Webb Ford- Highland, IN

Mishandling the deal and being extremely rude when questioned about it.

14th of Jun, 2011 by selinchicago

I walked into the Ford Dealership with my Husband for service on his 2010 Fusion. We never went to this dealership before but the other dealership was backed up and it would be a week before we could get our car seen, so we decided to try Webb.

While there, I started looking at cars and I really liked the Fusion. It's a 4 cylinder which would save on my 6 cylinder Sonata. Bert Abdullah came up and showed us some of the cars. After an unsuccessful trip to the back lock, we came back up front and there it was. A candy red 2011 Fusion with Sunroof and Sync. I loved it. So we discussed numberd. Bert was friendly, asking the pertinent questions and running through different scenarios. He had my car appraised. They would give me $6,000 for my trade. I thought that was fair and the dealer gave me invoice pricing on the Fusion as Bert said they were hungry for the sale. I got a low interest rate that put the monthly payment right where I wanted it. Everything was beautiful at this point.

Bert introduces us to John Berkhart, the finance manager. John promises to get us out of the office quickly as we had to pick up our young kids. He runs through the paperwork, I'm excited and too trusting. I sign on the dotted line. That was Wednesday. Saturday, I grab the only piece of paper I have, which is the contract to get the VIN number. I notice that the base price was higher than the invoice price and my trade is listed as $5,500. Curious, but I'm thinking that maybe it was tax on the base price and I was willing to take the hit on the $500 in the trade. Afterall, I still got the car at invoice and I loved it and I figured the paperwork was done and signed.

Monday morning, I'm heading to the train station in my car. I notice she's running louder than usual and she starts to shake. The next thing I know, the check engine light comes on and she is laboring. I pull over and call roadside assistance. The tow truck took me to Van Drunen Ford in Homewood as it was closest. I was two hours late to work as a result of this and I was angry because you do not expect a new car to die. Van Drunen fixed it up and I picked it up after work. My husband and I went back to the dealer. I wanted to verify the difference in the base price was the taxes. Bert saw us and I explained my concerns. John the finance manager was not in, but he was going to talk to Danny Allen, the GM. After waiting 20 minutes, we're ushered into Danny's office. We were never invited to sit down. He had the file pulled up on his computer and I explained what the concern was. He showed us that it was the taxes that were rolled into the base price. I thanked him for showing us and then asked him about the discrepancy on the trade. His response was "Well I wasn't here, so I don't know what was said." I told him that Bert was here and he could verify this. Bert did verify that he had told us $6000 on the trade. From there, it got nasty. Danny said that this was all about me being upset that the car died. When I responded that yes, I expect a new car to run properly and not die in the first 4 days, I was told things happen and it's my car. Danny specifically said "It's not my problem YOUR car died." I told him I was unaware that Ford still stood for "Found On Road Dead." Which may have been a bit harsh, but at this point he was being rude in tone of voice and body language.
I asked him if he intended to do anything to help rectify the situation and he said no. I said that's a shame because no one likes bad press. He got extremely confrontational and said "What does that mean?" I told him that word of mouth is the best press any company could have and I would be sure to share my experience with the Ford products and in particular this dealership.

I don't think Ford is a bad product. I think I had an unfortunate experience with a new car. It ended up being a thermostat problem that Van Drunen fixed in reasonable time. I think Mr. Allen could have been a lot more understanding. Even if the answer would have been "I'm sorry you had a bad experience with the car. Has it been fixed? On the separate issue of the trade, as the paperworks been signed, we cannot make changes. I'm sorry we were not clear between the sales floor and the finance office and we will work to correct that in the future." At least then I would have felt like I was a valued customer. But it was very clear I was not.

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