Toyota of Renton — Attraction in Renton

Worst experience ever! I normally don't like to give bad reviews, since I believe we are just humans and will make mistakes, actually, if I can't give a good review, I just don't write one at all. However, in this case, I decided to go ahead and write one since this was, by far, the worst experience I've ever had. I has never been treated this way before. And also, there is a huge difference between a mistake and a decision. We went in to Toyota of Renton looking to buy a Highlander. Since they didn't have the color and trim we was looking for, the sales person Samantha, did a research and found one that they could trade so we can buy it there. I want to clarify that Samantha did an outstanding job, she was very courteous and diligent and we was ready to make a $1000 deposit to hold the vehicle (Her manager Anvi was putting a lot of pressure on her to make us leave this deposit). However, we noticed that she was being pressured by this same guy to make us apply before we leave as well, and she had asked us to do so, but we decided not to, because, since they was not able to give us an exact date for the vehicle to arrive and told us that it was going to be around 3 weeks, we was planning on continuing to look in the meantime and see if we were able to find one somewhere else sooner, so it made no sense to get some unnecessary hard inquiries in our credit. Then this guy came out to talk to us (short Asian guy who's name is Anvy or Envi or something like that), and started to talk to us in a very rude way, (to be honest, it seemed to me like he was intoxicated since he was not able to properly articulate) and started pushing us into submitting an application so they can bring the car in, so I asked, "are you telling us that if we don't submit an application, you're not bringing the vehicle in?". His answer was "no, if you don't apply, I'm not bringing a $50K vehicle in", (they only had 2 Highlanders in their lot at the moment and 2 more on transit), then I asked why they would ask us to make a $1000 deposit to hold the car then, his response was "I didn't ask you to", then Samantha (salesperson) tried to say something but he told her to "shut up" in the rudest way you can imagine. That was more than enough, so at that point, I stood up and said, "you know what, never mind then" to which he, standing up as well, responded "okay, get the f*ck out of here" (?!!) and started walking away. That's when I asked "are you serious?... what's your name?, then he turned around and walked towards me and, putting his face at mine like threatening to fight me, said his (which I didn't clearly understood) out loud. At that moment, as I think everyone else would, I said "I want to speak with your boss", "I AM THE BOSS" he yelled. I'm a sales manager myself, and I know this is not the way a customer should be treated, under any circumstances. I was originally planning on going back in and speak with the dealership's GM and place a formal complaint; however, I might have ended wasting my time. I don't think this was the first time something like this happens with this guy, so they should know what a mediocre sales manager they have and they just don't care. Samantha did and excellent job and had pretty much gained our business, but this guy came and trashed everything she did in a minute! I give her and her customer service, 5 stars definitely. I just felt very bad for her having to work with this kind of people. I will never recommend anyone to do business with this establishment. We ended up buying the exact same vehicle they was supposed to trade (from Vancouver, WA) at a different dealership, which, by the way, was able to bring it in in just a...

Mr. John North

I wanted to reach out to you and Thank You for the pleasant experience we had purchasing our 2018 Toyota Tundra LTD from your Team.

We called Renton Toyota on our way back from a long day at another dealership. It was about 8:30pm and my wife called on the availability of a truck we saw on line. She talked to John Stone and he said that the vehicle was still available. She told him we would be in on Sunday morning and he told her to ask for Keith Dang.

On Sunday morning we showed up and parked and saw the truck we were interested in. It was nice to be able to walk over to the vehicle without being attacked by wasp like sales associates. We had a few minutes to look at the truck before a gentleman come over to us and asked how he could help. We told him we were there to meet with Keith Dang. He said he would let him know we were there to see him. With-in a couple of minutes Keith came out introduced himself to us and said he would have Sally Tran one of the Internet managers come out and answer any questions we had about the vehicle.

