I didn't even make it onto the lot of this dealership the service was so atrocious. I am in the market for for an e350 for my folks, and in a few months, a c350 for myself once my lease is up. I was referred to this dealership throught the car purchase program at Costco. I now regret going that option. Steve McDonald, left me a message, and I called him back , all innocuous enough. He began the conversation with typical salesmen speak, "when will you be down here so I can save you some money?" "I'm in tomorrow, what time can you be down here to get you a great deal?" I told him I wanted to see whether prices were at, above or below invoice per the program as I am deciding whether to buy the car or lease it. There is no question I am going to drive away with one, I just need to compare the price to the lease price. I already have the lease prices because they are online on the Penske Website even if he didn't want to cooperate with me. Steve proceeds to say to me, "What kind of car do you drive?" I said, I don't know what that matters, can you please help me with pricing on the car so I can decide what to do. Costco policy is pretty absolute, and even if he generalizes, this is where I was referred to by Costco and I can decide what option to go on. This kind of upsets Steve Mcdonald. He says he is not playing, that it's a valid question. I told him I still don't see the relevancy and don't care and to please answer my questions. Then Steve goes on to say he has $2000 for me , some sort of deal that Mercedes is having depending on what car I have, blah blah blah. I told him I wouldn't be interested in divulging information that I didn't deem necessary, I don't care about any $2000 , which is my perogative, please anwer the questions I have, if not, then I can move on. He gave me some more salesmen spiel, and rather insultingly then says, "Are you shopping for prices or are you serious about buying a car? I said, I am actually doing both. Again, if I can decide what option, buy or lease depending on the price, I can make my decision. Steve dictates to me and you're not serious, you're not serious about buying, you're not serious about anything and as I begin to respond , he hangs up on me. Seriously? I call back thinking I get the general number, but he picks up again. I ask to speak to a manager, anybody but him, and he says he's busy at the moment and that he'd have somebody call me back. Funny, he was just talking to me, or down to me, for over 10 minutes but now all of a sudden he is too busy? I told him I would be reporting this to Costco, and he yells, "Costco doesn't OWN me!" I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to. He hung up again and denied to transfer me to someone else, saying that I'll have someone call you. My intent is not to say Costco owns anyone. My intent is to report this to Costco so they'll choose another dealership to refer people to, and more importantly, so no other people have to deal with Steve McDonald.
Fair warning to everyone. Do not end up here, and certainly do not end up dealing with Steve McDonald. My experience was horrible. While the manager Joe Mehanna acknowledged that no one should be treated this way, he attibuted it to a difference in personalities. Insinuating that I did something incorrect is rather galling. I had a request for help. It was handled poorly with every rule of good customer service violated. End of story. A simple "sir, we are running about $xxx above invoice, but perhaps if you're here we can try to negotiate a better deal" "my apologies sir we can't help you because we don't do business that way" would have been fine. What am I supposed to say, no, you have to do things my way?
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