Neiman Lee | Page 14

Rocky Mountain Auto Brokers responded

Again Mike, the sting you have apparently felt by missing out on the van I fear has not faded and is also apparent in your original review as well as within your response. The fact that you had left out any mention of how we had not "checked back with you" during the sale of the van to another customer is very revealing of this fact. Not much you can attack us on in regard to that front. We declined your multiple low offers and it is very much evident that you are somehow offended by this, hence the ongoing attempt to slight us at any turn. To begin, the $899 Dealer Preparation and Handling fee is approximately $200 higher than the average here in Colorado Springs. That being said, with our aggressive pricing model, we SAVE our customers far more than the $200 difference in the dealer fees. I feel that the lack of experience in dealership operations shines through in your response, so I have a quick Dealership Operations 101 condensed version for your future dealings with dealerships. As inventory begins to age on a dealerships lot, the price is slowly reduced for a number of reasons that would take far too long to explain to you. That being said, the vehicle was priced at the 3rd best value in a 750 mile radius due in large to the fact that our pricing is extremely competitive as well as the fact it had been in inventory for over 100 days, 108 days to be exact. The vehicle was sold at the list price to a customer that understood what value they were getting to include the dealer fees. As to your question of "If RMAB think its cars are so good -- so reliable -- why on earth does it charge so much for a warranty?", I will start by saying that we do not price our "warranties", the Vehicle Service Contract providers do. They price their contracts on a risked based pricing model that takes in to consideration the length of term of the contract, the amount of miles allowed during the contract, the amount of high tech components that the vehicle is equipped with, etc. etc.. I believe you had priced out the highest level of protection which would happen to include not only the major common components (i.e. motor, transmission, drivetrain etc. etc.), but the high-tech electronic components to boot. These are the highest risk components to have protected as, unlike with mechanical parts, you cannot maintain electronic items like sensors, navigation units, control models and the like. These simply fail upon whim and are by far the most expensive to replace due to the amount of high tech parts the vehicles are now equipped with, the high rate of failure of electronic components, as well as how complicated they are in nature. Another fun fact for you, these are not warranties as you have above referred to the contracts as such. They are Service Contracts. Warranties are from manufactures backing their product from the time a vehicle is produced and first put to service, i.e. from the original in-service date. Vehicle Service Contracts are from 3rd party companies that are providing peace of mind if and when a vehicle has a mechanical issue. As vehicles are made on earth and not in heaven, they will eventually break down. The price you received was not perceived by you to be a good deal, but neither was the price of our vehicle. That leads me to believe that you are not capable of perceiving value, that is of course you are receiving something for free. Value is simply perception and your perception, quite frankly, is very skewed. I can explain to you but I can not understand for you. Please save yourself, as well as myself, the time by not responding to this as the more you engage, the evidence of your misunderstanding of common business is made prevalent. Slighting a dealer's business because you missed out on a vehicle has no validity in a public forum.

mike responded

Nice, long-winded response. Everything said in the original post is / was true. RMAB pricing model is one that starts the price of cars very high, and the extras that get tacked on at the end puts prices of vehicles out of bounds / reach. Good example is the dealer handling fee. $899??? This is one of the highest dealer fees in the state. What is RMAB doing more or different than other dealers to substantiate this? Answer is nothing, but it goes to explain why customers have to negotiate way down on the "up front" prices of cars on the RMAB lot, just like I did. And to further substantiate this... If the price RMAB set on the Sienna was truly the "3rd best price in a 750-mile radius", why did it sit on the RMAB lot for well over 3 months? Answer is dealer fees. Once people find out about the fees, the only way to compensate is to negotiate on the price of the car itself. And I couldn't believe the price that was quoted when I asked about a warranty. If RMAB think its cars are so good -- so reliable -- why on earth does it charge so much for a warranty? With these things --- and others ---- it isn't surprising why a deal wasn't reached on the vehicle I was looking at.

mike responded

Good grief. If you're having to spend this much time explaining your business practices, there's clearly a BIG problem at RMAB!! VERY glad I didn't buy a car from RMAB!