Mark Kia

On 6/25/2014, I contacted via email/internet, a car dealership about a 2006 Saturn VUE that I found. I was called very quickly about this car. I called my credit union about this car and got preapproved for financing. I received an email confirming a price on the car of $4,652.00. I sent a text to the salesperson letting him know that I would be coming to the dealership on Thursday, 6/26/2014 by 9:00 AM. I was ready to make a deal and get a new-to-me car. When I got to the dealership, I was quickly greeted and sat at a sales desk. The salesperson then started pulling up other vehicles for me to look at. When I told him I really wanted to see the VUE, he went to look for it. I sat with my 11 year old son in a car dealership for over 45 minutes waiting for my salesperson to find a car. But hey! The World Cup was on and the sales staff seemed very interested in the game. I was feeling forgotten about so I was getting ready to just leave. When that happened, he finally shows back up, but without the vehicle. He had a different vehicle; one that was $8,992.00. He lets me know that he can’t find the VUE. He said it looks like it was sent to auction. I wait another 20 minutes while he tries to continue to “find” the car. I decide, fine, let me look at the car he’s brought. This car a 2006 Sorrento has just been traded in. By “just traded” in, I mean it was dirty. Rearview mirror is broken, not even attached to the windshield. It hasn’t been washed, hasn’t gone through inspection, and hasn’t even been detailed. I can still look past this. I can see the potential in this car. He asks if I have a car that I was looking to trade in. I do, or should say I did. So he looks it over. He then asks me for the keys to my car. I gave them to him thinking that someone from service was going to look over my car and see what its trade in value would be. That isn’t what he did. He gave my car keys to the sales manager so that the sales manager could test drive my car. Why? Because the sales manager was interested in my car. For himself. For his own personal use. So, someone from the dealership test drove my car, without my permission. How do I know this? Because when I got back into my car, it was parked differently and in a different position. I don’t recall giving them permission to drive my car. But the sales manager was really interested in my car, so I guess that is okay. Except it isn’t. By a long shot. He comes back to me with a printed out sheet with the Sorrento information on it. I asked him for a breakdown of the fees, taxes, etc. He writes in black Sharpie $8,992.00 *Internet Special* plus $895.00 inspection fee, trade in allowance of $300.00. To me, this is not a breakdown. When I asked him for the breakdown of fees, any warranty information, taxes, license, etc., I was given on the back of the Sharpie page, handwritten the following: $9,887.00 - $300.00 + $2,000.00 (service contract) + $500.00 GAP + $174.75 Plates + $498.00 doc fee + $762.17 Tax giving me a grand total of $13,521.92 to finance. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT I CAME IN LOOKING AT A CAR FOR $4,652.00. If I could put a picture of this on here, I would. I take all of this information with me so that I can look it over, run my budget and see if I can afford this car that I’m not really interested in. I let the salesperson know on 6/28/2014 via text that I am just going to keep looking for something because it really isn’t something that I want. I get a call from a sales manager, Jacob. Jacob is the quintessential used car salesperson stereotype. He blames me for the abysmal customer service that I received the day before. He tells me that the car could have been sold 30 minutes before I got there. The website is “under construction.” And then says to me, “It sounds like you just needed someone to vent to.” Jacob, if you’re reading this, you’re a jerk. I wasn’t serviced by your car dealership yesterday. I was almost taken advantage of. I was almost screwed over because your salesperson wanted a bigger commission. How dare you. I work very hard for my money too. When your paycheck is reflecting how well you service your customer, I’m guessing that yours is terrible because you know nothing of customer service. As a side note, the 2006 Saturn VUE that I went in there to look at, VIN Number: 5GZCZ33D76S814824 and Stock Number: SP3317 is still on their website. It is still showing as available for sale at the dealership as if 6/27/2014 at 8:37 PM Arizona Time. But it now has a price of $4,583.00. I don’t know how this is possible since I was told that it was sent to auction and the website is “under construction.” The care is blue, so maybe it is a Tardis. Who knows? It must be a magic VUE. **UPDATE: AS OF 7/10/2014 8:22 AM ARIZONA TIME, THIS CAR IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR SALE. IT IS NOW PRICED AT $4,494.00 IT MUST NOT HAVE DONE WELL AT AUCTION** On Saturday 6/28/2014, I get an email from Jack Belsanti. It is a form email but I thought, “Why not share with the Mark Kia’s Sales Manager my crap-tastic experience?” I let him know to read my review of his dealership (and have since put this review EVERYWHERE I CAN) and basically shame on him for not servicing his customers and not holding his sales staff to a higher standard. He emailed me back letting me know that he was embarrassed and would be having a meeting with all those involved about expectations. I hope he had that meeting. I have this review on their Facebook page to which I got a comment from an Amy Brock. “Anytime you trade in a vehicle a manager will drive your vehicle just as you drive theirs..” Funny how that’s all Amy got out of my review. It’s also crazy funny how Amy’s maiden name or other last name is Belsanti. I have since continued my search for the perfect car for me. I contacted my credit union and was contacted by Tod at Centennial Sales and Leasing. He knew of my parameters and didn’t waste my time with cars that I wasn’t interested in. I did not end up buying from this group, but he was amazing. He only called me when he had something for me. I never once felt like he was trying to upsell me into something I didn’t want. If you have the time to have this group search for a car for you, DO IT. I found a dealership in North Scottsdale called Discover Pre-Owned Auto Sales of Scottsdale. I called and spoke with the owner (RIGHT??? What owners do you know that actually answer the phone?). Frank was beyond kind and helpful. He wanted so much to help me find a car that would work for me. The cars in his showroom are just gorgeous. He introduced me to Anthony and you couldn’t ask for a better salesperson. Anthony showed me two cars. One of the cars was a hybrid and the other was a Sentra. Both of these cars are pristine for being used cars and they both have low miles for the price of the car. He spent a large portion of his morning to run some figures for me. He was even going to take my current car as a trade in. They also didn’t drive my car. All they did was look at it. He asked me to please do some research on hybrid batteries because there is some cost involved to replace them. The hybrid was the more expensive car. In his own way, I think he was trying to talk me out of it because those batteries are expensive! I walked away from this dealership knowing that if I didn’t find the car I really wanted, I was coming back to buy the Sentra. Frank and Anthony know how to service their customers. They treated me as if I was coming in to buy the most expensive car in their inventory. I’m sending them a thank you note even though I didn’t buy from them. That is how great these people are. I did end up finding the car I wanted. I dealt with Bruce of Four Seasons Motor Company. This place is great. Customer service there was great. I caught Bruce at the end of another transaction and he found me the car I called about and it didn’t take him 45 minutes to do so. I looked it over and it was exactly what I’ve been looking for. He didn’t try to get me to look at more expensive cars. There were some there too. He took my car in trade and guess what? He didn’t drive it either. Huh, I guess Amy is wrong. To sum up, my experience with Mark Kia of Scottsdale: Service was very bad, dreadful, awful, terrible, frightful, atrocious, disgraceful, deplorable, shameful, hopeless, lamentable, rotten crummy, appalling, pathetic, pitiful, woeful, useless, lousy, dire (pick your adjective and insert here). I will forever be telling ANYONE that I know to never go Mark Kia of Scottsdale or Mark Mitsubishi of Scottsdale. If I hadn’t been careful, I would have gotten taken advantage of. Thank you so much for wasting almost three hours of my life and precious time as well as three hours of your time and God willing and the creek don’t rise, countless possible sales. If you service your customer, you will have one for life. Congrats on your epic fail. How do you say, "BAIT AND SWITCH!?!?!?!"