Ricart Chevrolet — Local services in Columbus

Pre-Purchase Review

On June 19th, I reached out to Ricart Chevrolet regarding a used 2022 Toyota Camry XSE V6. I've been looking for this vehicle for months but dealers were asking an arm and a leg for it, except for Ricart. With that being said, I jumped on this deal.

I was quickly set up with a pre-owned sales representative named Roxanne Mullis. Roxanne understood that since I live 2 hours away, it was important for me to work out the finances of the vehicle first and quickly got to work on a "sight unseen" appraisal for my trade in. Despite their systems being down do to a technological event that affected over 15,000 dealers nationwide, about 5 hours later Roxanne was able to provide me with a trade in value and set me up the best she could with financing options. Given the circumstances, 5 hours is a great turn around time. I've had dealers take north of 2 days to get back to me for "sight unseen" appraisals since these appraisals aren't treated the same as someone walking in with their trade. Not at Ricart though. The number was lower than I liked but still not unreasonable. The trade in number they offered was about $500 higher than KBB - Fair book value, given most dealers insulted me at offers between $1,500 and $3,000 below fair market price, the amount Ricart offered was definitely the best I could've gotten.

After appraising the trade, I filled out a credit application and proceeded to the next step in the buying process. Roxanne maintained full contact with me, not only by text message but by email aswell. By 8:30pm we had scheduled a time for me to drive to Columbus to pick up the car the next day.

But wait.....there's more.....

While on the way to pick up the car, Roxanne called me right as they opened and informed me that their systems are still down as a result of the CDK network attack and though they were able to process forms and transactions manually during the previous day, this would not be the case for today. She apologized greatly for having me turn around and wait for their systems to be restored but also reassured me that do to the nature of the situation our deal is safe and considered as pending. Therefore they promised the vehicle will not be sold.

On June 21st, just 3 days after our initial contact, Roxanne messaged me and told me that though the systems are still down, they now have the ability to process transactions. She stated it may take a bit longer because they need to complete most of their tasks that have been digitized manually. But despite having to operate like dealerships did a decade ago, I was clear to close the deal and drive home with my new-to-me car.

In-Store Purchase Review

After traveling two hours to Columbus, I met with Roxanne who had the Camry detailed and ready for me to test drive while she finalized my appraisal numbers. Since I already knew this vehicle inside and out because of the research I did before making the trip. With the car only having 8,000 miles, it was practically a brand new car. After we filled out the paperwork and reviewed the Car Fax together, we took a trip to the finance department (which in this particular instance was located in their new car building).

Financing went smoothly and efficiently aswell. I was given plenty of time to read and understand each piece of paper I was signing. The agent was also very knowledgeable and made sure I understood everything before advancing to a different form. Even during the upsells the process remained low pressure. I wasn't forced into anything that I didn't want (this was a major relief since usually dealers push hard on service contracts and additional addons). The agent was even able to transfer my registration over from my trade in to my new car!

Overall, this was a great experience and I'll definitely...

First off my truck has been in the service department at least 10 times probably more and lots of time it was for same issue. Everytime, I came to this place my advisor was matt and everything that was told to me was not true. My car always sat up there for 3weeks sometime a month and everytime, I would call Matt this guy would just tell me anything just to make Me happy. I even had to involve chevy assistant just to get them to correctly fix my issues that still never got fixed. Just recently my truck was there and when, I came to pick up all of my chevy caps on the tires were stolen. I discussed this issue with the service department manager Tim and he thought it was very funny. I had to involve chevy assistance again just to get help so these people would pay for my caps. Make sure you take pictures inside and out of your car. These people will not take you serious when it comes to your vehicle. I have a tracking device on my truck that tells me if my truck is being moved. I made sure my advisor matt knew about this and he still made sure my truck was up there for weeks at a time claiming they checked it, but my tracking device never went off so that tells me i was told anything. I have been patient with these people the whole time even when i knew they were telling me lies. The last time my truck was up there they called me after it had been 3weeks sitting telling me it's ready. I was so busy with my new job working 10 hour shifts that it took me 2days to make it up there and this was discussed with my advisor.The 2nd day, I called my advisor telling him I'm on my way after work he's says ok hour half later the service manger calling me getting me all the way up upset why, I'm at work telling me if I don't bring his rental back he's going to call the police and report it stolen. I really could not believe this because, I had just got off the phone with the service advisor apologizing for late pickup and telling him, I'm coming after work. Bottom line, I should have already knew these people are a joke because everytime, I showed up at this place the problem got worse and, I was lied to numerous times and laughed at. They even replaced 2 of my small windows and never said a word about this period. I found this out when my passenger in the car asked me what happened to my window tint. These people refuse to even pay for me having to get my window tint done over. My truck still has bumper to bumper warranty and these guys still played there games everytime, I showed up to this place. These people are the reason chevy has so many law suits. They will leave your car sitting and just tell you anything. All of the things i went through it should be o stars ,but I had to at least put one. If you love your new ride do not come to this place. Everytime you come to this place its going to get worse and, if you go to the service manger tim about any issues it will not get fixed. These people never send you surveys after service that should have been a sign. Most people send surveys asking about your experience at there place, I never got one. I will never return to this place period. I will make sure, I spread the word about how these people do business. The service manger was so disrespectful to me, I had to leave a review to let everyone know about this place before you decide to bring your vehicle there. I can not say anything about the sales team because I never made a purchase there . I can speak on there service department because of numerous mistakes...

My first time being blatantly mislead to by your service team.

I very clearly have a wheel bearing that is bad/going out, as I have had this issue before with my car. The hum of a bad wheel bearing is very noticeable and I am fairly well versed on the basics of car maintenance and repair. Anyhow, I dropped my Chevy off to your shop at 7am for my 8:45am apt... It was not until 3:30pm that I was contacted by Greg and told that;

"after the initial check the mechanic could not determine if it was the tires or the bearing that was making the humming noise. All of the tires have severe cupping, wear, and tread damage. I would have to replace the tires, quoted at $700 plus tax, before they could even begin condemning or analyzing the bearing."

I kindly declined the 4 tire replacement and I went to my preferred tire dealer to have my tires checked. They found ONE tire that they recommended be replaced, not all 4... So I replaced it with them and hoped that the humming would be gone. That maybe I was wrong about the bearing and Greg was simply being honest. But unfortunately after leaving the tire dealer the humming from the bearing was still very loud and clearly the issue that needed to be fixed. Not the tire(s).

It is frustrating to me that your service team did not simply fix the very obviously faulty bearing instead of attempting to sell me 4 tires first... and then get to what would have been another $300+ fix for the bearing anyway. It was a very poorly executed tactic by your team to pull more money. Not to mention it took nearly 7 hours for the team to contact me to simply tell me the tires are bad? So if I would have accepted the tire replacement, which would have inevitably led to the bearing replacement as well (as I am sure was part of the plan), would I have been billed for those 7 hours that my car sat idle, not being worked on or repaired?

I purchased my car from your dealership. And I have done all of my repairs, check ups and maintenance through you. But this was such a stereotypical "dealership scam" experience that I have, until this point, always defended your team from.

My car is being fixed today by a local mechanic who confirmed that my left rear wheel bearing is shot and needs replaced. $160 for the wheel bearing plus labor. The tire store replaced my faulty tire for free as it was under warranty with them.

My biggest concern is for those who don't posses the knowledge and experience with car problems... And instead they simply trust Greg's diagnosis and spend $1000+ dollars for unnecessary services. When they could have gotten what they NEEDED for less than $300 somewhere else as I...