Subaru Stamford

Subaru Stamford responded

Hello, My name is George D'Angelo and I am the General Manager and Owner of Subaru Stamford. My dealership participates in the DealerRater Certified Dealer Program. We are committed to providing high quality customer service, but based on your DealerRater review, you did not have such an experience. That is very disappointing to us, and through this program we have the opportunity to work with you to resolve any issues with your experience at the dealership. Please contact me with what happened specifically that caused you to feel this way. In your post, you identified me as the person you worked with, but I do not recall having dealt with you. Our records indicate Jim Gay was your salesperson. Please feel free to contact me back through DealerRater or call me at the dealership at (203)252-2222 to discuss. I am usually always available Monday through Friday between 9am and 5 pm. If I am unavailable when you call, I will certainly be back to you shortly. Thanks, George

Subaru Stamford responded

Hi Deb, I realize that we did speak to each other about the check that I sent out to you. Please contact me because I do not want anyone to leave our dealership feeling the way you do. Sincerely, George

Debtisch responded

Hello George, I know it was not you that we dealt with directly but as Jim's name was not available to select and you were the only other person I had contact with that was on the list. My main gripe and reason for dissatisfaction however comes from Bob W. who did our financing and completely lied to us about the loan and pressured us into making a decision based off his lies. There was also the instance where we were told our car was worth one amount and when we went to get the paperwork completed the value had been dropped $500 dollars, and the explanation was that they must have looked at our car and tested it that day. You can imagine my suprise when I was in possession of the car all day and no such test or examinations had been made. It felt as if someone was trying to get one over on us. We eventually got the used car dealer to bring the price back up but that should have been enough of a red flag for us then to not continue with the trade. The check was just the icing on the cake after making several phone calls and being told that it had been sent already or would be sent and then finding out it had never been sent. I realize the review was harsh but I am very upset right now about discovering the truth about the financing aspect of the deal and compiled with everything it lead me to write the review. Regards Debra

Subaru Stamford responded

Hi Debra, Thanks for your reply. Bob W is no longer with us for reasons such as this. I am constantly striving to find good people that can fill important roles for us and am happy to say I currently have two finance managers that are excellent. I think Bob had one foot out the door when you met him and perhaps the last few people he dealt with he was not exhibiting the best in customer satisfaction. I spoke to Jim Gay and Bobby John regarding the trade and they both agreed that this must have been an oversight or mistake by Bob Wuensch. The agreed trade in price should always be listed on the original buyers order so this mistake should easily be fixed. I'm glad that it was taken care of upon delivery. As far as the check goes, Ray had checked with our Office Manager and she had told him she had cut the check, but what he did not realize was that she does not send them out, I do because I am the signer on the account. You should have never been told that the check was "sent" because that was an assumption. I'm still not sure what happened with the loan, but if you'd like I can see if we can make an adjustment with the bank to try and fix whatever wrong Bob did. I want you to be happy and comfortable with the transaction. And of course, I do not want bad reviews on a business that I've worked hard to grow and is the source of income for 40+ members of our staff. Please let me know if there is something I can do to correct this for you. All the best, George

Debtisch responded

Good Day George, As mentioned the main gripe was our dealings with Bob, and I am happy to hear that he is no longer able to take advantage of people as I feel he did with us. The situation is hard to explain but the basics of it are as follows: My husband and I are expecting our first child in October and this was the reason for the trade to a 4 door more gas efficient car. Before going to purchase the car we had worked out an acceptable per month cost around $150 that we would be comfortable paying considering our lifestyle is about to get much more expensive. This was expressed to Bob. The rates were slightly lower than what I had been quoted trough my bank so everything on that front seemed kosher. Bob was very pushy that we not put the whole value of the trade in towards the car because we could get a better interest rate the higher the loan amount was. This did not sit right with us but we let him continue to explain. He then said that if we were to take the approx $4000 that we took out of the trade in and put that towards the first payment then monthly payments would decrease to $0 until the loan caught up with the additional payment to principle. He went so far as to say "I even have my daughters statements to prove that she won’t have to pay anything until X date if you want me to show you, because we have done the same thing with her car." This would then allow us to pay as much as we were comfortable paying on a monthly basis until the loan caught up. He admitted this was not something all banks did but was something that BoA was known for. So this is what we did. After receiving the check we put the whole value down to the first payment on the Prius. Now upon looking at our next payment to BoA we see that this was not accurate at all, and we are still required to pay the $259 by the specified date next month. This is well over what we were comfortable paying and additionally if we had not been lied to it is more that we would have been required to pay per month if we had put the whole value of the trade in towards the new car. I understand the reputation of car dealerships of being aggressive, but this was beyond that. This was an out- right lie and we were extremely taken advantage of. We had done our homework with checking with interest rates and making sure our credit scores were good so that we could make the best possible deal for us. It is certainly not my intention to write a bad review to possibly affect the lively hood of you and your employees. But in my mind my lively hood was affected by a rouge finance guy who only cared about his commission and would seemingly tell any lie to increase it. Regards, Debra

Subaru Stamford responded

OK. Thanks for explaining. I have a call into my Bank of America representative. If I can get them to refinance the loan with no additional costs to get you to the payment you originally thought, would you want to do that? If yes, I should have all the information I need in house and I can simply present you with the new loan details and if you'd like to go for it, we will start the process. Let me know. Thanks, George

Debtisch responded

Hello George, That would be wonderful if that could be done. We would really appreciate it. Best Regards, Debra

Subaru Stamford responded

I forgot to say, Congratulations on the baby! I reached out to my B of A rep but he is on vacation this week. I am working on this but I may not be back to you immediately. I'll be in touch soon. Thanks, George

Debtisch responded

Thank you and thank you!

Subaru Stamford responded

Hi Debra, Michael Sweeney and I have been working on this with the banks and this is where we are: We can refinance at the same rate with Citizens Bank and it would give you a new payment of $201.82 for 60 months. It seems I can not get Bank of America to give us that rate again on the lower amount financed. It may be beneficial to just have you as the applicant on the loan as you have a higher credit score than Gerald. Is that an option? Thanks, George

Subaru Stamford responded

OK, we will keep the applicants the same. The payment I quoted was not including any additional money down. Additional money down will certainly lower the payment but may also increase interest rate. Mike will call you shortly to discuss. Thanks, George