I am writing this in regards to my experience and headaches at Toyota/Scion of Hampton, Virginia. My husband and I just came home from Operation Iraqi Freedom II and on our way to our next duty station in Montana, and decided we needed a new truck. Are first thought was how much we would like a new Toyota. Well if we knew then what we know now, we would of saved ourselves a lot of headaches. The service we received at Toyota/Scion of Hampton was what you would expect from one of those little dealers that you hear horror stories about and are warned to stay away from because they are all crooks. A total disappointment of what we had expected from a higher end dealer.
First not only were we lied to about what we agreed upon they try to make fools out of us. Lie #1: Our agreement had included a trade in with my car, a 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier with 9000 miles on it in good condition. We were told we would get $7000 for the car in which we owed $9000 in which would tack on $2000 to the sticker price. Ok sounds good lets talk payments. Lie #2 we finally came to an agreement to pay $601 a month. We could afford that and all we needed to do is put $3500 down payment. No problem.
Well we went back to a finance person who said her job is to make sure everything is legal and to tell you about Gap protection and extended warranties! Ok sounds good since we will be traveling to Montana soon to our next duty station, we might need that. But when I asked her what does this $3000 mean in this column or what does that mean total price $38749 mean? Is that what we are paying for in the end? Her response, “Uhh. Well I don’t know you’d have to talk to a sales manager about that!” But wasn’t she the finance personnel? As we are walking out of the finance office confused the dealer who was “helping” us walks up to tell us the bumper is dented on the brand new 2005 blue Tacoma! But offered us silver Tacoma with fewer accessories but for the same price! Unbelievable! So my husband solves the problem and tells the service manager to switch bumpers from one of the other trucks. Oh yeah good idea. So when we finally get a good look at the paperwork we realize we only received $3000 for my car but was told $7000. We brought it to the attention to one of the sales manager who then said well I don’t know. And every questioned I asked no one knew. They couldn’t tell me anything. What kind of Morons runs this place? They can’t even answer the simplest questions. So now they realized the messed up, do some refinancing bring the price down, maybe cut their commission down a little, not much but maybe some, and call us in to re-sign some papers. Still the same problem! And I guess my husband and I should of used our better judgment and just said forget it but we had our heart and depended on that truck to get us to Montana with all of our belongings, so we were in a Bermuda triangle.
Fast forward, we drive to Montana waiting on our new account numbers and paperwork about the truck that supposed to come before our 30 day tags run out and now they call my mothers house in Virginia to tell us to come down on Monday to sign some papers? Three weeks later and we still have papers to sign? What is going on? Toyota and I think just about everybody in that dealership knew we were going to Montana that next week! They had assured us everything that needed to be done was done! I might not know all the fine details that go along with buying a car and how to do it well but I do know that this is the worst experience of my life. It is so bad that I would hope this could never happen to anyone else. I didn’t even think this could be legal. It is really sad when a company takes advantage of the very people that keeps them in business. To take advantage of military veterans of war that fought for their own freedom! We might not be happy with our situation but I know we will get over it. But we will always remember the way we were treated and we will be able to tell our story to other Hard Working Americans that deserve better. One voice and others will follow.