Complaint Review: Riverside Auto - New London Connecticut

First of all I want to make it clear that I am not a friend, family member, spouse, etc of the owner of Riverside Auto. I merely came across this report from a search engine while searching for Riverside Auto's website to look at their inventory.

I purchased a vehicle from Shawn at Riverside Auto (2005 Chrysler Pacifica) in late 2013 after numerous trips to other used car lots around that area. All of them, excluding Riverside Auto, seemed sleazy and untrustworthy and 80 percent of all the employees I dealt with at the other ones were shady, lacked customer service, and basic human interactive skills. I finally arrived at Riverside Auto and met Shawn and informed him of my intention to purchase a good reliable used car. I told him my budget and not once did he try and convince or pressure me to exceed that number. He listened to my needs, was up front with me about prices within my budget, and was truly a gentleman. Totally professional and it was such a relief to experience that after dealing with all the other local dealer's shady tactics.

I test drove numerous cars, asked a ton of questions, and took up a lot of his time that day but he never showed any signs of frustration or annoyance at any point. The Pacifica ran great and he also did a few things to the car at my request for free (new Rain-X wipers installed, minor small scratches buffed out, and a K&N filter that I purchased installed for free). Car came with a generous 90 day warranty which I believe is more than what the law requires of 30 days (I could be wrong on law). A couple months ago and approximately eight months after I purchased the Pacifica, I had a clunking noise near tire and brought it there for service. Shawn was really good on having the problem fixed and at a very low and reasonable price. Point is he went above and beyond exceeding my expectations.

I have and will continue to recommend my friends and family to go there if they need a great quality used car. And people have to keep in mind that if you buy a used car, it's been used. Meaning that repairs and unexpected mechanical failures are going to occur. If people want to point fingers they need to point them at the car's manufacturer, not the used car dealer. Believe it or not cars are designed to fail, yes fail, at some point for financial reasons. If they designed them to last forever then they would be out of business fast. And touching on that recommendation part real quick, three people that I know that I informed to buy a car at Riverside Auto, to this day have had no unexpected major repairs done to their cars other than normal wear and tear and preventative maintenance service. And they all have had the work done there with no complaints. They all are pleasantly pleased with their cars, the interactions with Shawn and the aforementioned services performed there.

All in all, I would strongly recommend anyone looking for a great used car with respectable interactions with employees, go to Riverside Auto.

In responce to your complaint first of all noone preyed on you or took advantage of you. When you came to our store in November to buy a car you brought someone with you for a second opinion on the vehicle, John your friend, a mechanic we were told. You asked if you could test drive the car and take it somewhere to be completely checked over before you paid for it, we agreed and would rather customers do that since they are older used cars and have higher miles on them and they are bought AS-Is because of the years and mileage on them. All customers sign a Ct buyers Guide which clearly States that before purchasing. We would like our customers to be comfortable buying and feel secure with their car and us. Both of you did that together before you purchased the jeep. You guys brought it back with a list of a couple small things like hood shocks but the car checked out fine. I beleive the car was $4000 ish dollars plus tax and reg, its a 2002 jeep Liberty with 152,000 miles not new but in good condition overall. There was no check engine lite on and emissions was completed on the car. You took it and a few days later you complained that the heat wasnt hot enough so you brought it in and we told you that it had something to do with the blend door and we fixed it no problem. You took it again and the heat worked great as it still does. A few days later you guys came back, its actually the guy who you originally brought down who you told us was your mechanic is the one who is bringing the car back, John I beleive his name is. Anyway this time with a complete checkup from Falveys and a list of a couple things they suggest doing. Nothing about a compression test or a head gasket or any gasket problem was talked about. John told us that they told you guys that the Jeeps in good condition mechanically overall but recommend doing the driveshaft because of the rubber boot on it being torn and a power steering pump because it was starting to make a small noise and the radiator had a small leak in it. After coming up with a solution with your guy John for getting the few things done that Falveys now suggested doing that you wanted done we fixed the radiator and the power steering pump for our cost for parts with no labor charge because you just bought it a couple weeks beforehand. We did not do it right away because there are other things that had to be done before it and we were also back and forth with your guy John about what the solution was going to be because you guys felt you shouldnt be paying for anything and you wanted your money back or an exchange for another car and also pretty much being threatened by your Guy John. We did not get the ok to do work on your car right away. We cannot just work on peoples cars with out them oking what is done to it.

Now at the end of January when you bought the car in November, we now have a new completely different check over by Falveys which only says Head Gasket might be leaking or cracked head and now all of a sudden the check engine light is on. I dont beleive they did any compression test or anything to come up with that because it does not state that on their diagnosis and we told John your guy that we would do one since they didnt and we would scan the car to see if there are any codes in it that they didnt check on their diagnosis sheet we were given from John. Theres hot heat in the car and it does not blow white smoke like a normal headgasket or cracked head problem would normally do. Why did the car checkout good from your mechanic when you took it for a second and third opinion before you bought the car? Why did it check out good when it was brought to Falveys the first time? Your jeep does have a slight misfire that is usually a spark plug or coil or fuel injector to fix. Why all this when it could be a simple fix? No other issues but a slight misfire that these jeeps are known for and could be a simple fix. This was just brought to our attention the third week of January and you already tried to make it seem like we are some big scumbag place. That definately doesnt get you far with us helping. Anyway if there is a larger problem we did tell your guy John that we could help get it done cheaper than the larger franchise dealer Falveys quoted you. Maybe you should be the one that comes into the store to talk to us and help get an understanding of what is done from here out if there is a larger problem and what solution there is with us helping you a little rather than John or secretively trying to listen to his phone while its in his pocket. Another thing is we definately dont like being roundaboutly threatened by your friend John and that will definately not get you very far with our helping you out with this. Do we want unhappy customers, NO, does it happen in the used car business and any business, Unfortunately yes it does. Mechanical things are not made to last forever. We have tons of happy customers compared to the unhappy ones. We told you you can pretty much handle it the way youd like because of the way you are handling this with the threatening and nonlistening of the facts. We have been fair all the way around. Noone has been rude or untrustworthy.