Crown Honda

I was in the market for the new redesigned 2012 Honda CRV. Derrick Silvers and Michael Wolf were my Salesmen. If one was not available, the other one stepped right in and handled my purchase with care CRV. Derrick Silvers and Michael Wolf were my Salesmen. If one was not available, the other one stepped right in and handled my purchase with care. I have bought over 15 brand new vehicles in my lifetime. Very easy buying experience and hassle free. It was great to have 2 Salesman handle my purchase. Best price in the Bay area on the CRV and excellent Customer Service. Please buy from one of these 2 gentlemen. More

Two years ago I had my transmission replaced by Crown Honda in Pinellas Park Fl. just over 1 month ago my car started slipping in first gear and reverse here and there. I went to check my my radiator flu Honda in Pinellas Park Fl. just over 1 month ago my car started slipping in first gear and reverse here and there. I went to check my my radiator fluid level (standard maintenance) and noticed that my radiator had coffee color fluid in it. I spoke to my brother-in-law about that (which is a mechanic) he said it looked like transmission fluid got mixed in. We checked all around on the car to find out where the transmission fluid could have gotten into the radiator which anyone that knows anything about the mechanics of cars knows that would have been caused by a bad transmission cooler. Well my 2003 honda accord has no such thing well at least it is not like most and according to honda it is not called a cooler but instead a warmer (its for cold climates to get your transmission fluid warmed up to operating temp quicker). I understand someone like myself or the majority of the public to never have heard of a transmission warmer before but for a honda dealer to not know that is just rediculous. So after knowing that ok I do have ATF in my radiator and my car is slipping I called Crown Honda up to check if my Transmission was still under warrantee. I was told that my warrantee was only for 12 months. Well needless to say I was severely bummed out. I ended up taking my car to AAMCO just north Country Side mall. They replaced the stock Honda Warmer for an aftermarket Cooler which had its own radiator for it so therefor there will never be a chance for water to get back into my transmission. They also flushed my radiator out and my transmission. AAMCO did tell me that due to the water being in my transmission that chances are the damage was already done. About two days after getting my car back from AAMCO my car started slipping again. Extremely depressed and thinking of how much money it was going to cost me again to replace my transmission for a second time in two years, I decided what the hell I will just call Crown back and doublecheck with them about the warrantee. I got a different individual this time and they told me that I have a 3 year 36,000 mile warrantee he also informed me of what the miliage on my car was at the time of my transmission being replaced was. I hurried to my car checked my odometer and noticed I had about 80 miles left of that 36,000 miles. I scheduled in a time to bring my car to them. Ok enough of the back story. (sorry for the length) My service advisor was Jason Cavanaugh. Jason although sounds like a very nice guy (the type that could carry on a conversation about anything in the world) He quickly got on my nerves not due to his friendliness but simply due to the poor information he tried to provide me. After the techs looked at my car Jason told me that I had transmission fluid in my radiator. I told him that yes (see the back story above) even though it has been flushed a few times already I still have transmission fluid in my radiator and that I am aware of that and that I will take care of that issue myself but that I need the transmission fixed since it is under warrantee. Which by the way I told him all of this before I even brought the car in and told him this when I dropped the car off so it was no new information for me. He then went on to tell me that by having transmission fluid in my radiator that its a sign that I may have a bad head gasket. My face went pale with the thought that this service advisor was actually trying to tell me that transmission fluid in my radiator had any sort of relationship with my head gasket. (for those that don't know it does not) I told him that there is no relationship between the two and at that point he started to back pedal. He then went onto to telling me that they would not honor the warrantee because I now have an actual aftermarket transmission cooler installed. After educating him on how water gets into your transmission he went back to his bosses and came back to me stating that I would have to bring in the old transmission warmer so they could inspect that. Luckily for me I happened to have that part still. I brought that in to them and after a day they said that they would honor the warrantee but all they were going to do was to replace my perfectly good brand new transmission cooler with another poorly designed Transmission warmer and flush my radiator and transmission. Now I knew this was not going to work but at this point I had to play their game so I let them do the work. They kept my car over the weekend and into the next week waiting for the transmission warmer to be shipped to them. I finally got my car back in just under a week. When I went to pick my car up I knew I was going to have to pay for two hoses (which I still don’t think I should have had to pay for but figured it would only be about $12 for both of them since I had already priced them at another Honda dealership.) Jason Cavanaugh showed me a receipt with all of these charges on them totaling $89. I blew up at that point and demanded an explanation. He told me that I had a charge for 4 clips at $12 each. When I asked what clips and why did I need any clips. He told me it was the clips that hold the hoses apart. At that point they were just pulling my car around I walked out and told the guy getting out of my car to stop and pop the hood. I then had the guy follow me to the front of the car and show me what clips they were talking about. As soon as I opened the hood there was a clip that is used to hold the hoses apart (which I already had on my hoses anyhow) was laying on top of my transmission not connected to anything at all. I went back inside and before I could say anything Jason Cavanaugh looked in his trash can and pulled out another receipt and told me “I am sorry I grabbed the wrong receipt this is the correct one.” A sigh of relief came over me until he showed me the receipt. Instead of $89 it was $60 something. At that point he then tried telling me that I spoke with another service advisor over the phone prior to the work being done and I was told all of the parts that needed to be added to the car and that I had agreed to pay the costs. He called Donald Scullion over which said yes we talked about this. I quickly informed him that no one had to that point mentioned a monetary value of any sort to me and that only thing we talked about was that Crown was going to honor the warrantee and in addition to that seeing as how they were only going to put a warmer back on and flush the transmission that