Subaru World of Hackettstown

I have been a Subaru owner since 2013. I purchased an original XV Crosstrek, which I have kept in great shape and always have taken to be serviced at my local dealership, Route 46 Subaru i I purchased an original XV Crosstrek, which I have kept in great shape and always have taken to be serviced at my local dealership, Route 46 Subaru in Hackettstown, NJ. A couple of years ago, I experienced engine failure and was told it needed a full replacement. The car was a month past warranty coverage, and the job was to be expensive. I was disappointed. I thought Subarus were high quality cars, how could I need a new engine in a car that is not even a decade old? The dealership stepped in and helped me get the job covered by Subaru HQ with just a $500 deductible on my part. I was grateful and thought of remaining a loyal customer to the brand due to the positive experience and the high level of customer care I had experienced. My 2013 crosstrek is 120,000 miles but is in great shape, especially after the engine was replaced. And now that I am working from home pretty much permanently and do not commute as I used to, I expect it to last me at least 5 more years. I have no need to replace my car right now. I own it. But I have noticed that it’s feeling dated, especially because it lacks a lot of the newer technological advancements now found in the newer models. I’ve had a chance to experience some of those while driving some of the loaner cars I have borrowed while servicing my crosstrek at the dealership. This week I received a personalized email offer for a trade-in from my local dealership now called Subaru World of Hackettstown, NJ. I though the offer was attractive enough for me to consider entertaining it, even though, as I said, I have no need for a new car right now. I am perfectly happy with my current 2013 crosstrek and no car payments. I visited the dealership this Saturday 08/13 around 11 30 am. I was greeted by Rajonie Hammond in sales. I mentioned the offer I had received, he asked to see it and proceeded to show me the available crosstreks in the lot that fit what I was looking for. After looking at 4, I settled on a Limited in white, fully loaded. We proceeded to go inside to work on the numbers. This is where things started to go south. I had an offer for the trade-in with specific numbers in it, based on specific knowledge of my car’s mileage and condition because I service it at the dealership. As the salesman started working with his manager doing the classic dealership back and forth routine, at first, he came back with an offer for a trade-in for 7k. About half of what the personalized offer stated... As I was ready to walk away, then the salesman went back to his boss and returned with a 12,500 trade in offer for my 2013 crosstrek. I can’t help but question, If I was sent a personalized offer based on their knowledge of my car, which is serviced at the dealership, why try to pay less than what originally offered? Why go to the charade of luring customers with a bait and switch tactic only to reverse it once pressed? We moved on to figuring out financing, which I asked to see options for 36 and 48 months with down payments of 5k and 10k. Rajonie went back and retuned with numbers for all scenarios. After discussing with my wife, we decided that we would pay the car outright with our savings and avoid the 2.9% financing offered. The offer stated 1.9%, but we were given an excuse for how that would not be possible… yet another misleading bait and switch attempt… We’d do the 12,500 trade-in, 10k in 2 credit cards and a check for the remaining balance. I called my mom and asked her to drive my checkbook to the dealer. Rajonie had gone back to his boss and returned with a balance of 21k as the amount to be financed, which was 2k more than the number we calculated based on his information. We pointed out the issue, he went back to get confirmation and things got very weird… When he came back, he said his manager had asked him to leave. He said he did not want to leave until we at least were taken care of and helped by someone else. He was upset and apologized repeatedly to us, he went back into the offices, there were words being exchanged. Then he had to leave. We felt terrible… Rajonie had been patient with us as we were analyzing the scenarios and getting to a decision. We felt he was doing his job right and with transparency. Then out of the blue he was gone, and we were left sitting there for a while… nobody came to help or to finalize our purchase, which we had agreed upon… We just wanted to know why the amount was 2k more than we had in our calculations… As we were sitting there, by ourselves, we saw one of the managers approach the sales desk next to us. The customer there was signing paperwork, then we saw him facetiming with someone, and pointing his phone to the white crosstrek outside the window, the one we were about to purchase… the gentleman proceeded to go outside, got in the car… he seemed very excited as he was showing someone on his phone. I told my wife “I think they sold the car to that guy”… When the man walked in, we got up and asked him “did you just purchase that car?” his answer “yes”… we congratulated him, got up and walked to the offices to demand an explanation. I believe we spoke to Dave Page, Sales manager. Later, we realized the personalized email offer we received earlier is signed by this man (oh the irony…) Dave tried to justify our blatant mistreatment by blaming it on the salesman Rajonie Hammond, who was asked to leave for apparently failing in getting us to pay more than we wanted to for the vehicle. Rajonie had been very helpful to us, we felt he was professional and transparent and tried to do his job walking that fine line between helping a customer and doing the bidding of a greedy sales manager looking for a better deal for himself. It is clear to us that Dave had decided to sell the car to the other customer because it was a better deal for himself. He thought it was perfectly fine to ignore and stall an almost done deal for the same car with us, because he was able to get a more advantageous monetary benefit out of the other customer. We understand the motivation, but we cannot forgive the mistreatment and absolute disrespect we were subjected to. We were there first. We were pretty much ready to pay once the 2k issue was to be resolved. There was an absolute lack of integrity on behalf of Subaru in the business dealings we witnessed this morning. As I was exiting his office all I could say to him was that this would be the last time ever that I set foot in their business. And I mean it. I would never service my car at this dealership, nor I ever consider buying another Subaru ever again. I am done. I will drive my vehicle until its last mile and then I will take my business somewhere else. As far as the personalized email offer I received, which motivated me to go to the dealership hoping to trade-in my crosstrek and continue my journey as a Subaru owner (at the time). We were told these emails are sent by Subaru and sometimes the dealerships do not know about them… but the dealership logo is at the top and the name of the sales manager at the bottom… plus the email comes from a subaruworldhackettstown domain… isn’t that strange? This was the bogus argument used to justify the change in the trade-in offer amount to less than the $13,278 offered and to offer us 2.9% APR financing instead of 1.9% as stated in the email. The email has my name on it and its clear that they have specific information on the condition of my vehicle. Still, they tried to use every possible trick to not stick to the personalized offer terms and try to take advantage of customers. More