Park Place, making friends and influencing people

Unbelieveable. It saddens me to no end things like this happen.

 

The guy needed to be introduced to Roy...

 

I certainly hope this is not indicative of Park Place's usual business practices since Aston Martin of Seattle has been sold to Park Place and that's where I'll have to take my Vantage for warranty service.

 

Grow up - Sorry

 

I am sure many stories like this are out their. People should all come forward and let everyone know to warn us all so that we are not all burned when we pay for services. The longer I live the less I trust most people in the car business. However, when I purchased my first exotic, it was with Ferrari of Seattle and to this day, I am very happy with them, never a problem and therefore stay with dealers who have licensed contracts. It is not that these add on car companies are giving people better prices and service that the ones with licensed contracts. I am not a Lam guy so cannot speak of Roy, but have heard good things about him, so prob cannot generalize. Thanks for the info, my next exotic will be purschased elsewhere.

 

I just purchased my new Lotus Elise from Park Place and I am very happy with the deal. I live near Vancouver and I called them and we talked back and forth on the phone for about 1/2 hour and the deal was done. I requested that the black interior be swapped out for white. They did this on my word that I was one my way to pick it up. They didn't charge me a deposit or anything to get it started. They just took my word that I was happy with the deal and I was on my way. I drove 3 hours to get there, they sat us down at 7pm and by 8pm I was at Applebees across the street on my way home. Very fast, very easy and I am still happy.

Used cars can sometime be a surprise to the dealer as much as the new customer. I am not commenting on this other guys experience or defending the dealer. I purchased a Corvette from a Portland dealer that was wrecked and wasn't disclosed. To their credit, they didn't know. They purchased it at auction and it didn't show on Carfax because the accident wasn't claimed on insurance but was paid, $20k, out of the owner's pocket. There was a second small accident that they did know and so I had that proof when we sued them. Everything worked out well and I have still never stepped foot on their dealership property. Again, most of that could have been news to them also but they are the supposed "professionals" and my attorney says, "they either know or should have known".

 

It is hard to buy a car for someone from another Dealer all the way across the country. HOWEVER that is no excuse to not try and make it right once the car arrives.

I do provide a 72 hour WRITTEN Guarantee with all my cars..."if it is not what we said it is when it arrives, we will take it back...PERIOD!!"

I strongly SUGGEST every car purchase has a PPI performed by someone OTHER than the Dealer you are buying it from...

 

I used to play lacrosse against the owner's son. He seemed like a nice guy.
I also enjoy going over to PP with my father and browsing. We've been going there just to waste time for years and years. Heck, we even used to go to Boardwalk Motors on Mercer Is. back when they operated that, too.

This being said, a good friend of mine tried to sell his 928 over there years ago. It just sat and sat for months on end while other cars sold. Finally, one day he called and pretended to be a prospective customer. He said "I drove by and there was a nice 928" (and described his car.) The salesman said "oh, you don't want that one, it's not very nice. It has many issues. You should come out and check out these two other 928s we have."

Turned out that the two other 928s were either owned by the dealership. They had been turning customers away from his car to sell cars that were either owned by the dealership, or were owned by more important clients.

My friend went immediately down to pick up the car. When he pulled in, a sales guy was out "touching up" a Ferrari 308 bumper with....A BLACK SHARPIE!

 

Really?? I just talked to Michael at Aston a couple weeks ago about their upcoming Vantage Spyder. I wonder if he's staying. He was really good to work with.

Tim

 

They did not operate Boardwalk Motors.

 

From spending the past few years involved with sailboats one of the things that I have seen as standard when making a purchase is a pre purchase survey by a qualified marine surveyor. Final purchase and purchase price is usually contingent and renegotiated upon the results of the survey.

We (sailboaters) also aren't bashful about asking if someone on which ever forum we participate would be able to take a look at a particular boat. That would probably be pretty easy on this forum as far as an exotic car goes and often someone on the forum know the particular car in question.

That and dealing through someone like Roy who holds a reputation on both sides of the table as dealing in quality vehicles. I found out a long time ago that if you want something done right you go though the outfit that does it as their main line of business and not a sideline to the business.

 

Tim,
Spoke to Michael on Fri which was the moving date for inventory over to Park Place.Unfortunately he is not going over.He supposedly was not offered a managerial spot.Too bad, I like him very much.Vince the service mgr is however which is good news.

 

Is this the same Tim Firnstahl that owns all the restaurants in the Seattle area?

 

YES- he is a very famous Seattle restaurateur, and If I owned a local car dealership, I certainly would not want him mad at me. He has lots of friends and influence.

Happy customers might tell a few friends about their experience, but unhappy customers will tell dozens... In this case, hundreds++, since he took the time to create a web site to tell about his awful experience with PP.

 

Yes -- the Harvard Business Review article he wrote about customer-service is excellent and very apropos. (Linked at the site mentioned above)

 

So in my understanding here. Seems best to only put down a deposit on the car until it arrives and gets a full personal inspection locally? I mean wouldn't dealerships want to protect their reputation by not having their clients getting taken like this? I mean it's pretty clear a Lamborghini dealership is not going to make up accusations on a car that was just received in this condition.

After reading Roy's comments. It's pretty clear where I'd take my business in the future.

 

I think this is a lesson for us all. I would love to tell you my story but I am worried about the legal implications.

 

Documented truth is the perfect legal defense

 

I haven't heard anything but problems from Park Place, so I am looking forward to NEVER dealing with them in any aspect.
-Colin

 

Yes, I agree in a perfect world. As we all know that is not the case and in my situation it is just not worth it for me.
BUT POINT TAKEN WELL!!!!!!!!!

 

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156888


This is good business if you want to stay in it for the long term

 

I just went to PP today to chat with the new Aston guys. They seem nice, and thankfully Vince from the old AM dealership service dept. is working there now. That guy knows his stuff and is super meticulous. They also got one of the techs from FoS on board and he's apparently going through AM service training now.

 

Never buy a used car without seeing it first...

 

SeattleS4, lets hope you have better luck, however based on what I have heard, you are probably not going to have