Complaint Review: Mike Davidson Ford - Jacksonville Florida

I think the following letter I've written to Ford Motor Company says it all!

"To whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter to advise you of the atrocious experience I received at one of your dealerships here in Jacksonville. In a few words, it was the WORST car buying experience Ive ever had in my entire life. I would never recommend anyone I know to buy a vehicle from Mike Davidson Ford of Jacksonville for as long I am alive. The following provides you with the details of my horrific experience.

On December 27th I visited Mike Davidson Ford (located at 9650 Atlantic Boulevard, Jacksonville, FL) to look at the 2008 Mustang. My salesman at the time was James Silcox. We took the Mustang for a test drive, and then proceeded to the salesroom to discuss financing. After several hours of going back and forth, we discussed my trade and the interest rate I would be looking at. He stated they would give me 13,500.00 for my 2006 Scion TC at 16.9% interest. Unsatisfied with the interest rate and the fact that I would be upside down on my current vehicle, I decided to go to another Ford dealership in the area Mike Shad at the Avenues. I made James aware that I would be going to another dealer to see what they would offer me because I wasnt happy with the final result of our conversation. He asked me to call him on his cell phone the following day with the details of what they would offer me for my trade. He advised he was almost certain they wouldnt give me what Mike Davidson was willing to give me for my trade.

The following day I visited Mike Shad Ford at the Avenues and I was told by one of their sales representatives that they would only be willing to give me 10,000.00 for my trade. With that said, I decided to go back to Mike Davidson Ford. I called my salesman, James Silcox, on his cell phone as soon as I left Mike Shad and advised him of the situation.

Being heavily persuaded by James, I went back to Mike Davidson Ford to go through with the purchase of the Mustang. I arrived at their dealership on or around 2:30 in the afternoon. After several hours of going back and forth with the salesman and his associates, I agreed to a higher interest rate due to the fact they were willing to pay higher on my trade even after they advised I wouldnt be eligible for X-Plan rates because of my credit history. I was unaware that credit worthiness had anything to do with X-Plan eligibility. James advised that there was a possibility they would have to pay bank fees to a third-party lender, which is why they didnt want to give me the X-Plan discount.

Finally around 8:00pm I was brought into their finance managers office (John Moon) to sign the final paperwork.

At this point I was exhausted from waiting around at the dealership and wanted nothing more than to get the purchase done and over with and ignored the fact that I was being rushed through the process of signing the purchase agreement and other documents. As a result, I later discovered Mike Davidson Ford did not give me 13,500.00 for my trade, but instead they had given me 11,200.00. Had I noticed this while at the dealership initially, I would have never walked away with the Mustang.

When the final paperwork was signed, I preceded out to the parking lot to pick-up my new vehicle. At first glance, despite the fact that it was now dark, I noticed several water spots on my new vehicle. I pointed this out to James so that he could take the car back to their detailing center to clean up. A little while later he came back out with the car again, and said that I would have to bring it in the following day so they could buff out the spots. They didnt have the tools onsite to remove the water spots so there was nothing they could do that night. With the said I took the car home. I also made James aware of some white spots on the dash that needed to be removed. He said that he would personally review the detail to ensure everything was taken care of and apologized.

The next day, after I left work I called James to let him know I was on my way. I dropped the car off, and waited in their lobby while they were detailing my new car. When they were done, one of the technicians from their detailing center brought the car out to me while I was standing outside and handed me the keys. I assumed that James had reviewed their work and I was ready to go however when I arrived home I noticed there were still spots on the interior and the water spots were not completely removed. When I noticed the detailing wasnt satisfactory, I called James on his cell phone and he again apologized and said that he would personally clean my car himself to ensure the job was done correctly. I told him that at that point Id much rather clean it myself than go back to the dealer a third time.

The following Sunday, at approximately 4:30pm, I received a phone call from Phil Waters who also works for Mike Davidson Ford. When he called I could not get to my phone so he left a message on my voicemail and asked that I return his call at my earliest convenience. A few minutes later, Phil called my boyfriend Jamie who was sitting in the other room. Jamie answered the phone, and asked what the call was concerning. Phil stated that he had been trying to get a hold of me for a while, despite the fact it had been all of five minutes since his initial call. He told Jamie it was extremely important he get in touch with me. Jamie at that point advised Phil that I was in the other room and handed me the phone.

