spikerS
09-25-2012, 11:32 PM
*EDIT*
This review was initially a positive one, until recent events have proven otherwise. See the bottom of this post to see what has changed this from a positive review into a negative one, and the back to a mostly positive one.
*/edit*
I know, we all hate stealerships. I hate them, I have been screwed over by them, and I hate sleazy salesmen. Despite best efforts in the past, I have been screwed over more times than I would like to admit. Having said all that, the experience at Marlborough Ford made me do a complete 180.
I am sure most of you know of the thread Baygirl and I started, looking for ideas and advice on a new vehicle...
http://forums.beyond.ca/st/358862/oh-my-god-not-another-one-of-these-threads-/
We decided to check out a few options that Ford offered. There was no particular reason we chose Marlboroguh Ford over any of the other Ford Dealerships, other than it was a few blocks from my work.
We went on the lot, and a salesman named Bruce Palin greeted us. We explained we were looking for a new vehicle, but we were still undecided on what, and that we were not going to be purchasing that day, we only wanted to see what was an option, and if it was something we liked, discuss price. Bruce was totally awesome. A little older of a guy, but had a kick ass 'stache, and was just as happy talking about motorbikes as showing us different things. We told him what we were looking for, and he immediately asked us if we would consider a F-150. We had nothing against it, and so on we went.
Showed us a charcoal grey F-150 with the ecoboost and we liked it, as did our 2 girls. We decided to take it for a test drive, and Bruce even helped us load the car seats into it, tacked on a plate and sent us on our way. Told us to take it for as long as we wanted, and if we ran out of gas, call him, and he would come put more in.
We drove it for about 25 mins or so, and we really liked it. Got back, and Bruce was right there, helping unload the kids and car seats. Went and sat with him in the office, and he pulls out the offer sheets, gets us a better than employee price, throws in a few extras, shows us what the payments would be. Says "that should give you something to think about". Shakes my hand and says to give him a shout when we are ready.
That was August 31st.
In the mean time, we went and checked out the Nissan Titan, Dodge Ram, Chevy Silverado, Toyota Tundra and a few others. We took our time, compared options, prices, ride, fuel economy, looks, everything.
After everything, we always looked back at the Ford.
3 weeks later, I gave Bruce a call. He remembered us, and had the worksheet he worked out with us still. We made arrangements to come in, and since he had that Friday off, arranged for us to work with a friend of his. We did this all over text messaging by the way. He informed us that the original truck we looked at had been sold to the CPS as a Ghost vehicle, but he had 2 more trucks exactly like the one we looked at, just different colors. He made sure his co-worker knew exactly which trucks we were interested in, and when we arrived, the other salesman was eager to help. The other 2 trucks were exactly the same, same price, same discount. (We chose the red one). We decided to put an offer in, and get the financing app done that night.
We worked with Derrick and Patricia in the financing office, and both were awesome. When we got our approval back, the finance rate was higher at 7.9% than what was being advertised (4.99%). Baygirl and I discussed it, and decided to go ahead with the deal anyways, and gave the green light.
We make arrangements, and Bruce, being the awesome guy that he is, agreed to come in way earlier than his shift was to arrange delivery. We arrived, and Bruce recognized us and welcomed us right away. Our truck was outside all sparkly clean and fully gassed up. They switched up our plates and gave us a run down of the truck. Everything was perfect.
I then went into the finance office, and Derrick greeted us warmly again. When he saw the finance rate, he sighed and shook his head, and before we could say anything, he calls back Ford Credit, and demands they review our approval. He said something to the credit guys like that if we didn't get the 4.99% he thought we were going to walk. I started to speak up saying that it was fine, we needed the truck and the extra bit a month was not going to be that big of a deal. He grins and just holds his fingers over his lips, and continues talking to Ford Credit.
4 mins later, he had us the 4.99% on a shorter term, with smaller payments. :eek: Sorry, but to me, that is unheard of. They had a solid sale at the higher rate, but he still goes to bat for us to save us money.
We took delivery of the truck, and drove off the lot, happy and excited that we had our new truck, and the surprisingly awesome sales experience.
We love our new truck, we had a great sales experience, and surprised by the honesty and flexibility Marlborough Ford showed us.
Having said all of the above, I would highly recommend Marlborough Ford to anyone thinking of buying a Ford product, and specifically, working with Bruce Palin. You won't regret it.
