On 5/18/26 I put a $500 deposit on a new 2026 Ford F150 - MikeC
On 5/18/26 I put a $500 deposit on a new 2026 Ford F150 XLT with the Black Appearance Package Plus at Empire Ford Lincoln of Huntington. The black package is a chrome delete option you pay extra for. Black 20” wheels, painted body color bumpers and black badging. The salesman, Fred Marotti, showed me the truck. It was parked under a tree at there service department back lot. The truck was filthy. He promised the truck would be spotless at delivery. I told him I wanted no dealership badging on my truck other than a license plate frame.
On 5/29/26 my wife and I went to pick the truck up. We went out to see the truck. Both side panels on the box had scratches from the tree branches where the truck was stored. The driver’s door had two chips in the paint on the edge. The front bumper was scratched. The FX4 decal on the bed had a scratch. The bed was dirty and filled with leaves and branches. When I pointed them out to Fred Marotti his response was “I will order you a bottle of touch up paint”. The imbecile actually thought I was going to hand paint chips and scratches on a brand new $67,925 truck.
I then looked down to see that the idiot drilled through the wheel lip openings on the back two fenders and the inner wheel wells. He mounted two large cheap chrome mud flaps with large rubber extensions behind the rear wheels. Of course they had Empire Ford logos on both. These were the hideous mud flaps you see on commercial dump trucks and landscaping trucks. Not what you would put on a chrome delete sport optioned personal truck.
We were in shock. I told him he voided the sale and we wanted our deposit back.
We went into the showroom. He wrote out a cancellation of sale receipt which he signed. He told us the $500 refund would appear back in our account within 5-10 business days.
We never got it. I called him and he would not return our calls. I called his manager, Sam Greene. He saw the refund was never issued. He promised he would submit it within 24 hours. He didn’t. I tried calling him at the dealership. He wouldn’t take my call or return my message. He used his receptionist, Elaine, as a shield to intercept my calls. You have to be a weasel to used a receptionist to hide behind. I have filed a dispute with my bank and credit card company.
My advice to anyone interested in buying a Ford is avoid Empire Ford Lincoln of Huntington. And at all costs avoid the two low lifes that work there. Fred Marotti and Sam Greene.
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