Five Star Ford

I purchased a 2015 F150 from Five Star Ford Lincoln in Warner Robins GA. I had to have a co-signer. The following day I find out that they have put my co-signer on the tag and title. (Most people assume that a co-signer has to be on the tag and title, but that is not true. If you co-sign and get put on the tag and title you are not only responsible if the buyer defaults on payments, you can also be sued if the buyer has an accident and gets sued). I went back and told them if the co-signer was not taken off the tag and title then the sale was over and I would not accept the vehicle when it arrived. The Finance Manager claims to have called the bank and have my co-signer removed from the title. He also says it will increase my payment amount. The new sales contract was signed and only I signed the tag and title forms. I asked if the old contract was going to be shredded and he tells me yes it would. I pickup the vehicle a couple of days later. A week later I call the tag office and find out Five Star Ford still had my co-signer on the tag and title. I call them and ask why did this happen. I am told that the wrong contract got submitted by mistake. The one that was to be shredded got put back into the sales folder and they sent it in instead of the correct one! They ensure me that this mistake will be corrected and for me not to worry. Fast forward over a month later with several trips there, phone calls to them and a four page letter to the General Manager they say that they cannot change what they did. I had to refinance the vehicle even before my first payment in order to get my co-signer removed from the title. As a result of having to refinance it will cost me an additional $1152.00 during the length of the new loan.  The General Manager finally admitted to me that they made a mistake but that it was out of their hands. Plus during one of my trips to the dealership I am on the sales floor trying to get the receptionist to find the manager and I am suddenly surrounded by salesmen acting like bouncers. Then the salesman I bought from says "I liked you at first, but now you are getting on my nerves"! There is no communication between staff members at Five Star Ford. I have also found out that they ran my co-signers credit as if they were the buyer and not the co-signer. All they care about here is getting another sale and moving to the next one. They do not care about the problems their mistakes cause the customer.

.

UPDATE 10 SEP 2014: Through the course of my research and communications with the dealership, I ascertained what I believe to be the reason behind the dealership's lack of response to me. The salesman, Dominic Turner, provided me with false information during his sale of a car to me in an attempt to manipulate me into buying the car quickly because he knew I needed a car immediately, and I had not shown interest in any of the cars he showed me. He told me the car had been serviced by the dealership. Garry Britt confirmed to me that it had not been. The mechanic in Columbus, GA who serviced it immediately after its breakdown told me the engine had no leaks but that the engine had about 1 quart of oil in it, and had likely not had a change in a long time. I did get back into contact with the dealership after calling Mr. Turner directly over the issue in April, 2014. He was very unprofessional over the phone, having raised his voice at me during the conversation over the phone. I was told I could get in touch with the management team, as all of them knew about the issue. However, none of them ever made a single attempt to contact me first to resolve my problem. They washed their hands clean of it as quickly as they could to hope I would not discover the false information I was provided. Once they ceased responding to me at the end of April for my requests. I waited some time and filed a BBB complaint on 9 JUL 2014. They did not respond after 4 attempts at contact from the BBB until 21 AUG 2014. This was the day before the complaint was to be closed due to no business response. They did not address the fact that they had employed deceptive practices (illegal in all states, AS-IS or not) to sell me the car. They hid behind the AS-IS contract and made a menial offer as and quot;good faith effort,and quot; which is the BBB's buzz word in order to close a complaint. I offered a rebuttal of less than half the damages I can show as a direct result of this, and they ignored me. They have since refused contact with me. The general manager has known about this throughout the whole time I've been dealing with this problem. I sent him a formal demand letter outlining the issue and my hopes for resolution. He did not even acknowledge it except by signing for it from the USPS. He knows that I have been trying to get in touch with him, yet he has thus far refused to get in touch with me concerning this. No one has ever apologized to me directly for what has happened and the immense financial strain it put on my wife and kids while we only had one car at Fort Benning while my wife was pregnant and also taking care of our other two boys.