*Disclaimer* I am in no way affiliated with Marlborough Ford, nor am I getting any kind of referral bonus or kickback from this. This review thread is purely the opinion of mine and Baygirl's based on the experience we had in purchasing our new F-150.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/Snorakk/20120922_181830_zps17d90483.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/Snorakk/20120922_181807_zps4f94c9df.jpg
*New Updates*
When I purchased this truck, I told Bruce repeatedly that I would be using this truck to be towing an RV. In fact, we had a discussion in great length about camping. I specifically asked for a towing package installed on the truck because there was not one on the truck initially. This was written into the contract, and when I took delivery, I was also given a purchase order to take the truck to a hitch shop to have the towing package to be installed. The shop only installed a trailer hitch.
I never noticed anything amiss or missing until I started to make preparations for the upcoming RV season. Low and behold, only the stock 4 pin trailer wiring was there, no trailer brake, no oil or tranny cooler, and no 7 pin wiring. The above constitutes a towing package, even by the Ford website.
I called Bruce and the dealership, who initially told me that it was just an oversight, and that they would correct it. 3 days later, I get a call from the hitch shop, and not Bruce or Ford, who told me that the hitch was all they charged me for, and that if I wanted more, I was on my own.
I have now had everything installed, but it was done on my dime when it should have been installed by Marlborough Ford at their expense.
Just goes to further enforce the idea that these guys really are STEALerships.
*EDIT 2*
ok, well, i guess this goes back to being a mostly positive experience.
Just got back from Marlborough Ford and Darren, and I got a cheque for $150 some bucks, which almost brings me back to even for my costs to get this installed, close enough. Darren also went and inspected the wiring, and made sure it was done right.
apparently they sent over the PO to have it all done, but the hitch shop only charged for the hitch. So somewhere between the two, communications broke down, and resulted in this mess. However, good on Darren for picking up the ball and making things right again.
At the end of the day, I am glad that I am made whole (mostly) again, but I am really ticked that this happened in the first place, and that I got the run around. It definitely felt like they had completed the sale, got the cash, and then washed their hands of me. It took Darren Jacula getting wind of this to put this back on the right track.
This review was initially a positive one, until recent events have proven otherwise. See the bottom of this post to see what has changed this from a positive review into a negative one, and the back to a mostly positive one.
*/edit*
I know, we all hate stealerships. I hate them, I have been screwed over by them, and I hate sleazy salesmen. Despite best efforts in the past, I have been screwed over more times than I would like to admit. Having said all that, the experience at Marlborough Ford made me do a complete 180.
I am sure most of you know of the thread Baygirl and I started, looking for ideas and advice on a new vehicle...
http://forums.beyond.ca/st/358862/oh-my-god-not-another-one-of-these-threads-/
We decided to check out a few options that Ford offered. There was no particular reason we chose Marlboroguh Ford over any of the other Ford Dealerships, other than it was a few blocks from my work.
We went on the lot, and a salesman named Bruce Palin greeted us. We explained we were looking for a new vehicle, but we were still undecided on what, and that we were not going to be purchasing that day, we only wanted to see what was an option, and if it was something we liked, discuss price. Bruce was totally awesome. A little older of a guy, but had a kick ass 'stache, and was just as happy talking about motorbikes as showing us different things. We told him what we were looking for, and he immediately asked us if we would consider a F-150. We had nothing against it, and so on we went.
Showed us a charcoal grey F-150 with the ecoboost and we liked it, as did our 2 girls. We decided to take it for a test drive, and Bruce even helped us load the car seats into it, tacked on a plate and sent us on our way. Told us to take it for as long as we wanted, and if we ran out of gas, call him, and he would come put more in.
We drove it for about 25 mins or so, and we really liked it. Got back, and Bruce was right there, helping unload the kids and car seats. Went and sat with him in the office, and he pulls out the offer sheets, gets us a better than employee price, throws in a few extras, shows us what the payments would be. Says "that should give you something to think about". Shakes my hand and says to give him a shout when we are ready.
That was August 31st.
In the mean time, we went and checked out the Nissan Titan, Dodge Ram, Chevy Silverado, Toyota Tundra and a few others. We took our time, compared options, prices, ride, fuel economy, looks, everything.
After everything, we always looked back at the Ford.