Sally came out very energetic, smiling and personable. She made us feel at ease right from the start. She answered a few questions we had and then we went for a drive. It was nice, no pushing on buying the truck from her. No crunching numbers. She explained many of the features and told us stories about herself and family. We felt like we were taking a drive with a good friend or family member.

We returned to the Dealership and went inside to discuss purchasing the truck. We never felt pushed or rushed to make any decisions. She ran some numbers for us and between her honesty and the 1.9% and a few rebates made it an easy choice to purchase from Renton Toyota.

While your team worked up the paper work Sally introduced us to one of your Finance Consultants Mike Cacciatore. He is another Stellar Team member there at Renton. Personable, Professional and again made us feel like he was family. He worked with us on extended warranties, extras and payment. Shared some good stories and was fast yet thorough at completing the transaction.

We met back up with Sally and she walked us to the Truck. She went over a few more things with us. Set up my phone to work with the vehicle, explained servicing of the vehicle and the Manual again. She asked if we had any more questions and if we did later on to give her a call. She gave us her number the dealerships number and she thanked us for purchasing a vehicle from Toyota of Renton.

A couple of days later I received a Thank You Note from Sally which was very nice. I’ve received a few other emails about servicing and Entunes. I’m looking forward to receiving a survey email so I can make sure and give your team a perfect rating!

I’ve purchased a few vehicles from dealerships over the years and I have to say this was the smoothest transaction ever! Everyone we worked with and even those we didn’t were all personable and professional. Can’t thank you enough for having put together such a great team to work with!

You can be sure that if I have any friends looking to buy a new car or truck in the future, I'll be sending them to Toyota of Renton, and telling them to ask for Sally.

Thank You for Your...

I drive a 2023 Tacoma TRD and earlier this year, I purchased a service plan for oil changes every 5000 miles at Puyallup dealership. I expected the same level of service when I visited Renton dealership today.

However, at the Renton dealership, they insisted on oil changes every 10,000 miles, citing the owner's manual. I've always had my oil changed every 5000 miles, and I purchased the plan for every 5000 miles. All I wanted was just a service that I paid for.

The most discomfort part was the attitude of the staff at the service center. They openly mocked me, saying "she doesn't know, yea she doesn't know" while discussing me. When I asked to confirm my service package, the employee said "Here, every other car gets changed every 10,000 miles, but just you want every 5,000 miles." and then the employee assisting me called over the manager. Initially, the manager also insisted on 10,000-mile intervals for oil changes. But when I asked to verify my plan, he said, "Normally it's every 10,000 miles, but since she bought the package for every 5000 miles, that's what we'll do." However, the employee assisting me persisted, saying "it's wrong. just letting you know you got the wrong package."

I even heard that my boyfriend was treated very kindly when he visited for the last oil change (exactly same vehicle, service package, and dealership location). Today, they didn't even bother asking if I wanted a car wash. Waiting for over 3 hours in the waiting room was incredibly disheartening. I couldn't help but wonder if I was being treated poorly because they think I know nothing since I'm an Asian woman. Even though I may not know much, they should not try to lecture me on how often I should get my oil changed. After the service was completed, I couldn't even get a proper answer when I asked for the name of the person I spoke with.

Feeling angry, I called Toyota headquarters to complain. Hours later, I received a call from the head or charge of service department at Renton Toyota. While he seemed to want to apologize, he kept repeating that the owner's manual recommends oil changes every 10,000 miles. He made me feel like I was being lectured again. Whether it's 10,000 miles or 5,000 miles, the oil change interval is not what I wanted to know; I just wanted discuss for the uncomfortable situation that I experienced at the service center today. But why do they keep emphasizing changing the oil every 10,000 miles? Whatever the owner's manuel says, I paid for a service package that includes every 5k miles oil change.

Even more irritating is that upon checking later, I found that the owner's manual actually recommends changing the oil every 5000 miles for dusty conditions. I bought the Tacoma TRD for off-roading, so that applies to me naturally.

I've used several dealerships before, but this experience was the worst, and I won't be...