Atamian Honda

Recommend this dealer? No Purchased a vehicle from this dealer? No, Poor experience with dealer personnel Atamian Motors I had an unbelievable experience with this dealership over the past two days. Da dealer? No, Poor experience with dealer personnel Atamian Motors I had an unbelievable experience with this dealership over the past two days. Day one I started with getting a a pre-negotiated price through USAA bank for a 2010 TDI (500 under invoice). The dealer agreed to honor it. I brought in my trade which is an 09 Jetta SE. KBB has a trade in value of 13,900 and their first offer was 10,500. After calling out the used car guy he came up to 11,000, yup....a whole 500!!! I understand they don't use KBB but it's not a bad start for us consumers. The salesman actually challenged me by looking up to verify the KBB estimate. John...you didn't believe me? I left at that point. The next day I was emailed by the internet sales guy(not a bad guy and at least he has some people skills). After some going back and forth they came up to 12,000. Still too far off but I agreed to close the deal. Still think I'm not being flexible John? After work I called the salesman to let him know I have the title at home. He told me they will need the title in order to drive it away. I drove 30 minutes home and 30 back. I verbally confirmed the deal we made again. We filled out the finance app and he told me that I'll have to bring a paper back from the registry after getting it done. He says "we're not supposed to but we'll be able to make it happen anyways". Silly me, I should have questioned that one. When I arrived John and I went to get a coffee upstairs and he was acting like a human being. We talked for a bit then he got paged. He put a video on the computer about paint, I was not interested so I got up to look at the other cars in the show room. He clearly knows I wasn't interested in it before even putting it on, I told him I don't want any extras....that crap just jacks up the price for no reason. It showed Model T Ford with black paint then went on talking about how paint today isn't as tough but it's good for the environment so buy our product to protect your car!!! What? 80 years later their paint quality is worse, and they're admitting to it? John came out and asked me how the video was going, in a smart guy tone. I was across the showroom, how do you think the video was going? I was greeted by the finance guy, not a bad guy either. I explained to him that I don't want the extras and he quickly went over them and I signed the waiver....pretty painless and I thanked him for doing so. After signing he told me I couldn't drive it because the "notary went home at 5:30pm". You didn't know that when I was on my way in at 6:00pm John? Really? I told the finance guy that sales guy is going to hold his end of the bargain. Sales guy asked if I wanted to end the deal. I replied yes I do. His reply is great as he's walking away....."you're a [violative content deleted] anyways". Yup, a car sales guy said those exact words and didn't even stop there. He followed me into the finance office as finance guy was shredding my paperwork and said "you know, you haven't been flexible at all". I reminded him about calling me an [violative content deleted] and he said "those words weren't meant for you to hear, but you did". I questioned him again on it and he said "you got a problem with it?". You're a salesman John, you're supposed to be professional. I wrote an email to the general manager last night and called him this morning. I was continuously told he was in a meeting. The clerk that answered was VERY nice. I told her what a salesman said to me and think it would take priority but not a chance, I called back a few times and waited on hold. I told the gen manager this story, apparently I was on speaker but was not told that either. After listening to him defend the sales guy I asked to be transferred to the Owner. There was a bit of lag time then he transferred me over. I started to tell the owner Terry(you should Google that guy sometime it's a good read) my story. He cut me off and told me about how good Johnny is. "I hired him 18 years ago, he's the best one I've got". Anyways...don't shop from them. Save yourself the trouble and go elsewhere. It's obvious the owner will side with his employee regardless of the situation. It blows me away that John Desrocher gets away with talking like that to a customer and I can't even get a sincere apology from him or the owner. More

We arrived today (Sunday 11/14/10) about 12:20 pm (just after it opened) and parked right next to the showroom. Were met by no one. We wandered around the lot for 10 minutes, looking at window stickers. after it opened) and parked right next to the showroom. Were met by no one. We wandered around the lot for 10 minutes, looking at window stickers. No salesman came out to see if we had questions. We entered the showroom & stood by a table. We noted one couple being worked with, maybe one or two customers being shown vehicles outside, and 3-5 employees (possibly salesman), milling around, helping themselves to popcorn. No other customers inside that we noticed. No employees approached us, even after making eye contact with everyone we could. We figured that we wanted a salesman who wanted us, so we weren't making a first move until we gave one a chance. But, after 5 minutes standing stupidly next