Ron Carter Chevrolet GMC in Alvin — Local services in Alvin

On 7/18/2025 we scheduled our 2012 GMC Terrain for an oil change and tire rotation. We received a confirmation notice shortly after, via text with an appointment time of 12:40 pm for Saturday 7/19/2025. Upon arrival on 7/19/2025, we were informed that there had been an automobile accident in the area and as a result the Dealership was experiencing intermittent electrical problems. Therefore, they were not able to assure us that our vehicle would be ready before closing. We elected to leave our car in hopes that a simple oil change could be completed before closing at 3:00 pm. Shortly after leaving our car at the dealership, we received the first of the two status updates,via the dealership's status Tracker. The first update was the Welcome, the second update indicated the car was being inspected. There were no further updates received. On Monday, after no further updates, we made multiple calls to the Service Department over a three hour span. Eventually we spoke with an adviser. After identifying myself and our car, I was told, and I quote "I think it's ready". I then asked are you sure because we have not received any updates. The adviser said "Hold on I will check"... After a few minutes the advisor returned to the phone and confirmed that our car was ready. Once we arrived at the Dealership there was a bit of confusion finalizing the paper work. It became more confusing when my wife asked if the cost include the coupon that we received through the mail. They could not find the coupon. The advisor who completed the paper work on the day we brought our car in, remembered my wife had given him a coupon, but he could not find it on his desk. He then stated "I think I used it for someone else". He then starting looking through an overflowing trash can and actually found the coupon with my wife’s name and mailing address. After 20 plus minutes the advisor left the desk to get approval from the supervisor to give us the discount. We were able to complete the paperwork and payment. We were then informed that they had trouble starting the car and it appeared to be the battery. We were surprised because the car started-up and ran fine three days earlier when we brought the car in for service. After a brief back and forth discussion about the problem with car cranking, we decided to leave and have the battery checked. The car started up fine but the service light in the dashboard indicated "Service Tire Monitor System". We went back inside to inquire about the "Service Tire Monitor System", and was told that the front tire pressure monitors needed to be replaced. Again, we were surprised because there was no indication of the failed tire pressure monitors prior to bringing the car in for service. I asked if rotating the tires could have affected the tire pressure monitors, and were told no, and that the monitors will normally need to be replaced after several years. It was obvious that there was not much concern for our questions, so we decided to leave, although they did have a young man follow us out with a small hand held device who tried to get the tire pressure monitors to connect to the system, but was unable to resolve the issues and the warning light stayed on. The young man attempted to explain the problem. He did, however tell us that he did not work on cars and that he was only a driver. We thanked him for trying. I did feel comfortable that the oil was changed because there were hand print oil smears on the driver side front...

Obviously this location has many 5 star reviews so my experience may only be specific. My wife, son and I drove into the dealership on 6/11/25 around 4-5PM. We wanted to just see a few cars we were interested in from the website. While looking around the lot Joe Fife approached us and asked if we had been helped. We had not so we chatted for a moment and went inside to listen to his “sales pitch” if you’d call it that. He of course asked what we were in the market for, we let him know and he went from there.

A cool thing about Ron Carter is they’ll show ALL the used cars on the entire three office lot on their website. BUT you’d have to deal with each individual office to look at the car you want.

Back to the story! We made sure to tell Joe our limit was 20k. He goes away for a minute and comes back with limited cars we’d actually want to see. The one that was the most intriguing was a 2014 Toyota 4Runner. This was a vehicle we were interested in so we listened to what he had to say and my wife took it for a test drive. While I’m waiting I look the car up on their website and it is almost 25k, five thousand over our max. I’m essentially checked out at this point and this is when the real sales pitch begins. I asked him if this was the Toyota that was over 24K and he said “he didn’t know”. A salesman who doesn’t know the price of something he’s selling or is just lying.

Mind you we have a 11 month old and only wanted to visually look at the cars. You are only able to tell so much from pictures on a phone. We were in no way purchasing that day and made it pretty clear. We are obviously a car dealerships worst nightmare but we are being thorough about this purchase and want to leave no stone unturned.

Then began the getting up and talking to managers with Joe. Multiple times asking what do they gotta do to get us in a car, what’s your credit score(5-6 times), etc. Obviously this is to be expected but once you’ve made it abundantly clear you’re not interested that should be respected.

Joe brought in another sales rep or sales supervisor Jeremy to I assume “close the deal”. A deal that wasn’t even there. After again making it very clear we are not buying today and thank you for their time. They left and talked to a “manager” figure again. After they left I ended up walking out and leaving. Thirsty ass salesman are a total turn off for some and I don’t want to feel pressured it purchasing something I’m not even wanting to buy. I can go into a lot more detail on this encounter with Joe and Jeremy but they should absolutely learn that good customer service also means taking a no and learning to live with it. It was an absolute possibility we would’ve used Ron Carter but after this interaction I have zero interest.

What’s upsetting the most is the actual cars we wanted to look at we didn’t get to see. As previously mentioned we had to go to the Ford lot of Ron Carter to look at the Mazda/Tahoe we wanted to see. Instead niceness got our time wasted and this is a cautionary tale for some. DO NOT BE PRESSURED BY THESE FOLKS. Be rude if necessary it’ll save you a lot...

Respectful knowledgeable sales and finance team. Went out of the way to ensure my experience was professional and as enjoyable as buying a vehicle can be.

Update 8/13/23: This was my first experience with the service team after purchasing my truck last week as my new 7 day old 200-mile truck threw a Check Engine light indicating it needed maintenance. When you spend almost 100k on a new vehicle you would expect 5-star customer service. This is not what I received. I made my appointment using the myChevrolet app for 8am. I arrived at 0745 and went into the service lobby. I was asked by a young man how he could help. I explained that I had an appointment and gave him my name. He looked me up in the system and told me that my Service Advisor was Lorena and that it looked like she had wandered off. He then gave me her card and sat back down. So, I stood there waiting, Eventually Lorena came from the back and asked me what I needed. I repeated the same scenario with her. She said, ok we'll see if we can get your vehicle in. I asked how long it would take. She said I would need to drop it off. I said OK then I will need a loaner vehicle. She said, "we don't do loaners here". I explained that I had just purchased the vehicle and it had only 200 miles on it. My expectation was that if I had to bring back a brand-new vehicle for maintenance less than a week after purchase that I should be accommodated with a loaner vehicle. She repeated "We don't do loaners here". I said OK, well then, I would like a new truck that isn't broken. She told me I would need to talk to sales for that. I said OK, would you call them please. She said they don't come in till 9. I asked her if her manager was in. She said yes. I asked to speak with him. The manager repeated that they do not issue loaners, but he did offer an explanation at least saying that they do not have any loaner vehicles in inventory. He offered an enterprise rental. I said I would wait for the sales folks to come in at 9. As I was waiting the Manager came out and told me that he believed all I needed was a regen and that he would try to get that done for me this morning. I thanked him and waited. He was able to get my truck in, regen'd and recoded in about 2 hours. While I appreciate his efforts it should never have had to go to him. A Service Advisor should have the skill set, attitude, and initiative to do what needed to be done. Also, respect. empathy, and a smile goes a long way. I saw none of this. I will choose to have my service done elsewhere from now on.

My original 5 star review must now be reduced to 2 stars. This does not reflect the excellent customer service I received from...