This situation is absurd! You are so being treated like crap and I would not stand for this. Please don't let them get away this. Toyota corporate 310-468-4000 as well as Lexus area office (Western 949-727-1977, Central 630-505-0535, Eastern 973-884-1011, Southern 770-777-9770). When contacting Lexus area office ask to speak with District operations manager for that area. DO NOT waste your time with 800-25-LEXUS as you will not get anywhere.

 

Yep I agree with others that you should take your business elsewhere if possible. The only fighting words they'll understand is "I am taking my business elsewhere."

 

I agree, that is some shady service. I also would go elsewhere. Not to get off the subject, but why has this site been so negative lately? Why are people so quick to report on bad service and never pass along info on the good? I know there are some dealers that actually go out of their way to help people out. I get my service done by one tech and we're on a first name basis. I know he has personally owned 2 lexus cars and he trusts this company enough to have his parents and siblings driving either a lexus or toyota. If I stop in with a question he'll always make time for me. The rest of the staff is just as friendly but I've built up a relationship and trust with this one person. As a result, I don't feel like I'm getting bent over or getting the cold shoulder. I would never call it the "stealership". All it took was just a minimal effort on my part. The good ones are out there.

 

If you wanted this type of treatment you could have just bought an American made car.

Run, fly away. I wouldn't take delivery of a free pastry from this place. Until they have your money I wouldn't even deal with them. Wash your hands and be done with them. You'll quickly have a reputation with them although you have done nothing wrong.

For something positive I love driving my 2007 ES 350. I had to go pick up my laptop from someone’s house that my wife had loaned it to. She apologized for not bringing it to us saying she had family coming into town. I told her I didn’t mind. Coming to her house gave me a reason to drive my car.

 

Expectations are to be treated better at a Lexus dealer over an American car dealer. When it does not happen, BANG. Plus the price you pay for an ES350 versus a Milan / Fusion / Malibu entitles you to a little something better.

 

When will Toyota/Lexus Corporate get a clue and fix the widespread problem they have with dealerships providing poor customer service? In particular, the service departments at most dealers I've been to have done sloppy work, exhibited arrogance when I've returned with unfixed problems ("it's normal", "they all do that" attitude), broken parts (everything from plastic trim to electronic modules and servos) or not properly put the car back together (unconnected light harnesses, unsecured interior panels, etc.). One reason cited by many for picking Lexus is the "Lexus experience". To me, this means I should get a level of customer service at my US-based Lexus dealer that's commensurate with that provided by Toyota dealerships in Japan.

All cars have problems; it's how the company (and its front line representatives, the dealerships) treat the customers that tells the customer their business is valued (or not). It's high time for Toyota/Lexus to fix this problem. Lexus Corporate needs to put adult supervision at every Lexus dealer -- a corporate rep who randomly polls customers of the sales dept, randomly sits in on salesperson-customer purchase negotiations, randomly invokes inspections of vehicles in the service dept to determine how well previous visits' repairs/maintenance were done (to include pulling apart parts of the car to expose areas previously worked on for inspection), and to provide constructive feedback. Right now, the only quality feedback loop at the dealers is the phone survey, done by the dealer, which is not impartial. "Hello, this is Sly's Lexus, I'm doing a survey about your last visit, can I put you down for all "outstanding" scores for the service we did for you?".

 

OTOH, I've dealt with three different Lexus dealerships and each met or exceeded my expectations. No doubt there are some out there that need improvement though.

 

Here's the update:

I tried to reach the District Operations manager, who was traveling, and instead reached the Area Customer Satisfaction Manager (he described his territory as Maine to Florida). Despite his title it does not sound like his job description included helping me; nevertheless he was professional and courteous and he read my email correspondence with the dealership as well as a link to this thread (his quick response included a response to something that he only knew by reading what I sent to him). He told me that he was working with the dealership to resolve my issue and by the end of the day I did hear from the dealer who made an offer regarding ongoing maintenance expense. Since I do not put many miles on the car the offer probably has limited economic value to me but they said they had no room on the price. And even though my car was again promised for yesterday I was told it would be ready for pickup tonight (oh well).

