The Consumer Complaints Blog

Jim Pattison Hyundai Coquitlam
Unit B – 2385 Ottawa Street
Port Coquitlam, BC
604-552-1700

Jim Pattison claims customer satisfaction to be number one.

Well he sure didn’t get that across to his Hyundai dealership in Coquilam. (Jim Pattison Hyundai Coquitlam, Unit B – 2385 Ottawa St., Port Coquitlam, BC 604-552-1700)

My wife called his dealership (Feb.20/09) and talked to a sales rep and eventually to the Sales Manager, Darren Corr. She asked if they would sell the Hyundai Accent for 15,500 all inclusive. Taxes, levies etc.
After going back and forth and several calls back from them, they agreed. She called me in between their calls to let me know what was going on. And once they agreed to her price asked if we could go down as Darren said deal was only good if we went down right away.
I said that was fine, just to be very clear that we want the car for 15,500 including everything, taxes, doc fees or anything else. And to be sure they could arrange insurance and financing so we could drive off the lot with it, as I did not want to make a second trip.
Darren agreed to all.

My wife and her friend were just about to see a movie when the agreement was reached, so she got a refund on the tickets and rushed home to pick me up. We then bundled our 4year old up and started the 45minute drive to their dealership (Start: Friday ~7:00pm End: back home ~9:00pm). Once there, the Sales rep and manager insisted I take the car for a test drive, despite telling them we had already done that at another dealership and there was no need.

They kept insisting one of us take the drive before making the deal, as it was policy. I agreed, but before I took it out I went through what was agreed to on the phone and asked the Sales rep if this was correct. I asked if there would be enough time for them to have an insurance agent come down. Again he said yes to all but that time would be tight. So I said let’s not waste time, and get going. I took the drive, they took my info (photocopy of license) wrote down the original price and the sales rep said the manager would fill in the details to what we agreed to on the phone. Only to have them come back and say there had been a misunderstanding and they couldn’t do it for that price including taxes. The 15,500 does not include the taxes.
I ask you, why would we offer 15,500 + taxes when Hyundais’ own web site has it on for 15,190 + taxes????

They thought we were offering more than the asking price? No one would do that. There was no misunderstanding, they were just typical scam artists doing there trade.

If my 4 year old wasn’t with us I would have had a few choice words for the scum that work there.

Beware this dealership and if enough people speak up hopefully they will pay for their scamming ways many times over.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.

I’m Bill from Ottawa. I stumbled across your site while googling for “customer complaints”, and have spent the last hour or two entertaining myself with the stories and comments… well now, “entertain” doesn’t seem right, but you know what I mean. I can tell you though, Ottawa just as bad as Toronto when it comes to customer service. I have so many stories, I’m amazed anything gets accomplished at all in this world.

Now I’m a very easy-going guy, the counterweight to my bone-deep cynicism. I take most things in stride, including money, but there is one thing for which I spare very little patience, and that is stupidity. As a computer programmer and technician, retail and customer service environments have been central elements in my career, so I guess I’m a harsher critic of the jaw-droppingly moronic strangers who disappoint me every day. I’m going to relate to you my latest story, possibly the cheapest so far, regarding $2.50 worth of food. It is a cheap, but iconic anecdote of the chronic incompetence that pervades today’s youth. I’ve posted it to my own blog, but feel free to reproduce on yours if you so choose, and I will gladly link it.

McStupid is as McStupid does

This evening, I stopped at McDonalds after work (I know, junk food is bad – whatever!). Now I have a habit of placing large take-out orders, with “large” being around $40, and almost every time the McLackeys make fun of my large order, as they seem to think it is different than serving four people separately for the same items. Apparently they just can’t deal with numbers greater than two. Anyway I placed my order, and the guys dutifully prepared my food with impressive skill and speed, when another employee, who presented himself as “Steven”, ran in from the back to “help with the rush”, a rush of me! He was randomly putting things in bags and waving them over the counter, hoping someone would claim each bag. He had not been present when the orders were placed, so he had no clue who wanted what. I pointed to my receipt and repeated the list of items, and finally he packed my order, though I had to correct him several times as he was too hurried to pay attention.

Once I got home, I realized I was missing two small burgers. It was nothing big, and frankly I wasn’t about to walk all the way back just for a couple of burgers, but a credit or even just an apology would have been courteous. I called the restaurant, and wound up talking to buddy Steven. I explained the discrepancy, and he immediately got defensive, stating he was absolutely certain he had bagged my order without error, and that it was I who was mistaken. I casually restated my case, that I had eight burgers where there should have been ten, and this time he accused me of trying to cheat them out of two free burgers. I still don’t understand why he would accuse me of trying to defraud them out of $2.50 worth of food on a $42 total, but I guess not everyone is blessed with the gift of common sense. I was starting to lose my patience with this sad little peon, so I hung up and my wife called back a few minutes later. She is a far better diplomat than myself, and yet was barely able to get the employee’s name and his manager’s after much arguing, and he wouldn’t even tell us said manager’s schedule so we will be calling blindly until we can get a hold of him.

It goes without saying that the poor manager will get an earful about the many ways in which his underling has disappointed us, but I have to wonder why and how someone in a customer-facing job can be allowed to fail so miserably. He could have said “I’m sorry for the mistake, would you like your burgers ?”, an offer I would have politely declined and that would have been the end of it. Instead, he winds up with a formal complaint on his record, and the manager will be sending us gift certificates, which I will gladly accept and make a point to use when Steven is on-duty. Part of me wishes he would learn from the experience and grow as a person, but the cynic in me knows better. I can only hope Steven will find another job that is a better match to his abilities, or lack thereof. In the mean time, I will make a point to refuse service from him, when I next indulge in my favorite artery-clogging snacks.

Disclaimer
This article was submitted by one of our readers. Penciltrick cannot make any claims as to its authenticity but the article was accepted on a good faith belief that it is an accurate and truthful account of the events listed.