Direct Mazda - So far, Horrible..

[WRBryce]

Reason for buying: Wifes car was written of by an in-law and needed to get her into a car before our insurance rental ran out.

March 19
So i walked into this dealership looking to purchase a Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback in White (seeing as thats the color my wife wanted). My first impression of the dealership was it was a ghost town, kinda empty and quiet, however it was organized.

I was greeted within 5 minutes of circling the preowned lot by a salesmen named xxxxx (will remain nameless for now until deal is finalized). He seemed nice, and pleasant enough. I told him what we were looking for and that we had already looked at other mazda dealerships and were pricing against those finds. To cut the story short he had the exact car we were looking for a fully Loaded GT model in white and very low kms to boot! (about 44xxx!)

I was extremely interested however the car that he was talking about wasnt on the lot!! Another sales rep was driving it and it was his day off. So i said for him to call me as soon as it came in and we made arrangements to meet the next day. About 3 hours later he calls me saying that the car is there and will only be there for about 30 minutes and to come and have a look. So we rushed over there to check it out.

-Car is close to a perfect 10 interior wise however i noted there were no floor mats in the car. It wasnt dirty however it wasnt clean either.

-Down the driverside door and passenger door there was a dent and scratch about 2.5 feet long, a scratch on the rear bumper, and all four rims were curb rashed!

I was obviously dissapointed that i wasnt informed of this since we had rushed down to see a car that was in poor shape. He told me that because of the dent the list price had already been brought down 1000 dollars... whatever i was interested in the car because of the mileage and the condition everything was tip top but not asthetically.

The following day we came back to see the car again and we ended up working out a deal on the car where all of the afformentioned problems would be repaired in the final offer we made. The offer was accepted and we put down $1000.00 deposit.

I told the salesman we would have a rental car untill the 25th of march so if the car could be ready by then it would be great! If not Tuesday the 29th would be the latest. If it wasnt possible to let us know that way i could try and make other arrangements for my wife to get to work..
He then instructed me that the car should be ready by Friday the latest (25th of March)

I said perfect! I expect to hear from you! We shook hands left and met with a VERY PLESANT FINANCE MANAGER Mr John Alvarez i beleive, GREAT GUY Pleasure to deal with ( we paid cash so no number crunching for him) he is still the bright spot in this deal. Love him.

This is where my experience goes to the shitter.
--
March 23rd i get a phonecall from the salesman saying that the car MAY be ready by Saturday(26th) but not likely; however it will be done for sure and ready for pick up on Monday(28th) If i didnt hear from him on Saturday i could expect to hear from him on Monday on when to pick the car up.

No call Saturday and No call Monday.
So i decided to call them around 6:00pm, i asked for the salesman we were dealing with and the girl tells me that hes gone for the day, so i asked to speak to another sales person that maybe able to help me.
Salesman #2 comes on the line:
He looks up our last name, the stock number of the car, and the progress of the car. He informs me :
"Your car is here and its ready! Congratulations! The only thing missing on the car is the liscencing, but it only takes about 45 minutes for us to complete, just call your salesman back tomorrow and remind him to get that done he will be in around 1pm."

So i say great! ill see ya tomorrow!

The next day i call to remind our salesman to get the liscencing done and that we will be by around 5pm to pick up the car when he says:

"Oh im sorry the car isnt ready, its not even here"
I replied
"I was told its there and complete??"
Salesman
"oh, well maybe the other salesman knowsmore about it then i do, let me put you on hold"

FIRST of all why the heck would the other salesmen know more about it, when you are the one who sold me the car....
He comes back on the line and says
"Im sorry sir, but your car isnt here and we havent heard back from the bodyshop yet on when it is going to be completed. You did ask for alot to be repaired so you cant expect a quick turnaround these things can take time"

SECOND of all, i did not give any unrealistic deadlines or time lines i SIMPLY asked if the car could be done by this date or whenever. Then he even calls me back to say your car will be ready on monday? and then its not? WHy would you tell a customer a completion date if you dont even know, or arent sure.

He then continued to say
"I will call you back on Thursday because im OFF tomorrow, and let you know whats going on"

I was so upset i said ok fine thanks, and hung up

I IMMEDIATELY called back asking for the manager i beleive his name is Dave and explained the situation. He said yeah this isnt right and is not beind handleled properly. We will get to the bottom of this and either myself or the sales manager will be calling you back tonight (March 29th)

Here i am Wednesday March 30th, i have not even gotten a call back from the manager or anyone for that matter.

Im THROUOGLY UNIMPRESSED, i was so confident after everything i read on these forums, and the feeling i got after purchasing the car that everything would be just fine. Now im worried that this was a bad choice, im hoping some compensation is provided and that someone who knows what the hell is going on with our car will call us and keep us updated.

