Ken Garff Rips off Veteran Misleading sales, Damaged new vehicle, Treats customer poorly. Salt Lake City Utah

On 02 December 2014, I went to the Ken Garff West Valley Dodge Dealership to purchase a 2015 Ram 3500. Multiple times I asked the salesman Dan if there was a military rebate available. Dan told me 3 times there was no military rebate. I avoided their in house financing because I had already secured financing at my credit union. Dan continually tried to get me to go with their in house financing options and I kept declining. 

I was at my credit union and had Dan on the phone negotiating the final sale price on the truck. Once again I asked about the military rebate. Dan once again said there were none. We settled on a price and I had my banker cut a cashiers check. Dan said the truck would be prepped and ready for me. 

Somehow during the “Prep” they failed to fuel the truck. Also, their “detailer” did a mighty fine job of scratching the hell out of my brand new truck. It was dark on the lot so the scratches were not seen until I was at the gas station PAYING out of my pocket to fuel the brand new truck. The dealer had closed early for a Christmas Party. There was nobody there to handle the issue that evening. 

The next morning I was told by Dan and Trevor that getting the scratches out would be no problem. They said to come back in a week and “their guy” would make my new truck look like new. It should NEVER have been scratched.

In between this time, the sales team kept texting me…. NOT calling me. I guess we are on that “bro” level… The salesman was telling me that I needed to bring in some sort of rebate form that had been mailed to me. Funny, I don’t remember talking about this rebate form ever in the price negotiation. So there you have it, Dan is now trying to backdoor extra christmas bonus money on the sale via my rebate form. 

This made my banker a little more skeptical and we both looked at the current incentives for my vehicle and sure enough….there was a $500.00 military rebate. Mind you, Dan said there were NO military rebates. I brought this to the attention of the dealer and let them know I wanted the rebate. Then Dan, Trevor and the Sales manager started to get all excited, aka angry with me. Yelling at me, saying I how did they know I was in fact…ME. I guess my drivers license all my other identification is not good enough. Ohh, and they said they needed mail to prove my address. Yet that rebate form they were so worried about getting was mailed to ME. 

In the sales contract they tried to sneak in a $400.00 ?VTR? Turns out this is some b.s. identity theft protection insurance. Sorry, but I don’t want it nor do I need it. Also, why would I buy that with my new truck? So when I had them refund it….they told me. “ohh, you can’t have that money back…but you can use it as credit towards something that costs more than $400.00!! Are you kidding me? You already ripped me off and now you want me to spend more money instead of refunding what you never should have charged me!

Eventually the dealer processed the military rebate and refunded the $500.00. But they should have done that in the beginning. Not a week later. 

Now lets talk about the scratches. The repair guy attempted twice to get the deep scratches out. He was not successful. The service team knew this, yet they told me both times my truck was fixed. They also sent me to another dealers body shop to have them try and fix it. Still, the scratches remain. The General Manager Chad Rigby said he would make sure that I was taken care of and that my truck was fixed. 

All of this has just been lip service. Chad Rigby is not taking my phone calls. Joe Benson at Ken Garff Corporate has done nothing but belittle and berate me over the phone. The same with Jon Garff, the “man in charge” of Ken Garff Automotive. 

I have repair estimates from Higgins Autobody, ABBRA Collision Center and Gus Paulos Body Shop. The estimates tell me there is over $7,000.00 of damage to my brand new truck. They have told me as soon as they repair my truck that I will never be able to sell it in the future because of the extent of the damage. I was also told that it will take over 24 days to repair the truck. So now I have a brand new truck that is severely damaged that I wont be able to drive for nearly a month….and it wont be worth half of what I paid for it….all within less than a month of ownership.

Jon Garff has down talked me, belittled me and laughed at me over the phone. He is well aware of the issue. But does not want to properly resolve it. I guess mistreating your customers and fellow human beings is a perk of being a multimillionaire. 

The Utah Lemon Law clearly states that if the damage caused by the dealer “Causes substantial loss of value to the vehicle” that I am due a full refund. $7,000.00 in damages and then value loss after repair sounds like “Substantial Loss” to me. 

My recommendation is if you are not in the military or a veteran, you love dealing with liars and cheats and enjoy paying full price for a new vehicle so the dealers detailer can damage it you go to Ken Garff. But if you have common sense, think people should be dealt with honestly and humanely that you take your business elsewhere. Ken Garff has lost this customer for life and I will make sure to voice my experience with them to everyone I encounter. 

Please feel free to avoid Ken Garff Automotive group in all of their Utah locations.