Fermin Rodriguez | Page 11

Stingray Chevrolet responded

Mr. & Mrs. Jaquis, In speaking with all parties involved as well as reading the many texts exchanged and the notes in your file, I am struggling to understand how things went south. I truly do understand and empathize with your frustration over the length of time between placing your deposit back in July and the eventual arrival of the Tahoe this month. As I'm sure you understand, this has been an unprecedented time for both our guests and for us as a dealership, too. Obviously, our goal is to deliver the perfect vehicle to each and every guest as soon as they choose to move forward with the purchase. Unfortunately, the supply chain issues that began in early 2020 are still causing issues at nearly every stage between placing an order for a vehicle and taking delivery of said vehicle. These issues have included (but are not limited to) extraordinarily long delays due to missing parts, a shortage of transport drivers, and lengthy wait times at various railyards between the factory and the dealership. On top of all of that, there has been very little communication from the factory about what each individual vehicle's delay might be caused by. We have had countless instances where an inbound vehicle shows an estimated arrival date and then that day arrives, the vehicle is still sitting in a different state with a 'delayed' notice and no other information provided. Of course, this is not information that satisfies a guest who needs their new vehicle and isn't able to wait for several more weeks and even months, but the reality of the situation is that there is only so much we can control. One aspect that was definitely in our control was the follow-up and in at least one instance, we did drop the ball. For that, I offer my sincere apologies and, as you know, this instance was escalated all the way up to our General Manager, John Whaley. While it was a failure to follow up on our behalf that led you to connect with John, this ultimately ended up working in your favor, as it was John who was able to move mountains to not only get information and insight into what the delay was with your vehicle but eventually achieve the impossible and have the vehicle picked up from its holding location so that we could address the issue causing the delay ourselves. We let you know that we had worked out an agreement with the railyard to pick up your vehicle so that we could do the necessary fix here at the dealership instead of waiting several more weeks for it to be completed there. This permission may not seem like a huge deal, but this is the first instance I have seen where we were allowed to acquire a vehicle on our own since all of these issues began a couple of years ago (and this includes countless guests with situations very similar to yours). While this was all pretty great news to us as it was such an unusual allowance made to us by the factory, it is understandable that it may not be as exciting to you as many months had still passed at this point and I'm sure you were just ready to get the deal over with. Things seemed to go south, though, when you asked us for an "incentive for 3 mo of BS terrible service." While we did fail to return a promised callback, you were able to speak with our GM the following day and that conversation ended on a positive note. The communication between Fermin, Ramona, and y'all was consistent for the next three weeks or so until the vehicle arrived and we were ready to schedule your delivery. Not only were we under the impression that we had smoothed out any issues that were within our abilities to resolve, but we were selling you the vehicle with a $500 dealer discount as well as all applicable rebates and incentives. Obviously, our goal is to ensure that everybody leaves happy and I wish that could have been the case here, but accusing us of "making up" the issues that caused the delays and then demanding more 'incentive' when you knew (as stated in your above claim that the vehicle is now a 'lemon' - which two flat and since-fixed tires and a replaced battery do not even come close to meeting the qualifications to qualify as) that these issues were out of our control just isn't reasonable. Had we caused these issues internally, it would be a different story, but we cannot compensate every guest for factory delays and wait time and hope to stay in business very long, considering how common these wait times have become. I am happy that you found another vehicle and of course, we are always here for any sales or service needs you may have moving forward. Thanks and have a great day!

Stingray Chevrolet responded

Thank you for your response. In reviewing the text message in question (the one John wrote), the one you sent just before, and the comments I’m replying to now, I see where the miscommunication happened. I believe when John said there would be “no incentive” he was using the word in the context of the text you sent just before saying “basically she wants some incentive for 3 months of BS terrible service.” I’m sure he believed that meant additional savings above and beyond the standard dealer discount and rebates. Whether or not that is what you meant, that was the context in which his reply was written. Rebates, which are also (frustratingly so in this instance) referred to as incentives are savings from the manufacturer that we are required to pass along to the guest. There would be no scenario where you would not be given all public rebates (customer cash, bonus cash, red tag savings are all examples of these) as well as any available rebates that you qualified for (such as Costco, educator, military, first responder, etc.). I apologize if this was not made clear and if this really did all result from miscommunication about what each party meant by “incentive. ”Truly, the pricing you saw online would be the same pricing you received, and the same pricing the person who buys the Tahoe you ordered will receive. We aren’t in the business of trying to “make money off someone unsuspecting.” Regarding the flat tires, I’m going to have to follow up with Fermin on that one tomorrow. My understanding was that the Tahoe sat at the rail yard for an extended period of time while waiting for transport to the dealership and that resulted in two tires needing to be replaced. That was, if memory serves, a cause of an additional delay as we are not allowed to do anything but wait for a GM employee to take care of replacing the tires. This is why it was such a ‘win’ to be granted permission from GM to acquire the Tahoe and take care of the issue that was discovered after the tires were replaced. It’s by no means my intention to further frustrate you, I only wanted to help clarify things on our end, and with your message above, you have helped clear up some confusion as well. Our goal is always to improve and I thank you for the time you’ve taken to respond. I only wish things could have gone differently and you could be enjoying the Tahoe you waited so long for. Thank you and have a great rest of your evening.

Kfo123 responded

The story keeps changing....now the car had 2 flat tires as well?! Nothing was delcosed about any tire issues. As far as your comment on incentives stating " selling you the vehicle with a $500 dealer discount as well as all applicable rebates and incentives"....go check Fermin's text messages as Mr. Whaley took his phone and texted "there will be no incentives." After that message Fermin and Mona back peddled and said "well if you qualified, there might have been an incentive." If you were offering any incentives, you would have made it perfectly clear which incentives you were already giving us. You knew you could sell the car that afternoon to someone else at a higher price than 5 months earlier with us and did so. This is all laughable. And I'm so thankful we didnt purchase a vehicle with all these mechanical issues that you've now come out with. Again, we never got a complete story so you should be able to see why we didnt trust the information coming from your dealership in the end.