When I got on the phone with Phil, he advised they were unable to acquire third-party financing for the Mustang I had recently purchased and I needed to bring the vehicle back to their dealership. Astounded at what I was hearing, I asked why they would allow me to drive off the lot if I wasnt approved. Additionally I asked why they waited an entire week to notify me and on a Sunday of all days when banks are typically closed. He said that the delay had to do with the fact that there was a holiday during that week (New Years). Still baffled at what I was hearing, I continued to ask questions.

Towards the end of our conversation he rudely threatened to utilize alternate measures to take possession of the Mustang because he felt that my tone was that of reluctance. At no point during this conversation did he provide alternatives to acquiring financing for my vehicle such as a co-applicant, down payment, etc. Rather than continue to argue with him, I told him I would bring the car back the following day when I got off of work.

A few minutes after hanging up with Phil Waters, Jamie received a phone call from Erlin, another sales representative at Mike Davidson Ford. I took the phone from my boyfriend and proceeded to ask why he was calling when I had just talked to Phil Waters. Just as Phil had stated, he advised they were unable to obtain financing for the Mustang and I needed to return the vehicle.

After a few minutes of conversation regarding my displeasure, Erlin advised that we might be able to better obtain financing if I had a co-applicant. This is something that Phil never suggested as an alternate solution. Taking his advice into consideration, Jamie went through and filled out an application online through their website and called Erlin back a few moments later. The final word at this point was that they would be reviewing Jamies application the following morning with the banks. They advised us to come back to the dealership the next day so that we could sign a second set of paperwork.

After I got off work Monday evening, my boyfriend and I went back out to Mike Davidson Ford a fourth time and arrived at approximately 5:45pm. When we spoke to Erlin Sunday night, he advised he would try to make everything go as quickly as possible considering what I had already been through. He assured us that the process would take no more than an hour. When we met with Erlin he had us sit in a waiting room until John Moon (Finance Manager) was ready for us to sign the new documents; we initially waited about a half hour.

When we met in Johns office, we went over the initial deal and then discussed adding Jamie as a co-applicant and how that would change things such as the interest rate, purchase price etc. During this conversation, I also addressed the issue of not receiving my X-Plan discount during the initial purchase and stated that it needed to be incorporated into the new deal. I also addressed my trade and how they were not giving me what was originally discussed with James Silcox. At that point, John left us in his office to go talk to the sales department about my X-Plan discount.

When he returned, he had a new purchase price configured to include the discount however they still couldnt give me 13,500.00 for my trade because he said they were already losing money on the deal and could only lose so much. He then proceeded to show me something on his computer that reflected their losses on the deal and said that I was obviously okay with it not being reflected on my original deal. I argued with him and told him I didnt notice it wasnt on the agreement correctly the first time until everything was done and over with. I told him that they lied to me. I said that no matter how many ways he tried to word it, they were ultimately lying if they dont give you what they say theyre going to. I also offered to call James on his cell phone while I was in his office, but was discouraged by John. At this point I was annoyed all over again and asked to leave his office to think about it.

After much discussion, my boyfriend convinced me to take the deal because it was still a better than the initial deal I signed. I was still unhappy about the trade, but just wanted to be done with it once and for all. We went back into the dealership and went over to Johns office, but he had another customer he was helping and said it would be just a few minutes. After about an hour to an hour and a half of waiting and being passed over by John for new customers, we signed a new set of documents.

When we were through, I asked John if they were going to call me after another week to tell me that they couldnt obtain financing because if that were the case they could have the car tonight. I also expressed my concern regarding the Scion as I did not make my payment in December per his instruction and did not want to pay any late fees due to the length the process was taking. He assured me that everything looked good and I could call the following day to follow up. He said at that point they would probably have everything worked out and could provide me with the name of my lender, etc.

While I was in speaking with John Moon, Erlin had also taken the Mustang back to detail to wash. When he was finished, he returned a wet Mustang to me. He said not to worry about the water and wanted me to come back a fifth time when it was still daylight so they could better detail the car and ensure there were no more water spots on my car. He handed me the keys and asked me to call him the following day to schedule an appointment for the detailing of my car.

