I had a crap experience with a local Ford dealer too. Rt 23 Automall in New Jersey. I went to look at the 05 Mustangs they had and I found one I liked. We siad we would return the next day for paperwork, etc. We return only to find out that some stupid salesman under the sales manager's nose(We were dealing with the sales manager) traded the stang with another dealer for an exploroer which they had at least 30 of, no joke.
Ok so they start locating for us. We go through 3 or 4 GOOD to my specs Mustangs, but they can't get any of those promised mustangs. So then they call and say they have a silver one. The salesman really didn't tell us what was on the car though. I figured it was a fully loaded car such as the one they lost.
Well I'm 18 so they figured they could pull a fast one on me. Is this mustang a fully loaded sweet stang? No. It's a base model with an automatic and 300 miles. It's a DEMO car. The damn thing didn't even look like a Mustang!!!!!! Luckily I found this out before I went to see them and looked on Ford.com for other dealer inventories in the area.
My mother bought an escape a few years back from Magarino Ford in sussex and was trested great. (Why we didn't go there first is beyond me.) Anyway what do they have COMMING IN in a week or so? A fully Loaded auto Black with dark char int!!! The car the other dealer lost originally.(But this wasn't the same car obviously.)
So I said F those guys and we went to Maragrino the next morning to put a deposit on it. We then went to Rt 23 to decline from their mustang and I was right to. The damn thing looked horrid. Anyway after getting attitude really the whole way through we really got some now, which was understandable though. Anyway they kept our 500 deposit and I lost that money.
You want a Ford in NJ, go to magarino and ask for Eric Tops. He's a great guy.
You know something should have tipped me off the Rt23. There was a truck with "Don't shop at this dealer it sucks" painted on the side.
Sorry for my sob story, but figured it had a place here.
rjla67,
you were right to send that letter after they treated you like crap. You are putting money in their pocket either way. To pretty much turn a customer away because they have something that will save that customer a little on the car is just the typical greed of companies. That is, as you stated, unacceptable behavior.