Do not shop at Ganley of Wickliffe

[Bg8780]

Hey guys, let me start off by saying I am not one to usually rush to forums with my frustrations and attempt to "blacklist" dealers or companies. But I just had to share this story especially after the phone call I received from the manager of the dealership today. (I will elaborate on this later). This is copy and pasted from the survey I submitted to Subaru of America after they sent me a follow up letter in the mail.

I am doing this merely to warn other potential BRZ buyers what you are getting into if you deal with this dealer, as my experience was horrible.

They asked what could be done to continue the success of the dealership or things they can work on. This is how I responded. Don't bother shopping at Ganley of Wickliffe.

Obviously, some info was modified for personal info since this is public post.

"Pretty much reevaluate the entire staff including management. I don't know if I was treated this way because I am young or if they treat every customer in this manner.

I must start out by saying this entire deal was done almost completely remotely. I am stating this to be fair to the dealer but my experience was still unwarranted and terrible. At first the communication went as expected, friendly and informative. I was calling around looking for a MT Black BRZ limited. I was lucky enough to find one incoming and I called just at the right time. I started by putting a $1000 deposit down on the car to hold it so I can test drive/check it out when I came home (about a month). I am active duty Military and had planned to take leave and travel back to Ohio from Georgia to see the car and hopefully purchase it. After putting a deposit down on the car almost all communication seemed to disappear all together. Even getting my salesman (his name) to call me back with answers was a chore and sometimes wouldn't get a reply for around two days. The car did not arrive on the scheduled date while I was home on leave. I completely understand this since the car was coming from the plant in Gunma, Japan and the dealer has no control over this process. That did not bother me at all and the dealer did everything they could to keep the car on schedule (to my knowledge). My first issues with the pricing occurred when I was informed the car could be sold to me at invoice pricing as a part of a military discount. This was dropped a month later so I ended up paying sticker. I understand the car is very desirable right now but I just wish I wasn't lied to for a month about the price I thought we agreed upon.

The knowledge the entire dealership had of the car was downright pitiful. I know there is a difference between an enthusiast and a salesman but this is quite possibly the biggest launch of a new Subaru this decade. The dealer didn't even know that a nav unit was standard on the Subaru or really anything about the car. Simple information that could have been found in the car's brochure was simply absent from the dealer's mind.

I had to send my parents to pick up the car for me since I would not be flying home from Georgia until the following weekend. When they arrived to pick up the car it was not fueled up or prepped at all. It still had all the plastic wrap in the interior and wasn't ready for pick up. In the dealer's defense, he did say my parents arrived early. However, they were only a mere 30 minutes (at the most) early. Also, the bodywork prep done was horrible! There are wax swirls and other paint imperfections due to washing. Also, the chrome fender accessories have wax surrounding it on the plastic inlay behind the chrome. It looks like they just didn't care when they prepped the exterior for pick up.

In terms of the dealer's selection of cars this did not apply to me too much since I already knew exactly what I was looking for. The dealer is small and the selection is very limited. Mostly a few Legacy's and various SUV's. Not much of a sport selection such as WRX's and full STI models. This is fine since most dealers can move inventory around just fine between dealers nowadays. The dealership seemed clean and organized. I was only there briefly while on leave to speak with salesman's name. I stopped by to meet him in person since I like to meet the people I do transactions with especially with an investment like this. He was polite and courteous in person and seemed like a good person. But throughout the entire transaction he seemed disorganized and confused. He didn't know anything about the car or really how a sale typically goes. It was like he was new to the dealership or something. Which if he is, that is fine and that's not his fault, we all start somewhere, but it was still a horrible experience even when dealing with management.

After the entire process I was very excited to finally have the BRZ home and ready to drive. I am absolutely in love with this car as you can imagine. I don't have a single complaint about the car itself. Just when I thought the nightmare was over and she was safely home and owned by me more problems surfaced. I just learned yesterday that the sales tax in the payments was for Ohio (makes sense) but to register the car in Georgia I need to pay a difference in tax rates which turns out to be an additional $800. The problem with this is I explained to the dealership MULTIPLE times the car would be registered and mostly driven in the state of Georgia. I was informed by salesman's name I would be receiving a check for the difference in taxes but I still have no word from them at all. I've decided to just register the car in Ohio for now so I don't owe an unnecessary $800 in taxes. Basically, I was charged sales tax twice since the dealer couldn't get the paperwork straight. Another thing about the paperwork, they forgot to give my parents the paperwork when picking up the car. When I brought this to salesman's name attention he said he would have the manager manager's name leave the paperwork in my mailbox in Ohio since he lives two towns away. That was back in early June and I still do not have the paperwork.

