One Salesman Can Change Your Perspective of a Company

In a previous post I mentioned we had trouble with my Aveo's tires. We had called the dealership and talked to the salesman who sold us our car. He was obnoxious telling us he never sold the car to us and hung up on us. I was so infuriated I wrote a bad review on the dealership's Facebook page. Things started rolling with the manager attempting to contact us. Phone tag between Hubby and the manager Taras Hughes began.

When they finally connected, Hubby told him the whole story and exactly how we felt. 

Taras promised if we came by, he would make us a good deal. He gave us the name of the person to contact when we dropped by if he wasn't around. He apologized profusely. He also said he would reimburse us for the tires we had to buy.

Remember. In my last post I vowed never to give them another chance. 

Hubby and I pondered and talked endlessly. It was the topic of most of our conversations for a few days.

In the meantime we visited other dealerships, because we really wanted get rid of the Aveo. We were no longer confident about this car and could see things going majorly wrong in the near future. We had already little nuisances such as the sun roof cover rattling. You can tell it was not secured right.

None of the other dealerships could help us without having to put money down as our situation was considered an Upside-down deal.

I always saw it on TV ads but didn't really understand it. I do now!  An upside down deal is when you owe more than what the car is worth.  So in order to get a new car we had to either wait longer until we had paid off most of it or put money down. We didn't have the money to put down. After all, we just paid for my funeral. 

Honestly, we were curious to see what kind of deal the dealership (JPT) would give us. We made our way to JPT on a Friday afternoon. 

We were greeted by a polite rugged handsome salesman, Rowdy. He asked us what we were looking for. We told him we wanted to get rid of the Aveo for a better car and interest rate. We described what kind of car we were looking at. 

He did an extraordinary thing we had trouble with other salesmen. He LISTENED.

We went look at some Honda Civics we had seen on the lot and online. When we went into the office we were greeted by everyone. Taras Hughes was on vacation. 

After we talked with Rowdy about the Civics Rowdy took our information then he disappeared. We assumed he and the substitute manager was crunching the numbers.

Just for a tad of information, during our conversation he received another telephone call and we overheard another customer was arriving around 4:30 p.m. This was around 3:50 p.m.

After a few minutes, Rowdy quickly entered the office, grabbed some keys hurriedly and said, "I will be right back!"

We immediately assumed he was going get a car for another customer. I thought, "Are you kidding me?" But we waited…

And waited….20 minutes later I was getting very impatient and angry. The assistant manager offered us a drink but said nothing more. Hubby and I were getting upset thinking Rowdy left us waiting while he was getting ready for the other customer. I thought it was rude and I felt like this was a waste of time. After 30 minutes Hubby and walked out and went to the car ready to leave.

Hubby and I were flabbergasted and furious that Rowdy would just leave us for that long for another customer. But we talked it out. We decided to go back in and wait for him. If nothing else, I wanted to give him an earful.

We walked back inside and the lady said Rowdy would be back in another 10 minutes. Hubby said, "We're giving him another 5!" 

Rowdy finally rushed in and said, "Come see your car!" As we walked out wee let him know we nearly left. He said he had to go to their other dealership a few miles away.

Let me just say I NEVER ever described a car as BEAUTIFUL. This car was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. It was a 2013 Toyota Corolla.

Later, Hubby and I talked about what we were thinking.

As I sat in the car, I was thinking OMG this is such a beautiful car!  I wanted it! I was checking out the features inside thinking we would never be able to afford this, it was beyond our price range.  It was sporty and had a nice sound system, moon roof, automatic and small enough but spacious.

Hubby knows cars and prices and all he was thinking was it was beyond our reach in price. 

Rowdy asked  if we liked it. We said yes but it all depended on the deal. We went back in and he crunched the numbers and brought us back the sheet of paper with the price and interest rate with no money down and trading in my Aveo. Everything we wanted they were giving us, although the price was double what we were thinking. In addition they gave us some savings! 

Rowdy explained this was the BEST and only car to help us get out of the Aveo. We told Rowdy we loved the car but we needed to sleep on it.

Last time we bought the Aveo, it was so rushed our heads were spinning and since we realized it was a bad deal too late, we didn't want to make the same mistake this time.

We came home and talked about it at length Yes, it was double the amount we were looking for, the note was a bit more but we believed Rowdy. We decide to get a better car, you have to fork out more money but it should be worth it in the long run. It also should be my last car of my life :). We could afford it and Hubby really wanted to give me a nice car. 