to a table in the showroom, watching salesman get their popcorn (no one offered to get any for our kids, so we got it for them), we were getting ready to leave. Then, a salesman FINALLY asked us if we were being helped. We told him not yet, and he seemed apologetic, saying he assumed we were being helped. I told him I wanted to look over and test drive a 2011 Odyssey EX, was comparing it with the 2011 Sienna LE, and was making my decision and buying within the week, but that we could not buy today, as we had our young children with us and did not want to be distracted during the purchase process. I told him we definitely would be buying by next weekend & that we would have a sitter then. The salesman brought over the model I requested. I cannot recall him asking me a single time, during my entire visit, if I had any questions, and cannot recall him voluntarily pointing out a single feature or aspect of the Odyssey. When I asked him to show me how certain things worked, he complied, and that was it. This silence continued during my test drive. During the drive, I said I'd just driven the 2011 Sienna yesterday (the truth) and that the Toyota dealership had been giving me all kinds of reasons why Sienna beats Odyssey, including a printed sheet, and I asked him what he thought were Odyssey's advantages over Sienna. He told me he did not know off top of his head (!!!) and that I could look on the internet and find many websites comparing them. He said he wouldn't disparage Toyota, that the Sienna and Odyssey are both very good vehicles and that basically his opinion was people either like Toyotas or Hondas. Since I was already a Honda owner for past 20 years(I'd told him), I'd likely stick with Hondas. Hmm, all these things may be honest, but not very helpful, and, I guess not much of sales pitch. He also mentioned that upstairs at the dealership was a waiting room with some pastries, a tv, and toys. Ya think that he would've pointed that out on the way to our test drive, as he saw my husband attempting to keep the kids busy at a table in the main are. Apparently, no employee mentioned this to my husband while I was on the test drive, although one employee did off them some kind of cookies he was bringing in. The killer for me was, however, when we returned from the test drive. My husband was with our young children in the waiting room, and I told the salesman my husband would want to come out and take a look, too. The salesman apologized and said that he could only spend a few minutes with my husband as it was Sunday and the dealership was shorthanded and he had other customers to serve !!!! (There did not appear to be that many customers at this point, around 1:10 pm). He said if I came during the week he could spend 2 hours with me, but not today. With young kids and a part-time job, husband at work coming during a weekday is not an option! At this point, he'd spent about 20 minutes, at most, with me, including 10 minute test drive. I could not believe he said this. He did let my husband look quickly at a few things, but honestly he seemed in a rush to be rid of us. As we left he asked to get contact information from me, which I gave him, and my husband asked for their best price. He did not want to give it and said sales manager would not do it. We showed him our quoted, very good, price we'd received on the comparable Sienna LE, about 27200. He left and returned with a price of 28299, which is lower than sticker MSRP but higher than the average price paid for 2011 Odyssey Ex per autotrader.com. He stated flatly that dealership would not go below this price. We thanked him for his time and left. I will not give his name to avoid embarassing him. Perhaps he was having a bad day. His is an older man who said he was from Salem NH, if anyone from the dealership is reading this. He was not rude--he was the only one who attempted to help us--and I give him some points for being honest about (allegedly) being short staffed, even if it made himself or the dealership look bad. Nonetheless, I think he could have passed us to another salesperson to see if we had further questions, at the very least. The only positive in this experience was that at least I received no pressure to buy. I guess I can sum up his attitude (and this dealership's attitude), based on this experience, as "Take it or leave it. Atamian Honda does not care". I contrast this rather negative experience with our positive experience the day before at Ira Toyota of Danvers, where salesman Bryan I. immediately met us as we walked towards the showroom, showed my 3 and 5 year old where the enclosed playroom was, & spent over 2 hours with me, evaluating my needs, presenting me with other options for family vehicles that might be more economical (e.g., Rav4, Sienna), demonstrated on the lot all the features of each level of trim of the vehicles and advantages of each, explained even more features during test drives, recommended I test drive Highlander even after liking Sienna a lot, just to be sure of my decision, and really going extra mile in trying to gently convince me about Toyota quality, service, & advantages. He and his sales manager also came very close to the price we were seeking. What a contrast in sales experiences, which will likely weigh heavily in my decision. In any event, if I decide on a Honda, alas it will not be from Atamian. 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