Complaint Review: Autos Direct of Fredericksburg

This is by far the most unethical and unprofessional business I have ever seen in my life. I’ve been looking for some time for a used vehicle, I’m very specific as to what I want and need. While on cars.com, I ran across a vehicle I might have been interested in and went to their website. Autos Direct of Fredericksburg. www.autosdirectva.com. I noticed it was a company I had driven by multiple times on my way home. They weren’t like the other used car dealerships; they invested money into fancy advertising and have 2 lots. Online, you cannot get a price for any vehicle unless you inquired or applied for a loan. So, since they claimed to have over 100 vehicles under $10,000; I figured there would be one I’d find. I wrote in the remarks on the loan application; “I am only interested in a 4X4 truck or SVU. I have 2 sons who are both well over 6 feet and they need to be comfortable in the back.” So, I applied on 2/3/2017. That I now know is the biggest mistake I’ve ever made and worst, upon looking to file complaints, found out that everything you read below that happened to me; is just a repeat of everyone else.

On 2/4/2017 at 11:57am; I received a voicemail from 540-595-0880. The message left is as follows: “Hello Ms. April, this is Moe from Autos Direct. I have your application in front of me and it has been approved with no money down. Please call me at 540-595-0880 or come on by, it’s a beautiful day. I’ll talk to you soon.” My fiancé and I stopped in and walked around their lot on 2/4/2017 at 1:20pm. After about 20 minutes, 3 white men were moving vehicles around and one asked if he could help us. We told him we were here to see Moe. He said he had gone to get lunch and would be back any minute. 20 minutes later, an older black man was walking to go back inside their office and asked if we had been helped and again, I said we were waiting for Moe. He said that Moe was inside and he would let him know, he should be right out. Apparently the first guy didn’t inform him. While walking back through the lot to look at some of the vehicles we were interested in, we smelt pot, strong. Thought it was coming from someone that had drove by. Another 25 minutes went by when a very tall, thin black man came out and asked if we were still waiting for Moe. We told him yes. He said he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t come out yet, he’d go get him. The whole time we were there, we were the ONLY customers to stay on the lot. 2 other couples drove up, looked around and left. It’s now 2:28pm; still no Moe, so we left.

At 3:19pm I received the 2 following text from 703-732-0462 that read, (1)”Hey April this is Moe from Autos Direct in Fredericksburg.” (2)”Can you come by today and pick out your new car?” I was busy with work at this point and didn’t have time for this. I thought to myself, I’ll just respond after I’ve calmed down and have time since apparently no one told this guy I was there. On 2/7/2017 at 9:51am; I returned his text and it read, “Sorry to just get back to you. I guess no one told you, I was there Saturday, for about an hour walking the lot. 3 different guys came out and told me you’d be out to help me in a minute and after about an hour, I gave up, had to be somewhere.”  At 10:51am I then received the following text messages; “I am sorry.” “I’m going to call a meeting this morning to address this issue.” “You should not have been waiting for a hour.” “and not one of these salesman told me you were waiting. I can’t believe it.” “I did have a few customers at my desk, but the def should’ve told me you were here or they should’ve helped you themselves.” I replied back, “If I finish work early, I will stop by.” He responded back, “Please do. We will make it up to you!” “What time do you get off from work Mrs. April?”  At 10:57am, my response; “No specified time. I’m a web designer. I’m done for the day when I finish my current project. Probably around 1 or 2.”  Now, I caught on to him stating he had customers at his desk too, knowing this was not true. But as most used car salesmen say things to make themselves look better, I assumed that was what he was doing.”

At 2:38pm; I showed up with my adult son and fiancé. A man came out and asked if he could help us. I told him I was looking for Moe. A few minutes later, a man came out and introduced himself as Nas, the GM. He said that he called a meeting that morning to address not getting helped on Saturday and was terribly sorry for my experience. But not to worry, he will make sure this was made up. He stated that Moe was his cousin so he takes it what happened personally. He said as soon as we were done looking at the cars in the lot, to please come inside afterwards. A few minutes later, we went inside and didn’t see either of the guys. Another man asked us if he could help us (no other customers inside at this time) and again we said we were here to see Moe and just spoke to the GM. He pointed to Moe’s cubical and told us that we could sit in Moe’s office and someone was getting him on the phone now. We sat in the waiting area instead and my fiancé and I looked at each other questioning why he wasn’t there, since he knew I was coming.

