Arnie Bauer Buick GMC Cadillac

Informative, professional, and pleasant Dave and Kathy were very helpful and able to answer all of my questions were very helpful and able to answer all of my questions More

Unfortunately, I had an extremely poor experience with this dealership. After performing a national search for a 2023 Yukon Ultimate, this dealer landed on my radar as having one of the very few that are this dealership. After performing a national search for a 2023 Yukon Ultimate, this dealer landed on my radar as having one of the very few that are available in the country to purchase. After going through a carousel of sales people throughout the day, I landed with Alex C., who I informed that I was interested in purchasing. Being a 14 hour drive away from Matteson IL in southeastern NC, I called to verify that they had the vehicle on their lot and that they’d take a deposit. After verifying both, Alex took my credit card information and informed me that I’d need to travel to IL by the weekend to close the transaction, all of which I agreed to. I ended the call, notified my wife that I’d found her new car and set on my way to planning the logistics of rearranging my work week and flying to Chicago to purchase and drive this vehicle home. Not more than 30 min later I received a call back from Alex C. with a “slight issue”. It turns out that there was a local buyer who had come into the dealership earlier that day and expressed interest in the same vehicle. Even though this person had NOT put a deposit down, Alex informed me that someone above him made a decision that they would rather sell it to the local buyer. So he essentially “unsold” the same vehicle that he had sold to me 30 minutes earlier. I expressed my displeasure and asked to speak with the general manager, who I then called and left a voicemail for. Throughout the remainder of the evening and into the next morning, Alex was noncommittal on whether or not there were any updates regarding the other buyer. I waited for most of the next day before sending an email follow up with the general manager, Bret P. I’d tried to phone the dealership multiple times throughout the day, and despite being told that he was in the office, I did not receive a phone call back. Within an hour of sending a very strongly worded email expressing my displeasure and essentially warning of a negative review, I finally received a phone call from Bret. While he was extremely apologetic, his explanation did very little to make me feel better about the most shady business practice I had ever experienced. He told me that essentially GMC “dings“ dealerships for not selling to local buyers. He went on to explain that there was another different salesperson, also named Alex, involved in this transaction, who upon learning that I was calling to give a deposit gave the other interested party a phone call and an opportunity to buy the vehicle out from underneath me - despite me being first to the table with money. I would’ve understood if the angst from the dealership was due to the risk of an out-of-state buyer not showing up for a vehicle they had pulled off the market. Having purchased a similarly priced vehicle a month earlier from another out-of-state dealership that was nearly the same distance from my home, I was willing to prove that I have enough cash sitting in my account to outright purchase the vehicle to put the dealership at ease. However, that clearly wasn’t the issue here. This was simply a matter of choice. I was left feeling as though my money was not sufficient and that the lies told to me by the sales agent were intentional. He clearly knew that this vehicle was sold and chose not to inform me. All said and done, this is the most underhanded way of doing business that I’ve ever dealt with. I told Bret that the only thing he could do about this is to not treat any future customers this way. As a part owner and nearly 40 year veteran of the dealer, I implored him to inform any out-of-state buyers that they would rather not sell vehicles to them. I also cautioned that he should retrain his agents if their mission is to only sell to local buyers (though no other dealers that I’ve called across the nation mentioned the preference GM supposedly pushes for to local buyers). My only purpose in writing this review is to ensure that future buyers are warned. Thanks. More