Hempstead Ford Lincoln

Great Sales, horrible service. I would like to start with a huge amount of praise for John Berto. He is the best car salesman I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. I would like to start with a huge amount of praise for John Berto. He is the best car salesman I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. I walked into the dealership hoping to just take a look at the 2015 mustang, I have researched it to the bone but wanted to wait till the 2016 Model year. That’s when I met John, his professionalism, knowledge and care was probably 60-75% of the reason I walked away that day with signed paperwork for a brand new 2015 Mustang GT Premium. He was very communicative and supportive throughout the 11 week wait period, and was able to meet me half way during any negotiations, even though the trade in price could have been better he was able to work with me on the price of the vehicle. He never actually tried to push me to buy the car, none of that usual dealer mind games. I will make sure to write a proper 5 star review for John. I was hoping that Hempstead Ford's excellent Sales department would carry over into their Service department, boy was I wrong. First the car came to me with a destroyed paint job, swirl marks and hard water spots. My guess is some genius decided to run a 42k car through their sand covered in-house car wash and then proceeded to wipe it down without much concern with a cloth that was used on 30 other cars that day. So, day one I was out 800 dollars on a three step paint correction. My only mistake was accepting the car in this condition. Fun did not end here though. During my first week of driving I discovered that the car’s front end was misaligned. It was not anything huge but not acceptable on a car that costs this much. So I set up an appointment for a week later and showed up. They hooked it up to some “on the spot” alignment system and told me everything was fine, and that if I want a more thorough check I would have to leave the car there that day. I did not have plans made for this so I asked for a loaner, which they said “absolutely not” to. So here I was with 3 hours wasted. Keeping in mind that I live almost an hour from this dealership. Came home that day and made another appointment for a week later and then brought it in again making sure I have a ride to work in back. At around 2PM(5 hrs later) I get a call from Charlie saying that they don’t have the alignment rack profile for a 2015 mustang and can’t align it until next month when they get upgraded in their system… Ok fine I said, I made yet again another appointment for a month and a half later, took the car in and half a day later they called me and said the car’s Toe was off after all and they fixed it. On my way home I saw that the problem was slightly better but still not all the way addressed. At this point I was done and to this point I haven’t bothered complaining to them. Fun continued about a month later when I went to check on my oil level and saw that my coolant level was way below the LOW indicator. This is a HUGE problem for a car with this big an engine so I took in right away without an appointment. This time I dealt with Peter who was very nice, added some coolant and said to keep an eye on it. So I did. I was about to go on a 6 hr road trip 3 weeks later and noticed that my coolant was low again, I was not about to wait more than a week for another appointment since this road trip was time sensitive. I came in and Peter would not even bother seeing me face to face until “I made an appointment”, it was a back and forth conversation with one of the technicians playing telephone until I got aggravated and demanded to speak with Peter directly. When I spoke with him this time he was very condescending. Said he will do nothing without an appointment and that I should stop driving around with low coolant. So there I was, no coolant, no fix, and no appointment that fit my schedule for more than 2 weeks. I barely got him to add more coolant at that point so I can actually continue my road trip. I tried making the appointment online, but their whole website is broken. As a web developer I cringe every time I go on it, you click “ Service” and it takes me to some unavailable page, they also took away the option to schedule online so I HAVE to call in and play a 20 min of back and forth with what’s available and what’s not. At this point I was done with Hempstead Ford, the car still only has 3500 miles on it and leaking coolant but nobody at the place that sold it to me actually cares, only 10% of the warranty miles and I was not ready to keep dealing with this for the rest of my warranty period. So I went to another unnamed dealership on Long Island. They have a properly functioning website and I can still schedule appointments online, so I made an appointment that next morning at 7 am for an appointment at 10 am THAT SAME DAY. All the service management people were very professional and courteous, told me I will be taken care of right away and actually tried to connect with me on a personal level. I mentioned the alignment issue as an afterthought after discussing the coolant issue, 30 seconds later one of the managers came out an offered to go on a ride with me to see the issue and was able to diagnose it within 5 minutes. This was something that was not offered to me at Hempstead Ford at any point, even though Hempstead ford put SEVENTEEN MILES on my mustang during the time they had it, guess one of the techs needed to get groceries. I asked about a rental and they said they will provide me with one even though their normal policy is not to give rentals on cars not purchased from them. Both my issues were fixed and I’m as happy as I can be, it cost me nothing and all it took was one visit. This other dealership will get its own 5 star review, but I have no choice but to put in a corporate complaint with Ford about Hempstead Ford. I’m not looking to screw anybody over but this level of misconduct needs to be addressed. I’m out hours of my life and 800 dollars for the paint correction. Ford takes this type of thing seriously since I spend hours daily on the Mustang forums and I cross messages with the Ford rep every once in a while. In 3 years when I plan on trading the car for a GT350 I will have to think twice about who I go to. On one hand John Berto is just plain amazing and it would be a pleasure dealing with him again, on the other hand buying a car from one place and servicing it at another just doesn’t make sense. More