.Andrew

[WRBryce]

Sorry for the novel just needed to vent yall!

[aris]

I would ask for a refund for deposit and I wouldn't buy it. Nothing pisses me off more is when I get told a date and it not ready on that day

[bman13]

Well, should be interesting how this gets resolved as Dave is an active member on the forum.

[WRBryce]

Well, should be interesting how this gets resolved as Dave is an active member on the forum.

Thanks for the reply. Honestly if they had called me everyday and gave me a status report on the car i would be fine. I feel like ive been lied too on more than one occasion you know?

[cwp_sedan]

Well, should be interesting how this gets resolved as Dave is an active member on the forum.

+1. I would definitely send him a PM.

[WRBryce]

I would ask for a refund for deposit and I wouldn't buy it. Nothing pisses me off more is when I get told a date and it not ready on that day

It has crossed my mind more than once, however im waiting to see what has to be said/done?

[WRBryce]

+1. I would definitely send him a PM.

=\ I called him already, what more would a PM do.

Might i add i own a Subaru WRX and am part of Toronto Subaru Club, and am looking forward to being apart of this forum (if i ever get our car)
you guys all seem down to earth and pleasant enough, thanks again for all the responses!

[Direct Mazda Service]

Hi Andrew,

Alan the Sales Manager will be calling you, after we spoke about your issue I informed Alan about it. I gave him your phone number to follow up with you and he assured me he will follow up with you. I just talked to him again after seeing this and he will be calling you again soon.

Regards,

[DCYT]

Any updates on this?

I too had bad experience with Direct Mazda.

[Nutella]

Terrible experience. Really burns the reputation of the place.

[SKYMP3]

Direct has no good rep to begin with.....they are the one who try to chage me $120 for a rust proof inspection.

Salesmen dealership are like that, they leave their stuff behind when they have a day off. We as customer don't care if it's your day off or vacation, leave your thing to a co-worker, let them handle it for you while you are away.

[Direct Mazda Service]

I am not sure what or when any of you have had bad service from Direct Mazda. Direct Mazda has gone through a complete staff change in sales, service and parts.
Direct Mazda is working on changing it's image to a dealer that cares and offers a quality service or sales or parts experience.

The sales staff changed middle to fall of last year, as well as the parts staff. The service staff being run by myself is new as of December of 2010, I started here in January 2011. We are building a team of people that want to be here and to give what counts, a quality experience.

I am always here and always approachable to anyone who does have a concern about their service visit.

As for this particular case involving Andrew, I will let him comment on his experience, but we are working things out.

[mEtH]

I cannot say I bought a car from Direct but have had my car serviced there many times and have had no issues. Sounds like the sales man didn't have his priorities in order, because if you know you need to get something done but have a day off, you should find someone who can cover that issue while you are away. At the same time the body work will be done off site and they only have so much control, but I agree out of courtesy they should have contacted you about that sooner.

[WRBryce]

Reason for buying: Wifes car was written of by an in-law and needed to get her into a car before our insurance rental ran out.

March 19
So i walked into this dealership looking to purchase a Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback in White (seeing as thats the color my wife wanted). My first impression of the dealership was it was a ghost town, kinda empty and quiet, however it was organized.

I was greeted within 5 minutes of circling the preowned lot by a salesmen named xxxxx (will remain nameless for now until deal is finalized). He seemed nice, and pleasant enough. I told him what we were looking for and that we had already looked at other mazda dealerships and were pricing against those finds. To cut the story short he had the exact car we were looking for a fully Loaded GT model in white and very low kms to boot! (about 44xxx!)

I was extremely interested however the car that he was talking about wasnt on the lot!! Another sales rep was driving it and it was his day off. So i said for him to call me as soon as it came in and we made arrangements to meet the next day. About 3 hours later he calls me saying that the car is there and will only be there for about 30 minutes and to come and have a look. So we rushed over there to check it out.

-Car is close to a perfect 10 interior wise however i noted there were no floor mats in the car. It wasnt dirty however it wasnt clean either.

-Down the driverside door and passenger door there was a dent and scratch about 2.5 feet long, a scratch on the rear bumper, and all four rims were curb rashed!

I was obviously dissapointed that i wasnt informed of this since we had rushed down to see a car that was in poor shape. He told me that because of the dent the list price had already been brought down 1000 dollars... whatever i was interested in the car because of the mileage and the condition everything was tip top but not asthetically.

The following day we came back to see the car again and we ended up working out a deal on the car where all of the afformentioned problems would be repaired in the final offer we made. The offer was accepted and we put down $1000.00 deposit.

