On Saturday August 18th my wife and I walked into Grossinger Toyota North Dealership. I was looking into purchasing new Toyota Sienna for my business. I contacted a number of different Toyota Dealerships and it seemed that Grossinger was giving me the best price for the new vehicle. I spoke with Mitchell Schy on Thursday, August 16, 2007 and he told me that his Sales Manager Angelo Beltrano is willing to sell us the car for $23,000 including all taxes and fees. I set up a meeting with him for Saturday afternoon. We arrived at the dealership and our nightmare had begun. It took the dealership personnel about 45 minutes just to get the car for us to test drive. When I was driving the car I told Mitchell there is something wrong with the alignment on the car. He said that upon delivery they will have it inspected. We came back to the dealership after the test drive, and I went to talk to Angelo about the price and alignment of the wheels. He said that he will have it inspected and final price he gave me was $22.600.00. After we agreed on all the terms and signed all the paperwork we were asked to sit down. We were waiting for about 1 hour. Nobody came up to us; nobody offered us water or coffee. Then about 1 hour later Angelo came to us and said that they had a computer system problem and he cannot sell us the car for the price they offered; now the price for the car is $1000.00 more. I told him that it is not our mistake and we have the paperwork completed and signed by him already. Angelo told us that it’s our problem and he can change the price and paperwork at any time he wants, and if we don’t like it we can leave and never come back again. Toyota and Grossinger does not need our business. WOW, way to go for the sales manager of Toyota dealership. We did have a final price of $22,600 in writing, signed by Angelo Beltrano. I wanted to speak to the General Manager. In about another 45 minutes the General Manager Mark Krockmal finally appeared with out a smile, or without even saying hello. I felt like we owed him something, and we are not the customers he is looking for. We went into his office and after a long debate he finally agreed to sell us the car for the price they originally quoted ($23,000 including all taxes and fees). We thought this will be the end of our nightmare and we will go home in about 1 hour in our new car; all we will need to do is to see the finance manager to sign all the financial papers.
My father-in-law drove us to the dealership, so we told him to go home, since we thought that the deal was done.
I told Angelo and Mark Krockmal that my wife is pregnant and she does not feel good. Is there any way we can do everything faster so we can go home and she can rest. Mitchell was busy with a different customer, so Angelo told car delivery department to help us go through the car and show us the features that the car has and how to use them. We were waiting outside in the rain for about 35 minutes for the person from the delivery department, he NEVER showed up. We walked back into the dealership and ask Angelo where is the car delivery person and when are we going to sign the finance paperwork. He rerouted us to the General Manager, who told us that he is going to check and he disappeared for about 45 minutes. Since the entire building is made out of glass, we saw that Mark Krockmal was talking to the finance manager Dan Fitzsimmons all of this time, and only later we found out that Mark told Dan to make everything possible so we will pass on the deal and leave without the car. They did not want to take the loss. Needless to say, that we spent almost 2 hours in the Finance Manager’s office. Dan was sitting at his desk and just staring at the computer for about 30 minutes. He talked to the General Manager on the phone and told him that we are not going to pass on the deal. Finally my wife asked him if there is a problem that needs to be resolved. He responded positively. They could not find my credit report. He told me that I do not have any credit history, (Dan said people like me are called ghosts) and they will have to give me a higher rate if I still want the car. We asked him to look again. I told him that I own a house, 8 different credit cards with a high limits. Also we asked him to check the spelling of my last and first name, and finally he found me, but still did not want to give me a lower interest rate. There was a Toyota Interest Rate chart with all percentages for different scores in front of him. My score was between 680 and 700; based on his chart with a score like that he was supposed to give me interest rate around 7%. He said they need to make the money back they lost on the deal one way or another and if I don’t want to take the car at 8.95% I don’t have to. It will be ok with them. He would not even listen that we bought Toyota Avalon last year and financed it through Toyota Motor Credit, and paid it off in 6 month. At that time both of us were ready to explode. I