Whitten Brothers Of Ashland

Kathy was a great salesperson We went to Whitten and Kathy was so helpful. She listened to us and found the right SUV for our needs. She wasn't pushy or try to pressure us into a We went to Whitten and Kathy was so helpful. She listened to us and found the right SUV for our needs. She wasn't pushy or try to pressure us into anything we didn't want. More

Worst Car Buying Experience in 25 Years Buying a car is never an enjoyable process, but my experience with Whitten Bros. in Ashland was the single worst car buying experience I’ve had in 25 Buying a car is never an enjoyable process, but my experience with Whitten Bros. in Ashland was the single worst car buying experience I’ve had in 25 years. I have been used car shopping for a Mini for more than a year. When I saw a car that met my requirements pop up at Whitten Bros., I immediately called to inquire about it. The price point was about $1K higher than I had budgeted, so I told Katie – the woman who took my call – to please let me know if there was any wiggle room on the price. She circled back to let me know that there currently was no room to negotiate, so I asked that she let me know if the price dropped at all. She promised to do so. Thankfully, I kept an eye on the car listing myself, because when the price did drop $500, I saw it. Katie not only never let me know about the change, she also didn’t return my call when I reached out to speak with her about it. Unable to reach Katie, I called and asked to speak with a sales person and got connected with Tom Coleman. Tom let me know that he had a buyer already, but would circle back if she changed her mind. The other buyer backed out, so Tom took my deposit and he and I arranged a time for me to make the 95 mile drive down from DC to buy the car. My appointment was for a Saturday afternoon. When I arrived on Saturday, it took hours to actually complete the paperwork. I was there nearly 5 hours. I repeatedly told that it was taking so long because it was so incredibly busy. There were two other customers in the dealership besides me... Finally, I was escorted into see Paige Garrison to handle the paperwork. Paige was unfamiliar with how to register cars outside of Virginia. (I would expect that a dealership would train its team as to how to handle registrations for states within a 100 mile radius… but that was not the case here. ) The real problem was not that Paige didn’t know how to complete the transaction for my vehicle – it was that she didn't seek help from someone else in the Whitten Bros. business office who had the expertise she did not. When two weeks had passed and I hadn’t received anything about tags or registration in the mail, I reached out to Paige via email to confirm that everything would be mailed to me and to make sure I didn’t need to schedule an appointment with the DMV. She replied that all was in order, and told me that I did not need to visit the DMV and that I should just wait patiently for 3-4 weeks. In the meantime, a friend who had recently purchased a new vehicle told me that I would absolutely need to get my car inspected before it could be registered. So I going against Paige's advice, I scheduled an appointment, completed the inspection, and spent the morning waiting at the DMV to provide my inspection report and see where my registration was in the process. The DMV had zero paperwork on my car. No registration process had been initiated. I drove home and called Paige who still had no idea about the registration requirements. After consulting with a colleague, she told me that they were waiting on my inspection certificate to proceed. A CERTIFICATE FROM AN INSPECTION THAT SHE NEVER TOLD ME TO GET, AND INSTEAD HAD TOLD ME I NEEDED TO DO NOTHING WITH THE DMV. I sent the inspection certificate over within minutes. Of course by this point, my temporary tags were set to expire. I asked Paige to fedex me new temp tags and to send the tracking number for the fedex. I never received any communication from her, and when I followed up to inquire as to what was happening with the shipment, she rudely told me that she was very busy. No tags were sent. I circled back with Tom Coleman to try to get connected with someone in the business office who might actually have the knowledge and customer service skills to help me. He connected me with Dustin Hicks. Dustin, though polite, also failed to fedex me the new tags. Their lack of attention to detail meant that I was driving and parking in DC with expired tags for two days. Thankfully, I did not get ticketed. Of course, the car was still not registered. I insisted that I did not want to work with anyone at the Ashland location to see my registration through, and Dustin finally reluctantly connected me with Title Clerk Christina Mann. Christina was responsive, and helped troubleshoot when the registration was filed incorrectly without residential parking permissions. It took another month of back-and-forth, but I finally received my accurate registration stickers with one day to spare on the second temp tags. Finally, after buying a car that was allegedly serviced before purchase, my service lights went on a week into ownership indicating that both oil and brake fluid needed attention. I had to pay out of pocket for that preventative maintenance. End result: Two months and a complete nightmare. More