Murdock Chevrolet Masters of Bait & Switch... Buyer Beware!! Woods Cross, Utah
I was interested in purchasing a 2009 Malibu 2LT with the V6 engine. Was greeted promptly at the dealership, found a car I was interested in. Negotiation was short on trade-in, and bought the car using the Credit Union supply price, so there was no negotiation on that end. Was charged for "custom wheels," but after doing additional research after buying the car, found out they were not custom. Immediately called my salesperson back, he basically blew me off and told me that I got custom wheels. I was pissed off! E-mailed the salesperson the following Monday (in order to establish a paper trail), 3 days later he finally contacted me & admitted that the wheels were for another customer who did not buy the car, and the wheels were not on the car when I bought it. Finally refunded the money, but it took the threat of legal action to get the correct wheels installed on my car. In addition, they agreed to refund the sales tax on the wheels, but they never sent the check.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
kwm03160
West Jordan,Utah,
United States of America
Additional Information
#3Author of original report
Sun, May 06, 2012
1) This was more than a "simple mistake." Hours (less than 6) after I took delivery of the car, I called my salesperson... I had detailed information that the wheels on my car were from a 4-cylinder LT, not "custom" wheels and not the stock wheels on my car. The stock wheels were 18" (V6 LT), and the ones that were on my car were from a 4-cylinder 17" LT. He did not listen to me. Being a salesperson, he should have known his product. I followed this phone call up with an e-mail with pictures and exact specifications from Chevy's website. He completely blew me off and would not believe that he or the dealership could have made a mistake. It took over a week to get a response. One of the sales managers (another Murdock) only offered me a "couple" of oil changes for the inconvenience. No discussion was made of me getting my money back.
2) I know you are a "very busy dealership," but my experience just proves that all you are looking for is the sale & don't put a lot of effort into after the sale. I'm happy you think a $900 error is "minor," but to me that is extra $$ I paid that I shouldn't have, and could have gone to much better things. In addition, I had to take a day off of work to come down to the dealership & get this straightened out (only after e-mailing K.O. Murdock & threatening legal action. That finally got the GSM (Steve) to acknowledge there was a mistake). Not to mention I was ready to leave after waiting 30 minutes for him to arrive.
3) When I met with Steve, he said that a check would be cut for the sales tax. He said the only reason a check wasn't cut while I was there was there wasn't a second signer (reasonable explanation). Believing him, I filled out my customer service report (via the Internet) and gave the dealership a perfect score in all areas (even though it wasn't deserved). And surprise! The check never came. I then sent another e-mail to K.O. explaining how upset I was, especially after giving the dealership a perfect satisfaction score. I never received a response back from him. Just showed me all the dealership cares about is its customer satisfaction score with GM. To top it off, the car has been the biggest piece of crap and has spent more time in the shop than any car I've ever owned. It got to the point I've had to make it the "weekend" car and I bought a Subaru to be the daily driver. This is unacceptable considering the car only has 45,000 miles and I spent close to $30K for the car. Had a perfect buying experience with the Subaru, and it has only been to the dealership for routine maintenance. I've had 4 friends buy Subarus from that dealership, and all had the same excellent experience.
I hope saving the $90 in sales tax (which, by the way, you would have gotten back from the tax commission on your sales tax return (yes, I'm an accountant)) was worth losing me as a customer and the hundreds, if not thousands, that have read my experience and wouldn't buy a car from you.
MurdokPR
Woods Cross,Utah,
United States of America
Murdock PR Manager
#3UPDATE Employee
Thu, December 29, 2011
We are so incredibly sorry for any bad experience that you had with us at Murdock Chevrolet. We cannot stress that enough. But from reading the report, which is the only information on this incident that I have, it appears to me to be a simple mistake made by a salesman. Just like any other business, we are not perfect, though we do strive to be.
As to being "blown off by the salesman", I can tell you that we are a very busy dealership. Our salesmen would gain absolutely nothing from ignoring you or lying to you about custom wheels. That is why I am sure that he made a mistake. Please remember that we deal with hundreds of cars in our inventory, so minor errors will happen on occasion. But they are always quickly corrected when brought to our attention. If you are still waiting for that check, please call us.
Again, please know that we are sorry. If there is ever anything else that we can do for you, please don't hesitate to let us know.