Business ProfileforJay Wolfe Toyota of West County

Jay Wolfe Toyota of West County attempted to increase the price I agreed to pay by adding a non-disclosed fee of $499 to the purchase price of my vehicle. *** Wolfe agreed to a purchase price equal to MSRP (including base price, installed options, and delivery processing/handling fees) plus taxes, title, and license on December 10, 2021. When the car arrived on January 25, 2022, the dealer added an undisclosed doc fee of $499 to the price. Given that the price I was given already included a "deliver processing/handling fee", I did not expect the dealer to add an undisclosed fee to the already agreed upon price. I brought this to the attention of the salesman who told me that they would not waive the fee and that I should just pay it. I was told by the sales manager that the dealership had already accepted another deposit for the same car for $1499 more than I was going to pay, which included the fee. Since almost every car is sold before it hits the lot, the dealer knew I'd either have to pay the additional $499 or walk away without a viable option to purchase elsewhere. The dealer also knew I needed the car immediately because I had sold my car the week prior based on our agreement. The business practices of *** Wolfe are both deceptive and unethical. I filed a complaint with the attorney general and the response from Wolfe included deliberate misrepresentations of what occurred. The dealer said I was the one attempting to change the deal (they were raising the price.) Wolfe also said I had agreed to trade my car with them (not true - I told them they could bid on it, but they low-balled the offer. I sold my car for $4000 more. They knew up front the amount it would take to get the car, but offered $2500 less.) Wolfe also said they offered lower financing, but the financing they offered was a Toyota Sales Incentive. The dealer has been non-responsive to my complaints. I was able to purchase a vehicle from a reputable dealer a few days later.

************ came in and put a deposit on a Limited Venza in Dec. We had agreed to sell it to him for MSRP and agreed to his high number on his trade that made him very happy. We also mentioned that we will give him a low interest rate of 1.9% for financing, however, we never got to the application part. We gave him a spec sheet (no other paperwork was finalized at the time) to take with him. We always disclose our admin fee to every customer as we do when we discuss pricing. The dealer admin fee has nothing to do with what Toyota charges for delivery on their sticker and ************ is aware of that since he purchased many cars before as all dealers have an admin fee. He was also well aware of the admin fee going up and he knew that since he had called several other dealerships and everyone had a higher admin fee than $199 which changed in Sept of 2021. So despite giving him what he asked for on his trade in, he still decided to shop it to get more money for it. So he changed the terms of what we agreed on (verbally) which was disappointing for us because we are desperate for trades considering we are only selling about 40% of what we normally sell in new cars and most of the retailable trades come from new car sales. The used car market has been very unstable due to lack of availability in some cases. A customer has few avenues to sell a car or trade it in, but as a dealer we are always taking a chance on what the value might change to. The market has been correcting for the last 3-4 weeks and it will continue to do so which means many dealers who overpaid for trades will incur a major loss if these vehicles are not sold yet. We are glad that he was able to get more money, but we didnt get another chance to see if this is something we were willing to put into his trade which was way over market value. ************ was able to get $4000 more than market value on his trade, yet he was so upset and disrespectful about our admin fee despite everything we did to accommodate him including giving him a Toyota Sienna van to drive for a week for no charge. As the salesman was going over his paperwork in Jan and saw the admin fee, he became irate at the salesman and then went to the desk and started screaming at the sales manager demanding that we change our Admin fee that we had changed last Sept from $199 to $499. The manager told him that we have already accommodated every request you had, but was unable to change the fee that every customer pays at this point. He then screamed at him in the middle of the showroom, crumpled all the paperwork, started to threaten us with an attorney and said that he would blast us with bad reviews. My manager said, Sir no need to get this upset, we dont have to do business together, we have many orders that customers are waiting for and several of them are on a Limited Venza, so its not a problem to sell it to another customer Basically, we have over 206 orders and deposits (with less than 90 in the entire pipeline), and proceeded to give him his deposit back. We didnt have two people on the one we ordered for him, thats absolutely not true. The following day ************ kept sending texts to my salesperson to let him know that he is about to walk into his attorneys office unless we agree to his demand and did it again a few mins later saying that we will be hearing from his attorney. I am not sure what he might have shown his attorney if in fact he did see him. If we had a buyers order or finalized paperwork, it would have shown a $499, not a $199 admin fee like before. I am sure if this had come up on his end at the time of the sale, it would have been handled one way or another. So if this is the complaint that ************ is referring to the next day, there was no need to respond to such texts, anything else has been addressed including this complaint. We have moved on and ************ needs to do the same thing. We are a very reputable dealership and thats why we are one the most awarded dealerships in ********* and the Kansas city region, and after all, it is why ************ had purchased a few cars from us in the past. This is not just about money, its about building long term relationships and mutual respect. And this is why I would like to highlight some of our services which make us unique, not to mention what we do for many charities and our community. As of July of 2014 we started offering two additional complementary years of Maintenance on top of the two years that Toyota offers along with the 1st year of wheel and tire repairs, paint less dent repair. We also have a complementary bistro that offers breakfast, lunch, snacks, premium coffees, fresh baked cookies, popcorn and a variety of drinks as well as two spa grade massage chairs. We also have many promotions during the year where we offer long week resort trips, again its not just about the money, we do spend a lot of it to make sure our clients and our community is well taken care of. Our conclusion is that ************ overreacted and became very disrespectful (yelling) with the salesman and the sales manager and had no regards to other customers or employees in the showroom. He also assumed that no matter what he had asked for, he would get. We attempted to reach out to him the next day, however he didnt pick up and we didnt leave a message. I believe if he was cordial enough and had a friendly discussion, it wouldnt have come down to $299. Sincerely,Management.

