Roberto Lopez

On March 8th, 2022, my boyfriend, and I were in a car accident that resulted in my car being totaled. A same day payout was made March 16th, and I received $3273.08, and the remainder left on my totaled accident that resulted in my car being totaled. A same day payout was made March 16th, and I received $3273.08, and the remainder left on my totaled car was paid off to Balboa Thrift and Loan which was $20358.59. As a result of the accident, I suffered a minor concussion that made attempting to get my things in order rather difficult. I trusted the Lithia name to help make my car buying process easier, yet a month later, I am out $1000 and carless thanks to them. If anything, they have caused me more grief than I could have imagined. I began the process of finding a car with the help of Lithia Ford specialist the next day. I was looking for a car that was under $10k so my payments could be between $200-350. That was the ideal scenario for me. Unfortunately, their stock did not have anything that would work for me so she helped me search elsewhere. That’s when we stumbled upon Lithia Nissan of Clovis who, at the time, seemed to have cars that would work for me. We called together to set up the appointment for me to go in and look at the 3 cars I was interested in. The woman on the phone was named Brenda and she said she was a sales representative. My boyfriend and I got to Nissan of Clovis and I requested to meet with Brenda as prompted, however, it turned out that Brenda was not a sales representative as previously mentioned. This was already a red flag to me as myself and the Lithia Ford Specialist were misled to believe that Brenda would be helping me. The comfort of knowing that I would be helped by another woman made feel more comfortable, but I never even met Brenda. Instead, when we arrived, we were approached by an, at the time, unnamed sales rep. I told the young man I was there for Brenda and he went to fetch her. We waited for about 10 minutes before he came back out and said he would be helping us instead. He introduced himself as Cruz and he said he would show me the car I was interested in. This is when he told me that the car that I was interested in was actually not ready for sale but he can still show me anyway. We proceed to a dirt lot where he shows me the car. It was filthy, and covered in ants which Cruz himself pointed out. He then asked if I knew how to drive stick. It was not listed on their site that the car was a stick shift so that was out of the question. He then took me to view some cars in my price range. I settled on one and, once they ran my credit and spoke with banks, I was told I had to get a more expensive vehicle that was $5k over what I wanted to look for. My BF and I were there for roughly 6 hours. I was exhausted; we both were. They made me kept choosing car after car. I want to note that I didn’t come in with expectations about the kind of car I got. All I wanted was what Lithia had given me in the past: excellent customer service, a fairly quick buying process, attentiveness to my needs, and most importantly, a car in great condition with a clean bill of health. I was extremely frustrated that 6 hours in, I was still having to negotiate with my own sales rep rather than them negotiating on my behalf. They found a car that would fit whatever conditions they needed it to meet in order to get my loan. When it came back, it was literally almost $100 a month more than max limit. Cruz was at times, not very understanding. Sometimes, he attempted to guilt trip me into not signing the agreement because the payment was only “a few bucks off”. I told him that for one thing, the car that they found for me I didn’t even like. It didn’t feel worth the price due to it’s age and lack of newer technological features. There was a red Ford Fusion that was cheaper, newer and had better features. They still kept running into trouble negotiating. I was going to leave when an old coworker came out to meet me. His name is Luis Wendel and he explained he was one of the sales managers. He told me they would try to work it out and got the monthly payment down to $406, still $6 over my max, but I took the offer because I trusted Luis and Cruz. That would prove to be a mistake. We spend another hour or two going over paperwork. Cruz leaves us with his business card then hands us off to Roberto Lopez, a finance manager. Roberto then explains that we can “only go up from here”. He assured me he would look into getting a different car with a different lender and better interest rates and would call me the next day. I felt that he was also someone I could trust. Because of that assurance that he would be negotiating a better deal on my behalf, my assumption was that the deal was not set in stone. Roberto then says he emails me the contract which, as it turned out, was not my contract but some fax papers for another client. I only noticed the next day. Fast forward to me driving off the lot. Driving home, I was on the phone with my boyfriend. I was telling him that the car was really shaky and the air wasn’t really working. Honestly, I thought perhaps the car had been sitting for a while and maybe needed to warm up? I am no car expert, but I trusted that no matter what, I could always call with questions. The interior was extremely messed up in spots that you wouldn’t know about unless you went searching; I thought it was rather sleazy for none of the sales reps I dealt with to not point out the serious damage in the car. The carpet was ripped up, the backseat was filthy, the pedals didn’t even have covers. The next day, less than 24 hours later, the car was still being strange so I dialed the phone number on Cruz’s business card. The number gave me a disconnected message. I definitely found that a bit unprofessional