The situation that transpired at this dealership today really got me off guard and was quite unprofessional. I am personally in sales myself and understand the value of having someone that you can not only trust, but who also truly values your time and takes their time to answer all of your questions honestly. I purchased my 2013 Hyundai Sonata from this dealership on 8/30/13. At that time, I dealt with Mario Santoro, and had a fantastic experience. Mario was extremely professional and courtesy and was not pushy whatsoever. He took the time to answer all of my questions honestly and worked with me extensively to make sure that I was able to get everything I was looking for in my new vehicle. While I was at the dealership today, I learned that he was unfortunately no longer there. When I purchased my Sonata last year, I was given four free oil changes. Today I went in to have my second oil change completed (roughly 10,600 miles). My friend and I were sitting in the waiting area waiting on my oil change to be completed. Less than five minutes of us sitting there, a gentleman in a polo shirt and jeans walked up and yelled “Silver Sonata?”. I immediately looked around to see if anyone else in the waiting area answered since I had just arrived. When no one else answered the gentleman, I responded and told him that I had a silver Sonata. He then told me that he needed to speak to me outside. This gentleman was not wearing a name tag, a Hyundai shirt, nor did he ever identify himself to me as to who he was. As I was walking outside with the gentleman, all along, I was thinking to myself that I was just getting ready to speak with another customer that was at your dealership. As we exited the door of the Service Department, he said to me “I just backed into your car”. Needless to say, my reaction to this was one of quite disbelief and frustration. When I failed to respond back to him within 10-15 seconds, his next comment was “You don’t look happy”. I told him that no, I definitely wasn’t happy and proceeded to ask him how bad the damage was. He then told me that was just joking around and proceeded to pitch me on “getting me into a 2014 Sonata with similar features at 0% interest with close to the same payment, if not less”. Once again, he never provided me with his name or even identified himself as being one of your employees. After speaking with him for a couple of minutes about all of this, I ended up putting it together that he apparently worked there because multiple employees that were dressed in Hyundai attire came over and spoke to him. During our brief conversation, I finally ended up asking him who he was and he proceeded to tell me that he worked at the dealership, but that today was his day off and that was why he was dressed that way. We went on to discuss the deal he was offering and he showed me a 2014 Sonata SE Turbo in silver that was very similar to my current vehicle. I told him that if I was to purchase the 2014 that my first choice would be the grey Sonata instead of the silver Sonata. I explained to him that grey always was my first choice but that I settled for my second choice, the silver, last year because this dealership did not have a grey on the lot that had all the features I was looking for. He then told me that he would take me over to your overflow lot so that we could look around and see if you had a 2014 in grey that would fit my needs. This process didn’t seem too out of the ordinary to me because Mario took me to the overflow lot last year before I purchased. The major difference in that experience with Mario, as opposed to the experience today, was that Mario put us in a brand new Sonata with dealer tags and drove us over to the overflow lot. This gentleman got in his personal vehicle, a much older Hyundai, and asked my friend and I to please get in. Once again, not knowing who this gentleman truly was and if he even worked for your dealership, we were not willing to just get in his car with him. We declined his offer and then we all made our way back to the showroom to discuss my options. During this process, he went back and forth to the Finance Managers several times to see what they could offer me. I ended up declining his offers quite simply because I just didn’t have that warm feeling that I had last year when working with Mario. At this time, I have decided to explore my options with the other Hyundai dealerships in the area to see what offers they can make me.
Jason D.
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