Chuck Luciano | Page 11

Mercedes-Benz of Edison - A Ray Catena Dealership responded

Good afternoon, we certainly apologize that you were not able to be approved on your desired vehicle by Mercedes-Benz Financial. As you are currently undergoing a bankruptcy, Mercedes-Benz Financial and our alternative lending companies require that you would have to re-establish your credit history prior to being approved on another Mercedes-Benz. Chuck and Joe worked diligently in an attempt to receive an approval. We pride ourselves on customer service and are completely committed to serving our client’s needs, although sometimes there are situations beyond our control . Even our MB Financial Representative had informed us that there was no other approval for you or your vehicle at another MB dealership in our area (or anything called in or sold to you). As you are a previous client, we have absolutely done everything in our power to try and get you approved and into your desired vehicle. We certainly empathize with you current situation, however we are not able to force the lending institutions into leasing you a vehicle. Should you re-establish your credit, please let us know and we can reconvene on another lease at a later time.

Mercedes-Benz of Edison - A Ray Catena Dealership responded

Mr. and Mrs. Swenson, My name is Jim Buchanan and I want to address your comments. I spoke with MBF this morning. They will not accept a trustee's letter and approve a lease or loan, period. That's not to say another bank will not. I am sorry as is the rest of our staff for the personal financial issues you are currently going through and we hope you can resolve them. As for yesterday Mr. Swenson, our staff, as well as Chuck and Robert, watched an attack on us that was not necessary. We were threatened with taking out a full page ad in the paper and Academy Bus being thrown around as your employer (who by the way are dear friends of mine, as well as customers). What transpired yesterday in our showroom was unacceptable! Not a single person called you or your wife a liar. We suggest you should try and get a vehicle that will work for you and your wife, while you get things straightened out. You cannot be angry with Ray Catena and its employees for not being able to get you approved on a lease or finance. In this case, MBF made a decision and that is at their discretion. We wish you well and hope we can help you down the road. I would personally appreciate a retraction from your comments because they simply are not true. Thank you for your time and attention in this matter. With respect, Jim Buchanan

Luckydo responded

Dear Ray Catena Mercedes-Benz, You are 100% incorrect with your response. First of all we were up front with your sales person and with Joe and told them we were in a Chapter 13 at this time. How did a dealership as large as yours not know the process that has to be done for people in our situation???? Anyone that is in the finance industry should know their job and how to do what needs to be done. It was one simple call and we found out what needed to be done. As my wife has told you over and over again before you submitted any credit application to Mercedes-Benz Financial what need to be done is that we got a copy of the sales agreement and submit that to our Trustee that oversees the Bankruptcy it takes them 5 days to get back to you. The application would have been approved since we are paying our car OUTSIDE of the bankruptcy. Do NOT call my wife or myself a liar that we are NOT approved by another dealership because we are. Maybe the other dealership knew the process and helped walked us through the process and once we received the approval from our trustee they called Mercedes Benz Financial and spoke to a supervisor and had the decision reversed. By the way Ray Catena handled this made a big mess because your company did NOT know the process. Then let me address how my wife was treated in your dealership yesterday........how dare anyone speak to my wife with such disrespect and threaten her that if she gives bad reviews or speaks badly about Ray Catena you will get your lawyers after her. YES that is what was said to her. She was also told that someone by the name of Harrison told you we were NOT approved. I myself contacted Mercedes Benz Financial today to find out that this person Harrison works for Mercedes Benz Financial and if he did give you any information on us he broke customer confidentiality and it is NOT allowed as I was told by Mercedes-Benz Financial. They will handle this with their employee and I sure hope you didn't cause someone their job. Between the way my wife was treated in your showroom yesterday and being threatened by someone that they will get the lawyer after her is just so disrespectful would you men like your wives to be spoken to like that by a strange man that doesn't even know her. She is disabled and NOT well and you caused her to be humiliated and made her very upset by saying she is a liar. That is NOT good customer service maybe if someone had sat down with her and let her explain the processes that needed to be done Ray Catena would have gotten the business not another dealer. If you pride yourself on your customer service you surely didn't show my wife any respect or had any customer service....REMEMBER the customer is always right even when they may be wrong you sit down with someone and listen to them not threaten them with your attorneys. We will NEVER return to Ray Catena and we will NEVER recommend your dealership to anyone. If my wife chooses to give a bad review because NO ONE there knew the processes of what needed to be done and the way she was treated in that showroom yesterday and threatened she has every right to give a bad review. You also should be very careful about giving out names of people that you have spoken to because now that employee will be spoken to by management and dealt with as Mercedes-Benz Financial assured me yesterday that their employees are trained NOT to give our any information unless it is the dealer they are working with and since we were NOT working with you any information you were given was given illegally there is a confidentiality and people's personal information is NEVER given out. If my wife chooses to see our attorney for the way she was treated and for the improper way the entire situation was handled I will back her up as I would never speak to a strangers wife in the way she was spoke to yesterday. As I have said many times through this note LEARN THE PROCESS......if you don't l know how to do your job then why do you have a job I certainly wouldn't have my job if I treated customers that way or if I did not know how to do my job. We are not the only people in this world that have this unfortunate situation going on. Lawrence Swenson