they would continue to honor the warrantee after the 36,000 miles if the transmission slipped again which is when Donald Scullion told me that I don’t have a mileage stipulation on my warrantee it is simply just a 3 year warrantee. Now, I only knew of what the two hose that I agreed to purchase were going to cost because of pricing them with another dealership beforehand. I turned around and saw that there was an Office behind me with a big window and someone that looked like they may be important behind that window. I asked if that was the manager and they told me yes. I went into the manager’s office and Donald Scullion followed instructing him who I was. The managers name is John p. Schnepp. After John Schnepp heard who I was and what was going on he quickly agreed that I was to only pay for the two hoses. John apologized to me and we all walked out of the office just for John to pull me back into the office asking me to come back in while they correct the paper work. When I got back into his office John gave me his business card and said to me that if I have any more problems to call him directly. In addition to that he told me I may be getting a survey on the service that I received and to “do the right thing” and give them all 10’s on the survey. Coming from a customer service field myself I was absolutely disgusted with him even suggesting that I do so and more over to suggest that it would be the right thing to do. It took so much for me to hold back giving him a piece of my mind but I did I figured I had to go to work and I was already worked up enough and being in a customer service field where I have to deal with escalated issues all day long I was not going to get myself into that mindset before going to work and provide terrible service to my customers just because of this. I took the car straight to work when I picked it up then drove it home and then back to work the next day. Right in front of my work at a stop light my car did it again with slipping. I called john up as he instructed me to do and told him what happened, he told me to bring the car back in and they would replace my transmission and they would give me a “Loaner car”. So I brought my car back in again to have them replace the transmission which that was on Friday June 8 2012. When I brought the car back in I stood in the lobby waiting for John Schnepp to get off a phone call because he told me to deal with him. After about 15 minutes a service advisor named Vince came over to me and told me that John asked him to deal with me. He brought me over to his desk and got me all signed in and told me that Enterprise rental car would be by to pick me up. I asked Vince specifically “What do I need to do in regards to this rental car I never got a rental car before” Vince told me not to worry about anything that they have it all handled. Now I don’t know about you but I always thought that when a dealership tells you that they are giving you a loaner it was going to be a car that they have at their shop that they loan out to customers and not a rental car. Well seeing as how Vince told me that they have everything handled, I, for some reason actually believed him even after all of the previous issues. Well sure enough enterprise rental car came and picked me up which that guy was very nice and polite along with good conversation. He dropped me off at the front door of Enterprise rentals and said to just go inside and tell the lady at the front desk my name and that I was just picked up from Crown Honda. I did just as the driver suggested, the nice lady at the front desk looked in the computer for my name and then asked “Might you be Scott Osborn?”; “Not unless Ozzy wants to adopt me” I replied jokingly. She looked again for my name and then gave me a cell phone number which was one number off of being my cell phone number and asked if that was my number. I told her it was almost my number but not it. She decided it was best to call Crown and after a couple of minutes with talking with Crown they got the issue resolved Vince messed up my reservation with Enterprise by giving them a wrong last name and wrong cell number. Ok so that issue is over with I thought to myself me and the people at Enterprise had a nice laugh at it, then the lady behind the counter said that all she needs from me is my ID card and a credit card to charge a $50 deposit on which is refundable. I told her that I do not have a credit card and my debit card I don’t have the money in the back for them to hold on to. I quickly started calling my parents to get their card info over the phone but was told that they cannot take one over the phone. So now I am stranded at Enterprise rental cars I call up Crown and asked for John Schnepp they said he was on a call. I told them to get him off the call and get him on this call that I was stranded due to their incompetence. John never did get on the phone instead someone else did which I forget her name. She asked me to give the phone to the Enterprise employee which I did and finally they said they were going to waive the deposit fee for me. Don’t think for a minute that I have any hard feelings with Enterprise rentals this by no means was their issue or their fault. In fact they told me they just went to Crown Honda the day before to give instruction on how to communicate to the customer because this apparently happens a lot where customers think they are getting a loaner from Crown, themselves not a rental car and have no idea about the deposit required. So I got a call on Tuesday June 12, 2012 from Vince which he told me they finally got the approval from Honda to replace the transmission and that was ordered today and will be in on that Thursday June 14 2012 additionally that the new transmission will be installed and ready to go by June 14, 2012 and on worst case scenario it would be done by Friday June 15, 2012. Thursday came and no car. Given I already knew he was full of it when he suggested Thursday I knew they would not get the transmission in early and get right to working on the new one. So Friday came and at 9:45am I called and asked what is going on with the car they told me that they would have Jason Cavanaugh call me back in 30 minutes with an update. At 11:45 I called them back again and spoke to Jason Cavanaugh which told me that they got a late start to the day and that it will be Saturday before they can have my car done. Well today is Saturday and I call Jason Cavanaugh back again today and he tells me that they still don’t have my car done and that it will not be done this weekend and just to keep the rental through the weekend. Now I have thought about this and I really wanted to just send this letter to a corporate office somewhere where this could be handled in a more professional quiet manner. The problem with that is trying to find true contact above John Schnepp on the internet for Crown Automotive Group. So seeing as how Crown Automotive Group does not want to readily provide corporate level contacts online and easily available to their customer base then I might as well post this online for the entire world to see my only fear now is they still have my car and I have no idea when it is going to come back or what kind of condition it is going to come back in. More