3 weeks later, I gave Bruce a call. He remembered us, and had the worksheet he worked out with us still. We made arrangements to come in, and since he had that Friday off, arranged for us to work with a friend of his. We did this all over text messaging by the way. He informed us that the original truck we looked at had been sold to the CPS as a Ghost vehicle, but he had 2 more trucks exactly like the one we looked at, just different colors. He made sure his co-worker knew exactly which trucks we were interested in, and when we arrived, the other salesman was eager to help. The other 2 trucks were exactly the same, same price, same discount. (We chose the red one). We decided to put an offer in, and get the financing app done that night.
We worked with Derrick and Patricia in the financing office, and both were awesome. When we got our approval back, the finance rate was higher at 7.9% than what was being advertised (4.99%). Baygirl and I discussed it, and decided to go ahead with the deal anyways, and gave the green light.
We make arrangements, and Bruce, being the awesome guy that he is, agreed to come in way earlier than his shift was to arrange delivery. We arrived, and Bruce recognized us and welcomed us right away. Our truck was outside all sparkly clean and fully gassed up. They switched up our plates and gave us a run down of the truck. Everything was perfect.
I then went into the finance office, and Derrick greeted us warmly again. When he saw the finance rate, he sighed and shook his head, and before we could say anything, he calls back Ford Credit, and demands they review our approval. He said something to the credit guys like that if we didn't get the 4.99% he thought we were going to walk. I started to speak up saying that it was fine, we needed the truck and the extra bit a month was not going to be that big of a deal. He grins and just holds his fingers over his lips, and continues talking to Ford Credit.
4 mins later, he had us the 4.99% on a shorter term, with smaller payments. :eek: Sorry, but to me, that is unheard of. They had a solid sale at the higher rate, but he still goes to bat for us to save us money.
We took delivery of the truck, and drove off the lot, happy and excited that we had our new truck, and the surprisingly awesome sales experience.
We love our new truck, we had a great sales experience, and surprised by the honesty and flexibility Marlborough Ford showed us.
Having said all of the above, I would highly recommend Marlborough Ford to anyone thinking of buying a Ford product, and specifically, working with Bruce Palin. You won't regret it.
*Disclaimer* I am in no way affiliated with Marlborough Ford, nor am I getting any kind of referral bonus or kickback from this. This review thread is purely the opinion of mine and Baygirl's based on the experience we had in purchasing our new F-150.
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/Snorakk/20120922_181830_zps17d90483.jpg
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a334/Snorakk/20120922_181807_zps4f94c9df.jpg
*New Updates*
When I purchased this truck, I told Bruce repeatedly that I would be using this truck to be towing an RV. In fact, we had a discussion in great length about camping. I specifically asked for a towing package installed on the truck because there was not one on the truck initially. This was written into the contract, and when I took delivery, I was also given a purchase order to take the truck to a hitch shop to have the towing package to be installed. The shop only installed a trailer hitch.
I never noticed anything amiss or missing until I started to make preparations for the upcoming RV season. Low and behold, only the stock 4 pin trailer wiring was there, no trailer brake, no oil or tranny cooler, and no 7 pin wiring. The above constitutes a towing package, even by the Ford website.
I called Bruce and the dealership, who initially told me that it was just an oversight, and that they would correct it. 3 days later, I get a call from the hitch shop, and not Bruce or Ford, who told me that the hitch was all they charged me for, and that if I wanted more, I was on my own.
I have now had everything installed, but it was done on my dime when it should have been installed by Marlborough Ford at their expense.
Just goes to further enforce the idea that these guys really are STEALerships.
*EDIT 2*
ok, well, i guess this goes back to being a mostly positive experience.
Just got back from Marlborough Ford and Darren, and I got a cheque for $150 some bucks, which almost brings me back to even for my costs to get this installed, close enough. Darren also went and inspected the wiring, and made sure it was done right.
apparently they sent over the PO to have it all done, but the hitch shop only charged for the hitch. So somewhere between the two, communications broke down, and resulted in this mess. However, good on Darren for picking up the ball and making things right again.
At the end of the day, I am glad that I am made whole (mostly) again, but I am really ticked that this happened in the first place, and that I got the run around. It definitely felt like they had completed the sale, got the cash, and then washed their hands of me. It took Darren Jacula getting wind of this to put this back on the right track.