Luckydo responded

Dear Jim, We can go back and forth with he said she said all day long. As I stated first of all how does a company as large as Ray Catena NOT know the way to finance a car with someone in a Chapter 13 when all I did is made one phone call met someone at a dealership and we began the process. We ARE approved and what company is approving us is NOT your business that information does NOT have to be disclosed to you since you are NOT the dealership we are getting our new car from! I will again call MBF and tell them that Ray Catena seems to be getting information on us and why you are getting confidential information on a person is beyond us and is illegal for someone to give that out about someone. Your staff threw out the name Harrison NOT my wife I found out who that was and made the call to MBF and they will deal with that employee again it is illegal for anyone to give out anyone's confidently information and that we got from our attorney who handles our Bankruptcy. I do believe my wife as she would have not been that upset over a car which in the scheme of life is a very little thing...her health is much more important to me and what was done to her in your showroom yesterday was a disgrace. My wife did NOT throw Academy Bus around when she was at the service department she told the woman I worked for Academy Bus and there was a discount that Ray Catena gives to Acedemy employees and because your company did NOT know the proper way to finance a car with someone in our situation we were loosing the discount she never threw my employers name around all I do is work for the company. She only came into the showroom to show Chuck the paper that needed to be filled out and that is when it all went bad and this person Robert you speak of told her if she gave any bad reviews that you would get her attorneys after her our attorney did tell us that everyone is entitled to an opinion and can place a bad review on a public site there is nothing wrong with that that is why these sites exist. Again we can go back and forth all day long with he said she said I do believe my wife she does not lie especially over a car a car is NOT that important the fact that my wife is disabled and ill is more of my concern and for her to come home that up to make her sick something went on there. My wife is a calm and very generous woman and would NEVER cause a scene in a public place I have known her for over 25 years and never saw her cause any scene anywhere so I find that statement incorrect. My wife chooses not to retract any comments because they are true and your company as large as it is does not know the proper way to finance a person in our situation. We went around to many dealers and every single dealership we went into told us the way we needed to get approved and we followed the process and within 3 days were approved. As I wrote we pay our car OUTSIDE of the Bankruptcy it is NOT part of the Bankruptcy. We are now ending this conversation with Ray Catena all it does is upset my wife and I do have a job to do and need to focus on my job not he said she said! Lawrence Swenson

Luckydo responded

Jim, One last thing so you know this, I myself spoke to Chuck about 2 weeks ago and he told me himself that your company tried to get us financed in many different ways if that was true how did your company NOT know the process of someone in Chapter 13???? You yourself in your note to me says that it does NOT mean we can not be approved a different way. I wonder if your finance people or Chick really did this because if they did they would have known the process. That is what started this entire situation if your finance department would know the processes they would have told us like the other dealerships have. Maybe your finance department needs to be retrained in the correct process and how could Chuck have told me himself that he tried many ways but did NOT have a letter from our Trustee. Lastly, my wife sent many e-mail to Chuck and the staff and NO ONE ever returned an e-mail or made a phone call to her is that Good Customer Service that you say you pride yourself on???? Why didn't someone just call her or me and discuss the matter instead had her sitting there for weeks wondering what is going on!!! Again I will NOT do he said she said of my wife came hope that upset and is sick over all of this today due to her medical conditions something went on there because my wife does not get upset over tiny things like a car. What she drives is non important to her she barley drives these days so what she drives is not important to her it was important to ME that she be in a Mercedes-Benz because I want her to be safe when she is driving due to her medical conditions. Please learn the processes of people in our situations or maybe Ray Catena doesn't like to deal with people in our situation it is too much work for them. Take care, Lawrence Swenson