My first dealings with Benton Nissan in Oxford, AL, was February 2024. I selected my car, signed the papers with the salesman, and wrote them a check. I then met with the finance manager, where I was required to sign more documents. When I got yo the very last page, it was a milage disclosure. On this form, it stated that my "new" car had 5,077 miles on it. I had been in the dealership for hours, and not once did my salesman ever mention the milage. I was stunned. He tried to cover himself by saying, "Had you taken a test drive, you would have known that." I asked why they were selling me a new car where 5,077 miles of my warranty had been used, and they didn't give me a discount on my sales receipt. Come to find out, the dealership used it as a business vehicle. It wasn't marked as a demo. The salesman, John, the finance manager, and the sales manager had no answer. The only thing they said was, "Customers buy cars from us all the time that has milage on it." When I was in the salesman's office, he made a folder for me and put all of the documents that I had to sign. He took the documents out of the folder, took 2 pages off the top, laid them on the left side of his desk, and handed me the ones to sign. I asked about those two documents that he took off of the ones he gave me and asked if I had to sign them, and he said no. I then asked if I could get a copy of all the documents that I signed. He went back to the copier and returned with my copies. My next step was to see the finance manager. Once I discovered the milage scam, the salesman asked, "You didn't look at the documents inside the folder I just handed you?" I asked why I would look in the folder because I had just read the documents when I signed them. I opened the folder, and there were the 2 documents that he had taken off the top of my pages to sign and put them off to the side. I had never seen these two documents. These documents had the 5,077 miles written on them in his handwriting. I was livid. The sales manager found me another Armada that night from one of their other dealerships. I received it two days later. The only reason I didn't walk out is because while I was in the dealership, I had my financial manager transfer a large amount of money into my checking account, and I paid 25% tax on it. Granted, I got a new car, and I am pleased with it, but what they did to me upset me so badly. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Burea and Nissan North America. Nothing happened to the dealership. I wrote a long one-star review on Benton Nissan Oxford, AL website, and they took it down. Nissan North America offered me a $250 gift card to use in the dealer's shop. I told them that I was insulted and to keep their gift card. The GM never called me, I had to call him after two weeks. He was very nice and agreed that they had done me wrong and that he was going to implement new programs so that this would never happen again. He finally persuaded me to accept 5 years of free oil changes and tire rotations. I told him that I wasn't done with Benton and that people needed to know what had happened to me. The sales manager told me that he was going to knock off $2300 off of my 2nd car because of all my trouble.
The business manager later told me that the sales manager had really knocked a huge amount off of the MSRP on my car.
The GM told me that the amount that was discounted was actually the mandatory options that Benton puts on all of their vehicles. They took those off and called that my discount. Now, which of these two stories is true? I had sent
my salesman a message after all of this happened and asked him for an itemized and detailed state explaining all of this and never got it. I also spoke to the business manager, Carrie, and asked her for it and never got it. I spoke very civil to her, and she said that I was making her feel like a prisoner and that she thought that I was verbally attacking her and ended the conversation. Everyone I spoke to regarding these issues declared what a wonderful salesman John is and how much the Benton dealerships do for customers, our community, and charities. I appreciate that they help others. They blare Christian music continuously throughout their dealership and push the fact that their entire staff are God-fearing Christians. I am a devout Christian and was impressed by their proclaimed faith.
After this happened to me, I was devastated that a fellow Christian would do something illegal or scam me. The business manager said that the salesman made an "honest mistake, like we all do.
My salesman has been selling cars for 5 years, it wasn't a mistake. Was hiding those two pages with the milage a mistake?
I'll tell you what happened. I walked in that dealership alone, extremely well dressed, I'm a female, I'm elderly, and I am a new widow. Buyer beware, especially if you are a female, a lone customer, and you are elderly.
I haven't decided on my next course of action. I
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