For those who said I should walk away from these folks my decision came down to this: I felt like I finally had their attention, I would take some risk on the return of my current car going to a new dealer (this dealer has signed off on the condition of my current car) and the new dealer was 30 miles away (a taxi and a train ride). Maybe if I was in a different frame of mind I would have gotten some satisfaction in going elsewhere but in the end this is just not the right time for me to do that. I do recognize that I now might have a negative reputation with this dealer, despite no fault of my own, but I also have some phone numbers.

I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has offered me advice and encouragement. Your guidance helped me through a rough spot.

 

Just make sure you check out the prep of the car / everything works etc and take it back if there is something amiss.

 

I just sent this email to pretty much everyone involved. I will return my current car in the morning and figure out where to go from here.

Email:


I just learned that my new car was damaged, and I am getting another car. Nobody from Lexus has bothered to call me to tell me this and to alert me to change the insurance. Which means that I would have shown up tomorrow to pick up a car with the wrong VIN number on the insurance card.

My original salesman just happened to mention it in a conversation with me. His exact words: 'this is a cursed transaction'.

 

the story doesn't seem to end not in good way in any event. Not that it matters in the scheme of things but on any new car purchase you have 30 from purch date to show/get proof of insurance.
Let us know what you decide...are you getting same color car from them or moving on ? good luck !!

 

When we got our new car, we kept our insurance with the same company. The agent said just to notify them with details on the new car within 6 days of purchase and they'd make the changes to the policy. Not sure what our state law requires.

 

Cancel the transaction and move on. It is beyond cursed. Time to start fresh with someone else. This dealership has never treated you very well. I wish I was in NY to give you a ride to a different dealership.

Whatever the hassle of buying from a different dealership would be it wouldn't be that much more of a hassle than what you've already gone thru. Time to move on.

And when you're driving your new car from a dealership that treated you right you'll enjoy it that much more.

Seriously, please buy your vehicle from someone else. They aren't the only Lexus dealer in the world.

 

Like others have said, walk away from the crummy dealer. The ES350 is readily available at any dealer, unless you want some rare color or option configuration. Even if the one car you are currently negotiating for is one of a kind, any other dealer can do a swap with the dealer that currently has the car and sell it to you.

If you're limiting yourself to the current dealer due to lack of transportation to a more distant one, don't. You can always negotiate and settle on a price over phone or email, and then take a train to a station near the new dealer and have the salesperson give you a lift to the dealership. Back when the Prius was in high demand and had 6-12 month waiting lists, people would seek out any dealer in the US who had the car, take a flight to an airport near the dealer's city, and meet the salesperson at the airport for a ride to the dealership to close the deal and drive home. If they really want your business, they'll make reasonable efforts to accommodate you.

 

I had a 9 am appointment today to return my current car (10 day lease grace period expires tomorrow). I waited for fifteen minutes, surrounded by a bunch of Lexus guys including the GM, nobody made a move to unscrew the license plates and get me out of there so I started to do it myself. I took my father's handicapped placards, my Bruce Springsteen bootlegs. The GM tried to put pressure on me to take the car that his salesperson said is "cursed" since they had prepped it for me. Finally they brought me the odometer reading to sign and date (I made them add a note about the car's condition - they wrote 'perfect'); I knew today's date - it's my birthday.

My reluctance to travel to get the car from another Lexus dealer was not about picking up the car but servicing it. Do I really want to go back here to do that? I am still waiting to hear from the Territory Manager to see if he would be willing to set up a deal for me at another Lexus dealer so I don't have to start from square one. I am not looking for anything exotic: a 350 Nav, dark color exterior, tan interior, gas pedal factory fixed. The GM told me that he had no room on the price because he was selling me this car for $400 under his cost.

I guess I will try a Mercedes Benz next week. Despite these issues a 350 feels like 'my car'.

Thank you.