but shrugged it off. I called their main office and asked to speak to Cruz. I was told he was with a client and would call me back. Never heard back. I called again, next day, same thing, nothing back. I call later that second day and leave yet a third message for Cruz to call me and finally, Luis calls me back. I explain everything to him and he tells me he’s very sorry and will have Cruz call me to set up a service appointment. Cruz FINALLY calls me back after he’s required to and schedules me an appointment for the next day. I also manage to obtain the real copy of my contract which, my Lthia Ford friend finds has me opted in for something called an optional service contract. No one even explained what that was to me. I bring my car in the next morning before work and go to the service station. Instead of being greeted, an extremely rude employee asks my boyfriend and I to wait outside. I have never been to this service station before and am under the impression that I check in first, as that is what you typically do. I let the man know I have an appointment and he says “yeah well so does the lady you’re parked behind so you need to wait in your car”. We waited almost 30 minutes past our appointment time before someone come help us. The man who helped us that time was awesome, his name is Aaron and honestly, he is one of only 2 people there that seem to have done their job correctly. Aaron got us all checked out and explained that he would be contacting me with an update as soon as he could. He called later that day and explained that his technicians had inspected the vehicle and, according to their Ford manual, the engine needs to be replaced. I thought that was incredibly inconvenient. I had the vehicle for all of 2.5 days and now they were telling me that one of the most essential parts of the vehicle was going out and I had JUST gotten it. Obviously, I am extremely upset about the matter and tell him so. He explains he understands and the plan is to get a second opinion to see if the engine really is the problem. This is a Friday. Monday comes as the next business day and the second opinion individual does not show so they move it to Tuesday. Turns out that the first tech is correct in his findings and the engine needs a replacement. But, Aaron explains that they have to get warranty company approval to make these repairs. I understand this and am appreciative as I did not by a warranty and am glad they are looking into it. I would assume a decent level of customer service such as this would come from Lithia. I am then offered a courtesy rental until the repairs are done. I take them up on this offer. As I am signing off on the rental car agreement, Luis assures me and my boyfriend that the issue with the engine will be fixed. He also tells me that my loan company for the vehicle will be calling me soon to conduct an interview and that when they call, I will need to lie to them and tell them the car is in my possession. Otherwise, he said, they will pull the loan and I will not be able to use them on another vehicle again and lose the car. I had never heard of this before and honestly was a little scared. It sounded very suspicious, but I trusted him. The rental I received was also in rather poor condition and had similar problems to my own new car. A few days went by and the loan company called to conduct the interview. I lied to them as prompted even though I didn’t particularly want to. I was afraid to lose the loan. The very next day I got a call from Aaron. He explained that they would not be replacing the engine and would only be replacing one piece of it. This made me extremely angry as Luis had told me they would fix the issue and to me, it sounded as though they were only slapping a band-aid on the problem. I called my loan company and told them everything. It was then brought to my attention that Luis had actually lied. If I had told them that I didn’t have the car in my possession, they wouldn’t have pulled the loan, they simply would not have paid the dealership until I was satisfied with my purchase and gave them the ok. When this information came to light, I told them to pull the loan. I no longer felt comfortable taking a car from a place that I felt had repeatedly misled me. I then spoke with the Lithia Ford rep I had been speaking with previously and gave me a name to call and complain to about the way I was being treated. Al Pacheco runs that Nissan and he was the one she recommended talking to. I called and asked to be transferred to his desk. He didn’t answer so I left a message. I explained the entire experience with his staff and how, at this point, I was simply seeking a refund of my down payment. I hadn’t heard back so I called again. This time I got through to him. I explained the situation and he said “first things first, bring back the rental then we can talk”. It was rude to me that his only concern was having the rental car back but at this point, I was done with them too. Aaron calls me a little after this and explains that the engine is being fixed and that the part that needs replacing will be replaced. I explained to him that at this point because of the lying from Luis with the loan company and the condition of the car that I didn’t feel comfortable proceeding in the transaction. I brought the car back a little earlier than Al and I had scheduled for. Another sales rep, Andrew, who was the only other person besides Aaron that I didn’t mind dealing with, led Jordan and I to an empty office; Andrew was very hospitable and made me as comfortable as he could. Thirty minutes later, Al comes in and opens with the same information Aaron had previously given me. He said the engine is being replaced and that the short block is the engine. I told him that’s fine, but I no longer wanted to deal with