Christophers Dodge World Discourages International Business By Not Being Accountable For Mistakes That Cost Me Golden Colorado

The following took place in July of 2008.

I'll start off by saying that I am a Canadian citizen and like many other Canadians, I thought I would take advantage of the significantly lower vehicle prices in the U.S.

I searched for almost a month on Autotrader.com to find the vehicle that I was looking for. I found a 2004 Dodge 2500 RAM with the Cummins diesel motor at Christopher's Dodge World. The truck appeared to be in good shape and it was priced so reasonably that I had no intentions of negotiating that. I phoned up the dealership to ask the usual questions you do when buying a used vehicle. I asked the lady if there was anything at all wrong with the vehicle, because I would be coming a very far distance to purchase and I didn't want any surprises. She told me that Christopher's Dodge World is the largest 5 star Dodge dealership in the world and that all of their vehicles get a 250 point inspection when they come in, and that anything needing repaired, gets it. When I began to ask technical questions about the vehicle and she didn't have the answers, she advised me to come on down to the dealership and speak with a salesman. Again, I explained to her that I was calling from Canada; she then said that it would be a waste of time to transfer me to a salesman because I wouldn't be there that day to pick it up. After I explained to her that I can pay a deposit with my credit card, she reluctantly transferred me to a salesman.

The salesman himself, Zach, seemed like a nice enough fella, although he didn't seem very knowledgeable about the product itself and he certainly had no knowledge about exporting a vehicle from the U.S. I told him that in order to export the truck that I had to fax a copy of the vehicle title and the bill of sale to U.S. Customs at least 72 hours prior to me arriving at the border. Since the drive itself would take far less than 72 hours, I needed to fax this stuff off at this time. Zach told me that I didn't need to worry about doing that and that as long as I had the bill of sale when crossing that I would be fine. I did not take his word for it and I insisted that I get copies of these documents to fax right away. He sent me a copy of the bill of sale, showing my deposit, and a copy of the vehicle title showing that the dealership had purchased the vehicle from the original owner. Zach then told me that I would not get a title with my name on it until about 2 to 3 weeks after the sale. In Canada, we do not use a title system for vehicles; therefore I had no idea that he was wrong and had no clue about what he was telling me. I faxed what I had been given off to U.S. Customs, along with a cover letter explaining that I didn't understand the vehicle title system and what the salesman had told me. I specifically asked them to contact me if there was any problem with this. On the U.S. Customs website for exporting vehicles, it specifically states not to call in and check if they received your papers and that if there was a problem with any of them, that they will contact you. So I thought for sure, that I would get a call if there was to be any problem. I waited a week and I phoned in regardless, the officer I spoke with said you are in the system, good to go.

So, a couple days later, I flew down to Denver, this was a Thursday morning. The salesman met me at the airport and drove me to the dealership. I spent 5 minutes looking the truck over and I took it for a 5 minute drive, then I said OK, I'll take it. Three hours later, after I had paid for the vehicle in full, signed all of the papers, and listened to the sales pitch for an extended warranty, I was given a key, a quick handshake. The salesman himself, Zach, had driven his own vehicle off of the lot before I had time to start up my new truck, but whatever, I was still pretty happy.

However, after driving almost straight through to the border at Sweetgrass Montana, and being turned away by the very unsympathetic and unhelpful U.S. customs officer because I didn't have the original title, I was no longer happy. I'll leave my rant about the Customs officer for another blog. I immediately phone the dealership to explain the situation. First the receptionist told me that oh ya, that was a big mistake on their part and she said that she would have a manager phone me right back. About 15 minutes later, I got a call from the finance manager, Jeff. He proceeded to tell me that the guy that had me signing all of the papers made that mistake and that he was just fired on the spot. He told me that if I could give him an address that he would overnight FedEx the title to me. For those of you that are not familiar with Sweetgrass Mo, there is nothing there accept a duty free shop and a gas station. So he advised me to back track1/2 hour to the town of Shelby and get a room there. At this time I expressed to him that these expenses should not be mine and he assured me that all would be taken care of. So I back tracked to Shelby and arranged for a room at the Comfort Inn. This was about 10 A.M; I was told to come back around noon because the room wasn't ready yet. So I phoned Jeff and gave him the address of the hotel. I managed to keep myself somewhat amused for two hours checking out this little town and what it had to offer. When I went back at noon to get my room key, I told the desk clerk that I was expecting a package from FedEx; she told me that it wouldn't be there until Monday morning as they don't get FedEx on the weekend. I called Jeff back at the dealership and he told me not to worry about it, that she was mistaken. After quizzing her again, I called FedEx and yes, she was right, FedEx does not deliver to that town on the weekends. In order for me to get that package the next day, I would have to back track to Great Falls and get the package at the depot near the airport. So I phoned Jeff again, he told me to go ahead and go to Great Falls and to fax him the room receipt when I got it and that he would make sure there was a check in the package. He transferred me to the receptionist because she would be shipping the package. So off I went to Great Falls; I found the depot near the airport, confirmed the tracking number with the clerk there and then got the only available room in town as there was a State Fair on that week. I faxed the info off to Jeff with a note explaining why I had gotten a $150 room. The next day, I got package, however it only contained a title, there was no check. So I made my way back up to Sweetgrass and managed to get through both sets of Customs without any hassles.

When I got home, Saturday afternoon, I phoned the dealership to ask about the missing check. I was told that Jeff was off and that I would have to call back on Monday. Monday morning I called and left a message for Jeff to call me, I called back in the afternoon to have him paged as he had not yet returned my call. When I finally got to speak with him, he said that the check had been sent separately because it wasn't ready to go when the title was, and that it was sent to my house. I asked him how much the check was for, because there was the room, fuel, meals, and long distance cell phone calls, all of which had been discussed on the Friday. He told me that he didn't know how much the check was for, but that the lady that sent it out could confirm that for me. So he transferred me to her voice mail and I left a message asking her to call me. After I couple hours, I called back and asked to have her paged. Speaking with her, she told me that the check was for $80. When I asked why only $80, she said that's what Jeff had approved. This is the same Jeff that told me he didn't know how much the check was for! So after a day of trying to reach Jeff again and the sales manager, I tracked down the direct line for the owner, Chris Hall. I phoned and left him a brief message. Later that day he did return my call. I gave him my story and he assured me that he would get to the bottom of things and get back to me. The next day, Chris Hall phoned me back to tell me that he feels that I have been compensated appropriately. When I started to question this he said, and I quote Dean, you told me your story yesterday, I don't need to hear it again, and quite frankly it would be a waste of your time and mine. Thank you and good day.

So that's my experience with Christopher's Dodge World. Would I ever deal with them again? Hell no!

P.S. I am sure that had I been a resident of Colorado, or even a neighboring state for that matter, that things would have been handled differently. I would think businesses operating in a staggering economy should do everything they can to encourage new money into their system to help keep them afloat, not discourage people from ever doing business there again. And for the record Chris Hall, I have since started a bit of an import business of my own. I plan to import one vehicle a month from the U.S. and no sorry, none of them will be purchased from your s**t hole of a business!

1bigboomstick
Calgary, Alberta
Canada

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