Finally at 3:01pm; Moe showed up and introduced himself. He again apologized for Saturday. My fiancé and I went and sat down in his cubical. He then asked who the 3 that never got him were and I described them, one of which was in the cubical beside him. That man then said, “Hey didn’t I ask if you needed help?” I replied, “I told you I was here to see Moe and you told me you were getting him. You did not.” The Moe says, “I know we have the online form you filled out, but I need you to fill out the paper form so I have it signed and I also and need to copy your ID.” So I handed him my ID and filled out the form again. Before finishing the form, I almost walked out. Nas comes over and first asked if I like strawberries, I said no. He then said, “Is that your oldest son?” I said, “Yes, the guy sitting in the waiting area is, he’s actually a twin.” He then says, “No, I meant the guy right here.” I said, “Excuse me?” He says, “Well, if not, who is he?” I replied, “This is my old man.” He then says, “Wow man, you look so young.” I’m thinking to myself, “are you flirting or what?” Since I take pride in the fact that I don’t even look old enough to have 20 year olds, I find it very disrespectful to be so stupid. My fiancé was letting his beard grow, which was all gray at the time. Only of he was high would anyone be so dumb. I said, “That’s funny. He’s shaving soon, maybe then can you pull that line.” He then tells him, “No, don’t  shave. You look good and so young.” Now I know why he gets upset when guys flirt with me in front of him. He then shows me his tattoo on his finger, I also have one. When he saw mine, he saw the engagement ring and said, “d**n man, you got it together.” And actually fist pounded him.  He then took  my form and ID to a room with Nas and another man.

At 3:35pm; Nas comes back and sits at Moe’s desk, Moe is standing at the entrance to the cubical. Nas says, “OK, here is where we are…” he then starts writing on the envelope I assume my form was in. “This is your credit score.” I said, “No sir it is not, I’ve seen my credit score and there is a red flag on it because the things that are on it are NOT mine, but my ex-husbands.” He then said, “No, no, didn’t see that. So the banks will give you a high percentage on your loan unless you have him (my fiancé) co-sign for 5 months. Then (again writing this down) I can get you 2-11%, no money down and low payments.” He then looks at him and says, “You love her right, so you’ll do this for her?” I then said, “Sir, so what was the messages I received? Moe stated I was already approved and nothing down.” He then replied, “But that was for a car, not a truck.” I said, “That doesn’t make since, I specifically said I was only interested in a truck or SUV. I can go to my bank and get a car loan if I find something here and this is now an issue.” He then said, “What bank?” I said, “Navy Federal.” He says, “Oh, that’s my bank and they won’t do it.” I said, “Sir, they will, I have already been there. In fact, rather I leave here with a vehicle or not, I do need to be out of here by 4:45pm so we can go to our bank and get our new check cards.” He replied, “I’ll get out in and out by then if your man will help out. Doesn’t matter what his credit is or isn’t, that’s all I need to get you in a truck today.” I said, “Sir, I don’t like this, something seems wrong here. Either way, I would want to go to my bank and get a certified check for a down payment. I also have not seen what trucks you have to offer or even their prices.” He said, “Oh no no, there is NO money down. You will be leaving soon with your new truck.” I said, “I still want to put something down.” He then slides an application over to my fiancé and says, “You got this right?” I said, “Wait, we need to talk about this first.” So we walked outside and did just that. We discussed that something just didn’t seem right. But he wanted to help so he said he’d do it and then we could leave and if we didn’t like their loan deal, we could just go to our bank and refinance.” This was true so at 3:44pm, we went back in and he filled out the form and handed him his ID and Nas handed me my ID back.

While my fiancé and I were sitting there talking, he noticed that they had my ID for a long time. He questioned that as he said all they said they needed to f=do was copy it. It’s now 4:23pm and no one has come back to us. So, at this point I’m getting frustrated and walked outside to smoke. Just to find Nas out there smoking. I tried to walk past him, but he started talking to me. He said, “So why do you want a truck.” I said, “Weather. I need something with a 4x4.” I didn’t really want to speak to him. Especially when no one has come back to us, but he has time to smoke?  He then started talking to another man, the only other customer at the time. I’m back with my fiancé, it’s now 4:46pm and we needed to pick up our new cards. He looked around for the 2 guys. They are nowhere to be found. My fiancé said, “We can’t leave. They have my driver’s license STILL.” We asked another man if anyone has seen them. They tell us no. We were stuck! We couldn’t leave and they made sure of it. I was ticked. They knew we had to go by a certain time. No one has come back to us or returned his ID.

