Toyota of Hollywood — Local services in Hollywood

I really don’t know if I can put into words my nightmare experience at Toyota of Hollywood but I am going to do my best to try because honestly this can’t be left alone! I first want to start off by stating that I included pictures because everything I am about to tell you is 100% the whole truth, unedited because I know after I explain my experience it will be unbelievable! First I was at work today in West Palm Beach and over the radio I heard about Toyota of Hollywood and how it doesn’t matter what you owe and you can trade you car in get top dollar and all credit is welcome and if you don’t have a down payment that this dealership has “ways” to work a deal. I then decided to go online to see if they had any selection that was of interest to me. I immediately found this Red 21 Nissan Titan that I clicked on and requested information. As everyone knows when you put a request in the flood gates open up and the calls start and the text messages start. My villain in this story (Tyler Hasson) who is a MANAGER, called me right away and sent me a text with all there information and how I can get a hold of him etc. I now am speaking to Tyler and explained to him in detail my situation because for the past couple of months I have been really looking for my truck and constantly was being let down. I explained to Tyler like the add on the radio said I have not the best credit (pretty bad) no down payment and advised what I was offered for my trade in at other companies and what I owed as well as my monthly payment etc. Tyler then told me the truck is as good as mine and he could get me payments identical to what I was paying now or even lower. This all sounded way to good to be true so I then advised him AGAIN of my EXACT situation and he assured me that I would not be wasting my time, that he would get me into my truck with no money down, payoff my existing loan for my trade in and keep my payments the same or less. I even told him that I lived in West Palm Beach and this dealership was over 1 hour and 10 minutes from my house and I really don’t want to make the trip if this is not going to happen. My wife just got home after traveling and I just got off work from a long day. I went home changed my shirt and started to drive 1 hour and 10 minutes over 59 miles to Toyota of Hollywood. I called Tyler a couple more times briefly to again reiterate that I had no money down, not the best credit and a monthly payment I need to be at. He said nothing to worry about and you will be driving home in my truck tonight and he HAD to sell me a car! Obviously by now 4 calls in, text messages I am finally getting excited. I finally arrive at Toyota of Hollywood 1 hour and 10 minutes later and ask for Tyler. As you can see in the picture he told me to ask for him when I arrived. So I did and was greeted by his Assistant Internet sales manager and was advised that Tyler wasn’t in fact there and he “passed” me off to someone else! After getting my information and driving me across the lot to try and find my truck I get told that the truck is not there and they don’t know why he told me it was. Now it’s all starting to hit me that this dealership was no different and the practices here were by far the worst I have ever seen. She takes my keys gets my vehicle appraised before even looking at the truck or anything. Then as I am explaining all of this I’m starting to get looks like I’m crazy for even believing what was told to me and that’s not how it works! They told me they weren’t going to pay off my car, they told me I needed a down payment, they then tried to sell me a Camry instead! By now my emotions are on edge, my truck is not there, I drove 1 hour and 10 minutes one way to be completely disappointed yet again. I then start to tear up from the stress and Tyler’s assistant manager then had the nerve to say “ wow that’s the first time I ever saw a man tear up? Now I’m being Insulted!!!!!! She gets another finance person involved and I was offered a gas card for the drive! Are you kidding me! This dealership will be...

I was in the market for a new Tacoma and had my mind set on a specific trim, package, and color-way. I had found one up north for a reasonable price, even with delivery, but also saw that Toyota of Hollywood had the same truck with one small add-on. I went ahead and gave them a call as I’m an hour North of their dealership.

I worked with Carlos Mejia who quickly confirmed availability and sent a video of the truck. He also let me know that it’s actually $4.5K less than their online listing showed. Over the next day he confirmed that pricing 4 times, and made it known that the only additional costs would be an $899 dealer fee + TTL. Given that I was looking for something specific, I was more concerned with availability rather than price, but that was still great to hear.

Carlos then followed up with a second video of a similar (more expensive) truck, but I quickly let him know that I was only interested in the first - which again, he confirmed was available.

