Dealers Blacklist

Okay, I'll try to do this in a constructive way. I have had two terrible incidents with Bentley Long Island in the past three years.

First was an attempt to purchase a 1999 355 Spyder. Bentley Long Island represented the car as a Euro car. Upon my request they disclosed the vehicle was originally from Canada and sold by them to the last two owners. Okay so far… I further asked if the 355 still had the KPH odometer or if it had been swapped to MPH. I was told it was MPH but they magically had no documentation about the odometer switch (and CarFax didn’t show the vehicle until 2002 in the US). Additionally (on the same Spyder) they refused to send any of the services records they claimed to have; in fact they claimed to have personally serviced the vehicle since 2002 for both US owners. They were certainly trying to cover something up.

Second was a Mercedes S500. I won the vehicle on E-bay after much verbal and written communication stating the vehicle had “no prior damage” and looked like new. Upon arriving at the dealership (flight from Phoenix to NY) it was very obvious the entire car had been poorly repainted. Not only was the paint poorly done it wasn’t even a base coat + clear coat, it was a one-step paint. The front driver’s turn signal looked a little crooked and upon touching it – it fell out as it wasn’t even screwed in.

I didn’t buy either car but wasted lots of time and money listing to their “detailed in-depth descriptions”. In the future, I will stay away from Bentley Long Island.

 

never heard of any seller doing this. I'm shocked. good reason to get a ppi.

 

I think this is a dangerous idea.
On a web where thousands can review you will always find a disgruntled person. "Blacklisting" a dealer because of such gripes may be overkill. Every dealer on occassion will "have a bad day," does that mean they need to be dragged through the mud here....I think not.
People can write their own gripes as time goes on, usually in the regional sections.....no need for a "list" IMO.

 

Agreed. I deal with auto dealers every day, and as part of my business I keep information about their reputation and which ones to stay away from so my clients don't get burned. However, even the best ones do have bad days, bad salesmen, bad cars, etc. There are ones that are notoriously unethical, but people are usually quick to blacklist one dealer just because of one bad transaction.

 

Not defending dealers here, not a lawyer, but there may be legal implications with a "blacklist". Could be considered an Unfair Trade Practice , Federal Regs etc. Best to voice "opinions" informally. If a buyer is truly wronged, there are ways to get reimbursed for fraud committed involving a purchase and sale agreement. Did you sign a P&S prior to your flight out?

 

A blacklist implies that there are just a few bad dealerships. Avoid them and you'll be fine.

I prefer a different approach. Most dealerships are bad, not good. The few good dealerships get rave reviews time and again.

If the dealership with whom you are considering doing business has no positive, rave reviews, then you can mentally consider it to be yet another unethical dealership.

The good dealers are the exceptions, not the rule. Find their rave reviews (a much smaller task than finding the bad dealerships simply due to the numbers involved) and you've found someone worthy of your business.

And this is a positive way to handle it. Blacklists, in contrast, are a negative approach.

 

This is an interesting idea. how about a F-Chat approved dealer listing? These would be the guy's to deal with. Not on the list, well you better improve your business model and get on it.

 

Now that may be worth pursuing. When a group of people conspire to create a blacklist that is an illegal trade practice - to create an approved listing based on a great experience - priceless

 

Thats a good point
However i think your conclusion where "if its not on the list you can consider it another unethical dealership" might be a little harsh.

 

Okay, I'll be happy to start a dealers "whitelist".

Over the past 25 years or so, I have bought 8 Ferraris from Nick Soprano at Motor Classic Corp. in White Plains, NY. I have been thoroughly satisfied by each transaction.

The latest 4 have been purchased "sight unseen", since I now live in Las Vegas. In each case, the car has been as good as, or BETTER than, it was represented.

Of the 8, two have turned out to have mechanical problems which might possibly have been detected by Nick, although it would have required more than extensive examination and driving. Both times, Nick made the problem right: for the one that occurred while I was still in NY, he repaired it at no charge; for the one on a Vegas car, he reimbursed me for nearly the full cost of repairs done locally.