said that I do not care about the rate and I will pay the car off in one month. My initial deposit was $9,500, when I told Dan about it he looked at me like I was lying. He asked if I really have that much money to put down. He ran out of the office and went to talk to the General Manager (Mark Krockmal). I guess we did not look like people who can spend money on a new car. A different guy came in to watch us while Dan was talking to Mark, since we told him that my wife has a degree in finance. While Dan was talking with Mark Krockmal, we were treated like criminals: sitting in Dan’s office and being watched by Dan’s associate. Dan came back in 25 min and asked me 4 times in different ways if I still want the car and if I did not change my mind. Another 35 minutes later they finally decided to close the deal. After we signed all the paper work, Dan told us to wait outside for someone who will show us the car and will install license plates. After 25 minutes of waiting I went back into the dealership and asked for the keys. It was 7:45 pm and nobody cared to show us what’s in the car and how to use it. I told them that I could figure out how to use the car myself and I will never go back to the dealership again. One of the managers started screaming at me and calling me all the names in his book. Mark Krockmal told one of porter to put temporary plates on the car and to close the door behind me because dealership was already closed. I told my wife that if it was the general manager of the Toyota dealership than now I understand why all managers are like that at this place. They have somebody to look up to. I guess he was very unhappy for loosing $700 on this deal. I will never come to Grossinger for any repairs on my car because I believe their service department is just as bad as their sales department.
We walked into the dealership at 12:45 p.m. and left at 7:45 p.m. We wasted our entire Saturday afternoon on buying a car, that we already had a price for before we walked into the dealership.
I bought a number of cars in my life. We just purchased a new 535XI BMW for my wife, but I have never seen such an unacceptable and rude behavior from the Sales Manager (Angelo Beltrano),the Finance Manager (Dan Fitzsimmons), and the General Manager (Mark Krockmal). The only reason we did not walk out is because we knew that all of Grossinger Toyota Management wanted us to do that. I do not know if they treat all of their customers the same way, and if they do how do they stay in business. We spent over 7 hours and the dealership and no one even offered us a glass of water. My wife was 3 months pregnant at the time and she was not feeling well and they saw that and I told them that, a couple of times but no one decided to hurry up and get us out of the dealership anytime sooner. She could not leave on her own, because we did not have a car.
I hope that this is not a standard type of behavior of the management team at other Toyota Dealerships, and believe that senior management should take action.
After driving the car for 650 miles I looked at my front tires and they were worn on both sides. I took my car to the Arlington Toyota dealership and asked them to check why tires were in such a bad condition in 650 miles. After service department inspected the car, they told me that alignment was never done on the car and car was never inspected before it was delivered to me. Arlington Toyota service department changed two front tires and completed alignment. Once again it shows how much both managers Angelo Beltrano and Mark Krockmal care about the safety of their customers. I told Angelo Beltrano about the problem when we came back from test-driving the vehicle. He did not even pay attention to my concern; he just wanted me to leave and for the deal to fall apart.
As a result, I have encountered numerous inconveniences and problems. For starters, my wife and I wasted at least two days (one of them is a weekend), dealing with issues that could have been avoided. At the time of our unfortunate experience, my wife was in her first trimester, and all the waiting around, unpleasant conversations with managers and frustrations, led her to experience a lot of pain, discomfort and nausea. For the next couple of days we had to stay at home and she was in bed, trying to recuperate. Moreover, lies regarding fixed alignment and my reliance on numerous statements by the management, could have led to an accident. Just imagine what could have gone wrong in the car that was not inspected prior to a sale. In addition, finance department made sure at the time of signing our documents, the interest rate was so high that it would be too damaging and too difficult to afford the loan. Consequently, because of the situation, we had to come up with a full amount in order not to spend extra thousands of dollars.
Pros: N/A
Cons:N/A
Price Range: N/A
Recommended: No
Review Date: 01/08/2008
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