Complaint Review: Larson Volkswagen - Tacoma Washington

My husband and I have leased our last couple of VW's with Larson's in Tacoma. We have been looking for a way to get out of the lease cycle and we found a car that we hoped we could purchase on their website. A 2004 GTI.  On the 14th of August my hubby took our Jetta Wolfsburg in for a service. By the time he left Larson's, he had signed the papers for the GTI we'd been looking at.

After he left the lot he came by my office so that I could take a look at the financing info. On the web, the car was listed at $14,999.00. They sold us the car for $16,999.00 and sold my husband a bill of goods about how they had to increase the price to cover the residual owed on the leased vehicle. Sounds like a typical dealership line to me. 

I called the dealership that same day and told them they needed to adjust the price to $14999.00 and was told by the person on the phone that they couldn't help me right then and that they would "talk to Robbie" and get back to me.  That evening I went in to sign the papers and the price had not been reduced. At that time, the Business Manager, Laura Johnson told me that Volkswagen Credit would not finance a 2004 vehicle for 72 or even 60 months and that at that moment, she didn't have anyone to finance our loan. I asked her why we got to take the car without secured financing and she just blew me off. She said that if she couldn't find financing over the weekend that they would have to find us another later model car. We didn't want another car and so I left with a promise that Laura would call on Monday, August 17th. By 5pm on the 17th, I hadn't heard from her and when I called all I got was voice mail. The next day around noon she called to say that there wasn't financing available for the GTI but that she had found me a Rabbit that she could finance in order to stay in the price range we needed for the payment we could afford. I told her to forget it and that I would be up with in the hour to pick up my Jetta. 

When I arrived, the car was not out front so that I could transfer all of my things from the GTI back to my original car. And, to add insult to injury, they made me pay the service bill on the Jetta in order to get my car back.  The least they could have done was provide the service on the Jetta at no charge for what we went through.

The bottom line to this laborious story is that their customer service really does suck  and that this is the last straw for us. We will NEVER EVER do business with them again and when asked who we would recommend when someone is looking for a Volkswagen, it will ABSOLUTELY be someone else.

Larson's does jack up prices, offer you bare bones for the trade-ins you bring and then jack the price on the cars they lease or sell to you. They allow you to drive off without confirmed financing and then when thier deal doesn't work for you they send some lame little girlie man out to make sure you aren't mad at them before you leave their dealership. 

Ok - Come on Larson's - let's hear what you have to say now. You can rebuttal all you want and tell the people that use this service how truly dedicated you are to customer service and fair pricing and making sure your preowned vehicles are in good condition and how the real issue with the financing was our credit and blah, blah, blah.  I'm waiting...no, actually I'm not waiting. The BBB and Attorney General Rob McKenna are calling me. Gotta go!