Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Homer Skelton Ford, Olive Branch, MS

Homer Skelton, 6950 Hanna Cove, Olive Branch, MS 38654.

I'm not putting a link to their web page for what I think are obvious reasons. 

Near the beginning of this year, 2020 I bought a car from Homer Skelton Ford in Olive Branch. Everything was fine during the purchase. I test drove the car but mentioned to the salesman that the HVAC display, the display that shows you the air conditioner settings, was out which was a known common problem on C5 Corvettes. 

He assured me it wasn't a problem since the dealer had an "IOU" program which allowed them to sell a car with a written guarantee to fix any agreed upon issue. I completed the sale and of course kept a copy of the IOU. I was referred to the off-site repair shop that handles all of their non-Ford related repairs.

After about two months of waiting for the part to come in, I was told it had finally arrived and I could go by the shop and have it replaced, which I did. I waited about an hour for the mechanic, Gus Ehrett to replace the display after which when he brought the car back to me, it was still completely not working. I had a feeling that he hadn't actually done anything but I couldn't prove it. Again, I was assured there was no problem since the part had a warranty so he would order a replacement and call me when it came in. After several more months of being put off by Gus as well as several different managers at the dealer, being told the part hadn't come in, a part that is readily available, I finally went to the dealer about two weeks ago to see if I could get the problem resolved.

First, I sent an email to the dealer requesting help and was referred to and set up with an appointment for a lady named Susan. After I arrived at the dealer I was informed that Susan was in charge of internet sales and had nothing to do with customer complaints or repairs.

After about 10 or 15 minutes of waiting, a guy came out (I don't remember his name) and said he would check into it and see what he could find out. After about 10 minutes he came back out and asked me a few questions then disappeared to the back again for a while. When he came back out this time he asked if I new how much the repair cost and I replied that I did because I had done it to another Corvette I used to own, but that wasn't really my problem because I had a written guarantee that the dealer would repair it for me.

He then informed me that there was no record of any part ever having been ordered and that they "had a check written for $200." I asked him what he meant and he said that they would give me $200 to forget the written guarantee and do the repair myself. 

At this point, I was so angry I agreed just to be done with it which is probably all they wanted in the first place. He disappeared again for about another 20 minutes to get this check that had supposedly already been written and when he came back out I informed him that I was agreeing because I was just tired of messing with it but I would never spend any more money at the dealer, and he clearly just didn't care.

Yeah, many car dealers are sleazy, but I didn't expect them to outright lie to me and to keep jerking me around for almost 7 months. I've dealt with plenty of car dealers in my life, I've owned a bunch of cars, but I've never dealt with one that just outright lied to me like this.

I also realize many people will say they had a great experience at Homer Skelton. Just be warned. Apparently they are fine taking your money, they just don't care about you after that.

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