DONT BUY FROM THIS DEALERSHIP:
My car buying experience…read moreshould have been straight forward and easy for any of the sales staff. I was pre-approved by my lender; I had researched the make and model of the car I wanted and was ready to purchase. Freedom Nissan in South Burlington, VT had a Mazda that I was interested in buying. This is my experience with this business. Treating me horribly was completely unnecessary. All they do is lie!
1. We sat down with Seth Quittner, who immediately wanted to know about our trade in. I told him that we were interested in test driving the Mazda. He went with us. We noticed the "Blind Spot Prominently Sensor" warning light was on. Seth stated that "it was common with heavy rain or snow" - he got calls about it all the time, no big deal". It was raining quite hard, so we didn't think much of it. That was a LIE!
2. Once I decided to buy the car, there was no negotiating the price. Seth makes it sound like he will take your offer and go back to the owner and ask if they can do it. It's a con game. I watched him do it with other customers. Instead, Kyle Nichols, the manager came out and I got shown a sheet of paper, which has a list of all the Mazda's in the area and they didn't even let me hold it to read it. I was told they have the best pricing. I had already vetted the car with my lender and the price was decent, but this tactic is what they do with everyone.
3. In order to complete the paperwork process, you get taken upstairs. Shain Quartz was being trained on the process by Kyle Nichols. Shain called me a day after I had signed my documents to tell me that he made an error and that I needed to drive back to their office and resign them. I asked him to email me the documents to show what changes he had made. Not only did he not email me, he sent my documents that he made changes to, without me knowing what they were on to my lender. That is illegal. When I spoke with Kyle Nichols about it, his response to me was "Shain is a nice person, he is being trained, how can you hurt his feelings? THAT IS WHAT THEY ALL DO; THEY DEFLECT FROM THE REAL ISSUE AND NEVER GIVE YOU A STRAIGHT ANSWER.
4. On the day I purchased the car, as I was leaving, I noticed the fob was broken. When I asked Seth if they could fix it, he told me they are "NOT A NISSAN DEALERSHIP", THEY ARE A SMALL BUSINESS and that fixing the fob would cost $75.00. I just purchased a car that was over $20,000.00 and they turned fixing the fob into a MAJOR ordeal. I went to Kyle Nichols, who is the manager. He agreed to replace the fob but I had to drive to the Mazda dealership in Montpelier to get it fixed. He paid them directly and I picked up the fob thinking that was the last interaction I would have with this business. I WAS WRONG!!!!!!!!!!! And I found out why I needed to go to the Montpelier location - Freedom Nissan is shady.
5. I made an appointment with the Burlington Mazda dealership to have the sensor looked at. Apparently, Freedom Nissan KNEW THE SENSOR WAS NOT PROPERLY INSTALLED before they put it on the lot for sale. THEY KNOWINGLY SOLD ME A CAR WITH A SAFTEY ISSUE. They got an estimate, chose to put the part in themselves and never had it calibrated. The cause of the sensor not working was due to an accident, which was not disclosed on the car fax sheet. Seth told me it was due to rain! Mazda sold Kyle the part but could not confirm if they had installed it. This situation required me to text Kyle and ask him. Another tactic they use, is only wanting to talk to you on the phone, so nothing is in writing. The lies in our text conversation are mind blowing.
Kyle: Freedom Nissan did not do the work on the car; we paid Mazda to repair it. LIE - We don't repair electronics on non-Nissans. We always do the right thing and pay the manufacturer. Another LIE! - I'm working on getting a copy from Mazda I'll report back. If we could chat on the phone real quick - I got a lot of info
Me: It was looked at, not fixed at the Mazda dealership. Email it to me please, I was told by Mazda, Freedom Nissan did not complete having it fixed there. They need to know if you put in a new module somewhere else. And if you say you did, why wasn't it calibrated?
Kyle: What does Mazda say needs to happen? I misread the internal notes looks like Mazda gave us the module to fix.
Me: Are you saying Mazda gave you the part?
Kyle: It appears we brought it to Mazda, they sold us a module, then our technician repaired it. Are they requesting for a calibration of this module?
This review platform doesnt give me enough space to tell you the rest of the story... they refused to pay for the repair unless I signed a non disclosure / settlement document - I was yelled at - I was told by Mort Shipario that I needed to "Step Back about calling them liars". - which was a threat. I have never been subjected to such unprofessional, unethical, cons like this before - totally discusting.
