Some dealerships are just awful

Not sure if this is the correct board...? If not, please move.

Many of you know about my 2018 Mustang GT struggle - a (great) dealership had one ordered for me since there were basically none in the country that matched my specifications with my color preference. The current constraints on Magneride Systems for the remaining 2018 Mustangs caused my order to bounce-back after ~4 months of waiting. The same dealership called me as soon as the bounce-back occurred (and after they got off the phone arguing/yelling at Ford on my behalf :lol and ordered me a 2019 with the same specs (except with the B&O Play audio instead of Shaker Pro, obviously ) and the highest possible priority level.

Now, the one ordered is a fastback and I've admittedly been going back and forth about going with a Convertible instead, so I've been eyeing AutoTrader and local dealership websites to see if anyone had a GT Convertible in stock with the A10 so I could, at the very least, test drive one (surprisingly, they are hard to find!). Yesterday I saw a fully-loaded 18 GT Premium convertible on AutoTrader not that far from me (but not that close either - roughly 45-50 minutes away) - color isn't exactly what I want, but certainly not a color I'm opposed to so I thought "oh... maybe I'll be getting a new Mustang earlier than previously anticipated!. I emailed the dealership to make sure they had it as the AutoTrader listing had stock Ford photos and there were no images of the car on their website, they emailed me back saying that it's in stock and asked when I'd like to come check it out. I replied asking for photos as I wasn't sure of the color combo which is lightning blue with showstopper red interior (... it'd be like driving superman ) and also for a pic or a link to the window sticker to make sure it had everything I want (the link on the website has a Ford thing that says "sticker unavailable, please contact dealer")... They never emailed me back, so I emailed them again about 5 hours later from my old hotmail account citing that my business one sometimes goes to spam (happens all the time when emailing dealerships). Still no reply. SOOOOOOOOO, I'm guessing they never had the car in stock as it looked like an on-order listing and not an in-stock listing even though they said the car was available in their initial reply to me. Again, this dealer is about 40-50 minutes away from me, if I had driven out there and they never even had the friggin car I would've flipped on them. What god-awful customer service, at least email me back and say that the car isn't available anymore, like wtf??? Granted, it could have been sold soon after contacting them yesterday, but still; EMAIL ME BACK AND TELL ME. :frusty: :frusty: :frusty:

You may have noticed that true Customer Service is dead. I had an encounter just today of which I will not bore you with the details that proved to me just that. Not sure just what killed it but the phrase, “Yes, I can help you with that” is rarely used and if so is empty.

A 45-50 minute drive forma car your truely interested in isnt a big deal to me. I went 550 mikes to get my premium vert. The distance made no difference to me, I would have gladly gone further or shipped it for the right car. That being said I had a heck of a time getting responses on emails, but they sure spam the heck out of you once they have yours. I had much better luck just calling. I had no problem if the salesman was lacking getting bumped to a sales manager. There were some that I dealt with that were very professional and helpfull, but unfortunately that wasnt the norm.

It happened to me too- dealer emails with a match and I go there only to find the car is sold. There were other Mustangs to be had and all I did was broaden my scope a bit. It's a Mustang, not a Bentley.

Blue with red interior? Gotta be kidding...

Inthehighdesert said:

A 45-50 minute drive forma car your truely interested in isnt a big deal to me.

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The distance is fine if they actually had the car. If I replied to their initial email stating "great, I'll be by on Friday" or whatever, I would have driven out there for nothing as they clearly don't have the car. On their website, the car no longer shows up in the search - but if I use the direct link that's still up on AutoTrader, the listing still states "available", not "sold" or anything. It seems like when I asked for additional info, whoever I was in contact with realized that the car wasn't there and just decided to not take 10 seconds to reply to any of my multiple follow-up emails. It's unlikely the car was sold within the hour of my initial email, their reply and my follow-up email, what's more likely is that this was an on-order car that bounced back due to the Magneride constraints (especially since there are zero pictures of the car available).

I flew to Baltimore to get my car, and it still wasn't exactly what I wanted (sans-Recaro seats, which was a huge mistake on my part) and drove 10 hours home to Atlanta in snow. Drive up to the dealer or pick up the phone, man... they get 1,000s of emails a day.

wildcatgoal said:

I flew to Baltimore to get my car, and it still wasn't exactly what I wanted (sans-Recaro seats, which was a huge mistake on my part) and drove 10 hours home to Atlanta in snow. Drive up to the dealer or pick up the phone, man... they get 1,000s of emails a day.