It is now 5:56pm. Finally Moe walks into the cubical. He came to get something out a bag and says, “Has Nas come back?” We said, “No, and now we didn’t make our other appointment.” 6:21pm, All 3 of us walk outside and look around the lot at the trucks they do have on the lot. Just to see all the guys hovering around the corner, smoking??? I’m on the phone now explaining what was going on and why I’m not home yet to my youngest son. Moe comes over while I’m on the phone and starts talking real loud to my fiancé saying, “So, our computers have been down for awhile, we just go them back up. You guys will be out of here in minutes.” I had to walk away because I couldn’t hear my phone conversation. I’m trying to figure out why in the hell this man was talking so loud. I thought maybe because 2 other families were on the lot looking around. I don’t know.

When I got off the phone, my fiancé said, “I need my ID back and we need to leave.” I said, “Well, hun we’ve been waiting forever, what’s a few more minutes?” He said, “Trust me. Can you smell that? It wasn’t a car going by, that smell came off him.” We walked back in and sat down, kept looking for Nas so we could get his ID and leave. Now it’s 7:02pm. Moe brings him his ID finally. Tells us, “Did you pick out any trucks? We finally got the computers running and are ready to you guys going.” He said, “Let us go back out and figure out which one’s we’d be interested in.” Moe then follows us and every time we see one we like, he says, “That one will be about $1000 a month payments. Maybe we can find you a car instead?” My fiancé replied, “No. We made it clear what we were looking for. A car isn’t it.” We then walk back in. Once again, everyone is missing inside. We stood at the door for a good 10-15 minutes. Moe finally walks in and approaches us at the door. He said, “We should have our computers up any minute.” He was slurring his words now, his eyes were glassy and he smelt like he was bathing in pot! I said, “Sir, you have been saying for over an hour that your computers were back up. You held my fiancés ID for hours; not sure why, no one has bothered to say anything to us. Your cousin is nowhere to be seen. This is bad business.” He then says, “Well with your situation it takes time.” I said, “No sir. I have no situation and it doesn’t take this long for anyone. Hell my mom was just across the street and brought a brand new car, was in and out in 30  minutes. I’d understand and hour, but we have been here since around 2:30pm.” He says, “Well bring your mom, she must have perfect credit.” I said, “Absolutely not. And her credit isn’t your business. You made me promises to get me here; your cousin then made promises to get both of us……” and before my sentence was complete; he actually turned his back to us and shook his friends hand and started talking to him. So, we calmly walked right out, got in our car and left.

The following morning, we hadn’t received any phone calls, texts, etc. My fiancé said to text the guy Moe and see what’s going on. He was concerned as to why they would hold his license for so long. (we later found out that they do this to a lot of men. Sometimes over night.) At 1:46pm; I sent the following text, which started an array of showing their true colors…: “Ok since we haven’t heard anything from you that our assumptions were correct and we will take our business elsewhere and be sure to let our car club know what happened. Very bad business.” I received these responses at 1:48pm; “Please if you slander my business I will take you to court.” “We did everything we could and I put in our power to help you out.” “You didn’t want to wait and stormed out of here.” “Nobody told you to leave with your credit situation is going to take time to get done.” Yep, I was ticked at the word “Stormed” as we calmly and quietly walked out. I responded: “No sir, first off I have a business law degree (I have a bachelors) you should look the word up. No one stormed out, I was talking to you and your turned around and spoke to someone else in the middle of my sentence. It doesn’t take this long. This should have been completed last night or early this morning. You chose to ignore me. Don’t ever threaten me again, this is your last chance to fix the situation or I will proceed.

