At first, everything seemed great at Gem Auto Sales. Mr. Mitchell was friendly and worked with my busy schedule. I test drove a car, and really liked it. I decided to wait a couple of days and return for a second test drive.\r
When I arrived for a second test drive, everything was once again great. As I was driving the car, I realized that I wanted to buy it and planned to make an offer upon my return. Unfortunately for me, however, I didn't make it back to the dealership in the car, because it BROKE DOWN! I shut it off to check the trunk/cd player etc, and it never started again! A friend who was with me believes that it was the starter. I got stranded on the side of the road about a mile from the dealership. Because of this, I ended up walking the mile back to the dealership. Even after all of this, I was still in good spirits. \r
Upon arriving in his office, I was shocked to hear Mr. Mitchell say ""thanks for wrecking my car."" I was completely baffled by this, and asked him to repeat himself. When he did, he added ""now I have to pay for a tow truck and to fix it."" He also said that the car wasn't acting like that at all before I took it, and that it was in no way his fault. I talked with him for a couple more minutes and did not get the impression that he was joking. When I mentioned that before this conversation I was still interested in buying a vehicle from him, he suddenly changed his tune and told me that he was just being sarcastic. My question is this: Is there really room for sarcasm when your customers are returning from test drives on foot?\r
After this incident, I suddenly started hearing about similar experiences from other people. I was about ten minutes away from buying a car with a potentially serious problem. I would like to prevent other people from making the same mistake. I know that even brand new cars can have problems. Mr. Mitchell's reaction to this situation, however, is why my experience with Gem Auto Sales was nothing other than awful.
more