This dealership has employed deceptive practices and the worst demonstration of customer service and relations that I have personally ever witnessed. I struggle to even find anecdotal examples of worse customer service than this. The management team, having known about my problem for over a year now, has never once initiated contact with me to even apologize.

If you are going to utilize this car dealership, I would recommend bringing a discrete audio recorder, which you can buy decent ones (personally recommending Etekcity's USB audio recorders) online at amazon.com for less than $16. Georgia, per Ga Code Title 50, Chapter 14, is a One-Party Consent state to audio recordings in a non-private setting, meaning you do not have to tell a salesman you are recording what they say. 37 Other states operate with similar one-party consent laws. It is federal law that you only need one-party consent (deferring to state laws for two-party consent), unless the conversation is happening interstate.



I searched around for a Used car for several weeks. I know I did not want to buy a used car that wouldn't make it a month, which is what nobody wants in a used car buying experience. That's exactly what happened to me.

I bought a used vehicle at the beginning of August. It didn't make it another three weeks. It was a 2006 Ford Escape. It had less than 100k miles on it. I was told that it was driven very easy and was assured by Dominic Turner that it would last at least another year or two. I was told so many good things about my Ford. So, since I only needed it to last basically a year, I signed an and quot;AS-IS.and quot;



So, three weeks later- less than 2,000 more miles on the car- I've got engine stalling, knocking, and extremely rough idling. It hardly starts. I took it to a mechanic who gave me a $2650 estimate that I know is reasonable for what he described to me. Major engine repair needed. I would have to at least replace bottom parts of the engine and some bearings. He suggested replacing the engine with a used engine.

I made many attempts to contact them by e-mail and by phone. I tried contacting the salesman directly with absolutely NO feedback or response. When I received a call from the business asking me to call them back. I called them back less than half an hour later and no one knew who called me or what I was calling for. Seeing as how I'd been receiving solicitations in response to my requests for assistance, I assumed it must have been a solicitation call. Then, I guess someone actually read my complaint and decided to pretend they didn't know what I was talking about. When I was transferred to a manager and I told him about everything I was verbally promised- yes, of course it means nothing, but I assumed integrity meant something to a business as large as this one- the manager didn't even respond. He sat on the other end of the phone in silence. I said, and quot;So I guess you're just going to tell me I'm **** out of luck, aren't you?and quot; His response was just and quot;Well......and quot; I said very professionally, and quot;Thank you for your time,and quot; to which he hung up on me. I never even received an apology or a and quot;Sorry for the inconvenience.and quot;



I have been mistreated before by a business, but to be so plainly ignored? They never made any attempts to reconcile this with me. Not even to apologize. I have just now been able to save up the money to pay for it. FIVE. MONTHS. LATER. Sure, maybe I should have gotten the extended warranty for a car with less than 100k miles driven less than 15k miles a year with only one previous owner. However, the salesman convinced me it would be unnecessary, so I didn't.



I understand and quot;AS-IS.and quot; I may have to replace a starter, an alternator, maybe even some fuel injectors. Major engine repair, though? That's ridiculous. I refuse to believe that a reasonable business who has a modicum of respect for their customer base would treat their customers so impudently. However, go read other reports elsewhere. I know I was not the only one to have terrible customer service.

Again, my salesman was Dominic Monterro Turner. I would never recommend anyone buy a car from this dealership or this salesman. Neither at Five Star Ford nor anywhere else.

After a harrowing experience at Five Star Chrysler, the manager at Five Star Ford was able to take charge and get the job done.

I had my wife's BMW Z3 detailed for her birthday. I have had routine services such as tire and oil changes done at the Ford dealership on my non-Ford vehicles for years...and on my Ford vehicles before that, but had not had any vehicles detailed there. I was very pleased with the results. The inside and out had been thoroughly cleaned, polished and/or Armor Alled and the engine compartment steam cleaned. I have had as week to look the car over and have absolutely no complaints.