Complaint Review: Herb Chambers Auto Group - Honda Dealership

I'm a employee who has worked 25 years for the same newspaper.

In early November 2007, I bought a Honda Civic hybrid from this dealership. We agreed to a price for my trade-in, and everything else. Two weeks go by and I don't receive any receipt or paperwork from the dealer. I call several times and leave messages with the salesperson, the finance guy, the general manager, and others. No one returns my call.

I do a little reserch on the Internet to see if anyone else has had this same situation with Herb Chambers dealerships. Seems there are many of people have experienced the same thing ... at least 30 to 40 complaints are listed, ranging from not receiving paperwork, to changing the percentage rate on financing, to changing the agreed upon price on a trade-in.

Now, if this is happening to a lot of people, there may be a story here that needs to be told. So I go to the dealership and ask for the general manager. I carry a tape recorder and notepad, as is standard practice if I'm going to do an interview.

He comes out and he's all apologetic. "There must be some mistake. We don't do business like that here ... blah, blah." So, I take him at his word, since the complaints were not directed specifically at his dealership.

The tape recorder was never turned on, nor did I write anything in the notepad.

OK .. He gives me the paperwork and we make small talk for about 1 minute. He says, "The last thing I'd want is to have you as an unsatisfied customer."

And I quip back, "Yeah, you wouldn't want someone to do an investigation, either."

"Should I take that as a threat?" he asks.

"No," I reply, "since there's nothing here to investigate."

He walks through a glass door into the sales office and I leave.

Three days later, on a Friday morning, I look at the paperwork, and sure enough, there is a $600 discrepancy on the agreed-upon price for my trade-in. I call and leave a voice-mail message, noting that I'd want to talk to him on Monday.

At 1 pm on Friday, I get a call asking me to take a Customer Satisfaction survey on my experience at this dealership. I give the dealership very low scores.

On Monday, there is an ice storm and I e-mail the general manager from work at 9:30 am, asking to change the date to Wednesday. In the e-mail is my name, title, and who I work for.

At 10 am, I'm called into the office: "What's going on with Herb Chambers?" I explain the pricing discrepancy and my visit to them to get my paperwork and tell my supervisor that it will all be straightened out on Wednesday. My supervisor is the Director of Advertising for this newspaper ... and she suggests that I call and apologize to this general manager.

Why, I ask ... but finally agree to do it, and I leave a voice-mail message noting that I was sorry if there was anything you misinterpreted from my visit the other day.

At 4 pm, I receive a call from my supervisor asking me, "I heard that you had a tape recorder?"

"Yes, I had a tape recorder and a notepad, just like I always carry, if I interview a person on the record."

"Well that changes things," she said.

Now I'm thinking, what is going on here? Why is she making a big issue about something that I normally do?

On Tuesday, I ask another supervisor, who I have been working with for seven years and who was present during the first conversation, "What is she looking for?"

He said, "Don't worry, she only wants to be sure that you're not going to write something bad about the dealership which would impact our advertising revenue."

I assured him that was not my intention ... I only wanted to clear up the $600 discrepancy.

Wednesday morning. I'm thinking that I have to make this go away ... and I write an apology letter to reinforce the first apology.

I go to the dealer and present them with the apology and do not even talk about the $600. At this point, I just want this to be behind me. The general manager accepts the letter and says, "We also just want to put this behind us. We want to have you as a customer for life and to tell your friends to shop here ... "

OK ... done, finished ... the end of it .. or so I thought.

Thursday at 10 am, I'm called into the office. "How did it go with Herb Chambers?"

"Great ... Everyone is on the same page and we all agree to move on."

"I heard you wrote an apology. Do you have a copy of it and can we see it?"

"Yes ... I just wanted to reinforce the apology, so I wrote it out. Here it is."

After both supervisors read it, they say, "Nice letter, well-written."

At 2:15 pm, the Director of Advertising and a Human Resource representative call me into another office.

"I'm sorry to tell you that we have no choice but to terminate your employment."

"For what reason???"

"For using your job status to get what you wanted from one of our advertisers."

"I didn't get anything ... I had already purchased the car .. this was all about not getting my paperwork and when I did check it, there was a $600 price discrepancy. ...."

So the company that was my employer for 25 years then pushed an envelope in front of me with my last paycheck and vacation pay and accused me of something I did not do. And to top it off, they used my apologies, which they asked for initially, against me. I did what they asked me to do -- and they fired me for it.

As an employee at-will, the company can fire anyone for any reason. I would have received better treatment if I had committed a heinous crime. I appeared before the two supervisors twice and told the truth.

Here's what a reasonable person could surmise what happened: The general manager received the results of the bad consumer survey on Monday. This survey affects bonuses and status within the Herb Chambers dealership.

At the same time, I had just given him my name and where he could find me, and 30 minutes later I was in an office explaining myself to supervisors who would do anything to please this guy.

So he decided to use his power over the paper and call the Director of Advertising and/or the publisher and said, "Get rid of this guy or else I'll cut back on my advertising with you."

So the stage was set for the charade of having me apologize to the guy, and I gave them the smoking gun in written form on Wednesday.

Now that's outrageous abuse any way you look at it.

So the paper did what he told them to do -- two weeks before Christmas.

I had a spotless record of many accomplishments ... Gone in an instant of being the victim in an ultimate rip off and abuse of power. Both parties are shamefully guilty.