Complaint Review: CACTUS JACKS AUTO SALES - PHOENIX Arizona

I bought a 2001 Honda Odyssey from the Van Buren location, because they had the car I "thought" I wanted! I bought it on April 5th 08, The sales idiot by the name of ADRIEN, had told me after I insisted that I bring the van to my mechanic before I sign anything, had said "well we can't let you take the car off the lot without signing, for Insurance purposes, BUT you can take it to them over the weekend (because we got it on a Sat.) and ANYTHING, that they find wrong with it we will fix with no problem, infact we HAVE to because you're under a 15 day/500 mile warranty, and by LAW we have to fix anything wrong with the vehicle in that timeframe". He also stated that if the car is by chance in HORRIBLE shape , which he stated we were getting a "steal" lol, that they would allow us to switch out the Van for another one.

Well the check engine light was on for starters, and we had to jump the van to even test drive it, he said whether I take it to our mechanic or not, they will fix whatever it is that is triggering the engine light and if the battery doesn't hold a charge over the weekend, we will replace it with a NEW one!! YA RIGHT! We took it to our HONEST mechanic who by the way is TOYO-MOTORS on 28th st. and Bell, they found 4 PAGES of problems and flat out told us we were scammed, that this vehicle was by far a LEMON!

I was IRATE, My husband and I called up the manager at that location to tell him everything that had happened, he actually asked Adrien if what we were saying was true while we were on the phone, Adrien admitted it, and his manager REED said that he shouldn't have told us ANY of that because the company does not do that! We told them we didn't care what their company does, your sales person misrepresented EVERYTHING and you're going to take this car back, he says " OH NO! we can't take it back, but maybe we can negotiate some of the work", we said " SOME? No not some you guys are fixing this vehicle the way you said you would!

That Tuesday the 8th we brought it down to REED, he went over the paperwork from our mechanic and of course argued almost everything on there, but agreed to fix the 1. motor mounts (the engine was holding on by a thread) 2. A complete tune-up and 3. The check engine light issue, which could be a number of things.

We also had an issue with the mileage, they said the miles were "unknown" because it "might" have been in Canada which goes by kilometers, but that they only get their cars from dealers and private parties and that the title read that the van had 59k the odometer read 29k, we even let that go because it was one of the only cars under 100k.

Anyway, to make a very long story ( like 8 weeks worth) short. Reed wrote up a "we owe" ticket and told me to make an appointment with their corporate service center on Camelback and to speak to Lloyd. I called Lloyd the very next day, he was saying his 1st appt. was 2 weeks out, I said no way, my engine is holding on by a string, this van needs to get in right away, so he "squeezed" me in the following week. Needless to say they didn't touch the van, they continuously re-set the engine light so that it would be off when we picked it up, only to pop back on 2 days later EVERY SINGLE TIME (6 to be exact).

Now, I have a seizure disorder which is triggered by EXTREME stress, not just your everyday, "how am I going to pay the bills" or "The kids are driving me nuts" but EXTREME stress, I made them aware of this, because I knew we headed down that road, do you think they cared one tinsy little bit? NOPE!

So here's the run down to date. I have brought the van in there 6 times, which they have 2 work orders for, they're trying to say I have only been in twice in other words, and those very work orders at the top say "01 NISSAN QUEST" now I mentioned mine is a Honda Odyssey right? Ya, they know I have a very good court case, so they are trying to make it look like I never had my van in there at all, that I was aware that, it was an "as is" sale, and that I'm just making all of this up! We have brought it to our mechanic 4 times to check their work, and those bills added up to $301.48, then we found out it was still under warranty at Honda, but got it there and the problem was that the cactus jack mechanic never snapped the COIL back in, so we got charged $105.00 at Honda and a $40.00 rental car fee.

Well 5 days ago (after only having it 3 days from the mechanic) I took it to the car wash, I went to leave, it was completely DEAD, wouldn't even take a jump! You can imagine, I completely broke down and lost it!, and it was Memorial weekend so we couldn't get any help until Tues. and this was Sun. So we had to leave the van at the car wash and of course called the other Manager at the corporate office that I have been dealing with by the name of "Joe" he was actually the ONLY person willing to even remotely help us, he was talking with the owner, he told us to write the owner a letter, which we did, but he didn't care. Anyway, we told Joe what had happened AGAIN!!! He was shocked and said he would see what he could do. I called him later that day, he said the owner said that they were sending a tow truck to go pick it up and they would "SEE" what was wrong with it.