I'd put Motor Classic on the "FChat approved" list without question.

 

"whitelist" - love it.

 

Right, and that's fair to label my approach a bit harsh...but it's sort of a better safe than sorry tactic.

 

The dealerships that get recurring rave reviews from numerous buyers for selling Ferraris are:
Sport Auto in the Carolinas
WWOC
Algar in PA


Now, that being said, from my limited personal experience I'd have no problem buying a Ferrari from Ferrari of Atlanta...and if enough people agreed then you might add them to the whitelist.

 

This can be a bad idea, because as was said dealers do have bad days and some deals end up with unexpected barbs. In essence it does have merit, but it could get out of hand.

As to issues of libel, a reminder to all that truth is an absolute defense. So, if in fact what is reported is truthful, there can be no action for the libel.

What becomes of concern, however, is the faithful reporting of actual factual circumstances.

I think it may be better to post a question as to one's experience with a particular seller and then ask for responses by PM or private e-mail from members.

If you have ever been in business you'll quickly find out you just can't make everyone happy.

Take this for what it's worth.

 

I think something like this would work.

http://1.8t.org/dealers/

Its for VW/Audi dealers, but one for F-Cars would be neat.

You can give kudos for good service or explain your greivances for bad service.

 

Hi guys,
I am definitely in favour of a "White List" or a "Recommended List" based on positive experiences.
By not providing this type of feedback to the community at large we are in fact subsidizing the bad ones.
Saluti,

 

I can second the thumbs up for Sport Auto, in Greensboro NC (www.sportauto.cc). Steve Barney is the owner, he used to be one of the founders/owners of Foreign Cars Italia, also in Greensboro. No one knows more about Ferrari than he, and he has a loyal following of enthusiasts in the area. I am now in Florida, but would only buy a Ferrari from Steve.

 

Another dealer you typically see a number of rave reviews for is Ferrari of Washingtion (FOW).

I personally have had three great car buying experiences with them and several excellent service visits. In my case, they were honest and helpful. They are not inexpensive but I never felt I was being gouged on price. In fact, they were always fair and realistic on both car trade-in/purchase deals and any non-trivial service items.

 

I"m for the positive approach.

However, on another note regarding Black-list;I think some have taken a seemingly contrived, cold war term and applied some concept of present day legality to it. There is nothing that I am aware that precludes, anyone from "blacklisting." It has no meaning, there is no purpose, blacklists outside of there interpretive purpose mean nothing. There is however another internet spam blacklist:



Blacklisting is a process of actively monitoring the Internet for reports of email traffic from a variety of sources sending unsolicited commercial email (SPAM) and then publicly listing that known information on Internet sites for others to reference as a measure to fight SPAM. Many ISP's and independent organizations then use these blacklist databases as a reference filter applied to their inbound mail servers to aid in preventing SPAM and to encourage internet security.

 

An F-chat search or asking of opinions in most cases will give you a good feel for a prospective dealer. This topic has come up many times and most likely due to liability issues etc. it doesn't go anywhere.

 

hmm, should we add MDMeurotics to the whitelist? heeheehee

 

FoW's service department has been quite helpful to me over the phone. Since I'm not near a Ferrari dealership, I'll often call one that is open in another time zone for help. Ditto for the Ferrari dealership in Hawaii.

 

The issue with a lot of website's asking for people to give ratings to anything is you get different perspective's on the same issue, wether it be service in a restaurant or service at a Ferrari dealership, I mean some people will expect there car that haggle on, and do everything they can to make the dealer treat them like royalty, and then expect the dealer to jump through hoops and probably even "go down on them".
My attitude to all of this would be that the polite/ friendly option is almost always going to get you the furthest, I think it should be a "whitelist" with the scope of congratulating the best dealers and for the others that might disagree with the recommendation, perhaps a polite "I disagree" would be sufficient, if thats how you feel, then people would know to contact you if they want to know more, I for one don't want the F-chat site to become full of people ranting about some little scratch they found on the back of there exhaust manifold and which mechanic might have put it there.

Timmmy