A few weeks ago my husband and I went into Honda to discuss trading our current Accord in for a Honda CRV. Yong was the salesman who helped us. He was very friendly and helpful. He let us know that discuss trading our current Accord in for a Honda CRV. Yong was the salesman who helped us. He was very friendly and helpful. He let us know that we could take our new car home and get to know it and if we wanted a more detailed lesson on how things worked, we could return in a day or two and he would be more than happy to help us. This was a very smooth and pleasant process. We couldn't be happier! Thanks, Tony and Heather More

John was very knowledgeable, patient and friendy during my visit. I really wanted to find the differences between all the vehicles I liked. John spent the and gave me all the information I needed to make my visit. I really wanted to find the differences between all the vehicles I liked. John spent the and gave me all the information I needed to make an educated decision. Then I received a better deal that I could have imagined! thanks John!! More

David Bamford has been our Honda sales consultant for over 15 years. He is patient and knowledgeable. He makes the car buying experience less stressful and that is why we return to Crown Honda. over 15 years. He is patient and knowledgeable. He makes the car buying experience less stressful and that is why we return to Crown Honda. More

This is the 2nd car I have purchased from Dave Bamford. When I decided I was ready for a new car; no other person or dealership came to mind but Dave and Crown. We pretty much did it all by emails; all I When I decided I was ready for a new car; no other person or dealership came to mind but Dave and Crown. We pretty much did it all by emails; all I had to do was go in pick the color and do a test drive. The entire process was painless! Thanks again! More

