I am not one to write reviews, especially negative ones, but I feel compelled to share my horrible…read moreexperience over the past month at Albany Chrysler in hopes that it may potentially save any other person, especially another young single female first time car buyer, the stress, heartache, and money that it has cost me.
Knowing full well that I am not a car expert and this being my first car purchase my original intent was to purchase a Certified Pre-Owned vehicle, which I expressed to Jon Maus, the sales consultant I was working with. He told me that in order to keep competitive prices, Albany Chrysler generally does not go all the way through with the certification process, but that all vehicles go through the same thorough CPO checklist and inspection before being put out on the lot. Everything was checked as "meets Chrysler Standards" on the checklist presented to me for the 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee I was interested in and I of course trusted that the checklist and inspection were done in an honest, thorough, and complete manner and decided to purchase the vehicle with the peace of mind the inspection and checklist provided. This was not the case.
Once I got off the highway and back into my hometown, I immediately noticed a noise and expressed my concern the very same week to Jon Maus. Although he did not seem to immediately share in these concerns, I decided to make an appointment at my local Jeep dealership to have it diagnosed, knowing the premium price I had just paid for this vehicle and that was presented to me as in great condition with no issues at the time of sale. My local certified Jeep dealership diagnosed the rear shocks as being in "horrible condition and leaking" and that the rear end of my Grand Cherokee was "all over the place" and it would cost me $1,400 dollars to fix. This clearly is in direct contradiction to the inspection report I was presented with and trusted, especially the specific line item that said rear shocks were meeting Chrysler standards.
I of course contacted Albany Chrysler to make them aware, as I had hoped this was simply an oversight and honest mistake on their part. I was put in touch with their General Manager, Collin Power, who has not shared in this concern at all, which is simply not how a reputable dealership would address such a huge issue. This leads me to believe this is unfortunately not an oversight at all, but rather a case of deceit in order to make a sale. Collin Power is now asking me to pay more money to Albany Chrysler to have the car fixed and brought back to the condition that I was told it was in at the time of sale. This is not a case of something unfortunately going wrong after a used car purchase, it is a case of misrepresentation of the true condition of the vehicle in order to make a sale.
The car that was presented to me at the time of sale was not the car I received, and this was clear the day I brought it home and confirmed less than a month after purchase by a different certified Jeep dealership. Albany Chrysler had a chance to fix the problem if it was a mistake, but they simply did not, leading me to believe they saw a young female first time car buyer who would be easy prey to take advantage of.
I can absolutely NOT recommend Albany Chrysler to any potential car buyer. Additionally, I cannot recommend their service staff who completed the checklist so incorrectly. All the lost money, time, tears, and stress I have dealt with are not the experience I expected buying my first car from a small certified Chrysler dealer and no one deserves this kind of treatment and total violation of trust and honesty.
