Lakeland Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram,Inc.

Review: We have had our used truck for 7 months from this dealer. We took it in for an inspection and they wanted over 1100 dollars for work that was needed. We questioned how so much work would be needed when we haven't had the truck that long nor had we had an accident in it. When I told the salesman I felt he sold us a bad car he argued he showed us the carfax. I reminded him he had not shown us the carfax because he said his friend owned it and traded it in for a Durango. He said he never told us that because it wasn't a friend that traded it in. The repairs it needed suggested the truck had been in a front collision accident. He denied that it had been in an accident. He then pulled up the carfax on his phone. It showed it had been in an accident. He began yelling at us and we asked him to click on the accident button to see if it was a front end collision. Sure enough it was in a front end collision. He then Said in front of us and 2 service department employees, "If I had told you it was in an accident, you wouldn't have bought it." I was dumbfounded and agreed with him. He then told us to leave the dealership. We asked he call the dealer owner he denied many times before calling the owner [redacted]. [redacted] told us if we wanted a car without problems we should have purchased a new car. He the. Began screaming at us that we are ridiculous. [redacted] then took us to his cubicle to print us off a copy of the carfax. He heard me on the phone with a fellow resident of our town talking about the situation. He became so angry he told us to, "Get out now!" he said we were ruining his reputation. The salesman's name was [redacted].Desired Settlement: I feel they should repair these items out of good faith and no cost to me. I know I can't ask them to disclose a vehicles history if the purchaser doesn't ask, but this is the second truck we have purchased from [redacted] and we trusted him.

Business

Response:

In response to the above complaint, on the date in question, I received a call from [redacted].

She told me her Suburban was in our service department and asked me to check on it. The shop told

her it needed some repairs for inspection; she questioned the dollar amount since they had owned the

vehicle for only 6 months. I told her I would check and call her back.

I checked with our service manager about the vehicle. He told me it needed $1100.00 in repairs to pass

inspection. I asked to see the repair history for the vehicle. After looking at the repair order from the

last state inspection, the vehicle had approximately 59,000 miles on it. We checked the current repair

order mileage and the vehicle had been driven approximately 23,000 miles in 6 months.

I called the customer and told her that it did need the repairs and that these repairs were not out of the

ordinary given the amount of miles driven since last inspection. I also told her that we would discount

the repairs 10%. She told me she wanted the total cost as she was going to contact an attorney. I told

her that was not necessary as the repairs needed were common; I then transferred the call to service.

Later that day, the service manager came to me and said the [redacted]'s were here. I went to the

service department and after greeting the customers, Mrs. [redacted] said that I had sold her a piece of

st in an angry tone. She also said that she would tell everyone not to buy from Lakeland and me in

particular. She asks if the vehicle had been in an accident, I said did I not show you the carfax report?

She said that I did not; I then ran the car fax and found that the car had been in an accident...I showed

this to the customer and she became very angry. After some more heated conversations I offered to

pay the repair bill of $1100.00. This was not offered by the dealership, but by me, out of my own

pocket. The husband said that was not my responsibility and she said that I just made the offer so I can

sleep at night. I felt this was an insult and asked them to leave.

I have been in this business for 22 years and have sold approximately 3000 vehicles and have never had

an incident like this.

I was then told by the customer that they had taken the vehicle to a firestone repair center and were

told that it needed $2500.00 in repairs and should be towed. Why was I not called then?

After the second confrontation with Mrs. [redacted], in which she threatened my reputation, she was

going to blast me everywhere. She said, once again, that I offered to pay so I can sleep at night. I asked

them to leave again. The next day, I found out that General Motors would warranty some of the repairs.

If this customer would have let me do my job instead of threatening me, I could have saved her some

money.

This is not the actions of a salesperson trying to rip off a customer.

Regards,

Salesperson

Consumer

Response:

I appreciate [redacted] responding however I feel the owner [redacted] should have been the respondent. I understand [redacted] has many years of experience being a sales man, but feel the sales spin he has put on his response represents the very essence of the issue we are now faced with. First of all, he DID NOT offer a 10% discount on the repair cost, I believe we get a discount because we are preferred members of the dealership and have a membership card to represent the discounts they extend. [redacted] offering to pay the repair cost was nothing short of insulting. At no point did we tell or ask [redacted] that we could not afford the charges for the repairs. The charges were a symptom of the problem, paying the charges wasn't what our complaint was about. [redacted] made the earth shattering comment that represents the reason we have gone to such lengths to have our complaint be heard, "If you knew it was in in accident you wouldn't have bought it," [redacted] shouted to us in the service department in front of 3 service employees, my husband and myself. He cited in his letter that the vehicle had 59k on it when it was last inspected, notice he failed to state how many miles were on the vehicle when we took possession, which was over 60K miles. He stated he offered to call General Motors to see what repairs could be covered under the warranty, this is a flat out LIE! At no time did anyone offer to do this for us. Although I may not be shocked, I am disappointed [redacted] did not address his comment made to us, which was, "If you wanted a car without problems, you should have bought a new car from me, not a used one!" [redacted] also wrote that he, "Asked," us to leave. [redacted] brought us into the showroom area where he was going to print out the CarFax for us. I received a call from a member of our small community and began telling her what we were going through at the dealership. [redacted] was listening in on my conversation when he abruptly got up from his chair and yelled at my husband and I, "GET OUT!" He screamed while pointing to the door, "GET OUT NOW, YOU WILL NOT RUIN MY REPUTATION!" He continued to yell at us as we immediately walked toward the door. Now of course there was nothing I could do to stop the person I was speaking to, to not hear him yelling at us, which is it's own way was speaking volumes about his reputation. When we reached the garage of the service department we asked [redacted] what we owed him. [redacted] following us, yelled, "GET OUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY, I WILL MAKE SURE THE CHARGES ARE TAKEN CARE OF, JUST GET OUT!" We looked at [redacted] and said are you sure, [redacted] stood there in shock at [redacted]'s yelling and said yes. We did end up getting a bill for those charges. We called [redacted], who said look, "I'm on your side," he said we would have to call and talk to [redacted] about the bill. I called and asked [redacted] about the bill I received, which was for the diagnostic of the vehicle, and [redacted] said it was taken care of not to mail payment. We took our vehicle to a reputable shop a few towns over. That shop is the one that came back with the news that the repairs would be covered by the warranty except for 241.00. This dealer had the vehicle repaired and inspected within 48 hours. I have no intentions of, as [redacted] put it, "Ruining [redacted]'s reputation." However I have and will continue to tell the facts of this experience to everyone that will listen. I have already found a couple other community members that also had poor experiences with this dealership. I also found several complaints similar to our own when buying a used vehicle from this dealer on a dealer complaint website. I would be satisfied with the dealer paying the expenses associated with the investigation of this vehicle to determine if the accident that was so severe the vehicle had to be towed away, will continue to cause parts to go through unusual wear and tear, or if there is permanent frame damage. I would also be satisfied if the dealer will provide the information of the inspection station that inspected the vehicle. I would also be satisfied if the dealer would provide the information of what the vehicle's value would have been at the time I purchased it, knowing it was in an accident as severe as it was in. These are all questions my attorney asked us to ask this dealer.

Regards,

[redacted] And [redacted]