Complaint Review: Dodge City of McKinney

Thank you to Dodge City of McKinney for the most insulting and degrading car buying experience that I have ever had in my entire life. I would like to tell you how Mike Bell at Dodge City of McKinney treated me.

As I begin, let me mention that I am a repeat customer. I have been buying NEW Dodge Ram trucks since 2008. My first was at Dallas Dodge, my second in 2012 at Classic Dodge of Denton, and my 2014 and my new 2016 at Dodge City of McKinney. I also purchased a NEW Dodge Journey in 2011 from Dodge City of McKinney. That’s three brand new vehicles in the past 5 years from this particular dealership. In years gone by, I purchased more than one of their new minivans, and my now-17 year old son has his eye on the Dodge Challenger. Simply stated, I'm a solid customer.

My recent purchase began when I went to the dealership late Saturday afternoon, January 30th. My sales person was Jay, who helped me find exactly what I was looking for and he retrieved the vehicle from a nearby holding lot. We quickly negotiated a deal (I didn’t even bother test-driving the vehicle), and as part of the deal, I told him that I know that the dealership has a ridiculous policy of only putting 18 gallons of gas in the tank, but that I wanted a full tank, and that I had been put in the unpleasant position of demanding it during the delivery of my purchase of the 2014 truck two years prior. He came back to me and told me that he got the ok to provide me with a full tank of gas. It seems ridiculous to me that a customer purchasing a vehicle that is nearly $45,000.00 has to beg for a few extra gallons of gas. It’s an insulting policy to begin with.

I finished up with finance after closing hours for the dealership and my son and I quickly moved my stuff from the 2014 truck into the new one. In my haste, I did not notice that unfortunately, the instruction to fill the tank had not been relayed to whoever prepared the vehicle for delivery. As I drove away from the lot, I noticed that the tank was only at 3/4 full. I phoned the dealership and spoke with a lady who said she would make a note of it and she told me to simply mention it when I came back Monday to select my custom leather and turn in the keys and title to the 2014, and that they would take care of it.

When I returned Monday, I selected my leather, turned in the keys and title and asked Jay to finish filling the tank. He had apparently not been informed that I had called, and I told him that it had only 3/4 tank when I drove off Saturday night. He took the key and went to take care of it.

Several minutes later, Mike Bell (who I recognized from my 2014 purchase, but who had not been involved in this purchase at all) approached me outside and started talking to me like I was a piece of garbage. His comments were along the lines of “let me get this straight – you buy this truck, we fill the tank, you drive it 170 miles and then want me to fill the tank back up?” I explained to him that Jay had agreed to fill the tank and that it was only 3/4 full when I left. He asserted that it was at half a tank now and had 170 miles on it. He acted incredulous that I actually drove the truck and put a few miles on it. I told him that of course I drove the truck, and I didn’t expect it to be completely filled up at this point, but that they owed me about 1/4 tank – about 8 gallons. He then raised his voice and told me that the tank was full, and that I should “do the math”. I told him to do the math if he wanted to, but that the tank was not full when it was delivered. He insisted that it was, though he was not involved in the delivery and had no way of knowing whether it was full or not. I asked him why he was calling me a liar, and told him again that the tank was not full. He then dismissed me with a wave of the arm in disgust and turned his back on me to walk back in to the showroom. I told him to hold on, and that I didn’t appreciate being called a liar. By this point, he’s yelling at me and he then tells me that “his other customers have better ethics than to come try to cheat him out of 1/4 tank of gas.” That is one of the rudest things I’ve ever been told as a customer. I am highly insulted that he of all people questioned my ethics. He sits in his chair all day figuring out ways to give people as little as possible for their trades and get as much as possible out of his inventory. The initial offer on my trade was $2500 below what they agreed to for crying out loud. Tell me how ethical it is to offer ridiculously low trade in values (well below book)…and then accuse me of being a piece of garbage because I expect them to honor the deal of filling my tank…about 8 gallons.

Since he suggested I do the math, I did. Right now, gas is about $1.58/gallon. That means that for $12.64, Mike Bell chose to insult the character of a repeat customer who buys a new $40,000 truck every 2 years at to treat me like some two-bit riff-raff of dubious integrity. Some of the other salesmen, including the sales manager who had actually been involved in my deal stepped in to separate us and escort him back into the managers pit while Jay took the truck to have 1/4 tank of gas put in it. The other sales manager offered his repeated apology and said that Mike was wrong to do that. I agree he was wrong to do that, but the apology shouldn’t be coming from him. It should be coming from Mike. This entire incident has left me very angry. Is withholding $12.64 worth of gas from a repeat customer who just bought a brand new $45,000 truck more important than honoring the deal that was agreed to? Is insulting my integrity and treating me like garbage more important than making me feel like a valued customer? I am not so financially destitute that $12.64 is going to make or break me. I don’t suppose Dodge City made so little on my deal that $12.64 would have hurt them at all either. Even on the trade, I accepted over $500 less than KBB Trade-in value.

Customers deserve a better experience than this.