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Spork3245 said:

The distance is fine if they actually had the car. If I replied to their initial email stating "great, I'll be by on Friday" or whatever, I would have driven out there for nothing as they clearly don't have the car. On their website, the car no longer shows up in the search - but if I use the direct link that's still up on AutoTrader, the listing still states "available", not "sold" or anything. It seems like when I asked for additional info, whoever I was in contact with realized that the car wasn't there and just decided to not take 10 seconds to reply to any of my multiple follow-up emails. It's unlikely the car was sold within the hour of my initial email, their reply and my follow-up email, what's more likely is that this was an on-order car that bounced back due to the Magneride constraints (especially since there are zero pictures of the car available).

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I’m sure they get a 1000 calls per day too. Bad business is bad business, it blows my mind anyone would take the time to defend it.

Well... I've sat in quite a few dealerships buying cars in the past 5 years because I am stupid and during the 5 billion hours the process friggin takes I certainly didn't hear enough phones ringing to qualify 1000s of calls a day, even from the front desk... but that's my experience.

wildcatgoal said:

Well... I've sat in quite a few dealerships buying cars in the past 5 years because I am stupid and during the 5 billion hours the process friggin takes I certainly didn't hear enough phones ringing to qualify 1000s of calls a day, even from the front desk... but that's my experience.

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Yea, I've sat in "quite a few dealerships" too and I pulled the "1000" number from the same place you pulled yours, except mine was filled with sarcasm after reading the hyperbole from your reply. I’ve emailed at least 20 different dealerships about various cars over the past year as I typically lease and have test driven two dozen cars in the past year to make sure I want to stick with a Mustang - guess what? They all email back. Email and text are a primary form of communication nowadays, as such, it’s also a primary source of business. Let’s not forget this dealer already returned my initial email. Perhaps you should read the entire thread, especially the part that they took the car off of their website even though the direct link still states “available”.

I had some trouble with a local dealership too. I ordered a 18 back in September, it was a gt 401a A10 with the 3.55 axle. I didn't hear anything from the dealership when it went I to production or when it got shipped to the dealership. When I got the call about it I went down to check out the car well long story short they took the liberty of changing my order with out telling me and ordered it with the standard 3.15 axle. They tried to offer me a discount so I just told them to give me back my deposit and I drove 350 miles and got the same spec I wanted but with the performance pack 1 so it all worked out in the end.

To bad your not closer to West Virginia my dealer is Mountaineer Automotive in Beckley WVA. Keith Tyler at Mountaineer helped me though the ordering of my Mustang and made sure everything was right when I picked it up. He even made sure I got the build sheet. We also got the wife a 15 Edge which was one of the ones with a water leak he got Ford to replace the car and the wife was able to get a few upgrades in the deal. Mountaineer and Keith Tyler are my dealer for life.

Bait & Switch is illegal and considered fraud, and probably a UDAAP violation (deceptive). I would let them know.

My dealership is good, not great as in putting the synthetic oil in my pony I had in the trunk. But using semi-syn because of mis-communication. Car buying can be a hassle, but sometimes things just work out. Found out the Sales Mgr. was on vacation when the oil mix up happened. Just had my last oil change there and the Mgr. told me not to go back to the service bay as it bothers the tech's? If I want to see the work done or talk to a tech, I have that right or I go elsewhere, so, I am looking for a better alternative now. May have to buy jacking rails & do the changes myself.

That’s not even bad! When I went to purchase my 2017, I went to a Ford dealership in North Miami that had the car I wanted at the price range I wanted. Test drove the car, got my 2012 GT premium appraised and went to talking numbers.

After spending 2hours receiving a price, than them leaving for 30mins to comeback with a new price, we finally came to a deal. So I thought.

I had the cash the majority of the cash in savings and rest in checking. Wired something like 25k to the dealer, than went to swipe my debt card and the salesmen asks me for 2k more then we agreed on. I lost my shit, we went back to the table and than they magically appraised my 2012 GT for 2k more than before and we finally make the original deal.

Go to leave and meet the salesman at the gas station down the street to fill up and the car runs out of gas, have to wait for him to return with a gas can.

FINALLY get home, over a month later they still haven’t paid off USAA for my 2012. So after a few calls, they decide they couldn’t find my 25k I wired to them is why. After a few mins of looking they realize they had an extra 25k in their account for some reason LOL.

I hate the treatment at Ford Dealerships and this will probably be my last for that exact reason. For a 40k car you’d think I deserve a little better

EDIT: Lorenzo Ford for anyone curious

i went to 2 dealerships, first dealer i went to i liked because the service department manager always seemed to help me out. so i went to them for business. called up and talked to a guy who like all say come on in.. i tell the guy what im looking for and what i have and roughly what im looking for on my trade.

This guy act totally uninterested like he doesnt believe i will buy or maybe cant even afford a new GT even though im driving a 16 gt premium supercharged at the time. like 0 sales effort pretty much ignored me and never called me back. like even if you think i cant afford that car. see if you can sell me a lower model.. basically i went to a different dealer and got my almost fully loaded GT... i will be showing it off when i go back to the first dealer for service