We realized we didn't even test drive it. Hubby always said Toyotas and Hondas are FUN to drive. I always considered a car to get from Point A to Point B. Yea, two different views about purpose of a car eh?

The next day we went back to JPT and told Rowdy we were ready to sign. They had detailed and cleaned the car and had it ready for us. I test drove it. WOW! It was so different. Smooth and you don't hear the engine. We did all the paperwork and they gave us the keys. We left and went to my Mom's to show off our new car.

Cora Diamond Landreaux

On the way back home, Hubby was driving since I drove to Mom's. He put the visor up and we noticed a crack in the windshield. We can't honestly say if it was there or not before. We never heard anything hit the car. So Hubby emailed Rowdy about it. Rowdy responded with no fanfare stating that he ordered an entire windshield and would let us know when it came in.

He called me the next day and the following day they fixed the windshield with no problem.

This experience was a total different experience than our previous one and I now can definitely say our experience was awesome.

I did go back to their website and gave them an excellent review. Taras and Rowdy changed our perspective about the company. We sincerely thank them from the bottom of our hearts.

Hubby was right! I LOVE driving my car. All I need is a stretch of windy road where I can push it to the metal at 80-100 mph. No worries, I won't be speeding, intentionally!

Stay tuned about how I got the name of my car. :)

Want a Sale? Listen!!!

Hubby and I are in process of ATTEMPTING to buy a home. I understand home buying is complicated and stressful. I know it will be a little more difficult  for us with our financial situation. However, there should be some give and take. They asked for bank statements, statements of assets, etc. We gave it to them. We asked questions regarding a modification of the home, what is the next step, etc. They respond they will get back to us or they will tell us. But the next time we talk with them, it is a different story.

When we first walked into the business just looking around, not intending to do anything but hope and see what was out there. As the salesman began interaction with us, he said, “We can get your a home.” We were frank with our financial history. “No problem” he and his boss said. So we started the grueling process with our hopes up high.

I admit, a sticky situation came up with our credit reports. We are rectifying it, or trying to anyway. They told us that would be no problem. They would work with us. They keep telling us the same thing.

We also told them Hubby works but his work hours can vary. We told them he would be out of town last week and it would be best to contact me. What do they do? They called him bright and early one morning waking him as he had been working graveyard shift.

My Hubby and I have been dealing with this salesperson for a couple of weeks now. Yesterday, I dropped off a document I had been waiting for that came in the weekend along with additional paperwork the lender asked for. So I asked what was the next step. Well, he looked at the documents and said it was not the right ones. He needed the statement, not an email. I informed him that Hubby went to the bank and that’s what they gave him. Salesperson also needed something from me that I had to contact someone. He also said in the meantime he needed Hubby to sign a document to get things rolling faster for us to get our new home.  For the 1000th time I told him Hubby’s job was unpredictable but the best bet would be maybe Thursday afternoon or Friday.

This afternoon I acquired what Salesperson needed and called him. I told him the information. Here’s how it went and tell me if I had a reason to bitch slap him. Excuse the profanity.

After I gave him the information by phone:

HE: So when can ya’ll come in to sign the document, today?
ME: I don’t know. As I said before, he is working around the area and we do not know when he will be finished.
HE: Well maybe tomorrow?
ME: I don’t know. We were thinking Thursday afternoon or Friday. (I thought LISTEN TO ME A$$Hole!)
HE: What about tomorrow, 4:30?
ME: I said, I don't know. Depends if Hubby gets off in time.
He: Cool. We’ll see you then.
ME: (Thinking WTF?)  But politely said, “We’ll see you when we get a chance.”  We exchanged good byes and hung up.

However, after the phone conversation was ended, as I was sitting frustrated,  BITCH SLAP was the first thought that came to mind that I could do to him next time I see him.  Second thought was to go and shake him with my hands around his neck with his head is flopping back and forth, side to side.demanding him to listen to me and read my lips if need be.

These kind of conversations tells us they are really NOT listening to us, it has made Hubby and I step back and think if we want to deal with them any more. They were the first ones that said they could work with us. We had talked to other salesmen at other locations who didn’t go as far as these. They brought our hopes up high. But as I think, what good will it do if they are not listening to us! 

Thankfully, we haven’t signed anything binding us to them. We will get our “good faith” deposit back if we decide to move on. And that will really suck for them because NO SALE. BOOYAH!