Horrible April Fools at Fred Anderson

Why I'll Never Buy a Car at Fred Anderson and You Probably Shouldn't Either

Bottomline.  I agreed to a same day cash price for a Tacoma.  When I returned to the dealer with the cash about 81 minutes later, they had reneged on my deal and accepted another offer from a walk in.  That's it in a nutshell.  I spoke to a couple different Sale Managers, one who took a few verbal jabs at me for being such a tough negotiator in the first place, but they would not do the right thing and honor our deal. They just offered to find me another car.  As if I would ever attempt to do any business with them again.

Here's the background...

I test drove then made an offer on a Tacoma on 23 March 2016.   We did not agree to a price on the 23rd.  Instead we continued to negotiate via email and the phone over the next 9 days.   I spoke to three different "Sales Managers"  who all tried to close me with the usual tactics.  "Because it's the end of the month we'll offer this at cost, and we'll throw in some weather mats to earn your business and believe me this is a wholesale price.  I literally have no more room.  At this price I am losing $273."

I like to geek out on my research on most every purchase especially something as large as a car.  So I kind of enjoyed the process.  I know Tacoma's have strong resale value so I knew there would not be much room.  I was at $24,000 and he was at $24,900.  The list price BTW was $24,600.  After a couple days a different guy called. He was surprised his subordinate had offered me the car at such a steal and he certainly could never reduce it, but he knew I had been getting my services done there for 20 years ( I had mentioned that earlier) so he would honor the $24,900 if I would come in today.

I sharpened my pencil and looked at some others online.  Many many others. I noticed they had RAISED the ask online for this Tacoma from the initial $24,600 where it was listed when I test drove it to $25,500.  Wow, it's not very often that you see a car sit on a lot for a week and then get the price raised.  I thought it bizarre but not necessarily shady.  They are free to set the offering prices of their cars.  Maybe the third Sales Manager was being truthful and they really had offered it to me for a loss and were glad I did not take it so they could "correct" the pricing. Whatever.

I got another email offering it at $24,900.  At this point I called back and left a voicemail that I could come up to the originally published asking price of $24,600 out the door (OTD).  That means they essentially cover the usual taxes, tags and doc fee and I would pay them what they had it listed for on the day I test drove it back on 23 March.  Not much of a negotiated victory but one I could live with.

I also said there was no need to respond with a counter offer.   I would pay $24,600 OTD cash today. If you can't get to that number no need to call back.   At this point I had started taking a closer look at other Tacos.

You guessed it they came back with $24,700 on Thursday evening via voicemail.

On Friday morning, I said via email thanks but I'm sticking at $24,600.  I reminded them that was the original asking price and that I could pick up the car TODAY.

At 11:28am I received a voicemail from Corey:  "I spoke with my managers, I got beat up pretty bad, but hey, $24,600 out the door the Tacoma is yours."

At 11:48am, I called back and confirmed acceptance of the deal and agreed to come get the truck "this afternoon".  Corey said he would start getting her ready.  I reminded him of the offered weather mats and confirmed those, too.  We have a deal. It's DONE.  Verbal contract in place.

At 1:09pm, just 1 hour and 21 minutes later, I arrived at the dealership having arranged drivers with friends and family to pick up the car.  Now we have three professionals who have taken off from work to get this deal closed.

Corey, the Sales Associate appeared with a downcast look and said we have a problem.  Before he could say anything else a badged "Sales Manager" interrupted and said. "look this one is not available, we can find you another one."  He pointed to a lady at a desk and said that they had just agreed to a price with her.

At this point, the used-car-guys could have easily remedied the situation.  There was no paperwork done.  There was no completed sale.  They had obviously agreed to terms and timing with me then received and accepted a second offer.

The honorable and correct thing to do at this point was to acknowledge the mistake, apologize to the lady and tell her this car had already been placed under contract this morning.  We can find you another one.  Instead they were staying with her.  Obviously she had offered more.

The real colors came out when I asked to speak to another manager, perhaps one of the three I had spoken to all week. And one of those who had "beaten up" Corey in approving the deal.   One such "Sales Manager" walked in and at first denied we had ever agreed to a price.  THAT's the kicker.  THEY STOOD THERE AND DENIED THE TRUTH.  When Corey tried to retrace the timeline at my request he was rudely interrupted and overruled.  They were not selling me this car and they were clearly communicating that in a victorious style. Repeating statements, like "first come first serve" and "we don't hold cars" and "she was here".  The biggest lie was, "we couldn''t get in touch with you!" An incredible false statement given we had been in touch for the last 9 days and I had just spoken to Corey less than an hour and a half ago.  I later checked vmail and email and there had been no attempt to contact me since we spoke 11:48am.

Then they back tracked and said this was because I had not put down a deposit. Again with the "let us find you another one" and our "policy" was not to "hold cars."  And again with, "she was here first." Unless she had been in contact with them on the morning of the 23rd.  She was not first.  And this is the first I am hearing of "we don't hold cars" policy.  How do you ever sell them if you don't honor your word long enough for someone to go fetch the cash?   Then they decided to remind me how tough I had negotiated with them at that I should have taken their (higher price) deal 5 days ago. Funny how they went from denying any knowledge of a deal to retrenching the details and literally chastising me for sticking to my guns- now that buyer at a higher price had materialized.  There was no more actual conversation at this point.  Just them repeating falsehoods and nearly gloating that they didn't have to accept my deal.  There was no other adult in the room so I left.

I went to the big house to see the General Manager.  After wading through 3 nice greeters and a gate keeper I found the right office.  He asked me to leave his office while he got on the phone talked to his Used Car Guys.  He quickly let me back in and said "she was here first."  I told him the facts just for my own satisfaction, and asked him one last time to do the right thing and honor our agreement. He just said, "have a nice day."  Another worthless incompetent afraid to hold his rogue employees accountable.

Oh and you should know their names so you can avoid wasting one second of your life dealing with these hucksters.

Sales Associate: Corey Clark.  He was trying to do the right thing, but his employers pulled the deal out from under him. He rightly looked embarrassed and humiliated as they stepped in and reneged on his deal.  Good luck Corey, you can do much better than these knuckleheads.

Sales Manager One: Tony Lawrence.  He's the one that stepped in and caboshed Corey's attempt at an explanation. Then lead the initial discussion by repeating over and over that he "never heard of" our deal.  Perhaps he was repeating it in the hopes that someone including himself would believe it.

Sales Manager Two: Jay.  Did not catch his last name and don't see him listed on the website.  He was the one who really enjoyed reminding me that I should have taken his $24,900 offer.  He seemed somehow satisfied that I was not getting the deal we had agreed to.

General Manager: Andy Little. No help whatsoever.

On the other hand, I have had my cars serviced there for about 20 years. The service department is excellent.  And if you've read this far, thanks! It has been a cathartic exercise to get it all down.

Finally, to end on a positive note and so you know I am not just anti-salesmen.  Just last week I found a car and negotiated a deal (this one for my parents) at Hendricks Toyota in Apex.  They were super professional in word and deed.  They essentially agreed to cover the closing costs.  They "held a car" for us for 3 days for my folks to arrive.  And because we transferred tags the out the door price was $16 less than we had agreed on.   It's not hard, if you're honest.