My hubby is shopping for an 08 Toyota FJ Cruiser. We had the most incredible (awful) experience at a dealership tonight.
Sorry this is so long, but I just had to RANT! This is a synopsis of the email that I sent to the sales manager. I was too upset to talk with him while we were there.
My husband and I walked over to the sandstorm colored FJ on the showroom. We looked at it approximately 15 minutes and since no one came over to ask if we needed any help, my husband flagged down a salesman. Unfortunately, we did not notice his name.
My husband asked him if they had had any complaints about vibration in the FJ at high highway speeds (65 mph) since we have read that some people have had that problem with the FJ. He stated that he couldn't answer that question, he didn't know.
My husband then asked him if the inside door plates on the silver FJ were always in the diamond plate. The salesman said that he "thought" that the diamond plating was an "add on" but he didn't seem sure about the answer.
Because the salesman was not able to answer either of these questions to his satisfaction, my husband (very pleasantly) asked if there was an "FJ guru" that he could talk to. The salesman said, "No"
So, my husband asked about hooking up electronic brakes to tow a small lightweight trailer. We know of a person who was told by a Toyota dealer (not not this one) that it would void the electrical part of the warranty if electronic brakes were "hooked up" in the FJ. This is very important to us, since we plan to tow a small trailer with the FJ. The salesman said that he would have to ask the warranty people because he didn't know. My husband said to him, "Well, you should know" and then my husband realized that was not a very nice thing to say at which time my husband said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound factious". The salesman replied, "Well you were". My husband smiled and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude" to which the salesman replied, "Well, you were rude"
I was stunned at what the salesman said to my husband. I could not believe that someone in sales was saying this to a potential customer. I had been silently observing these interactions but that was the last straw for me. I turned to the salesman and said that I thought, since the FJ was rated to tow 5000 lbs, that it was a reasonable thing to know whether or not you could install electronic brakes without voiding the warranty and that I too, thought that the salesmen should know the answer to that question.
Then to our disbelief, the salesman proceeded to tell my husband again that he was rude and not only was he rude, but that he was rude twice, once by asking for an FJ guru and again regarding the electronic brakes. The salesman then proceeded to state that my husband was rude a THIRD time because when he walked in the door, someone asked if he needed any help and he just walked past without responding.
That was the absolute straw for me. I was floored by that statement. I turned my husband's head to the side so that the salesman could see his hearing aids and said, "My husband is hearing impaired, if he did not respond to someone, it is because he didn't hear them, it was not that he was being rude". I then asked the salesman to leave us because we didn't want to talk to him any longer.
GUYS! I was so upset that I couldn't even talk to the sales manager. I asked for his card and then I sent him a loooong email detailing our "experience". I'll have to say that I have never been treated this way by any type of service personnel - I was absolutely STUNNED!!!
