get that financial stuff straight. Long Long story, made shorter....they worked out our monthly payments down to where we wanted it...nearly $200 less per month than originally quoted! HMMMM, how does that happen? A new rep was helping us, which was very nice, and was unfortunately helping us after all the trouble (or so I thought). We agreed on the price, shook hands, called and had the insurance transferred and waited for the paperwork to be drawn up to sign. So excited and exhausted that it took this much, we waited to get out of the dealership and drive off in our car! :) NOT SO MUCH...the rep then came out and told us that their financial rep FORGOT to put our trade in that number so they would have to increase the monthly payment by $60 per month. I was furious at this point, because it always seems to be something with this unorganized establishment. I told them it was not our problem, they need to go back and crunch their numbers to make it right. They basically gave me 2 options, one being "you don't have to purchase the car." FURIOUS!!! The new sales rep was very patient and understanding of my rage. The sales manager NEVER came out to apologize for the error or experience either Friday night or that day! After standing our ground and firm to our belief in business ethic, we did walk away with a good deal. It was an incredibly exhausting experience. They didn't seem to care at all! They said that their customer service lady would be contacting us, and she took her sweet time. You don't get responses via email. The ONLY ONLY ONLY reason we continued to deal with Southern States Pre-Owned was because they had the car we wanted, at an excellant price. The service was AWFUL!(**with the exception of our 2nd rep..Mike M. he was friendly and patient, but by the time we got him, it was too late) More