- Report: #394365
Complaint Review: Spanos Imports - Daytona Beach Florida
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Spanos Imports
520 W. International Speedway Blvd Daytona Beach, 32114 Florida, U.S.A.
Phone:
386-323-3777
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Spanos Imports Of Daytona Beach - Spanos Imports rips off unsuspecting buyers by selling damaged vehicles Daytona Beach Florida
My wife and I just bought what was supposed to be a lease return 2005 Lexus LS430 in excellent condition. We were assured it had no paint and was a Florida car with no rust. They keep all the cars in an indoor showroom with no lighting. The day we picked up the car it was raining. The next morning we came out to look at our "new" car in the sunlight and were horrified. The windshield was covered in stone pits! And worse: the entire car was covered in swirl marks in the paint and it was obvious that the front bumper, the back bumper, both driver side doors, the passenger front quarter panel and passenger rear door had been painted. The paint was close but NOT a match. The salesman: Chris when I called him told me that the car had no paint and was a FL car. I told him it wasn't and that I was giving him an opportunity to be honest with me. He told me more lies. So I spoke with Alex, one of the owners. He told me to bring the car in. I brought the car to him. He told me that THEY did the paint work and that it wasn't a FL car. (So the salesman Chris DID know about the paint! And when we did the original paperwork I saw that the car was registered in New Jersey. I pointed it out but he told me that it was a corporate lease and that the NJ registration was just the corporate HQ. A VERY slick lie.) He pretended that this was a terrible accident and not a reflection of the dealerships high standards. He even told us he would do whatever it takes to make us happy: "we werent stuck with the car." Since then he has avoided our calls and left me standing in the lobby of his dealership for 20 and 30 minutes while he hid from us. I purchased this car for my wife as a birthday gift and also for giving me a beautiful baby girl on October 13th 2008. It was supposed to be a really special car. Alex and his group of lying flunkies have spoiled it for us and it seems like that is what they do: lie in order to part hard working people from their money.
Phillip
Palm Coast, Florida
U.S.A.
Phillip
Palm Coast, Florida
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Phillip
Palm Coast,Florida,
U.S.A.
Spanos Imports proves that great reputations are earned when things go wrong!
#2Author of original report
Tue, January 20, 2009
After rereading the article I wrote it is not so hard to remember just how upset my wife and I were at the time. We were SO excited to have our new baby girl (that thrill has worn off after 3 months off sleepless nights!) and we were almost as thrilled to be buying my wife the car she wanted to drive around safely with our babies. Everything was so perfect for a change. We had struggled for the last year in the mortgage business and had had little to celebrate for a while; now it seemed that at least a couple of things were starting to go our way. Then we saw the car we had picked up the night before in the sun for the first time, it felt like the rug had been yanked out from under us again... I did go down the dealership twice (which in all fairness is the coolest high end pre-owner dealership I have ever seen - and I have lived in Miami and did business with some of the most famous of them. It is set up in an old commercial bakery with vintage machinery strewn amongst exotic cars and art deco decor!) and I was not able to talk with my salesman concerning what his boss, Alex, had promised me, as he was busy with other customers. What happened next was I stayed up late and wrote a nasty review for Spanos Imports because I was convinced we had been conned even though the owner, Alex, had given us his word that he would do what it takes to make us happy. How many times do you hear lines like that? To me our car deal was very important and when I am upset life must move at my pace. In the real world car dealers who sell cars for their current market value are busy even in slow economic times and it turns out that Alex was busy with many other deals and was unable to get things back on track for us through his salesman Chris as quickly as he would have liked. A few days later we had spoken with Alex again and he told us that we could have our money back or choose another vehicle from his inventory. We looked around and found a Mercedes on the Spanos Imports website. It was an R350 4matic. It is a cross over between a minivan (dont tell my wife) and an all wheel drive SUV. It somehow manages to combine all the best qualities of both. The vehicle was about the same price but, truthfully, MUCH better suited to our purpose than the Lexus ever was. One small catch: it was on display inside the Daytona International airport! It was right before Thanksgiving and Spanos Imports/Alex wanted to grab the attention of the holiday travelers with this beautiful and unique vehicle. Instead Alex had the Mercedes taken out of the terminal (no small feat considering the level of security in airports these days), brought to the dealer and detailed for us so we could have it for the holiday. In the end all our fears were unfounded. Alex did what he said he would and then some. I since found out that the salesman that had worked with us was let go over the way he conducted himself with us and another customer at that same time. A resume only tells you so much about a person, you give them a chance and once in a while you get a bad apple. My dad always used to say that when things go right any business thrives but good reputations are earned when things go wrong. It's true: you find out who you are dealing with when things dont go according to plan. Alex had a salesman who told people what they wanted to hear and he ended up misrepresenting a car to us. Alex could easily have said: "too bad- caveat emptor!" But instead he put us into an even better vehicle that we LOVE. I regret writing the bad review for Spanos Imports because I jumped the gun and never gave the owner the time he needed to follow through with his promise. If you are reading this then you are a first time customer of theirs and are trying to verify the integrity of Spanos Imports as a business. I hope that by reading this you can clearly see that they are a business you can trust. Anyone can hire a new employee who turns out to be snake but very few businesses out there in this day and age will pursue the total satisfaction of their customer even in the face of financial loss. I would not hesitate to purchase our next vehicle from Spanos Imports, in fact we plan on it!