Given that the dealer is ethically challenged, I'm unsurprised they would resort to outright lying in their response. Fortunately, I have records that show they are lying. Following the order of assertions in their response:1. I received an offer of $25,400 for my Accord from CarMax on 12/9/21, one day prior to contacting *** Wolfe Toyota. On 12/10/21, I showed the offer to ***************************** and told him the dealer would need to be close to the CarMax offer or I would not trade the car to them. I followed up with ***** on 1/6/22 and *** Wolfe offered $22,500 for my Accord. I replied that the minimum they'd need to offer was $25,000. ***************************** acknowledged that it was the cleanest used car he'd ever seen, but the highest they would go was $23,000. I replied that similar cars were selling for over $28,000, so I would not trade the car in. The dealer never made a competitive offer for the car, even knowing that the market for my car was substantially higher than they were offering. I sold the car for $26,500.2. I already had ****% financing through USAA prior to speaking with ***************************** on 12/10/21. However, I did agree to finance through Wolfe Toyota if they would match the financing. At the time I purchased the Venza from another dealer in January 2022, Toyota was offering ****% financing through Toyota ********* Services for all 2021 Venza's. I completed an online credit app on 1/17/2022 through *** Wolfe's website and also notified ***************************** at 11:14 a.m. on 1/17/22 that I had completed the application. Additionally, I offered to come in and complete the purchase in a text at 1/18/22 at 8:55 a.m. ***** replied that they would not complete loan application and paperwork ahead of delivery. 3. I have never paid any amount over the price I've negotiated with a dealer. In my experience, every time, once I agreed to a price, that is the price I paid. If the dealer had an administration fee or doc fee of any type, it was included in the price I negotiated. *** Wolfe had the opportunity on 12/10/2021 to disclose a doc fee either in writing or verbally - they did neither. If they had disclosed the fee on 12/10/2021, I would've told them exactly what I told ***************************** when he spoke to me on the phone that day - I'm not paying anything over MSRP. The dealer made a contract with me when they accepted my deposit and provided me paperwork showing the *** and total price, which included delivery and handling fees. The paperwork provided clearly indicates that the price did not include taxes, title, and license, but no other fees are called out.4. The dealer did not provide a Toyota Sienna for me to drive. However, given that the delivery of the car had been delayed by several weeks (I was told to expect delivery near the end of 2021), the dealer did provide a used ***** Accord to drive when the car again failed to show up by the estimated delivery date of 1/14/22-1/17/22. Not once during my wait did the salesman initiate contact to keep me informed of the arrival date of my Venza. Every contact about delivery was initiated by me, including 12/21/21 at 2:57 p.m. where asked for an update on arrival and was stunned to learn that the car still had not been processed out of the port of ********. While the delivery date was out of the dealer's control, they did provide a temporary loaner after the car was already 3-4 weeks late.5. At no time did I yell at anyone at the dealership. After being insulted by the behavior and attitude of the dealer (they acted as if I owed them the $499 for the privilege of buying from them!), I did not use my library voice anymore. Not surprisingly, I was angry with the surprise fee and wondered why it had not been disclosed previously. In addition, ******************* indicated that all the dealers were charging the same amount because they had a meeting and had decided to increase their fees to $499 (if true, that is collusion and should be investigated by the ******** Attorney General). I never screamed and I certainly never crumpled any paperwork (I still have the paperwork in perfect condition.) It's totally laughable and completely expected that *** Wolfe Toyota would fabricate details to make it appear that they were behaving professionally while I was not. They remind me of *****. 6. The dealer made not attempt to resolve this issue on the day of the sale. Knowing that it would be next to impossible to find a similar Venza anywhere in the local area, I offered to pay up to $200 more to settle the issue. ******************* declines and told me that I'd pay the $499 or they would sell it to someone else who had also placed a deposit on the same Venza for $1000 over MSRP plus the undisclosed $499 fee they wanted to charge me. After spending several hours trying to locate a car the next day, I was able to find a similar car at a dealership which was a two hour drive from my home. 7. I have contacted an attorney and may decide to pursue a legal remedy for deceptive sales practices under ******** law. I texted ***************************** offering to settle the matter without a lawyer, but never received a response. 8. I have filed complaints with Toyota Corporate, the Better Business Bureau, and the ******** Attorney General. Toyota Corporate has declined to intervene beyond asking the dealer to contact me directly (*** Wolfe has not contacted me since a text from ***************************** on 1/26/22 at 5:24. )9. Massage chairs, extended maintenance, and a coffee bistro do not mean that you are ethical. Past sales awards also don't prove that you behave honorably. My expectation for purchasing a car is that the dealership is upfront with both the price and availability of a car. That's not really a lot to ask. I've purchased many cars through the years and never had a dealer insist that I must pay an amount over the agreed upon price of the car. But, the other dealers aren't deceptive in their practice. The fact that ******************* stated that Wolfe already had accepted another deposit for the same car indicates that the dealership was playing one customer against another and had sellers remorse for agreeing to sell it to me for less than the second buyer. If you're thinking of buying from *** Wolfe, just know that they are deceptive in their business practices. From the undisclosed fee to the lies perpetrated in their response, you are taking unnecessary risk in your transaction. Again, I have proof (emails, text messages, documents) that show the true facts in this case. *** Wolfe only has lies coming from every person in the dealership.