Kramer Mazda

Will NEVER return to Kramer Mazda Let me just start by saying that this is not a heat of the moment rant. Almost a month has passed since I took home my vehicle from Kramer Mazda in Let me just start by saying that this is not a heat of the moment rant. Almost a month has passed since I took home my vehicle from Kramer Mazda in Calgary, Alberta. I have had plenty of time to think over the experience that we had and still, I feel that this review needs to be shared. I am a Mazda customer. And by that, I mean that my first used car as a teenager was a Mazda, the second brand new car that I bought outright was from Sunridge Mazda, and now despite being asked “why don’t you check out some other makes of small SUV’s?” I insisted that I only wanted a Mazda CX5. I liked the way they looked, I liked my past experiences and overall, I never really had any issues with the cars themselves. We started at Stoney Trail Mazda, but after being matched with a sales rep who only seemed interested in upselling us no matter what we said, we went drove across the city to Kramer Mazda instead. We had a great start in the Used Sales Centre with Grant and Matt. They were friendly, helpful and not at all pretentious. They understood what I was looking for and helped me to find that. We test drove a used 2015 CX5 with low kilometers, went home to think it over and the next day called to say yes we wanted it but we were heading out to BC for about 5 days. We put $500 down on the vehicle to hold it until we returned from our vacation – essentially we had committed to buying the car. Upon our return to Calgary, we had to get our financing and insurance in order. We spoke with Kurt from Finance and we left with a plan, and a bill of sale that read about 16,000km on the odometer. Once the insurance was set up we booked another day to come in and pick up the car. I did the vehicle walk through, I signed some papers, I even wrote Kramer Mazda a GLOWING review at their request. But lastly I met with Susan in the Finance department. We signed multiple pages before getting to the final bill of sale. The odometer reading now read 19,700km. So I hesitated. I told Susan this was not the reading on the car that we had test drove or on the original bill of sale. Susan’s response was that I must be mistaken. Or perhaps they would need to be more careful with the signs they put on the cars out on the lot. She immediately made me feel that I had somehow missed this crucial information along the way. I felt stuck, and slightly panicked. Susan sat there pointing at the places to initial and offering me no other explanation. I initialed, signed, got in the car and drove a couple of blocks away before parking and calling my significant other. After hearing the details of my exchange at the dealership he told me to call them right back. The receptionist listened to my issue – I had only been gone from the dealership for 5-10 minutes maximum - but there was nothing they could do for me she said, they were closing in 20 minutes. I insisted on speaking with someone and after a hold wait of another 5 minutes, the woman who had done my vehicle walk through with me came on the line. She sympathized with me but said there was no one who could help. It was the start of a long weekend and the Used Sales Manager was already gone. Again, I had to insist. I had no idea if I had even left with the correct car anymore! She took my number and 10 minutes later I received a phone call from Dennis, the GM of Sales at Kramer Mazda. Please keep in mind that this entire time I was parked on a curb a couple of blocks from the dealership, unsure if I should continue to drive the car. Here I thought, I am finally talking to someone who will be able to do something. I relayed all of the information to him: I still had copies of my original bill of sale and the new one. The vehicle serial numbers were the same but there was almost 4000km extra on my car! How did this happen? When did this happen? Was my car driven after we had put $500 down to hold it and by whom? This wasn’t an extra few kilometers around the dealership; this was essentially to Vancouver and back! Dennis at the time could offer me no answers. It was a long weekend he said and nothing could be done. He would have to look into it and we could meet on Tuesday. I had more questions: So I am responsible for a car for a long weekend that may not even be the correct car? Am I to park it on the curb? I’m meant to drive out to Lake Louise for a hike tomorrow morning! He assured me that I should enjoy the car. Drive it he said. Take it on the highway. No big deal. I parked it on the curb outside our home and left it there for the weekend. I didn’t want to add more Km’s to it and any Calgarian knows the reputation of highway driving over a long weekend. There is almost always a bad accident or two. Why take the risk? What a lousy start to the weekend. I couldn’t believe how difficult it had been to get assistance and I was appalled that I had been brushed off by 3 different employees. At the end of the long weekend we set up a meeting with Dennis. We were relieved. Finally we could sort it out. Upon arriving to the dealership, we waited about 30 minutes for Dennis even though we had booked a specific meeting time. The explanation that he offered for the odometer discrepancy was that certain employees who are higher up are able to drive dealership vehicles but someone had driven it, and then neglected to update the odometer reading within their computer system. He assured us that it had not happened after it had been set aside for us. He offered us no more information than that. No apology of any kind or acknowledgement of the inconvenience. Our issues were multiple. We informed him that it had been like pulling teeth to get any assistance until now. We told him that we still had not ended up with the car that we had wanted. We wound up with a car that had more kilometers on it than we had intended to buy. Now, after pushing for one, we received a mild apology regarding the employees, before we saw Dennis change his own attitude. “I’m not going to be that guy who shows you the bill of sale and points out that you initialed and you signed it. I could remind you that you signed and drove the vehicle away. I don’t know, maybe you were just excited about your new car and you didn’t see it? But I won’t do that.” – Please note that as he was saying this, he was pointing to the bill of sale to the areas that I signed. So I chimed in to point out that he was at that moment, being that guy. I had not been overexcited about my new car. I brought the issue up with Susan and she brushed it off, making me feel that it was a non-issue. At this point, Dennis gave us two options. We could see another vehicle on the lot and trade it. It was essentially the same but with lower kilometers and they would switch over the add-ins that I had paid for like the protective coatings and navigation. Or, they could give us a cheque in the amount that covers the odometer difference, which would be 12 cents for each kilometer. We thought that these options were reasonable based on the error that the dealership had made. We would take an evening to discuss it. But we were not satisfied at all with the experience so far. We had multiple people treat our issue like it did not matter in the slightest and not once had someone offered us anything beyond an apology that we ourselves had to push for. Dennis continued to show his great people skills by saying it seemed like we wanted something specific and why don’t we just tell him what it is. We told him that when we had first started the purchase of the car, we had asked about winter tires but they had not added them on for us. We were leaning towards the extra 12 cents per Km option, but it would be great if they could meet us the rest of the way for a set of winter tires. According to Dennis, even as the GM of Sales he was unable to approve such a request. Winter tires set them back quite a bit of money he said and he had no idea what the response would be. I told him that the last new vehicle I purchased from Sunridge Mazda was on the condition that they included winter tires. I still have the original bill of sale from that car and it still shows the handwritten note from the sales rep outlining that we would take the car if they were thrown in – which they were. Because of this past experience, I knew that asking for them was not ridiculous or out of reach. We left with him saying he would ask his higher ups first thing the next morning and contact us with the response. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday all came and went without a response of any kind. We called Friday night and were told that it was Dennis’ day off. I struggled to keep my cool at this point as they passed me on to someone else. We ended up speaking with Grant from the Used Sales Center. Wonderful, friendly Grant who we had met the first day we ever came in! He was completely unaware of the situation but assured me that he would find out as much as he could and call me back. And he did just that. We missed his call but he left a detailed message saying that they had decided they would not give us the tires or anything beyond the 2 options that Dennis had first outlined. He apologized for our experience thus far (without us even prodding for one!), Dennis would be back on Monday but if we had more questions we could call Grant back and he would be happy to assist us. Kramer Mazda would be wise to keep Grant around as he was the only person who had any integrity to actually follow through on his promise. Now I don’t know if this has anything to do with the radio silence from Dennis, but I would like to point out that by the time he was back at work, our 7 days to return the vehicle had now passed. We heard from Dennis late Monday. He offered no acknowledgement of the fact that it was 6 DAYS past when he had said he would contact us and no apology. He repeated the information that Grant had already given. We had already made our decision. We would take the 12 cents per kilometer cheque and we would put it towards winter tires elsewhere. Now even after all of this I was shocked that Dennis had the nerve to start talking about their winter tire prices. No chance would we even consider buying from Kramer Mazda and we would never be bringing our business back. I very calmly told Dennis how disappointed we were. That we understood the options that we had been given, but that in our eyes those options were the minimum. They were only doing what they had to do to fix their own neglectfulness and hadn’t even considered the customer service experience that this had been for us. His response, “Stacey, if we didn’t care about customer service, we wouldn’t have offered you anything.” You would think it ends here. I wish it had. I would have gladly received the cheque in the mail but we had to come in and sign for it. When we arrived at the dealership, the receptionist who I had spoken to several times still could not remember my name. I saw no one else in the dealership at that time, so I can’t believe that she had more than one appointment to reference. We saw that Dennis was in his office but he did not come out to see us. He passed the forms on to another fellow who did not stop to meet us; he simply walked over to his desk. We were given 2 copies of the same form to sign – one for us and one for them. Within the very first sentence, my name was spelled incorrectly. Now I don’t mean that it was an “o” instead of an “e”. They added “ly” to the end of my name. I identified this mistake immediately and the man who was with us offered, “Oh, uh, I didn’t proof read anything. I’m just doing this for Dennis. At least it’s spelled correctly on the cheque.” After a quick scratch out and an initial, we signed and left. Details aside now: I can tell you with absolute certainty that we will NEVER return to Kramer Mazda. It was one of the worst customer service experiences that I have ever had in my life. Most of the employees seem to have a blatant disregard for the way they come across and will only do the bare minimum, especially if the end of their work day is approaching. Their GM of Sales seems to operate under his own motto of “I just don’t care enough to do anything to keep you as a customer.” When it is time for my next vehicle upgrade I will probably no longer be a Mazda customer. I will also warn off anyone who tells me they are car shopping or considering this dealership. More

