patience running thin - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

***shoguns*** · 05-02-2009, 06:37 PM

Well I havent had the best experience so far with the sales group I have been dealing with at Champions Toyota in Houston, Tx. (internet sales group). Upon ordering my 09 Pyrite TRD Sport Dbl Cab 4x4 I was told 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. 4 to 6 weeks has come and gone. When the 6 week marker came I contacted the original sales rep I was dealing with and was told that there had been a delay and the delivery was postponed a week. That wasnt that big of a deal to me at the time, these things happen. I then emailed that sales rep a few questions I had and never got a reply. So I called and left a message and still got no reply. Once the 7 week marker came I called the dealership and this time asked to speak to the internet sales manager. I was told they were having problems with the original slaes rep I was dealing with, he had developed a habit of being a no call no show to work lately. So the sales manager helped me out and said the truck is due to arrive any day now and he would give me daily updates since he knew it is due to arrive. Well that was 3 days ago and I havent heard from him since. I even emailed him yesterday and asked him to call me but I never recieved a call. So this morning I call up there and left him a message. No reply. So I call up there again and ask the receptionist and she forwards me to his voicemail again. I call back 30 minutes later and try to explain that I've been trying to get a hold of him and she cuts me off in the middle of my sentence and forwards me to his damn voicemail again. I call RIGHT back and tell her Im not trying to talk to an answering machine but she cuts me off AGAIN and puts me on hold. The guy finally answeres and I ask him if he had heard anything about my truck and you could tell he was having trouble remembering who I was. So I asked him why he hadnt been sending me updates like he said he was. He then began to say he is busy and needs to spend his time making sales, not supplying me updates.

Now I myself work in sales also. 50% of sales is customer service! You dont sit there and tell a customer you are going to do something and then continuosly not do it and expect everything to be okay. If you werent going to do it then dont promise it!

Anyway, sorry for the LONG rant. Im just extremely frustrated with the situation. All I want is my damn truck!

LanNinja · 05-02-2009, 06:42 PM

That is crazy man. I hate it when it dealers pull your chain. My advice would be to file a complaint with Toyota and then take your business to another dealership like Star Toyota. Best of luck.

707taco5 · 05-02-2009, 06:44 PM

Yea, that is messed up. Can you call corporate and complain or something? You should have your truck already with the mods you have already bought.

***shoguns*** · 05-02-2009, 06:54 PM

the only good that has come out of this situation is that I was told the cash back incentives are going up again for the month of May but the changes dont go in effect until the 5th of each month. when I bought my truck it was $1000 cash back, then went up to $1,500 for April. Hopefuly May will be at least $2k. Since these delays have happened I wont be able to pick up my truck until next Saturday, if it arrives sometime next week.

707taco5 · 05-02-2009, 06:57 PM

Yea, have you already paid for the truck? Or just the down payment?

***shoguns*** · 05-02-2009, 07:06 PM

deposit only. but the truck i ordered had to be built, rare combo. i really dont wanna have to cancel the order with this short amount of time left and go somewhere else and start all over again.

707taco5 · 05-02-2009, 07:17 PM

Yea, the 2010's might be out by then. lol. I hope you get your truck soon and post up some pics. Good luck. Oh, and what mods have you purchased for the truck so far?

***shoguns*** · 05-02-2009, 07:32 PM

so far just a Pioneer AVIC-F700BT with all the accesories. as soon as my truck arrives i will be fixing little odds and ends up on my daily driven car and selling it. once that is done the larger mods will begin.

here is my current daily beater...
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...98/mekimo3.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...98/sunset3.jpg
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n.../downtown3.jpg

707taco5 · 05-02-2009, 07:38 PM

Not bad, doesn't look like a beater to me. You planning on lifting at all or is it going to be a stock height DD?

***shoguns*** · 05-02-2009, 07:41 PM

3" lift. mod list is already over a page long lol. Oakley's and Mr Grimm's trucks are both very similar to the look i'm going for.

707taco5 · 05-02-2009, 07:51 PM

Yea, I wanted my truck to look like Oakley's before I even saw his. I have everything that he has basically except he has the AP front bumper, tinted tails and bigger tires. All coming once I have time and money to do that kinda stuff.

HotRod53 · 05-02-2009, 08:02 PM

In my experience here in Pittsburgh, every Internet sales person that I delt with was the son of the owner. I honesty can say that I never dealt with my Toyota dealers Internet department but guess what, it's once again the owners son! I have dealt with a local Dodge dealers Internet sales person.... the owners son again, and it was a trainwreck! Now I'm not saying that it is the slacker of the company and he only has a job because daddy owns the dealership, but draw your own concusions.....

toto · 05-02-2009, 08:28 PM

It sounds like you're getting the special order runaround. I've been there.

It also sounds like you know that it should have been special ordered from the factory, rather than being a "standard build" for your region. Toyota offers tons of options, but only manufactures a few combinations of them at any given time. That's reflected in the "Build Your Tacoma" portion of Toyota's Web site. That's why you can't pick and choose any options you want in that area; instead, they tell you what they're making.

If you ordered a standard build for your region, then the dealer should have been able to get it by now unless the factory slowdowns are having that much impact on availability. To grab the unit you want, they simply need to watch the computer for the units being delivered from the factory within your region, and then use one of their allocation slots to get the exact truck you want when it suddenly becomes available. They don't know - and don't plan - when the factory will build one. The list they're watching is completed units being delivered to the port. (Even though there's no port really involved since the trucks are made in North America, they still "arrive at a port" as the initial distribution point.) That list is usually updated weekly.

However, if you want something that is not a standard build and would instead be a special order from the factory, then things change considerably. Most dealers don't want to mess with factory orders. I'm not sure what it is about Toyota's distribution model that causes that, but it is fairly common for dealers to refuse to deal with it. So rather than actually place a factory order, they play games with you. They tell you they'll order it, but really what they do is start watching the computer to see if the truck you want might hit another region, or even some magic might happen and your request might become a standard build. (The builds sometimes change as often as monthly.) If that happens to you, the only way to cut through the BS is to press the dealer hard and find out what they're really doing and whether they have committed to a factory order or not. Even though the factories are in North America and there is no boat needed, 4 to 6 weeks sounds awful optimistic to me for a special factory order. I would have said 8 weeks minimum, with 12 being more likely. Orders from a factory in Japan can take even longer than that. The 4-to-6 week timeframe sounds more like the process for watching the computer every week and grabbing one from somewhere.

All I can tell you is stay on the dealership and escalate it if necesary to find out what's really going on.

***shoguns*** · 05-02-2009, 09:08 PM

i was told my truck is a very rare truck in the combo i ordered it in simply because its 4x4. i have seen around 3 or 4 that were exactly like mine minus that. they said my truck was the only one like it available in the 5 state area. i was told the truck was "scheduled" to arrive at the port on 4/30/09 according to what their computers said. he said it showed a "0" on 4/30/09 for the amount of days that were left until delivery, but it is sometimes common for that number to go into the negative if they are running behind. i dont know. if the truck hasnt been delivered by next friday i am going in and having a long, stern sit down talk with these guys and will tell them to cut the bullshit.

toto · 05-02-2009, 09:20 PM

If they found one *available* in the 5 state area, then you got lucky and they really did get one in the computer; it's not a factory order. It must have been a standard build somewhere.

You should have it soon if it's that close, assuming you've been told the truth. Toyota doesn't share tracking information with the dealers like FedEx. As long as the dealer knows that they successfully got that unit allocated to them by the port, then it just appears at the dealer a few days later.