Capitol Chevy’s website listed a service loaner Equinox - GM Employee
Capitol Chevy’s website listed a service loaner Equinox with about 5,000 miles on it as “new,” with a $2,000 dealer discount off MSRP. I qualify for the GM employee discount and simply wanted to know if that discount could be stacked with the posted dealer discount. You’d think that would be an easy question to answer, but the process of trying to get that answer turned into a surprisingly frustrating experience that left me with no desire to do business with this dealership.
I started by asking the question through the “chat” feature on Capitol Chevy’s website. It quickly became clear that the chat was just an AI-Bot that collected my contact information and said someone from the sales team would reach out. No one ever did.
So after work, I decided to stop by the dealership in person. I found the vehicle and was allowed to drive it around the parking lot, but I was told I couldn’t take it on the road because it didn’t have enough gas. During the tour of the parking lot, I asked the salesperson whether the GM employee discount could be stacked with the dealer discount. I also mentioned that I planned to pay cash and asked what forms of payment they accepted.
This is where things became strange. She said she would need to ask her manager about the discount and told me payment would have to be by cashier’s check. I explained that my funds are in an investment account and it could take up to three days to obtain the check. She said they couldn’t hold the vehicle that long—even with a deposit—because these cars were flying off the shelf. However, she suggested I could finance the vehicle through them and drive it home the same day, adding that if I paid the loan off within 45 days it would be as if the loan never happened.
I said I might consider that option, but first I needed to know whether the GM employee discount applied and what the total price would be. She told me she couldn’t ask her manager until she collected more information from me. Back in the sales office she began requesting a full set of personal details: Social Security number, driver’s license number, addresses for the past two years, employer contact information, salary, and more.
I stopped and asked why any of that was necessary just to answer a question about the discount. She said that she can only go to her manager once, so she needed to give him everything and present my application in the best possible light to have the best chance of her manager agreeing to even sell me the vehicle let alone the terms of that sale. (You know, because of the hordes of people clamoring to buy this dirty, used Chevy as “new” and all).
At that point I reluctantly played along just to get the answer. She also asked whether I had a trade-in. I mentioned an older GMC Terrain with 106,000 miles and said I was curious what it might be worth, but it wouldn’t necessarily be part of the deal. She then asked for the VIN and requested that I text photos of it to a random phone number, which I did.
Finally armed with all this information, she went to speak with her manager. After about 20 minutes I went looking for her and found her behind a locked glass door— in the room where the sales staff kiss the manager’s ring. The locked glass door was apparently there to allow us xxxxxxto watch the magic happen.
I told her I had to leave and asked her to email me the answer. I also explained that at this point it was just for my information, because after spending nearly two hours getting the runaround there was no way I would buy anything from this dealership. She returned my driver’s license—something I didn’t even realize she had taken from the desk—and I left.
Two hours later I received an email. It contained no numbers, no sales price, no trade-in estimate, and no loan terms. It simply said: “Unfortunately, on models like this one (Drac units), the discount doesn’t apply.”
My quest for an answer was complete, and I learned a lot along the way.
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