The following details my recent experience with Capitol... - E Thunem
The following details my recent experience with Capitol Toyota. In short, the dealership did not honor the first paid reservation on an incoming vehicle, instead superseding it with a second reservation.
On August 28th of 2020 I reserved a 2020 Rav4 hybrid in Lunar Rock exterior, Light Grey interior with Raymond McMorris at Capitol Toyota. This included a signed and dated intent to buy for agreed upon MSRP pricing and a $500 deposit. I was told to expect delivery within a week most likely, but potentially a bit later.
A week later on the 4th of September I attempted to contact Raymond via text and e-mail for an updated arrival estimate. After having not heard back a day later on the 5th of September I called the dealership to request an update. I was eventually connected with Mike, who had answered my initial inquiry a week earlier and connected me to Raymond. I was told that the car was expected to arrive on the 10th, but that he didn't see a name on the reservation in the system. This confused him as he recalled talking with me the week before and hence he called back a few minutes later after checking further on the reservation and discovering that it was not reserved in my name. I was told to expect a follow-up call the next day as the managers required to look into the issue had already gone home for the day.
The next morning I received a call as expected, but not with the news I'd wanted to hear. The story I was told by both Raymond and his manager Ross was that I had done everything right and they have the paper record of my reservation and deposit, but that despite Ross having entered the reservation into the computer system it had not saved the reservation. Since the reservation was supposedly not entered into the computer system, another customer was allowed to reserve the vehicle a day later. I was told that the general manager decided to honor the reservation of the customer in the computer system despite the fact that they had written records of my prior reservation and deposit. I was then told that they had searched incoming inventory and that they could swap with another dealer to obtain one of the next matching vehicles to be made, but that it wouldn't arrive for at least a month. I declined as that was outside my purchase window which had started at the end of June.
During that June-August period this was only the third Rav4 hybrid of that color combination to show up in California, and the first that was not already reserved at the time that it appeared on a dealer website. There were a few more showing up during that time from in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, but again most were already reserved by the time I inquired. My point being that Rav4 hybrid supply as a whole during this time frame was limited, and the particular color combination we wanted was both quite rare and in demand. Clear evidence of such being that some other local Toyota dealers had begun listing their Rav4 hybrids at $2.5k above MSRP.
With that in mind, is it possible that human error was at fault and my reservation didn't get saved in to the computer system? Certainly. But the general manager's decision not to honor the first reservation made once their error was brought to light casts doubt on that story. Yes, they are going to have an unhappy customer regardless of which reservation they choose to honor. However, I would at least understand their situation had I been told that, due to a mistake on their part, the car had already been reserved at the time I had placed my reservation and hence they were cancelling my reservation and honoring the first reservation made. The only reason I can think of for their decision to honor the second reservation despite agreeing that I was the first customer is that there was no mistake at all - they have given me no reason not to believe that the reservation on the vehicle was changed to a customer who agreed to pay above MSRP.
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