the dealership and wanted to terminate the contract. He said it was not possible and proceeded to tell me that the issues with the car must have risen when I drove off the lot. I explained that I didn’t think that was the case and he proceeded to overtalk mysaelf and my boyfriend and saying that it is essentially my fault and that I should not have driven off the lot. At this point, I am seeing how Lithia truly is. I put my faith in these sales people to sell me a car that is in great working condition and then get blamed for trusting them in the first place. He then explained that he will not be letting me out of my contract. I asked him if he had the power to and he said “yes I do”. He then proceeded to tell me that he will in house finance me and I will make my payments to him and that is it. He says the only option I have is to take the car. He offered me a newer rental which I declined. At this point, I wanted nothing to do with them. He said to give him 10 days from that day to have the car to me and if it still is not in working condition, he will “rip up the contract himself”. I got a call later that day from my loan company asking if I wanted to keep my loan with them and I told them yes, if I could. I believed Al when he said that I could not get out of the contract, yet another mistake of mine. The loan company agreed and said they would update me on any repairs. I tell the Lithia Ford Rep I was working with and she tells me that Lithia doesn’t even have in house financing! I was stunned at the blatant lie from Al. It seems that stunned disappointment is a regular reoccurrence when dealing with this team. A week later, I get a call from an entirely different loan company and they tell me that they will be handling my loan. I am extremely confused as I did not agree to any sort of agreement with them nor was I even notified that they were contacted! I explain to them that I already have a loan company and they tell me that the dealership is not allowed to send out my information and attempt to get a new loan when I already have one and wasn’t even notified about the contact. They also say that, contrary to what Al forcefully said, the car is technically NOT mine and the contract can be cancelled as the loan has not funded and the car is in the dealerships posession On day 10, I call Al. I get his voicemail and leave a message asking for him to keep his word. I explain that I would like a full refund and to terminate the contract as previously mentioned. Radio silence. He never calls me back. Another week goes by, I call again and nothing. The next day, Aaron calls me to give an update on the car. He says Al told him to call. He says they fixed it, test drove it and the check engine light came on again. They ran more tests and find out something is now wrong with the catalytic converter. At this point, I have not had the car for a month. He says they need to look into it more and see. I tell him to have Al call me and says he will message him. Al never called. He still has not contacted me. At the time this message is being written, I am still carless and without my deposit. More

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Thank you lithia Nissan for getting me into my dream car! You made the process simple and enjoyable and I will be recommending all of my friends and family to shop here ! You made the process simple and enjoyable and I will be recommending all of my friends and family to shop here ! More

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Mr. Lopex 110% and Mr. Edgar Amezola 110% . They are the. Di Mr. Lopez & Mr. Amezola are the diamonds of your dealership. They shine & care about there customers. The show no fear ! Extremely knowledgeable and p Mr. Lopez & Mr. Amezola are the diamonds of your dealership. They shine & care about there customers. The show no fear ! Extremely knowledgeable and professional.They care ! I personally was very sad with upline and downline. Mr. Amezola was experiencing personal issues and upline did not step up to the plate. Mr. Amezola requested side steps to be relocated and upline waited 7 days for a reply causing a hardship to customer. Mr. Amezola trusted downline to detail truck immaculate however downline failed causing customer to return unhappy. Mr. Amezola fixed issue immediately inspite of his personal set back ! WHERE IS UPLINE ?!! ADMINISTRATION YOU HAVE TWO PEOPLE PERFORMING UP AND ABOVE THE CALL OF DUTY !! YOU HAVE THE WRONG ATTITUDE OF HOW TO TREAT OUTSTANDING EMPLOYEES! I went to the Fresno Lithia to compare customer service and Mr. Lopez's magical numbers and to my surprise They Lack the MAGICAL COMMUNICATION & CARING FOR PEOPLE. I MEAN CARING FROM THEIR HEART !! THIS IS WHAT MR. LOPEZ & MR. AMEZOLA HAVE !! Perhaps you can have trainings' and maybe Mr. Lopez & Mr. Amezola can teach upline & downline too. REMEMBER NO ONE IS ABOVE !! YOU ARE ALL LOOPS IN THE BOW !! TELL THEM MR. LOPEZ! I TESTED MR. LOPEZ TO SEE HOW HE HANDELED A TOUGH CUSTOMER. HE PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS 120%. THEY LEFT THEIR SMILES, KINDNESS, HIGH INTEGRITY, CARING ATTITUDE, AND THEIR WILLINGNESS TO HELP PEOPLE!! I WILL ALWAYS HAVE THEM IN MY HEART AND MIND. CERTAINLY IN MY PRAYERS. I can't express how happy they PERSONALLY made me and my husband !! It was truly a "MIRACLE" THAT WE HAVE A BRAND NEW TRUCK !!They made it happen. I was being taken by the other guys and thought they were nice.until I met the diamonds and saw them shine in action. I ASK YOU TREAT THEM SPECIAL PLEASE CUS IT WOULD BE WISE TO KEEP THEM I PLAN TO RETURN !! ? ? MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU ALL. I DARED TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH !! Respectfully Al &Laura Yrigollen ? More

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