By far my worst experience at a car dealership. I drove 2... - Kevin
By far my worst experience at a car dealership. I drove 2 hours at the crack of dawn to purchase a black 2021 Ram TRX that was advertised on Cars.com, Autotrader and even the dealership’s own website at $90,400. The night before, I called and confirmed that price with a sales representative, Chesley Holston, and made it clear I would be driving 2 hours to get there when they opened at 9am to purchase the truck.
When I got there, I sat in the truck briefly and told Chesley I was ready to purchase. My wife and I signed a credit application and Chesley took the papers to the back. When she came back she informed me they were going to hold off running my credit until we had agreed on a price. As she said this, I received notifications from multiple credit agencies I deal with that there had been an inquiry on my credit. So much for agreeing on a price first. She then laid the paper down and proceeded to show me a ridiculous ceramic coating package that was already added to the tune of $4,XXX. I’m currently having another vehicle ceramic coated for $900, so that price is extremely marked up. Then I notice the real shocker, a $20,000 ADM (additional dealer markup) fee in the price breakdown. I become livid and explain to her that she confirmed the $90,400 price over the phone with me and knew I was driving hours out of my way to purchase this truck and that I would be paying NO ADM.
I work in a retail setting and I understand how rude and awful people can be so I make a point to be kind, polite and respectful to others. After seeing this, I will admit, I was none of that. I then spoke to a sales manager, Dalton Tassinari, who went back and forth with somebody else “attempting” to come down on the ADM and explain (poorly) why they thought it was acceptable to advertise at one price and expect another. We were not able to come remotely close to anything I thought was acceptable so I demanded to speak with whom he was talking to.
I then spoke to Julius Tindell, another sales manager, who pretty much told me the same story as Dalton, claiming they are upfront with their pricing. Spoiler alert, they aren’t. He essentially blamed Chesley for the whole misunderstanding, apologized, and said he would make sure all of the staff were appropriately retrained. He also offered me gas money, which I took. However, I have no doubt in my mind that it was not entirely her fault. They are advertising at a reasonable price (this is a specialty vehicle) and hoping someone will come in, pay the exorbitant $20,000 mark up out of frustration, or just buy something else while there.
I don’t care about their apologies. They aren’t fixing anything. If they are going to charge a $20,000 ADM they need to be upfront with that in the first place on ALL of their listings. Not that they care, I’m sure they would happily never see my face again, but I will NEVER buy anything from Keffer Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram, or there auto group. I hope this review saves anybody else interested in any of their vehicles from wasting their time with this shady dealership. I will be contacting Stellantis and informing them of this dealer’s practices.
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