MINI of the Main Line

Like many consumers today, my wife and I shopped online for a new car... checking dealer inventory and reviews, etc. We decided on a new MINI Cooper S and found one at Mainline MINI. I called ahead and made an appointment with a salesman and we were met in a cordial fashion. So far so good. We were presented with a demonstration of the MINI and the salesman was beaming with product knowledge. Still, so far so good. We returned to the dealership and began to negotiate with our trade-in. After a typical negotiation, we settled on a price. Still, so far so good. When discussing the financing I told the salesman that I had already made arrangements and told him the interest rate that I had secured. He informed me that he could offer the same rate and do all the financing right there. Sounded great, so be we bit! Bad choice! We walked a couplel of blocks and got an early dinner while the MINI was prepped for delivery and the paperwork completed. The salesman called as we were finishing up and told us to return and pick up our new MINI. We were excited, my wife was thrilled because the MINI we had found at Mainline MINI was just what she wanted. Upon returning to the dealership and being given the final walk-around of the car, we noticed that no one was left at the dealership except our salesman. He sat us down at his desk and started going over the paperwork. When we got to the finance contract I noticed that the interest rate was a full, one percentage point higher than what we had been offered when we bought the car. I asked him about it and he told his first lie. He said that he had informed me of the change in interest rate when he called me to tell me to pick up the new car. Of course, he had not done that. At this point my wife was so "in love" with the MINI that we could not back out of the deal, despite my willingness to do so. The licence tags had been changed from our trade in, the new MINI was prepped and ready to go. I quized him further on changing the rate and he insisted that the rate was NOW the best that he could do and if we wanted to return on Monday we could wait and discuss it with the business manager. No one was at the dealership that could help us right now. I bit again! We signed, took the car home and I fumed. I was going to give the dealership my opinion when they sent us a customer survey. That never happend. We have yet to hear one word from Mainline MINI asking about our experience. I contacted MINI/BMW financial and told them of my experience. The offered to refinance the contract at the lower interest rate that I had been quoted by my bank... and we did, saving over $1600.00 in interest over the term of our loan. When I called for our first service recently. I called twice, leaving voice mail messages with the service department both times... asking for a call back and an appointement. No call back was ever made. I then called the next closest MINI dealer in West Chester and was treated like a REAL VALUED CUSTOMER, even though I did not purchase the MINI there. Both my wife and I continue to warm prospective buyers about Mainline MINI. Customer service, the cornerstone of any auto dealership, is severly absent from Mainline MINI's mission. They simply do not care about their customers and their salespeople have proven to be dishonest.