poor customer service and poor business practices I bought a car from the pre-owned department and I received a fair price for the car. The problem was with the rest of my experience with Kramer Mazda I bought a car from the pre-owned department and I received a fair price for the car. The problem was with the rest of my experience with Kramer Mazda. The car itself was handed over poorly cleaned with obvious patches of dirt on the interior, the chemicals they used when cleaning the dash leave a persistent odour that have been giving me a headache every time I drive the car. The odours went away when I cleaned the plastic surfaces with soap and water. Secondly the car was given to me with a gas tank that was mostly empty. If I was buying a car from a friend or family member these problems could be expected but when buying from a dealership I expected a bit more. Secondly when financing the car the terms of the loan were discussed on the phone and what was agreed to was a loan at 5% with a $60 administrative fee. When I came in to sign the papers I read most of them but some many came so fast in such a difficult language that I gave up just for the sake of time. Later upon review I noticed they had slipped in a $900 insurance premium on the loan without mentioning it. I felt that I had been scammed by unscrupulous business practices and I am currently struggling to cancel the Insurance and get my money back. My online research shows me that either the dealership or the financing person get a large kickback for selling this insurance. In summary, poor customer service and poor business practices. More

Certified Pre-Owned has defects which they don't replace Certified Pre-owned but they will not thoroughly check the car you'll gonna notice that in your first week of driving it has defects.. Certified Pre-owned but they will not thoroughly check the car you'll gonna notice that in your first week of driving it has defects.. More