PRIZE FOR BEST CAR DEALERSHIP!

CAR

So we've been messing around with this Jeep Patriot thing for a while now. Originally, I had talked to someone at Obrien Jeep in Greenwood, but we ended up going to Fletcher Jeep in Franklin because they actually had a Patriot in that we could test drive.

Immediately I knew that I liked the sales person from Obrien better, as the guy at Fletcher had no clue about the things he was letting come out of this mouth. The guy at Obrien, he was a bit more knowledgeable, but more importantly, if he didn't know the answer, he went and looked the answer up.

Case in point: Fletcher guy keeps insisting to me that air conditioning comes standard on the Patriot. However, that is not the case. I know its not the case because its an option that you have to add on, and it costs $950. He argues with me about it, even though he's showing me print outs on some Patriots that clearly show that the air conditioning is an option. After pointing it out to him three times, he finally relents.

So he doesn't have in stock what we want, and when we expressed interest ordering it, he totally blew it off and said that he can just get one from another dealership, no problem.

My initial thought? This guy is an idiot. I can't see any dealership being willing to trade with him, especially if they are semi close. Dealerships aren't able to keep the Patriots in stock, and most don't have any at all in. A dealership isn't just going to give one away when they know they'll be able to sell it, but whatever.

So I call this guy the next week and he insists that I give him a little more time, that he's trying really hard to get it in. He tells me that he knows that we want our car NOW, and that's what he's trying to do. (Sidebar: We never said or implied that we were in a hurry, actually to the contrary, we said we'd be willing to wait to order one in, but again, whatever.) A couple days later I call back and get the same thing, and he asks me to give him another week. (He's also irritated with me because I won't agree to a different color. I originally told him black, but later said I would be fine with silver too. But he wanted me to accept a Jeep Green one. No thanks.) So we do wait another week. Nothing.

So Mark calls to set up an appointment to order one. Very reluctantly, the guy sets something up and then makes the following comment to Mark:

"No offense, but I really wanted to sell a car in March...not May."

So obviously this experience has been about him getting what he wants, not us.

I try to convince Mark to go to Obrien Jeep or Shadeland Jeep, but he doesn't want to deal with anyone else, he thinks it'll be a hassle. (He would have to fill out another credit application, plus deal with another sales person) I point out that by the time he drives down to Franklin, he could have already done all that, but then he gave me some line about how the guys already done a lot of work on our behalf. Personally, I wouldn't say A LOT, and I think it was more on his behalf than ours. But whatever.

So Mark goes and orders the car. He calls me and lets me know that he did it. I ask him how much it came too, he says he doesn't know, he didn't ask. And apparently the guy didn't tell him or give him any information on it. In Mark's defense, he had just gotten off work after working a 12 hour overnight shift. He just wanted to go home and sleep.

So I call the guy to get the price. He tells me. After thinking about it some, I call back and ask if I can get an itemized copy of the order, what options were put on, etc. I would think that Chrysler would have sophisticated enough software to be able to do that. I was told he would fax it to me.

So I get the fax. What does it say you ask? Price * Sales tax = Total price. No details what so ever. So I just let it go.

Later Mark and I are discussing the options and looking at pictures when I think I point out the fog lights. He apparently thought the fog lights were something else that he thought looked stupid, so he said no when they asked about them. Had I gotten the print out, I would have caught that.

So Mark calls back about adding that option. They tell him that they can't just add that to the order and that it would have to be canceled and reordered and our wait would start over. He he says he'll talk to me and let him know.

We decide to go ahead and get them, but Mark wants me to call back and tell him, I assume because he doesn't want to deal with the guy. So I do. But the guy tells me that there's no way to do that because the order has already been placed. And that we would have to add them after market. After listening to him tell me that its too late for a few minutes, I tell him that he told my husband that the order would just have to be canceled and a new order placed. After a slight pause, he was like, "yeah, I guess we can do that." So I tell him to please do that. Needless to say, the man wasn't pleased with me.

So that's all about that...and that's just the Readers' Digest version!

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