I called the next day, Joe said he "PERSONALLY" took one of his mechanics off of the line and told him to check our van and to get back with him, well it turned out it was the starter, and Joe said he was going to get in so much trouble, but he authorized the guys to fix it, I asked about the battery, he said the battery is just fine, I checked it myself!! The next day (Thurs. 5/29) He called and said they REPLACED the starter and we can come pick it up, BUT ( now keep in mind I have refused to pay the rest of my down payment and 1st payment until this was fixed and Joe, agreed and supposedly told the accounting dept. to note my account that we do not owe anything until further notice.) we had to pay what we owe less $350.00 I said where do you get $350, the receipts add up to $441.85? He said that is what the owner said, I went ballistic, then I calmed down and said fine, I will pay your money (because I was putting a stop payment on it anyway) I will be down there in a few min. with a check have my car ready, he said, GREAT!!!

I got there, the girl said the total was $675.00 not $315.00 like Joe had said, I started to freak out, she said it was because they were about to send the repo guy out, I said why would they even think about doing such a thing, they said b/c you're delinquent!!! I said "Oh, so Joe never had my account noted did he"? NOPE!!! She said she would take those fees off, I said good here's my check, NOW GIVE ME MY CAR!! She said , they're pulling it around right now! We went outside and kept waiting, no car, Hmmmm,

The other office girl comes around the corner and says I just spoke to Joe, because of course, he's not there right now, when he knew I was on my way, and he said we cannot except a check you need to go get cash!!!! She said it was a "new" policy, I said if it was a new policy than the other girl wouldn't have taken the check in the first place, at that point I realized Joe was hiding out in his office he wasn't gone, I'm not an idiot, I said where's Joe? She fumbled, didn't know what to tell me, I said "I'll find him myself" I walked around to the showroom area and office area, yelling his name "JOE!" JOE"! about 8 or 9 times, finally someone said ma'am he's at the cashier box, Oh now he's at the cashier box, so I walk back over and let loose on the poor guy, but he wasn't budging, he continued to tell me it was "POLICY" and he had done SOOOOO much for me, he got in so much trouble for replacing the starter and this is how I am going to treat him?, blah blah blah, I continued to freak out, my blood pressure went through the roof and I had a SEIZURE right there on the floor, at that point my husband lost it, my 3 year old was also there, mind you and she got scared, so Joe finally decided to take our check from my husband and this time it was $370.00 so it went from $315 to $675 to $ 370, real organized over there huh? But wait it's not over yet....

We get the van, I decided I'm not going to stop payment on the check after all, because Joe did really try to help all he could I guess, so we call it a day and take the van back to Honda because we figure it will be covered under the warranty for the check engine light, NOPE! Then we find out the van REALLY has about 102k miles on it and they changed out the dash, because they can track when the van had warranty services and the last time was in Mesa it had been in twice in a 2 week period and it had 56k on it in 2005!!!!

So needless to say we had to get it from Honda and take it to our mechanic, but my husband had to pick me up from work so that we could go get his car from the mechanic, because we had both been having to use that for the past 2 months and it had finally had it, but when my husband went to leave our house low and behold, the car wouldn't START!!!! He popped the hood and there was new (used) battery in there, so he got under it and the same STARTER was still in it, they didn't touch the starter, after all that whining about how he was going to get in so much trouble, BLAH BLAH BLAH, he never even had it changed! So now the van is at OUR mechanic and we will have to go with out it for awhile because we're going to have to make payments to him, because a starter is in the ballpark of 3-400 that we do NOT have, not to mention everything else that is STILL wrong with it, like the "ENGINE LIGHT", so I also stopped payment on that check, because they LIED!!! They didn't touch my car infact the little tune up job they claimed to have done is one of the reason my engine light is on, they used the WRONG plugs and wires!!!! They are all a bunch of MORONS and THEIVES!!!!

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT GO THERE PLEASE!!!!!! If I can save only ONE person from going through what I did, I will be happy!!!!!

Becki

Glendale, Arizona

U.S.A.