4 years ago
I bought my 2012 Dodge Ram a month ago and i am st...
I bought my 2012 Dodge Ram a month ago and i am still angry about the deal i got. No, they did not hold a gun to my head to make me sign the contract - but they did check on their computer and assure me I was mistaken about the low price offered for Dodge Rams with the 350 Hemi engine and regular cab and no extras. They told me no one in the area had any such vehicle for sale at the price that I had found online, over the months that i had researched this vehicle. I wanted to get a truck soon and I was tired they made it sound simple: just give them all the money I had and they would take care of everything - set me up with the insurance agent right away and get me the extended warranty that I needed since the truck was 2 years old.
- for another $1,880.00, which took up the last of the money i had in savings.
The next day I found that another dealer in Phoenix did have the 2014 model of this truck at several thousand dollars less than what I paid Chapman Dodge for a 2012..
I felt cheated. Worse I felt humiliated - that these people, acting so courteous and polite, had duped me so badly. When I consider the extra cost for that warranty I thought that what good did it do me to have to buy a warranty, when I should have waited one more day and gone to the other dealer and purchased the truck that I wanted - the one that was Truck of the Year in 2013 and 2014 - without that extra cost for a warranty that would have been unnecessary if I had the new truck.
In fact I tried to trade my 2012 in to another dealer in order to buy their new 2014 model - of course i would have lost several thousand dollars in that deal, due to the tax and licensing fees, et cetera, but i would have ended up with the truck I wanted. That dealer refused to make the deal - whether he believed he would be in conflict with another dealer or not I don't know.
I don't want to say the salesmen at Chapman Dodge were dishonest - I don't want to get sued for libel - but they told me plainly that this 2012 truck was the closest to my ideal truck - a 2014 Ram, with hemi engine - and they told me this model sold out quickly so there were no more of them around.
I understand that car dealers are able to locate the vehicle you want if they don't have it in stock, and get it delivered from another dealer. But the Chapman salesmen told me there were no trucks at the price I had found online.
And a week or so after I bought the truck Chapman had new 2014 models for sale at about that price I had originally told them I expected to pay - with the discounts from Chrysler.
I know I even went back and tried to sell the truck back to Chapman Dodge - willing to eat a loss of several thousand, on top of the thousands that I had wasted on the extra fees - so that I could take this smaller amount of money to the other dealer to buy the 2014 - but Chapman's salesman refused to talk to me.
Friendly, polite. Not the kind of people you want to deal with - there are other Dodge dealers around Phoenix who will sell you trucks at a set price, with no nonsense - and a much lower price than Chapman.
May 13, 2015
Still mad at Chapman Dodge. I took my 2012 Ram in for the 48,000 mile maintainence service and they ripped me off badly again. The regular oil change and check up should have cost me $37.00. ANd I expected they would want to change the ATF, which Dave had advised me to get done at the 40,000 mile service, though it is not due until 64,000 miles. I could see the ATF was dirty, but I did not see that a power-flush (@$48.00 was needed), and he said that if the differential needed work it could run me another 189.00.
So, in the customer lounge I was thinking it could cost me a little over 200.00 . Dave came in and told me - not an estimate of the work recommended but - a bill for the work done, totalling 546.00.
I could have bought a new Dodge Ram from an honest dealer for less than the cost of this 2-year-old ride from Chapman. They cheated me again.
23 Oct 2018 I have just re-read this Review that i wrote in 2014 and 2015 and the rebuttal by Jamie Cox at Chapman Dodge.