Dealership Tactics

So I put $1,000 down on a 1794 Tundra in November with a sales specialist at Williams Toyota in Binghamton, NY. Called the dealer 3-4 times to keep track of the delivery throughout the process. The truck arrived the week of Christmas. Williams Toyota refused to sell me the truck, sales specialist says his manager won't sell to out of state customers. The sales specialist knew I was from North Carolina when I put the deposit down, so in the 6 weeks I waited for the truck I spoke to him 3 time about delivery date and nothing was ever said. The day it arrives they drop the bomb about out of state sales. Thats just shitty business and Toyota has lost a 30 year customer over their inability to provide a product in a timely manner (I placed a order in October of 21' at my local dealer but NC has no 6.5' beds) and control dealers that practice unethical business tactics. If you have a out of state policy, state it upfront. Also the manager won't returned my phone calls to discuss the issue.

LOST TOYOTA CUSTOMER

 

You should avoid that dealer not Toyota

just my .02

 

Enjoy your Ford.

 

Did you get your money back?

 

There are shitty and good dealers for all brands. I find it funny on all the click bait articles on Jalopnik or other sites about this brand has the worst dealers. There has been so much consolidation that many dealers are double digits in brands represented. To think that Dealer A is running a pristine shop for this brand and a slime shop for another is not accurate

For the above did you have a signed sales agreement by both parties or just a receipt for the money down? If no binding sales agreement they can refuse to sell it to you or change the terms unilaterally. Just give you down payment back and say see ya.

 

Lol, it's just a regular crappy shady dealer... It's normal. What In all of your life before you never been conned by a car dealer? Welcome to the world.

Dust yourself off and go talk to few other dealers and see who you like more. It's normal, car dealers are often shady bunch...

Nothing to do with Toyota brand, dealers are completely separate matter, and most are shady.

They're probably not selling it to you as they can sell that 1794 above msrp to someone else paying higher than you, out of state is just an excuse to get rid of you

 

Toyota will be transitioning to 100% online buying experience to cut the dealership bullsh*t. They've already begun with Toyota SmartPath. The experience you had is exactly what they're trying to avoid, along with the other negative dealership things that can happen, to provide a better experience for customers.

Pretty spot on that you also blame Toyota. That's what a lot of in-market buyers are feeling and Toyota recognizes that. Just gotta understand that the car industry is plagued by horrible B2B dealership system which comes from an old school traditional way of doing auto business. Automakers rely on dealerships to operate privately because automakers themselves don't have the bandwidth to manage thousands of dealerships across the world, which is required to scale.

The tables are turning though. In today's world of doing business online and direct-to-consumer, it's normal to buy directly from a manufacturer's website and get it directly from the manufacturer. Tesla is doing that now. We'll start to see more automakers adapt. Personally, I hate the whole dealership experience as well. If I want to buy a Sony TV, why do I have to deal with a sales person at a physical Sony store with their silly markups which vary depending on profit-greedy store owners? I just want to buy one on Amazon at MSRP and get it delivered to my house.

Don't blame Toyota. Be upset with the privately-owned dealership. Hope you get what you want.

 

What was the benefit to order a truck 4 states away in a city of 50,000 people vs your own state?

 

I’m guessing because he couldn’t find one that he wanted closer to him… I’m in that situation myself right now… Had a deposit down for 5 months now and in that time my whole area hasn’t gotten any Limited CM 6.5 bed trucks, they are all 5.5 bed and that’s not gonna work for me…

 

Same thing happened to me on a 2020 I put money down on, except it was 2.5 hours away in my same state.

I put 1,000 down for a truck that was suppose to be delivered in a week. A week passes and the salesman calls and says he will be sending my money back. They sold it to someone else.

I have owned many brands, and I will say my worst car buying experiences were from Toyota, by far.

 

Does this mean I won't have to buy anymore Toyota tint pin stripes nitrogen or clear press and seal wrap

 

Not being able put hands on it before doing the deal is going to suck

 

Yep, they found someone else to pay more for that truck. And they know you won’t drive from NC to NY just to confront them about it.