Re: Misleading Sales Tactics at Germain Toyota

this is regarding Germain Toyota a dealership in NAPLES, Florida I would like to express a compliant re: the misleading sales tactics of this dealership, the lack of accountability of the dealership to back up what the salesperson offered in order to agree to the terms which were signed and the lack of customer support once a bad deal is uncovered and brought to the management and customer relations person for resolution. The customer satisfaction efforts that were totally insincere and the fact that Toyota Headquarters in California can really offer little support since the dealership is privately owned. The lack of returned phone calls, including two to the owners office. The fact that we signed a lease for 66 months based on the lie that we could end the lease early in 33 months and that the details of this were supposedly on a website which does not exist. The only conditions to do this were IF we remained in a Toyota or Lexus product, which we had no problem with. The fact that we were told that we were receiving a "Friends and Family" plan which was also not the case. There was also a promise that we were to recieve $4,000.00 for our trade and then learned that we only got $1500.00 . The General Manager that states there was only a $218.00+ profit made on the car when other professionals in the industry have determined about a $4,200.00 profit and that we would be lucky if we could get out of the lease in 50 months. We have not yet received a survey re: this experience and there is no indication that it will make a difference to complain to Toyota Headquarters, eventhough they are kind enough to listen, apologize and document the calls made to them. The Better Business has also received information regarding this experience and the response from the dealership has only taken bits and pieces of the situation and describes it as a he said, she said ........

The final outcome was that any further correspondences from us would be referred to the dealership's attorney. This is clearly a NO Win Situation for the customer when they can be mislead like this and that once the agreement is signed, there is NO responsibilty or obligation to try to be accountable for what was promised by the salesperson ( who was out on a family leave for one month after this took place) Two automobile professionals have listened to this experience and have advised us to get out of the lease and RUN . We are only asking for what was promised to us by the salesman and from what we have been told; it would still be a profit for the dealership. We were told that a comparable Toyota should have been $261.00 per month(including taxes) based on a 39 month lease with the trade in allowance promised. We are paying $325.00 month for 66 months. We were wrong to be so trusting about the 33 months. Our hope is that our daughter will learn from this experience because after all her father and I were fooled by these tactics and we have been married for 31 years and have never had an experience as negative as this. We were there in the dealership for over 6 hours getting more delays and confusion throughout the ordeal until we were exhausted. WE should have left the dealership but wanted to help our daughter ( a UF graduate /middle school teacher) with her first car pushase. We feel very sorry for the bad outcome of this and will do what we can to help her . We just hope that other consumers, young or old will never have such a difficult time.

Frustrated in Florida