The following day, now Tuesday the 8th, I called Mike Davidson to speak to John Moon and Erlin. Neither John nor Erlin were working Tuesday. Further annoyed, I started providing the receptionist with names of people I had dealt with during my experiences with their dealership, including Phil Waters, to see if someone could help me. No one I had originally worked with on the sale of my car was available. She did however send me to several message boxes belonging to people that never returned my call that day including someone named Frank Cevarious. He too ended up being out on Tuesday. At some point during the day I called my boyfriend and asked him to try getting a hold of someone we had dealt with at the dealership because I was having no luck and refused to continue speaking to their voicemail system. He finally got in touch with someone named Jamie in their finance department who said he would look over our paperwork and would get back to him later that day. He advised my boyfriend that everything looked good so far. We never received a phone call back from Jamie that day.

On Friday I was livid. I still had not heard back from the dealership as to which lender the Mustang was going to be financed through and it had now been almost two weeks since the initial purchase. Sometime after lunch, I decided to try John Moon again. Surprisingly enough he was available for me to talk to. I expressed my concern as I still had not heard anything and couldnt get a hold of anyone all week when I was told I would be able to call and follow up on Tuesday and be provided with results. He stated that they were still working on the deal and he would need to go over a few things with Phil Waters who was not in, but would be in Saturday to discuss. He said that they were having issues with the lenders accepting a monthly payment higher than 500.00, but they were still working on it and he would call me Saturday to let me know what was going on. The weekend came and went, and I heard nothing from Mike Davidson Ford.

Monday, January 14th I received a phone call from Cindy at Mike Davidson Ford however when she called I was at my office, and was unable to answer my cell phone. When I called back I spoke to someone else in their customer relations department by the name of Krista. She said they were calling to ask about my car buying experience. At that point I let her know everything that I had been through and how it was the worst car buying experience Ive ever had in my life. I provided her the details of my experience from the many trips Ive had to the dealership, being lied to, having my credit report run thirteen times, payment not being received by Toyota etc. I told her that initially I thought she was calling to provide me with the information on my lender. After giving her the details of my experiences with everyone at the dealership, she apologized and said that she was going to talk to the customer relations manager and get back to me.

Coincidentally, at approximately 10:00am this morning, I received a phone call from Rick Ramsey who we were told is the Director of Finance at Mike Davidson Ford. He began the conversation by yelling at me about some email I had sent to the dealership stating that I had had the car buying experience from hell. I told him that I didnt know what he was talking about and never wrote any such email, but advised I had talked to someone in their customer relations department Monday, but never wrote an email to anyone. He wouldnt listen to me and continued to rant and rave about some email saying that he had it in his hand and I wrote it. He then proceeded to say they werent able to obtain financing and I needed to bring HIS Mustang back TODAY. I let him know I would be there when I got off work and hung up.

At approximately 6:00pm this evening my boyfriend took the Mustang and drove it back to Mike Davidson Ford. When he arrived, the guy he spoke to stated that he was sorry for what we had gone through and stated everyone in the salesroom was upset about some email. He even went so far as to say that he wouldnt be surprised if they stopped working my deal because of the email I had sent. My boyfriend reiterated to him that there was never any email.

When my boyfriend returned with the Scion, I called Mike Davidson Ford to speak to someone in their customer relations department. I was passed off by the receptionist to someone named Cybil. I explained to her what had happened and how apparently some email I had supposedly sent could have very well been the result of Rick Ramseys call to me that morning. I also informed her of the call I had received from their department Monday and that I had informed Krista of my experiences. I told her I thought it was awfully ironic that Rick called me the following day to say they couldnt get the vehicle financed. She apologized profusely and said that was not the way they wanted their customers to feel and would further investigate what had happened. I also explained to her that I had to make a payment on the Scion today because they still hadnt paid it off nor had they called Toyota to advise where they were in the process. I also informed her that now I was being charged a late fee that would be coming out of my pocket. She again apologized, but offered no type of reimbursement for late fees that were accrued as a result of the service I had received. At the end of the conversation she said she would get back to me to let me know the end result of her investigation. I doubt I will receive a call back.

I have never purchased a Ford and the recent chain of events with Mike Davidson Ford, I dont think I would ever step foot in another Ford dealership if this is how your customers are going to be treated. I initially went into the dealership because I liked the look of the new Mustangs and thought with my X-Plan I would receive above average treatment. Instead, I received weeks of headaches and irritation.

I hope that you take this letter into strong consideration and further investigate and re-evaluate this dealerships practices. Please feel free to contact me with any other questions or concerns you might have regarding my experiences.

Sincerely,

Kristin

Jacksonville, Florida

U.S.A.

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