I was a bit skeptical due to the pricing discrepancy as well as the fact that he had promised to send over the window sticker multiple times, but that never happened. Regardless, I gave him a call the next day as I was heading down to the dealership. He said great, the truck is here, and that they’ll pull it around front.

When I let them know that I arrived, I was paired with one of the salesmen working up front. Another person came by with some keys and we went to their parking garage to take a look.

After moving past quite a few other cars that were pushed my way, we arrived at the second truck that Carlos had sent over. Same model and color, but a different trim. I explained that this was not the truck I came to see, and the salesman tried to play it off as if it was. I showed him the texts and told him of our previous conversations where we confirmed, multiple times, that I am uninterested in this one.

We took a look at the original video that Carlos had sent - the one of the actual truck I was looking for - noting that it looks like it was filmed on the rooftop.

The salesman told me that the rooftop was where employees and recently sold vehicles are parked, but we still went up to find it.

The truck was up there, but the salesman notified me that it had actually been sold the previous week. He also explained that the pricing on the model was $10K above what they had it listed for online, and $14.5K above what Carlos had confirmed multiple times.

I went ahead and walked out at that point and gave Carlos a call on the way home. Again, I was a bit skeptical from the get-go, and it was beyond clear what was going on but I thought it’d be interesting to hear what he had to say.

Carlos played dumb for about 30 seconds before I asked him to just be candid. He then hung up mid sentence.

The facility itself is impressive. It’s a massive campus with plenty of amenities. They’re a high volume dealer so I’m sure if you walked in with an open mind, you’d easily be able to find something. With that said - rarely should you expect full transparency when going in to a dealer, but I do believe this goes a bit beyond that....

Worst service experience, avoid them at all costs, they are scammers and they will take advantage of you and rip you off, especially if you are female. I went in for my warranty service and asked if the AC tech could look at my AC to see why it wasn’t cooling as well as it used to and was told AC tech wouldn’t be able to look at it today, that I would have to leave my car and take a loaner car. I said no.

He then said if they change the air filter and use a mist it can fix the AC and make it better. I questioned him on why it would cost $250 to change an air filter and he just shrugged and said that’s what it costs. I was told the $250 charge was for replacement of air filter and mist, but the breakdown of the charges and cost of each part/labor was not explained to me. I was not allowed to choose which filters (I was not aware there were two - an engine filter and cabin filter) I wanted replaced or given an explanation of which services/parts cost what, so that I could choose what I wanted to pay for, I was sold a “package” for $250 and told that’s how much it would cost to change the air filter. There was no mention of two filters, no mention that each of the services had a separate parts/labor cost. I asked if there was a way to bring that cost down and he said no, it was $250 or nothing. I was forced to pay $250 to change the air filter and I was desperate to fix my AC so I reluctantly agreed. This is predatory practice on their part. Not only was I misled about the service (cost of two filters instead of one + ridiculous $95 charge for a mist which had I known was optional or not included with the air filter I would not have done), but I was misled and told that the filter replacement and mist would improve the performance of my AC, which it did not, so they are trying to sell and charge for unnecessary repairs. I was taken advantage of as a female customer and sold unnecessary parts/labor that did not fix the AC issue.

When I drove home, my AC was blowing warm air and the mist they sprayed had an awful scent which I was not told about (I have severe allergies) - I would never have agreed to the mist if I had been told it contained fragrance.

Not only had it not made any difference in the AC performance, but upon closer inspection of the receipt, I saw a bunch of bogus charges for various parts or services, none of which had clearly been explained to me prior to the service. I’ve attached photos of my receipt.

I called the service department, spoke to three different people, two of them managers, and while they said they would look into it and “do the right thing” and refund the fraudulent charges, nothing ever happened, no call back from any of them. I will be reporting them to the BBB and Florida State Department of Consumer Services, and you should too if you experienced the same thing. I see lots of other reviews here from women and others who were scammed with bogus services and...