Here is a copy of the complaint I submitted to the BBB and to ABC news here in Fayetteville NC it pretty much sums up all the lies of Crown Ford! Buyer Beware, never buy at Crown Ford there are many other Ford Dealerships to choose from!
-- We purchased a 2007 Ford Explorer Sport-Track from Crown Ford in Fayetteville NC on 02April2007. We traded in a 2004 Toyota Corolla Sport for which we held the title and a 2004 Nissan Xterra which was still under contract with Honda Financial. When the contact was signed it was stated by both the sales person, John Sapp and the Finance Manager, Tony that the trade-in payoff was 10-15 days for the Nissan. Today (07May2007) is the 37th day and the 24th business day after purchase. It was stated by the sales manager (Donavan Burney) that it could possibly take up to 30 days (not business days) but no longer after we complained the 17th business day. When asked to view a copy of the company's policy on trade-in payoffs the company would not produce one. We have asked for our vehicles back several times since we now have a bill for the trade-in which we have not had possession of for over 30 days and the new Ford vehicle.
Furthermore when signing the financial contract we asked the Sales Manager if our credit would only be run 1 time. The sales manager stated "the deal is final and it will only be run once". We later found out that our credit was run 4 times and we were not only not notified but lied to about our credit after we had specifically had asked and given permission for it to be run once.
We were also lied to about the date a check was allegedly sent for the payoff of the trade-in. It was stated by the sales manager, Tony on 27April2007 that on 26April2007 the check was overnighted to Honda Financial. We learned from the sales manager, Donovan Burney the next week that the check was not only not overnighted but was not sent.
The Nissan is in the contract as a pay-off for a trade-in and it has not been paid. Crown Ford has been very uncooperative and rude and has refused to work with us other than offering half-felt apologies and excuses.
When we complained about the situation we were offered side rails for the Sport-Track or something similar from Donavan Burney-the sales manager. He later reneged on his offer. We were also offered a free tank of gas from Tony in Finance in exchange for our customer satisfaction survey, which was clearly labeled “DO NOT RETURN TO DEALERSHIP”.
We had to return to the Ford dealership because the odometer disclosure statement for our trade-in on the Nissan Xterra was falsified by the employees at Crown Ford to read 20,000 miles less. The employees (John Sapp and Tony the Finance Manager) were both rude to us and tried to lead us to believe that it was an innocent mistake and it actually helped us. We then had to demand that it be changed. It is now hand written on the odometer-statement instead of typed as is the rest of the form.
We have tried to handle the situation with the dealership by speaking with the Sales Manager(Donovan Burney), Finance Manager(Tony) our Salesman (John Sapp) and the GM (Pete Macey).
Employees that lied to us include:
John Sapp (Sales)
Tony (Finance Manager)
Donoven Burney (Sales Manager)
Melissa
Fort Bragg, North Carolina