Peters Honda

On 1/29/16, I had a decent experience ruined by a Finance Manager (hereafter "FM"), whom I would characterize as arrogant and evasive. Even omitting that he ignored my wife-never making eye contact even when he shook her hand-my interaction with him turned so acrimonious so abruptly that I ended up walking out on the sale after much time and at the expense of a car that I really liked.<br><br>If you want the abridged version, skip to "The Confrontation".<br><br>-The Setting-<br>[1] My wife and I (hereafter "we") test drove a car at Peters Honda (hereafter "PH") on Tuesday.<br>[2] After some internet searching, we found that PH had another car on their lot that we might like. We made an appt for Friday at 9AM with the salesman who had helped us Tuesday.<br>[3] We arrived at PH at 9AM, test drove two vehicles, and began negotiating the price of one. At approx. 11:40AM, I signed the preliminary agreement timestamped 11:30:09AM, and our salesman went to find a FM.<br>[4] 20m passed. No FM. At 12:15PM, we notified both the salesman and the sales manager that we had an appt. at 1PM but would return later. The sales manager agreed that 4PM would be a good time for us to return and assured us that the FM would work on the paperwork in our absence and everything would be ready for us at 4PM.<br>[5] At 3:50PM (10m early) we arrived, with our 2 kids (3 and 8) at PH. Again, we waited for 20m, until approx. 4:10PM, I asked, "Are we looking at a wait of two hours or a few minutes?". The salesman couldn't even say that it wouldn't be two hours. We had thought we would come at 4PM, do paperwork, and then go for a family dinner in our new car ~5:30PM. Now, we were facing the prospect of postponing dinner until 6 or 7PM and negotiating on an empty stomach with cranky kids, so we explained to the salesman that we'd get dinner and return again to finish the paperwork. We left PH at 4:13PM.<br>[6] At 5:30PM, we return from dinner and again are made to wait, because now the FM is eating his dinner.<br><br>-Something Feels Wrong-<br>Until now, my feelings regarding the waits had been neutral. I understand that PH is busy, that no FM was available at 11:45AM, and that it wasn't PH's fault that I had an appt. in the afternoon. I understand that PH can't predict volume, and even though PH personnel had *clearly* set the expectation that someone would be available to work with me at 4PM sharp, I wasn't bothered that no one was, and I accept that it was my decision to leave again to get dinner.<br><br>But now, on my 4th visit to PH in a week and 3rd this day, the FM doesn't even come out to greet us, not because he's with another customer, but because he's eating. This is where things are starting to feel wrong.<br><br>I'm not saying that the FM should have immediately put his dinner aside to work on our sale, but had I been him, *I* would have taken 30 seconds to come out of my office, greet the customers, and tell them personally that I appreciated their patience and would be just a few more minutes.<br><br>Instead, our FM made us wait, yet again, for another 5-10 minutes before he graced us with his presence.<br><br>-The Confrontation-<br>The FM spent 30m trying to sell me an extended warranty plan. He had 4 plans to show me, but we only got as far as the first choice:<br>[1] use what remained of the basic 3yr/36K mile warranty (hereafter "3/36") from the original date of purchase.<br>[2] buy the cheapest extended warranty, which the FM states is "the same" as the 3/36 but extends it to 7yr/100K miles (hereafter "7/100").<br><br>Now I want to make this clear: the FM described the 7/100 as "the same" as the 3/36 over and over while we spoke. He left no doubt that they differ only in terms of when they start (original date of purchase vs. today).<br><br>So now, to make sure that I understood the plans, I asked specific questions<br>Me: "If my central display panel fails before the 3/36 ends, and I walk into the service area, state my problem, what happens next?"<br>FM: The service personnel fix it.<br>Me:"Ok, then before I can drive off in my repaired vehicle, I have to pay how much?"<br>FM: zero dollars.<br><br>I asked more questions with different pieces of equipment and in different scenarios, and the answer was always the same:<br>[1] Under the 3/36, Honda will fix it for free.<br>[2] The 7/100 is "the same" as the 3/36; it's just effective for a longer term.<br><br>After 30 minutes of this, and after getting the FM to drop the price for the 7/100 by $1000, which he did almost instantly from ~2500 to ~1500 - potential buyers take note - I was close to buying at least the 7/100, but then, in an effort to seal the deal, the FM made a mistake.<br><br>He drew an analogy between the 7/100 and health insurance, which prompted me to say, "There's no co-payment."<br><br>And the FM said, "Oh no, there is. $100."<br><br>At this point, the FM has unequivocally stated all of the following:<br>[a] the 3/36 costs $0 per service visit<br>[b] the 7/100 is "the same" as the 3/36<br>[c] the 7/100 costs $100 per service visit<br><br>All of those cannot be true at the same time, and the conversation unfolded like this (the '...' indicates an interruption):<br><br>Me: "But you said with the 3/36, I pay zero dollars."<br>FM: "That's right, but..."<br>Me: "So then [the plans] are not 'the same'!"<br>FM: "Yes, they are..."<br>Me: "No! They're not!"<br>FM: "The plans are the same in..."<br>Me: "No! No! No! They're not 'the same'. One has a fee and one doesn't. That's different."<br>FM: "No..."<br>Me: "Yes! They're different!"<br>FM: "No..."<br>Me: "Ok, that's it. We're done with warranties. I'm not getting any of them. Move on."<br><br>So, acknowledgment: I was angry. I had established a syllogism every bit as clear as "If A=B and B=C, then A=C.", and here was the FM trying to convince me otherwise. In my shock, I raised my voice, and I talked over him.<br><br>Initially, the FM said something like, "Ok, no warranty plan," but then, he grew still, looked at me, and said, "I have been very polite to you, and I am not going to tolerate you raising your voice and disrespecting me, and if you're going to be rude, I don't want you in my office; we can go get another FM, and you can finish with them."<br><br>So this is important: it was the FM, not me, who suggested that he and I cannot work together; he introduced the possibility of ending our interaction before completing the sale.<br><br>This put me on the defensive, so I began to apologize for raising my voice, but as I explained that it was a response to his dishonesty - omitting the $100 charge from all descriptions of the plans until I asked the precise question that forced him to reveal it - he returned to his talking points, and as I struggled to control the urge to interrupt, I realized that we'd only go in circles, so instead, I stood up, turned to my wife and said, "Honey, can you get the kids to car? We're done here."<br><br>The FM stood up and again offered to get another FM, but I turned to him and say quietly and evenly: "I'm sorry that I raised my voice with you, but I'm telling you now, quietly, that I don't think you've been honest with me, and I don't want to continue this anymore. May I have the title to my trade-in back, please?" The FM gave me the title to the trade-in, and I think that we may even have shaken hands.<br><br>I'll never go here again. I bought a car the next day from Honda North in Danvers, MA.