In April 2021 I bought a 2015 Soul. I agreed to pay the asking price. The sales manager wrote up the contract and I paid a deposit. When I later went tot e dealership to pay the rest of the price I noticed this had increased by over $500.00. When I asked why, I was told this was a "documentation fee" and was not negotiable. I replied that since this was never disclosed to me, I did not feel obliged to pay it. This is when the gaslighting started. "You agreed to this", "there's nothing we can do", "you should have known". All I remember is the sales manager showing me a piece of paper with the price scrawled on it and asking me is this price OK?" I just assumed (Incorrectly, obviously) that the sales manger would be honest and above board. I was not haggling or negotiating as the list price was reasonable to me. At no time did he mention a "documentation fee". By the way, Kia red Deer is a member of the Alberta Motor Vehicle Industry Council (AMVIC) which, if you go on their website, specifically prohibits the adding of extra fees to a listed price of a vehicle.
After a few minutes of this nonsense, I got upset. I am not proud of myself, but I did start to raise my voice and said this was a sleazy way of doing business. Did they really think I would just smile nod and agree with them that I "should have known better". I worked for a number years negotiating contracts for the government. If I had conducted a negotiation in this manner, notwithstanding gaslighting the customer when they discover an omitted disclosure, I would have been fired.
I left the dealership saying I would pay their fee but would never do business with them again. I got in my car and left. I got about 100 meters down the road when my phone rang. It was the manager. In a very angry tone he told me he did not appreciate me calling his staff sleazy. I said I did not call his staff sleazy bit did say the dealership's business practices are sleazy. I apologized if the staff member felt I said this about her. He again tried to gaslight me saying the the price marked down had to plus marks after it. I asked him how he thought I should know what that meant. I told him I buy a car may once every ten years so how w=would I know what their shorthand marks mean. he said that he had know way of knowing what his sales manger had said or done; all he could go on is what was on paper and I had agreed to the price listed and the documentation fee is not negotiable. I said if I have been informed of this in the first place I likely would have asked for a reduction in the price of the car or I would have not made the purchase. He said he would call me back "with his decision".
He called later and told me he would not waive the documentation fee but would reduce the price of the car by $500 - which would break even. I said OK and thank you. He said don't thank me just give us a great Yelp review. I thought I would rather just not do that as I would be lying.
The car had to be cleaned and have a bunch of repairs done. On the date the car was supposed to be ready, it wasn't - couldn't get the parts. Had to wait another week. When we went to the dealership on a Saturday morning to pick up the car, we were told it wasn't ready. "Go for lunch and it'll be ready in a couple of hours". While at lunch we were called and told the car needed to be smoke bombed so we would have to wait until early in the next week. We finally got the car on Tuesday and took it home.
The car was filthy and smelly when we test drove it. It was supposed to be detailed and smoke bombed. When we picked it up it stunk of smoke and the seats were filthy. We ended up having to stream clean the seats, carpet and ceiling. We also had to smoke bomb the car to get the smell out. We've had the car for three months now and it is just starting to smell OK. I didn't expect the car to be perfect, but I have bought smokers cars before and other dealerships do a very good job in cleaning and removing the smell. Not in this case.
I would have chalked this up to experience but today I went to jack the car up and do a visual of the suspension. But the car has no jack, spare tire or "tire inflation kit". What kind of dealership sells a car without basic safety equipment?? Your car will fail a safety inspection without some means of making you car drivable if it gets a flat.
Not expecting any kind of a helpful response I emailed Kia Red Deer to tell them my car has no jack or spare. I got phone call from some manager with their standard gaslighting response. "Kia and most new cars don't have a spare they have an inflator - Is the inflator in the car". I said no, the area this should be is empty. He suggested that I could purchase one. I told him it is obvious he was not going to help me and I wanted to stop wasting his and my time and I hung up.
Guess they got their way, saved $200, but lost a customer. read more