Everything I say can’t be slander when it’s the truth. You claimed it was taking so long bc the computers were down. But you had us sitting for over an hour b4 you ever said a word. You knew we had somewhere to be. We were told w a co-signer 2-11% interest, nothing down for a truck or I had to go with a car. This is on you and if you want our business and our friends and family, you will lose the attitude and fix this.” He then responds at 1:59pm the following:”This is my last chance?” “Come in with your mom and I’ll make everything right for you. Let’s get you back in the driver seat.” “Why would I not want to sell your car if you were to stay there were different options I was in a come and tell you but you left without evening saying goodbye.” At this point, my fiancé told me to just copy all the texts and report them. But I was pissed. I told him, “Don’t you see, this is both of them writing these texts. See the different speaking styles?” So I then replied, “Yes sir, if you want all our business, you will fix this poor business relationship. You re-read the text I sent. I’m not going to bring anyone else. We were told one thing and that is what is expected. Again, why would I say a word or nor stay when you turned away from me to talk to your friend? “ I guess he didn’t like that I wouldn’t bring others to him and replied at 2:07pm; “Please do not contact my phone again.” So My response, “Good! I will let everyone know how poorly you run a business and lie to customers to get them in. In fact you will see all your text online later. I guess that joint was good for you, You smelt like you were bathing in it. Do not reply, do not contact me again.”

My fiancé was as pissed as I was by this point. Again, his biggest concern, what did they do with his ID when they held it as long as they had? Something was really wrong. He told me to call them and ask for the GM (Nas) and make sure our ID copies were getting destroyed, along with our personal information. I called, but placed it on speaker. Moe answered, I asked for the GM. He asked who this was I said, April. He then started laughing and put me on hold. Nas gets on the phone and I said, “I want you to know that the occurrences that happened last night and the rude and unprofessional texts from your cousin, are very unprofessional.” He said, “Really? What was wrong with it?” I said, “He threatened me. He needs to learn what “slander” means, and proved that Saturdays issue is an ongoing thing.” He then starts yelling at me and said, “He didn’t right the d**n messages, I did. There’s nothing you can do about it because you won’t be telling anyone about what happened to you. I was being nice and tried to work with you but you guys got up and stormed out of here making a scene.” I said, “Excuse me? No one made any such thing. We calmly walked out and just left after your cousin turned his back to us while we were in the middle of a conversation. I gave you a chance to fix this, apparently all you deal in is bad business.” He was still yelling and said, “Like I said, you ain’t going to tell anyone anything. You can’t prove any of this.” Me, “Sir, I can. I will be more than happy to post the texts you both have sent me, post the recorded voice mails left and I had another witness w us.

Again, no one STORMED out or caused a scene. Don’t ever tell a woman she can’t do something. Your threats don’t scare me, I’d actually love to see you take me to court. But understand, I will counter with false advertisement, illegal business practices and anything else I feel is applicable to stop people like you from taking advantage of others. Now. I want to speak to the owner, as I called to make sure our info is being destroyed.” He then yells, “I am the F’’’king owner.” I said, “No sir, you’re not. You introduced yourself as the GM, which I believe is incorrect too. Yes, I’ve already checked to see who the owner was. You had personal contact with my fiancés ID for over an hour, almost 2; it worries us as to what may have been done with it.” Again he yells, “I was watching you people the whole time. You got up from the desk and stormed out yelling and causing people to leave. Stay the hell away from our business and keep your mouth shut. I’ll keep what I want.” My response, “I think you smoked why too much of that pot sir. Since you were nowhere around when we left and we were standing at the front door. But you do whatever. Like I said, I’m not scared. But you will see all this online to warn people about you. Do not contact me again sir.” He then says, “I’ve been in business for 15 years and never had a complaint….” I interrupted him and said, “Bye.” And hung up. I think he was screaming because I was speaking so calmly. It must have hit a nerve. But some people are adults. Can’t help he was not.

In turn, they have only been in business for 6 years, not 15. In fact, upon learning of their other lot, we realized that we had stopped by there about a year ago. They had about 10 vehicles on the lot and we were told to come back in a couple weeks because they had been out of business for about a year and are just get stock in now. Had I realized this was the same place, I would never have wasted my time.  They have multiple and similar complaints on used car consumer formats, yelp, cars.com, etc. They have an “F” rating with the BBB (which is hard to get) with 34 complaints filed against them.  They have 13 reviews in the last 3 years, the couple good reviews clearly were written by their people. It comical. 33 of the complains were in the last 3 years; 8 for Advertising/Sales Issues, 1 Delivery Issues, 4 Guarantee/ Warranty Issues, 20 with Products/Services. “Business has failed to resolve underlining cause(s) of a pattern of complaints.” The owner is Sana Kargar, If you read their couple “positive” reviews, you will find one with their customer service lady claiming they’re great. She’s also noted on civil lawsuits with him. Interesting!