Phillip
Palm Coast,Florida,
U.S.A.
Spanos Imports proves that great reputations are earned when things go wrong!
#3Author of original report
Mon, January 19, 2009
After rereading the article I wrote it is not so hard to remember just how upset my wife and I were at the time. We were SO excited to have our new baby girl (that thrill has worn off after 3 months off sleepless nights!) and we were almost as thrilled to be buying my wife the car she wanted to drive around safely with our babies. Everything was so perfect for a change. We had struggled for the last year in the mortgage business and had had little to celebrate for a while; now it seemed that at least a couple of things were starting to go our way. Then we saw the car we had picked up the night before in the sun for the first time, it felt like the rug had been yanked out from under us again... I did go down the dealership twice (which in all fairness is the coolest high end pre-owner dealership I have ever seen - and I have lived in Miami and did business with some of the most famous of them. It is set up in an old commercial bakery with vintage machinery strewn amongst exotic cars and art deco decor!) and I was not able to talk with my salesman concerning what his boss, Alex, had promised me, as he was busy with other customers. What happened next was I stayed up late and wrote a nasty review for Spanos Imports because I was convinced we had been conned even though the owner, Alex, had given us his word that he would do what it takes to make us happy. How many times do you hear lines like that? To me our car deal was very important and when I am upset life must move at my pace. In the real world car dealers who sell cars for their current market value are busy even in slow economic times and it turns out that Alex was busy with many other deals and was unable to get things back on track for us through his salesman Chris as quickly as he would have liked. A few days later we had spoken with Alex again and he told us that we could have our money back or choose another vehicle from his inventory. We looked around and found a Mercedes on the Spanos Imports website. It was an R350 4matic. It is a cross over between a minivan (dont tell my wife) and an all wheel drive SUV. It somehow manages to combine all the best qualities of both. The vehicle was about the same price but, truthfully, MUCH better suited to our purpose than the Lexus ever was. One small catch: it was on display inside the Daytona International airport! It was right before Thanksgiving and Spanos Imports/Alex wanted to grab the attention of the holiday travelers with this beautiful and unique vehicle. Instead Alex had the Mercedes taken out of the terminal (no small feat considering the level of security in airports these days), brought to the dealer and detailed for us so we could have it for the holiday. In the end all our fears were unfounded. Alex did what he said he would and then some. I since found out that the salesman that had worked with us was let go over the way he conducted himself with us and another customer at that same time. A resume only tells you so much about a person, you give them a chance and once in a while you get a bad apple. My dad always used to say that when things go right any business thrives but good reputations are earned when things go wrong. It's true: you find out who you are dealing with when things dont go according to plan. Alex had a salesman who told people what they wanted to hear and he ended up misrepresenting a car to us. Alex could easily have said: "too bad- caveat emptor!" But instead he put us into an even better vehicle that we LOVE. I regret writing the bad review for Spanos Imports because I jumped the gun and never gave the owner the time he needed to follow through with his promise. If you are reading this then you are a first time customer of theirs and are trying to verify the integrity of Spanos Imports as a business. I hope that by reading this you can clearly see that they are a business you can trust. Anyone can hire a new employee who turns out to be snake but very few businesses out there in this day and age will pursue the total satisfaction of their customer even in the face of financial loss. I would not hesitate to purchase our next vehicle from Spanos Imports, in fact we plan on it!
