Preferred Sales and Leasing

**WARNING SHADY BUSINESS**
I called and spoke with Bruce on March 4, 2016 around 1700 to ask if the car that I wanted to buy was still available. Bruce said yes it was, and gave me a little information about the car. I told him that I would be coming down from Fargo on March 5, 2016 in the AM to look at the car and was my intention of buying it that day. He took down my information and said that John would be there to assist me. The business hours posted for Saturdays are 10am — 1pm.
When I arrived at 9:50 am the open sign on the door was already lit up. When I walked in there were two gentlemen and one asked, «Can I help you?» I stated that I was here to see the Ridgeline, and he said just let me know if you want to test drive anything and we can pull it out for you. I walked with my dad back to where the Ridgeline was to see the only customer in the business looking under the hood of the Ridgeline. The guy closed the hood and walked up to the front office. I looked it over for a few minutes and went up to the front desk. I asked a man standing there if he worked there and he stated yes. He had a grin on his face when I asked if I could test drive the Ridgeline. He stated well this guy is actually buying it right now (the gentleman that was looking at it was now sitting in the office doing paper work). Unfortunately after driving 250 miles, arriving before the business was supposed to be open all I could say was, «Are you kidding me?» I then asked him if he could understand why I would be pissed after I called ahead. He said yes, without even a genuine apology. I said this is bullshit, and asked again if he can understand why I was so upset. I said the F-​bomb three times within my questions to the guy. On the last F-​bomb I dropped the guy said ok that’s enough hinting for me to leave. I understand I shouldn’t have been swearing, but it wasn’t directed at the guy and it was more out of disbelief that they did not respect my time and money.
I left the business and a little while later called and spoke with John the manager. We sell cars first come first serve basis. I understand that to an extent, but when you know someone is driving from a long ways to be there and apparently don’t take holds for a few hours for some reason, it is only proper business etiquette to at least either notify the person that there has been a serious buyer who may purchase it, or wait for me to get there. Or call and let me know something so I do not waste my time. What can a person really do though after the fact? I can only share my experience and opinion about it.
What do I think of this business? Well I don’t think much of it. These guys are the epitome of used cars salesman. They have been in business for some time the way it sounds. Are they a successful business? Yeah probably. Do I think that they respect their customers? Not at all. After dealing with these guys, I wouldn’t trust the automobiles that they are selling, if they can’t even respect their own customers or potential customers. I would say that it benefits them to a large degree they are in a larger area, because if they were in a smaller area and pulled this shit, they would not be in business very long. The guy had apparently test drove the car already because he bought it on the spot. It just so happens the business opened up just a few minutes early that day and was bought at roughly 9:55 am when they were not even supposed to be open. In my opinion, he was told I was coming down from Fargo to buy it and to get there early. That is some shady shit! No respect for customers. You had my information, keep me in the loop please. No genuine apology?
Steer clear of this place. That is my opinion. Untrustworthy, salesmen who only care about making a sale and don’t give a shit about anything else even if they screw people over in the process.

I live in a different state and was working on buying a car from here, so naturally I had several questions so I wouldn’t waste 5 hours driving and not buy the car. I noticed in one of the pictures on the website that the door lock switch looked like it was pushed into the door panel and broken, so I asked about it. They checked into it and said the door lock is fine. I asked again to make sure, they said they tried it and it works fine, suggesting that the picture may be an optical illusion because cars are hard to photograph. So I went to buy the car and the switch looked ok, so I bought it and brought it home. The first ride my wife takes in the car she goes to lock the door and she pushed the lock right into the door panel (no, she does not have super human strength), making it look just like the picture I saw online. I called them about it and they said that nothing was wrong and everything worked fine when they had it. I felt like I was lied to and asked for them to send me the $ 8 switch as a simple resolution to the problem. They said that they couldn’t do that since they sold me the car so cheap (I am sure that’s the same answer I would have received no matter how much I paid for the car). The reason for my post is to help others know that they will tell you anything to sell a car and after they do, you are on your own. If I had been told up front that there really was an issue with the lock it would not have been a deal breaker by any means, and I would have bought the switch and been happy with it. Instead I was obviously lied to and they refused to rectify the situation. I am posting this to help someone out in case it is something more serious than a door lock next time.
UPDATE: It is more serious than a door lock now. Within the first 2 weeks I’ve had it the convertible top started sagging. That turned into a $ 1,300 new convertible top. Maybe it was just bad luck or timing that the top when out right after I bought it, I will let you use your own judgement there but wanted to pass along the update.