I told the salesman we would have a rental car untill the 25th of march so if the car could be ready by then it would be great! If not Tuesday the 29th would be the latest. If it wasnt possible to let us know that way i could try and make other arrangements for my wife to get to work..
He then instructed me that the car should be ready by Friday the latest (25th of March)

I said perfect! I expect to hear from you! We shook hands left and met with a VERY PLESANT FINANCE MANAGER Mr John Alvarez i beleive, GREAT GUY Pleasure to deal with ( we paid cash so no number crunching for him) he is still the bright spot in this deal. Love him.

This is where my experience goes to the shitter.
--
March 23rd i get a phonecall from the salesman saying that the car MAY be ready by Saturday(26th) but not likely; however it will be done for sure and ready for pick up on Monday(28th) If i didnt hear from him on Saturday i could expect to hear from him on Monday on when to pick the car up.

No call Saturday and No call Monday.
So i decided to call them around 6:00pm, i asked for the salesman we were dealing with and the girl tells me that hes gone for the day, so i asked to speak to another sales person that maybe able to help me.
Salesman #2 comes on the line:
He looks up our last name, the stock number of the car, and the progress of the car. He informs me :
"Your car is here and its ready! Congratulations! The only thing missing on the car is the liscencing, but it only takes about 45 minutes for us to complete, just call your salesman back tomorrow and remind him to get that done he will be in around 1pm."

So i say great! ill see ya tomorrow!

The next day i call to remind our salesman to get the liscencing done and that we will be by around 5pm to pick up the car when he says:

"Oh im sorry the car isnt ready, its not even here"
I replied
"I was told its there and complete??"
Salesman
"oh, well maybe the other salesman knowsmore about it then i do, let me put you on hold"

FIRST of all why the heck would the other salesmen know more about it, when you are the one who sold me the car....
He comes back on the line and says
"Im sorry sir, but your car isnt here and we havent heard back from the bodyshop yet on when it is going to be completed. You did ask for alot to be repaired so you cant expect a quick turnaround these things can take time"

SECOND of all, i did not give any unrealistic deadlines or time lines i SIMPLY asked if the car could be done by this date or whenever. Then he even calls me back to say your car will be ready on monday? and then its not? WHy would you tell a customer a completion date if you dont even know, or arent sure.

He then continued to say
"I will call you back on Thursday because im OFF tomorrow, and let you know whats going on"

I was so upset i said ok fine thanks, and hung up

I IMMEDIATELY called back asking for the manager i beleive his name is Dave and explained the situation. He said yeah this isnt right and is not beind handleled properly. We will get to the bottom of this and either myself or the sales manager will be calling you back tonight (March 29th)

Here i am Wednesday March 30th, i have not even gotten a call back from the manager or anyone for that matter.

Im THROUOGLY UNIMPRESSED, i was so confident after everything i read on these forums, and the feeling i got after purchasing the car that everything would be just fine. Now im worried that this was a bad choice, im hoping some compensation is provided and that someone who knows what the hell is going on with our car will call us and keep us updated.

.Andrew



IF Some of you are wondering why i havent update this post it was because i wanted to give Direct Mazda ample oppertunity to rectify this situation, it apears they have no interest in doing so.

__UPDATE__

April 1st we finally got the call to pick up the car. Just to inform you at the time we made the offer on the car this is what our contract stipulated:

Passenger Door Front and Rear to be Painted repaired
Rear bumper to be touched up
Damaged rims to be repaired/refinished

Upon arriving at the dealership we were greeted by our salesmen. I made a quick look over of the body work that was to be done. It was done OK blending was done well. Our salesman proceeded to then tell me that they sent 2 rims away to be refinished and 2 were taken off another car.

Then i noticed the following:
Rear bumper was not touched up
One Rim is still damaged.

How can you refinish two rims, replace two and still have one that is damaged? Thats a straight up lie. At that point i said i wanted our deposit back and forget this shady dealership. The salesman started to sweat and my wife managed to calm me down saying its just one rim let it go its not that bad blah blah....
1. I dont like to be lied to.
2. Im a man of my word, if you give me yours you had better keep true to it.
Everything else looked fine We drive the car home.

I get home to show the inlaws the car:
-> THE WINDSHEILD IS CRACKED IT HAD BEEN DRILLED AND FILLED YET SOMEHOW CRACKED (this was damaged during test drive i would have seen it as it was right infront of me)
-> THE PASSENGER DOOR LOCK DOES NOT WORK WITH THE KEYLESS ENTRY
-> THERE IS OBVIOUS OVERSPRAY ON THE PASSENGER REAR WINDOW (where they painted)

I was fuming i called Dave immediately asked when he would be in and i went to see him in person. I asked him how this could pass a safety and what not, he told me the crack doesnt come into the path of the windsheild wiper (it clearly did) He also forgot the part in the MTO stipulations that says the windsheild should have no outstanding defects in it (like 2 drill holes and a 1/2foot crack), he was extremely apprehensive about fixing the windsheild untill i told him i was calling MTO and telling them you sold me a vehicle that would not pass a safety. I also informed him of the lock mechanism problem. He told me they would have a look at that when they replaced the winsheild.

