Kia of Downtown Los Angeles Bait and Switch Scam Los Angeles California

I had requested a new Forte thru TruCar and decided on Downtown Kia since they had the lowest price available. After being sent an email from the internet sales manager John Navarro I called to reach him and got his assistant Darlene Escobar. I explained what I wanted and they quoted me a price over the phone that matched what was shown thru TruCar. I explained that I would be going to come in the next day to make the purchase.

I even called back the same day to go over details and reconfirm the deal. The next day I went to my Bank to get a Cashier’s check for the confirmed amount and called John Navarro to make sure everything was ready, but he was not in and he advised that I speak with Darlene and she would get someone to help the transact the deal. I specifically said that I am driving to downtown for this deal, are you sure there is nothing tricky that will happen and she assured me  everything was fine.

Once I arrived, she would not see me, but had a friendly salesman talk with me and say that the car we agreed upon had 800 miles on it, so it would be a used car. I explained the situation and all of the assurances I was given and he said that he understood and would do a different car that usually costs a bit more for the same price, which I said yes to.

When he brought in a manager named Aris, this person told me I had to pay more. When I explained the situation again, he did not care. When I said I have plenty of documentation to back up what was said by everyone and thru TruCar and that it was not right how I was in a bait and switch scheme, he did not care. When I said I would go back to TruCar to file a complaint he said go ahead.

While in the parking lot, I text John Navarro that they were awful, he asked how come? I replied that he should talk with Aris. I never received any other response from him, so this shows that he was aware of these tactics. When I tried to call Darlene Escobar, she would not answer and did not return my call.

I wasted a lot of time and energy dealing with these unethical people and everyone should be aware of their bait and switch scams. They obviously do not care about any consequences to their unethical behavior and could care less about TruCar.