Complaint Review: Courtesy GMC Pontiac

My girlfriend and I went to look at a Pontiac Grand Am. Our sales person, Mike Wallace, seemed very nice, attentive, etc. We received almost $5000 in rebates and that coupled with negotiations we received a good deal on the car. However, even with the rebates we were still ready to walk because of the interest rate and because we wanted to look at other cars.

We sent Mike away a few times because we wanted to discuss it. We had decided that we were going to walk for now. He then asked us to wait and he would go see what else he could do with the finance charges. I told him it really didn't matter because we really wanted to go look at other cars. He came back with the Fleet Manager, Frank Maddera and he tried to fast talk a "better deal". We still weren't going for it, but then out of "general conversation" he asked what we did for a living. We are travel and leisure incentive distributors.

Businesses (including car dealerships) use vacations and free gas offers to entice buyers and increase traffic. He said they were talking to someone about 6 months back about gas rebates, but the person flaked on them. But the dealership was ready to go. And he would love to do something with us. If you do business with us we will do business with you. He then went and got the General Sales Manager, Tim Beyer, and he said that if we would put together some samples that they could do a promotion with they would run with it.

Courtesy is one of the larger dealership chains here and between all the stores they do a million a month in advertising and marketing. If this goes well we they would consider expanding it to the other stores. Based on that we decided to purchase the car. Yes, the rebates did help, but we were ready to walk even after we had the final price. I call Tim back the day I dropped off the samples. He said he and Jim Mooradian (the GM) are looking it over and "we will do something with you". I called back about a week later and Tim told me he was busy hiring for a new store and to speak with Jim.

I called Jim and he was rude as could be and told me before I could get anything out of my mouth he was basically telling me they never have and never will do anything with gas or travel. Fine, I could handle him being rude to me as a sales person, but when I told him that I was a customer and the reason I had purchased the car he was still just as rude and basically called me a liar. He said I purchased because of the rebates. If that had been the case, then the Fleet Manager and the General Sales Manager wouldn't have been involved. Then, he basically told me that we didn't spend enough to earn their business.

I was steamed. So either this guy is out of the loop or I was lied to. But since I was angry (I don't do well when I'm pissed) I decided to write letters to the three sales people instead of calling them. Well, their reaction to the letters, none, tells me I was lied to in order to get me to purchase that car. This may not be illegal, but it is sure as hell unethical.

David
Las Vegas, Nevada
U.S.A.