Downtown Mazda BE AWARE!!!

[carloslatuff]

1rs LIE: They had a promotion for a 'free' trip for two people when you bought a car from them. James Zhu (salesman) told us we could travel ANY TIME with no black out dates within the next 18 months. TRUTH: The trip is for the low season only Sep-Dec.

2nd LIE: The promotion was for a "free" trip. TRUTH: The company that handles the trip (Travel America, Inc) made us pay $40 for registration and then we need to pay $198.00 each if we want to take a cruise for a total of $436. If we book the trip using the cruise company website the cost is $452.00 Our savings? $16 and the trip IS NOT FREE as they stated. They also don't mention this fees to you and wait until last minute to give you the brochure that states the fees.

3rd LIE: when I sent them an email complaining about this situation the General Manager (Joseph Pede)responded: "This program is available to many dealerships and the disclaimer is posted on our main entrance and brochure". TRUTH: We read the poster displayed there carefully and only showed pictures of the three different travel packages you can choose from. No small printing at the bottom of the poster either.

They lie into giving value to this trip and as you can see the only one who loses is the customer.

VERY DISAPPOINTED

[carloslatuff]

Recently, my wife and I walked into a Mazda dealership in Toronto, Canada. After, a while we were approached by a salesman who explained to us all the car's features and the extra values we'd get if we bought the car from them. One of those extra "values" was our choice of one of three "free" travel packages offered by a company call Travel America, Inc. We thought this was a really nice value: a "free" vacation, plus we could pick between three different destinations (Cancun, Las Vegas or a cruise in the Caribbean).

The car salesman (James Zhu) always mentioned the value of getting a free trip, but he NEVER mentioned we had to pay a fee to make the trip. This fee, as we later discovered, is charged by Travel America and includes government taxes, port fees and other "miscellaneous fees" (we'll explain this in more detail later on). So, when we signed the contract to buy our car, the dealer gave us a nice postal-size card with a nice picture of a beach with the name Travel America on it and some explanation about the package. BUT, once again, NO MENTION OF ANY FEES on this card.

Since we had some questions about the package, we tried in vain to contact Travel America using the phone on the card, however, not a single time we were able to talk to a human being and all messages we left in their machine were never returned. We tried to call at different hours with the same results. This seemed a little bit strange to us, but it wasn't a major concern.

Four days later we went to pick up our car. Only then we were given a brochure explaining in detail the terms of the trip. To our surprise, one of the clauses states that in order for us to travel we needed to detach and fill a travel certificate that had our package code on it and send it to Travel America along with $40 for registration. Also, they stated that we needed to pay $198 per person to cover for taxes, port charges and miscellaneous fees. Also, we were able to see that all the dates available to travel were from September-December, although we were told at the dealership that we could travel anytime within the next 18 months. All our calls to Travel America were sent once again to a machine with no return calls.

Our Value? Let me tell you what the value for the customer is. In the case we selected to do the cruise in one of the dates chosen by Travel America, we would spent $436 for the cheapest room in the ship (category A1). If we book the trip using Carnival's website, the same trip with the same room would cost us $452.42. Our value? $16.42.

This is just A RIPOFF!!! WHAT A SCAM!!!

[kevcol74]

Do you also have to pay for your way down there too?

[Hives]

Oh man, thats not good. I would be pissed as well. However, when I come across stuff like this, I know there is always a catch and that it's too good to be true. Maybe u can speak with Mazda Canada, and they can do something for u. They prolly won't give u the free trip, but might offer u free merchandise or oil changes for a year or something.

[Thrizzl3]

that sucks..

[Cardinal Fang]

Maybe u can speak with Mazda Canada, and they can do something for u.

They can't. This is an individual dealership's promotion and I'm pretty sure there is fine print somewhere detailing the terms and conditions of this type of promotion. Carloslatuff should have never taken the sales person's word for it. He should have gotten all of this in writing before he signed his deal. Yes sometimes people are eager to make a sale but we too are sooooooo eager to take advantage of a promotion that we will ignore our gut instinct.

Rule of thumb. If it's not in writing it doesn't exist. If they won't or can't give you the pre-conditions, walk away.

[aris]

Ya that does suck..

[Dragazn]

If you do a search around the forum you'll find MANY MANY posts of the notorious Downtown Mazda and their way of dealing with customers old and new. I am one of the unlucky few who have felt their horrible customer service as well as their misleading sales tactics.

STAY AWAY FROM DOWNTOWN MAZDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!