A brief history...my son and I had our cars totaled by a drunk driver last year (no injuries). While I was able to replace my car pretty quick, my son had to wait until just yesterday to purchase his. Unf drunk driver last year (no injuries). While I was able to replace my car pretty quick, my son had to wait until just yesterday to purchase his. Unfortunately the other person did not have insurance and we did not have enough (lesson learned). After saving for the past 9 months he purchased a 2006 Dodge Stratus. Our salesman, Johnny Ginn, was very helpful and understanding to our plight. He was willing to go that extra mile to make sure my son's first car buying experience was pleasurable. I truly appreciate all the work that was done to make it happen. My son is enjoying the priviledge and freedom to be driving once again. Again, thank you Mr. Ginn. More

I sent in an internet inquiry for a vehicle I had been keeping my eye on for about two weeks on their website. When I sent in the inquiry, I was pleased to have received a call from a manager and a sales keeping my eye on for about two weeks on their website. When I sent in the inquiry, I was pleased to have received a call from a manager and a sales representative within about 15 minutes to discuss the vehicle. I spoke with the sales representative in detail about what I was looking for and advised I would likely stop by the following weekend to take a look at the car. I spoke with her later in the week and confirmed I would be in and made an appointment since I would be driving close to 50 miles to get there. The day I went in to look at the car, I noticed some wiring running all over the engine bay and was told by the sales representative that this was relating to the iPod adapter that was an aftermarket addition by the previous owner. I have worked in the auto related industry for a while and know that this was not the case and there was a reason there are unnecessary wires running to the battery. I test drove the car and after some contemplation decided to make a fair offer in relation to the type of vehicle, mileage, condition, and how long this vehicle has been in dealer inventory. I also had reviewed comparable vehicles that are listed on autotrader.com, cars.com, and yahoo.com autos. I knew my initial offer was low yet fair. But who goes into a car dealership knowing that they will get a vehicle for the bottom offer they make. After discussion with my sales representative my offer was rejected. I made another offer and was met with the same rejection. At no time was a counter-offer ever presented that was not the list price of this vehicle. What I failed to mention before was that the price on the internet had gone down since I initially saw this vehicle weeks before and when I had gone in to look at it. I realized there was little room to negotiate, but when a car salesperson doesn’t budge off the list price and comes back with the list price as the lowest offer, this is a bit insulting to any consumer. I have purchased my last four vehicles off the Internet and am not unfamiliar with how Internet pricing works. After this deadlock, I discussed my concerns with the sales person and asked that she review it with her manager as I was told he was not in on the day I had gone in. I requested she follow up with me once known. I left and drove the 50 miles back home. Later that evening when I was talking to my sister, she let me know that she had purchased her two current vehicles and one prior vehicle from this family of dealerships. She assured me they were easy to work with and would come through given her experiences with them. The next day I never heard anything. Two days after my visit, I emailed my sales representative to find out what had happened and also mentioned that I had family who had purchased three vehicles from this family of dealerships and complimented them on the information I received about it. I received a call back from my salesperson later that day with a lower offer, which was still over what the market price even is on this vehicle given the mileage on it. I asked about another item I wanted them to fix on the vehicle which I was assured could be factored into the price when I had gone in and was told that would be an additional cost if I wanted that done. I again made a counter-offer and was told no and that she would still review with her manager despite this. I mentioned to her I had found more vehicles in the area that had lower miles and were priced competitively to their unit and I would take my business there if there was nothing this dealer was going to help me with. A few hours later, I received a call from a manager who was very cold and harsh. The overall tone of his call was this is our offer, take it or leave it and there would be no more discussion about it. There was no dialogue on what could be done or what we could do to make some sort of deal on this vehicle. To make matters worse, when I checked this dealer’s website again that evening, the price had been dropped another $500. I have become so frustrated at the way this dealership has handled this entire car buying process. It baffles me how a car dealership can treat its potential customers this way, especially given the state of the economy at this time. I would think they would want to do business with someone who is trying to give them money. I’m wondering if they treat all cash buyers in this manner since they will not make anything off the financing. I do know one thing for certain, despite my family having purchased three cars from this group of dealerships, I will make sure they and anyone else I know hears about this experience. I will definitely make sure that my family does not do business with this group of dealerships in the future. More