Toyota of Alvin reminded me of why I, and most peo...

Toyota of Alvin reminded me of why I, and most people these days, don t like dealing with car lots (hints the success of online car buying platforms). I found the exact car that my wife and I had been looking for for months. The pre-owned vehicle met all of the criteria that we were seeking. I contacted the dealership and was assigned a salesman. This salesman started out ok, giving me information that I requested on the vehicle since we were having to drive 3.5 hours away to get the vehicle. Then, he went radio silent. Wouldn t answer calls or return texts. I asked very nicely if he was too busy with other customers, and that I didn t mind speaking with someone else. Still nothing. I called the dealership and spoke with another gentleman that said he could help me. He introduced himself as the sales manager, which come to find out, he was not. However, he was much more receptive, giving me all the information I requested. We agreed on a price and I told him we are coming in from out of town, so please have the vehicle ready to go when we get there. I out down a $1000 deposit. My wife and I arrived to find the vehicle filthy, even though he said previously that it was ready. There was food on the floor, soda sprayed all all over the ceiling, food crusted all over the place. The seat AC didn t work, AC vents were broken, missing fittings throughout the interior. On the exterior, I immoderately noticed an area that was covered in touch up paint that looked horrible. The salesman (new one we were assigned when we arrived) said it was grease from one of the mechanics hands from when they were doing the 4000 point inspection that was costing me an additional $1500. I told the salesman that it was obviously a terrible job trying to touch up scratches, to which he responded they could fix. Apparently it wasn t grease anymore.... My wife and I, knowing it s a used vehicle, knew it wouldn t be perfect, so we took it for a test drive. The vehicle smelt like SMOKE, and you could obviously tell the previous owner smoked in it A LOT. With all of this said, we brought the vehicle back from the test drive and said this wasn t going to work for us. The salesman got an attitude with us when we said we couldn t believe they would show us a vehicle in this condition. His response was that they had to detail the car after the sale went through. That was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I ve never gone to a dealership that displayed vehicles with French fries on the floor, coke sprayed all over the interior and broken items on the vehicle that were not disclosed. He then said, whatever, we have a line of people wanting this car! Talk about customer service! All that said, wasting an entire weekend for my family and I by completely misleading us and not having the vehicle prepared as they said they would. On top of that, no one was apologetic for the experience in the least! We got our deposit back and they let us walk out without trying to remedy the situation at all. I keep telling myself I am going to try purchasing a vehicle from an online platform (vroom, Carvana, etc), and now I am going to finally give it a try so I don t have to deal with a stealership ever again.