If Subaru would like to follow up with me about these issues my cell phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX and my email is XXXXXXXXXX@gmail.com. I would gladly speak to someone about my experience. Again, I cannot express in words how much I adore this BRZ. Subaru and Toyota hit the nail on the head with these two exquisite vehicles. Just the acquiring of the car was a nightmare. Even after all of these headaches the car is still worth it to me, so bravo Subaru and Toyota.

To make this story short; if this car wasn't so hard to come by right now I would have walked away from Ganley of Wickliffe a long time ago. They were simply lucky they had a MT BRZ in the color I wanted. I will be a Subaru customer and fan for life but I will never return to Ganley."

That is pretty much the whole story

Today's phone call went in this manner:

I received a call from the manager of the dealership today pretty much complaining/following up about the scores I gave on the survey. He stated: "The low scores really hurt us and I have never seen scores this low". I explained to him why the experience was terrible and all he had to say was this. "I wish I would have know you felt this way while buying the car, I wouldn't have had you take the car" I told him "That wouldn't have been an option since no one else around had the car so I had to buy it from you" He replied with "No, I meant if I would have known the scores would have been so low in the survey I wouldn't have sold you the car"

He did explain to me he had wedding that weekend and that's why I didn't have the paperwork in my mailbox. But I was never informed of this. So why he was telling me his wedding excuse when it was a mis-communication between him and his sales staff is beyond me.

Seriously? You consider yourself a sales professional yet I am to blame about your shitty service and it's my fault for being honest on a company survey? I just calmly told him "Ok, take care" I was going to let this transaction be water under the bridge and good riddance with this dealership but after a remark like that I am taking this to Subaru Headquarters and let them know how one of their dealers operates. It's only fair to Subaru as a company.

Unbelievable. I still don't have the paperwork. lol

Please be honest with me guys, am I over reacting or is this type of customer service completely uncalled for? I thought the dealer would be just as excited as I was about these two amazing coupes being released in the US market. Instead of sharing my enthusiasm for motoring they just decided to give me hell.

Oh well, she is now safely with me and being driven as much as possible. At the end of the day that's all that matters right? Just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Take care and cheers!

[pyro530]

To be honest, sounds like your transaction went pretty smoothly compared to my experience buying my FR-S. I know I'm not in the great lakes area, but my experience was still pretty horrible.

[Bg8780]

I have friend that just put $1000 down on a Raven FR-S. He said his experience is starting to look like mine. It's a shame these cars are so hot. The dealers just DGAF. lol

Side note: just spoke to the manager. They are finally mailing my paperwork. My parents picked up the car over a month ago. Paperwork is just running a wee bit late.

[K2]

There are good dealers and bad dealers everywhere, for every brand. It is just very unfortunate you had to go through a nightmarish experience to find out what kind of dealer you're working with.
I also find it amazing that sellers assume that they'll get "5 star" reviews just for closing a sale. The remark the manager made about not selling you the car if he had known you would not give them a rubber stamp review was unbelieveable. The only reply I can come up with would be, "If I'd have known you were going to provide such crappy service, I would have gone elsewhere."

[Rampage]

So you are saying the "Ganlyman Can't?"

Just a play on the TV commercials that run in NEOH day and night.

They also have that Subaru commercial that claims they will given $1000 off on ANY Subaru sticker price. I thought about calling and asking for a guarantee on that deal on the BRZ!

It truly is sad that none of these dealers or salesmen seem to share in the enthusiasm for their company's products. That has been my experience with both Subaru and Scion.

[Bg8780]

Originally Posted by Rampage

So you are saying the "Ganlyman Can't?"

Just a play on the TV commercials that run in NEOH day and night.

They also have that Subaru commercial that claims they will given $1000 off on ANY Subaru sticker price. I thought about calling and asking for a guarantee on that deal on the BRZ!

It truly is sad that none of these dealers or salesmen seem to share in the enthusiasm for their company's products. That has been my experience with both Subaru and Scion.

Haha! They probably would tell you they would do it anyway and then not. I went to a Toyota dealership here in Georgia that got the first FR-S in. They had a flyer about ANY new Toyota would be 1% above invoice for "hometown heroes" (Military,nurses,cops etc). No questions asked. Of course they said the FR-S was an exclusion but couldn't show me the paperwork stating that there could be exclusions. They also wanted 32k for the FR-S LOL! I still wanna drive by that dealer ship and show them my BRZ that I paid $2000 less for.