Ferrari Dealer Tell-All

FoDenver pulled the same stunt with me in 2011. I was ready to wire $$ for a 355 they had in inventory for months. The day I verbally committed, it only took a couple of hours for "the manager" to sell it to someone else. Complete BS. I wouldn't buy a tire valve stem cap from them today.

 

I'm sorry to hear about this.

Best wishes on your next car.

 

Not the first time. Won't be the last.

 

If your only relationship with the salesman is at the dealership, then he is not your friend. A salesman is trained to appear to be your friend, but with the incentive and goal to get your money.

There are many honest sales people; I've met many, but the percentage of dishonest sales people is too high to just let your guard down.

Ferrari's are expensive cars; lots of money involved. More money = more incentive to lower morals for financial gain. The only consistent incentive for good service and honesty is if it will spur future revenue. Even then, every consumer facing business has a "cost per customer" where they measure how much financial cost it's worth to spend to keep a customer relationship.

 

That's a bit cynical. Any good salesman (and certainly, they're not all good) realizes how important their reputation is, and will do their best to be honest and above board. They make way more money that way (and feel better about it) than if they rip one customer off for a few bucks. And any Ferrari salesman should understand that there is usually repeat business as well, if the customer is satisfied.

 

I would like to hear the dealers side of the story.

 

Not exactly.
The only way to be a successful salesman is to grow a repeat clientele.
I was a Mercedes salesman for 6 years (in the 80s) and sold cars repeatedly to the same customers, their relatives and their friends and to the friends of the friends.
Many times was invited to family events, dinners etc, so yes, I considered them friends, took care of them and made a very good living at the same time.

 

Sure sucks that that happened but it isn't unheard of and happens a lot more at other dealers. Seems like the sweeter the deal you make the higher chance your gonna get hosed on the deal.

A couple of years ago negotiated a deal on a used truck at a dodge dealer in Dallas Texas. Once we had a deal hammered out I witednthe down payment and had a cashiers check made out for the balance and purchased a plane ticket to fly down and pick up the vehicle to drive it home. Long story shots they sold the truck and my sales person knew nothing about it the sales manager sold it for more then our deal was. Then had the stones to try to sell me another vehicle. Before I left I had my down payment back and the cost of a plane ticket to Tulsa where I wound up purchasing the back up truck I had picked.

Even a local dealership I have an excellent relationship with has hosed me on a sweetheart of a deal, and I know the owner. And as a direct result of that encounter I will never trade a vehicle in because while I have an excellent relationship with the salesman that was handeling the deal the sales manager refused to return the keys to our vehicle until we signed the contract. My wife asked him 3 times for the keys and each time he refused. So she then went and sat in our car and called the police. The salesman called me the next day and apologized. Then I received a call from the owner asking what happened, and he had the sales manager come to his office and we had a discussion on speaker phone. At the end of the discussion the sales manager was fired and I had a certificate for an additional 10k off any truck we decided to purchase on top of any other incentives and rebates.

But those are the 2 luckiest times and the most recent. I really dread the car buying experience because most of the time salesmen are jerks and sales managers usually are worse. I've read a few cases where high end dealers for some reason choose to do the same thing but it appears it is less frequent.

 

Hey! I resemble that remark!

 

Depends on the dealership. In a high volume shop, most salespeople don't last for much longer than a few weeks.

 

The salesman I have been dealing with at the Dodge dealership I've been working with for over 20 years and have bought at least 5 new vehicles from in that time and a few used trucks for my business. But I would say that for the most part my situation is an exception not the rule.

 

I can guess. The OP had a deal or at least believed that he did however the deal may have become too skinny for the dealer. Dealers will advertise cars as CPO because every car they sell has to go through their inspection process so really it is CPO eligible. The car required work in order to meet the CPO requirements + the CPO itself. OP wants the car with the CPO as advertised and agreed but dealer is saying otherwise. New buyer comes in and the rest his history.

Bad business by the dealer, but I can tell you that you are probably better off - everything happens for a reason and there are many other cars out there.

 

I’d still like to hear the dealer’s side of the story.

 

Even good dealers have brain farts per my example. Never mind the fact that no matter what more then likely the dealer will get away with whatever they do. If it were me I'd just chock it up to it wasn't the right car at the right time.

 

Yeah it may have been a skinny deal for the dealer, but based on the Op's story
To me its all called Buisness ethics, and a deal is a deal.

 

I've noticed on some car ads now are listed as "CPO eligible". What this means is it's going to cost more. So, in effect, it's like buying an extended warranty. Either way, CPO or extended warranty, it's extra cost to the consumer. Quite frankly, as long as this is stated up front, I don't see the problem.

 

I was once flying across country to look at a 550 that I planned to buy the price was agreed on and I just wanted to see it so I flew from virginia to California per our agreement I had to change planes in phoenix and called the Salesman to let him know that we were on time .. and damn off he didn't sell the car that morning .. now he knew I was one the way and had already agreed to pick me up (talked to him the night before to finalize all) he never asked for a deposit and I did not think about it was a quick and easy deal ....so I never did go to that dealer but it was really bad faith....
I ended up buying a better 550 within a day or two but not from that dealer...

 

Karma is a witch.

 

Bust the deal....face the wheel

 

That would have really pissed me off, I might have showed up to express how much. Small world out there and all you have is your reputation. Some people will never get it.

 

Oh it definitely pissed me off but the next day my friends at braden saw my post on fcht looking for a 550 and pmed me that they had one of the best 550s they had seen getting serviced and the owner wanted to sell it checked all my boxes and definitely was a better choice so within a couple of days that deal was done...and 5 years later i am still happy with it

 

I had a similar dealing with a house just last month! Very interested and booked flight to Barcelona...night before get a call saying there's a problem, and if I can rebook. Rebook tickets (too late for refund/change tickets), fly there again a week later...look at the house then get told they didn't want to do a deal....the very deal they proposed themselves!

 

Sounds like Ron Tonkin in Oregon is quite the dealership! Reneges on agreed-upon deal, jack’s committed customer around and with almost 99% certainty misleads second customer on discovered maintenance issues. Well done! Yeah, I wouldn’t order an air filter from this dealership. Thanks for bringing this to our attention

 

Maybe it's paranoia, or getting burned in the past or good business practice or a combination of all of the above but I always document everything and start a file folder for every deal I do. All email correspondence phone logs ads for particular vehicle, everything. Most big dealers record phone calls with customers so keeping an accurate phone log helps. Also I've never "yelled" at anyone however I have spoken quite forcefully and donor back down. In the case where I flew to Dallas to buy that truck I put a down payment on that folder saved my bacon got me refunded for my down payment and my flight in and an additional ticket to Tulsa. I cannot disclose who the dealer was or what brand vehicles they sell as a part of the deal. In LarryH's case he didn't have a down payment on the car but the dealer could have done more especially since they knew you were flying in. But luckily the deal worked out and hopefully you worked the trip into an impromptu vacation.

It's never a bad idea especially when putting a down payment on any vehicle that is quite a ways away to ask for something in writing e-mailed or faxed at the time of your down payment to help protect you from things like this. And again the best dealership in the world could do something like this 1 out of 1000 times and it really wouldn't hurt the dealership. The best thing to do is try to make sure your not the one singled out.

 

True, and I'd be more careful at a high volume dealership. In this case, Steve Wintermantel has been at RTGT for at least 10 years, maybe 15, was local VP of the Ferrari Club, etc. Arun has been with the Tonkins in one role or another for probably 20 years. So not really relevant to this thread.

As I, and others, have said, I imagine he has his version of the story. I don't know that he's allowed to post here, however.