Friday April 8
I dropped the car of to have the windsheld replaced. I got a call back saying it was done and he then informed me that the door lock parts would be upwards of 250 dollars plus labor to repair. I told him i would NOT pay for this, as the sales team told me that this car would go through a 150 point mazda inspection inorder to qualify the car for a warranty if we indeed bought one. Upon further research ... What did i find on this 150 point inspection?
"Keyless entry system and lock mechanisms" was included on the inspection.

Dave first tried to tell me that oh only mazda USA does that inspection, then he tried to tell me our dealership doesnt do that. IF that was the case why did the salesman say it would have an inspection and why did the Finance Manager say the same thing. Do they just warranty a car without inspecting it first? I dont think so.

Then he changed his tune saying its an electrical issue and anything could have happened on the drive home. I was infuriated and said i wanted to speak to the General manager immediately. He then told me: "Hes on his lunch break, he will be back in 12 minutes, ill have him call you right back"
(i dont know how he knew he would be back in 12 minutes but thats what he told me..)

Allan Alam the general manager called me back and stated out of good faith they would do it, and i was happy about that.

My wife goes to pick up the car and she noticed the tint on the passenger window is all scratched on the inside!! Ironicaly its the same door they were diagnosing the lock problem on. At this point i was livid. I spoke to Alan and they said they would look at it when they repaired the lock.

When they did the repairs on the lock Dave called me to say the car was ready for pick up and told me that they werent going to do anything about the scratches. They said that my wife did it. At the time they diagnosed they problem didnt even take the car in the shop they diagnosed the problem in the parking lot. But so what? Its obvious the damage was not there there at the time we dropped the car off. Also I find that VERY hard to beleive when this is a commuter car and no one has even sat in the passenger seat. Anyhow they didnt want to do anything about it and left it like that.

So I decided to call OMVIC and they are now handling the case. I doubt they will be able to compell them to fix the window tint but im going to make them honor what they initialy stated in the contract and repair the rims that have not been repaired.

STAY AWAY FROM DIRECT MAZDA
STAY AWAY FROM DIRECT MAZDA
STAY AWAY FROM DIRECT MAZDA

Dave is a unorganized, un-empathetic, and clueless service manager. He will try to talk you out of a situation and as soon as you make a good point he will just forward you to Alan.

Alan looks like he would rather be somewhere else to be quite honest or like he has something better to do like run to the bank and cash your drafts.

These guys are clueless if you want any suggestions about this dealership please feel free to PM me.

I didnt update this thread initially because i hoped that they would rectify this situation and i would be able to remove this thread and continue to do buisness with them. However after all this i wouldnt even go there for free coffee.

-Andrew


Direct Mazda has gone through a complete staff change in sales, service and parts.


This may need to happen again!



Direct Mazda is working on changing it's image to a dealer that cares and offers a quality service or sales or parts experience.

What was wrong with the original image?


Any updates on this?

I too had bad experience with Direct Mazda.

I wouldnt doubt it. Did you get anywhere?

[RTEnthusiast]

Any updates to this? I read that Dave offered to help rectify the situation?

[Silv3r]

Any updates to this? I read that Dave offered to help rectify the situation?

I think the post above yours speaks to how the situation was not quite rectified as per the OP's liking and OMVIC is involved.

[sol_searchin]

Wow thanks, now I know where to not take my car in the future.

[Canuck]

This is where I purchased my car too. It's interesting seeing other's opinions.

[921]

I walked in there a few months after it opened just to look around.. that dealership is way too small. I miss Mississauaga Mazda :(

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Wow, that's not the type of car buying experience you would expect from an established dealership.

[RTEnthusiast]

Wow, that's not the type of car buying experience you would expect from an established dealership.

It's not established. It's new.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

New with a complete staff change already? Wild.

[zmz3]

You can change the entire staff, but if you don't change the upper management, not just service/sales managers, but even higher up, then the mentality could be the same.

Just because the staff changed, doesnt mean the experience is suppose to be better. In theory yes, but in practice, far from it.

I personally had an OK experience with Direct Mazda dealing with Dave, however, mine was a simple visit and no complications occurred. It's only when complications and arguments happen that the true face of a dealership surfaces. Not just Mazda, Honda and Toyota are the same.

The most effective way to ensure you keep enjoying your car is to actually take it to reputable mechanics like Jimmy at Street Performance, where quality work and customer is TOP priority and not just work order totals and sales.

[A6X6L6]

I just purchased a car from them over a week ago and found them to be generally on top of things, however I knew the salesman personally.