McLoughlin Chevrolet

Is this a new take on the Bait and Switch routine? “Bait and Switch Up-sell on an order”? Think a used car bait and switch is bad? Imagine being lied to and strung along for 3 months on an ordered vehicle! ------------Synopsis------------ Background: I look like a stupid chump to car dealers. Always have… it is an illness called “stupidchumpitus”. 1. I order a specific truck from McLoughlin Chevy with a specific configuration at an agreed upon price. 2. The general manager adds the most useless and expensive package (7k) available that only appeals to guys half my age 3. This is declared to be a mistake in ordering 4. I call in over 25 times in the next 2 1/2 months trying to get it changed. It never does 5. >>>The general manager says I won’t have to pay for the package<<<< 6. The truck comes with the garish overpriced package installed. 7. >>>>The general manager says I won’t have to pay for it<<<< 8. The general manager goes back on his promise and wants me to pay 3k more than we agreed to. I have waited 3 months and he says I will have to order again. He blames the owners for this... I have proof of all of this in phone records and texts from the salesman ---------The Saga of the Chevy Colorado Diesel------- January 2: My wife hates haggling so she said we should go through the Costco program. I call them and get an e-mail directing us to McLoughlin Chevrolet. January 4: We meet with a salesman (no longer with the company) and give him the exact order. The sales manager said they no longer do Costco but will honor $250 below invoice #. Invoice happens to be a known amount #* (it can easily be found through various services on the internet). We verify this amount with the salesman and the general manager enters our order in the GM system and gives us the printout. I know what the invoice is (within $200) for this truck but the general manager insists he does not know it until the vehicle is invoiced* (Dealerships know invoice pricing and so does any 12 year old with access to the internet) January 5: I check the printout for accuracy and find that a $7000 package has been added on. January 6: I call the salesman frantically asking them to fix the order (He says he will check into it) Over the next month I call the dealership over 16 times and even talk to the general manager. I am promised over and over again that the expensive package will be or has been removed. One time they told me the general manager was with the system rep fixing the system and they would fix my order. I call in early February and am told the $7000 package has been removed from the order in the GM system. After a month of stress, I am relieved… February 8: I discover the “ColoradoFans” forums and learn there is a chat on the Chevy website. I chat with Chevy and find the $7000 package is still on there. Panicked, I call in to the dealership an am told that it is removed on their end and it takes a while for it to be reflected at GM (I happen to be a tech guy and know this is unlikely. Maybe in the 70's and 80's with batch processing but not anymore). >>>The Good Cop<<< Finally I call in trying to place a new order, so I can cancel the bad one. I get Dillon who "really tries to help." He tells me that I already have an order and cannot order again. He actually returns my calls... the former salesman and the general manager never did. I had to learn their work schedule to reach them. He tells me that the general manager will not charge me for the $7000 package if it gets added on in production. This does not remove my stress at all. A dealership will not take a loss like this. ++ I chat weekly with the Chevy side checking to see if the package has been removed. The truck gets its TPW with the package still on. The truck gets produced with the package still on! March 8: The truck makes it to the dealer. I have text exchanges with the salesman that the general manager with honor the initially agreed price of what I ordered.* I make sure that these are saved. They say they will not install the package which is dealer installed, and I say that is ok*. I don't like the look of it anyway but I need this truck since we are down to one car. Further discussion at the dealership leads to them installing the entire package because they need to legally.* >>The Bad Cop<<< I am told to meet with the general manager on Saturday March 12. He is a "good gm and he will take care of me". The night before I am to meet with the general manager, I get a call from "the new sales manager" (The guy I bought from and was meeting is his boss) saying they will not sell the truck at this price! He says he will replace it with one from another dealer. There is a reason we ordered this truck in January (other than thinking we could avoid the hassle of haggling). It is nowhere to be found. I tell him I am keeping my morning meeting with the general manager. I meet with the general manager. He says he will sell it to me for 3k more than I agreed on the package I ordered. He then produces an invoice # from another truck similar to mine to show me that "invoice is a lot more than I think". This is part of a new argument. ”We did not actually agree on a price because the truck was not yet invoiced when we ordered it”. After removing every option on that invoice that I did not order he found that I was dead on. Actually I was being generous. I offered the conquest cash to defray the cost of HIS "mistake" a bit. I even offered my services to fix some risk associated with their website to help make up the difference. He said “he would talk to the owners”. If you are the general manager who do you talk to behind the curtain? March 14: They will not honor any promise they made. I only wanted to order and pay for a vehicle in good faith! --------------------A Possibility----------- My working hypothesis is this: They have reduced availability for a vehicle. When a nice seeming customer walks in wanting to order a highly popular yet constrained vehicle at a low price it is like finding a fat wallet on the street. They add an expensive package to that vehicle when it is ordered knowing most people won’t check. If they do… they can play the technology "does not work" card. The vehicle arrives and they give the customer a “special deal” to make up for the mistake of adding a horribly overpriced package. They would generally get two responses 1. The customer walks away letting them sell a vehicle >>for a lot more<<< 2. The customer buys it and they get more than the lousy hold backs that invoice -250 leaves them with. The customer is their new allocation source! Win! Everything they told me could be true (I am sure Kurt or Meghan will respond saying that). Even so, if they had real integrity, they would have swallowed the loss created by THEIR own mistake. A mistake their customer tried to correct REPEATEDLY and spent no small amount of time and stress on. Notes: *A general manager does not get where he is by not knowing the ordering process, the invoice cost, what his underlings are doing. He or she gets there by being a very effective salesman who can mentor the sales force. Effective salesmen will play every angle to get the dealership the most income for the dealership.