Stanley Ford - Gilmer — Local services in Gilmer

Consumer BEWARE

Some time in the first week of March I received a call from Brenda at Stanley Ford in Gilmer. She said “she had a customer looking for a truck like mine” and wanted to know if I would be willing to sell my truck to them. I politely declined and told her I was not really interested in selling my truck. A few days later I ended up purchasing a small car some where else and it got me to thinking that I might as well sell the truck since it would be sitting around the house a lot. I called the dealership and spoke we Brenda. We began texting and I told her that I have no intention of buying a vehicle from them only that I would consider selling them mine if we could come to an agreement. I tried to get her to give me a range of what they might pay for the truck. I advised her that I was very busy and did not want to drive an hour to them to only be given a low ball offer. I had sent pictures of the truck showing outside, inside, the VIN and the mileage. She assured me they were serious so I decided to go over there and give them a shot. Within 10 minutes they advised that they could not buy the truck. I politely reminded her of our conversation about wasting my time and we parted ways. No harm no foul. This past Friday I received a text message from Mike Terry asking me if I wanted to sell them my truck. I informed him of my previous experience and advised him I would not make the hour drive unless they were serious about buying the truck. He assured me that they wanted to buy it and gave me an offer of 13-13.5k. I told him I would consider selling the truck for that and we planned to meet up Saturday morning. I arrived at the dealership around 1030 and within a few minutes was told they couldn't by the truck. I understandably was very upset because they had now wasted my time twice. Mike was unable to explain why they were calling people offering to buy their vehicles and then telling them they couldn't once they arrived at the dealership. I asked to speak to whoever was making this decision to understand why this was happening again. At first Mario, the general sales manager, would not come out to speak with me. When he finally did he had no answers to my questions. I have been a part of the automotive industry for nearly 20 years and have would for many dealerships. I know the game but for them to do this twice was absolutely unacceptable. Mario was very matter of fact about the situation and basically said that's that and pound sand. I confronted him with the fact that they had given me a price range and that I would not have driven the hour without that. His answer was that no one said that. I confronted him with the text messages on my phone and he seemed not to care. I was finally asked to leave the dealership but because at this point I was pretty upset. This is not a situation of buying my truck or not. This is about wasting my time twice. I have no real reason to sell my vehicle. It is still very much in good shape mechanically and cosmetically. If anyone with the Stanley Auto Group corporate office is interested in speaking to me about this situation I have all the text messages saved...

WOMEN BEWARE: I bought new tires for my Ford truck and needed to have it aligned, so I took it to Stanley Ford thinking it would be a simple thing. I dropped it off on a Friday morning early and they said it would be ready by lunch. I went over after lunch to pick it up, but it still wasn't ready. After a few minutes, the service tech brought me the keys and had the mechanic come out to tell me that he couldn't get the steering wheel centered. He said I would need to bring it back to have the camber and castor on the right front tire replaced, but they would have to order the parts. I asked the mechanic to explain what that meant exactly and he gave me an explaination that was pretty unsatisfactory. However, I wanted a ballpark figure as to what it would cost to repair it including labor. He said roughly $600-$700. I knew I would need a second opinion and planned on having that done. They said they would call me on Monday and set up an appointmen to look at it and see what would need to be ordered, etc. I waited for a call on Monday and didn't get one, so I called them that afternoon. They said they were busy and would call me back. I didn't hear back from them by Tuesday, so I called and got the same story. I didn't hear from them for a week, so I just took my truck to another place. In fact, I got two opinions from mechanics and they both told me, independently, that there was nothing wrong with my truck. Further, unless there is real damage to the front end, you don't order castors and cambers, but just adjust them. The icing on the cake is that both mechanics told me that the Ford place NEVER DID THE ALIGNMENT. In fact, one place told me that they don't even have the machine that does alignments, and take it to another local business for all their tire work and alignments. While I was sitting in this place waiting on the real alignment to be done, the service rep from Stanley Ford came in to pick up a vehicle from them that they just finished with. I went back to Stanley Ford to get my money back and spoke with the Service Manager. He was not arguementative but also didn't ask the service tech or mechanic any questions or why this happened. I asked for my money back, which they refunded then, however, I was lied to and feel like they all were in on this scam together. I also feel like this is standard business practice. At the very least, I got the feeling that this kind of thing happens routinley and the Service Manager knows it's just easier to refund money and go on with business as usual. He even asked me if I would consider doing business with them again..... What...

Customer service is not a priority here. I had an appointment yesterday to get the oil changed and the tires rotated on my Bronco. Received both services in a timely manner no issues here. Roughly 20 minutes down the road, customer services calls me to tell me the mechanic forgot to put the key lock to my lug nuts back in vehicle. No problem I said things happen. My wife showed up today, a day later to report we found oil stains underneath the Bronco, while picking up the lug nut lock. Here’s where the disconnect begins. The service receptionist did not know where the lug nut lock was located, after a call over to the shop area, a mechanic located the lug nut lock. When the mechanic came over to give my wife the lug nut lock, the wife mentioned, hey I noticed oil stains underneath the Bronco this morning in the garage. My wife showed the mechanic the photos and the mechanic said, "well from the photos it’s hard to tell" (What’s sad is the Bronco is new 2022 only has 19k miles on it, still under warranty , has only been serviced by Ford, so yes Oil stains are a concern). The mechanic asked my wife, where do you live? My wife said, here in Gilmer. The mechanic then said just bring it back tomorrow, and we will check it out. I guess my wife was requesting an unreasonable request? Hmm where is the concern, customer may not always be right but customers do come FIRST. I paid to be served that’s what customer service means. So after my wife mentions well I’m concerned, because I will be driving the Bronco to Longview today & Tyler tomorrow. After hearing this, the mechanic decides to call over another mechanic to take a look. After popping the hood and actually looking underneath the Bronco the mechanic said, "well not to talk bad, but the mechanic who worked on your Bronco did a bad job and he/she didn’t wipe off the excessive oil." WOW! don’t all the mechanics at Stanley wear the same uniforms, are they not a team? Sounds like they are divided here, or they operate solo. With life, every transaction has to benefit all parties involved, this transaction did not benefit me in the end. Now, I’m left putting a piece of cardboard under my Bronco to check for leaks. I will be bringing the Bronco down to Chris Peter’s in Longview to...