Bad/NO Sales Service at East Hartford Fiat Dealer

[ctbob]

Hi all, went to look at buying wife new car this past Sat. She had heart set on at least trying the Fiat 500 and what ever that big strange looking thing 500 is. But I had her talked into trying the Dodge dart first. Dealer in East Hartford sells Dodge, Fiat, KIA. Drove the Dart loved it, don't have the color she wanted was going to have one built. But she first she wanted to drive the fiat's to she if she like them better. We walk over to the Fiat showroom, hours are 9-6pm all lights are off. nobody in the building. We are told to go to the KIA showroom and ask for help. We walk over go into KIA, walk up to the desk where three people who work there are sitting and tell them we would like to test drive some fiats. They tell us that's nice, we will see if we can find someone to help you. After standing around in the heat 95-97 on that day my wife said that's it guess they do not want to sell us a car, we are out of here. Oh yea the three people sitting at the desk never got up still there when we walked. We left, before going I ran back into the dodge dealer to try and tell the salesmen what went down, but he was working with someone else. We went off to get a very late lunch. Wife spotted a Honda Dealership. We are picking up the New Honda next Monday. This was a cash deal too. Hope the rest of the Fait dealerships are not run this way. Bob

[SunnySideUp]

I think the head of Fiat USA should hear of your experience. Will you take the time to contact them?

[ctbob]

I called the 800 number this morning. I got well maybe they were closed? I said NO Hours posted on website, and door, and told at the Dodge Dealer who owns the Fiat dealership said open 9AM to 6PM. Then got a thank you for calling.

[SunnySideUp]

This is sad news indeed. Here's the info I found off of FIAT USA's website for their Customer Service Department (http://www.fiatusa.com/webselfservice/fiat/):

If you would like to talk to us about product concerns or dealer issues, please contact us. Be sure to have your vehicle identification number (VIN) and current mileage on the odometer ready OR include with your correspondence.

You may also want to contact us with general questions or comments.

Fiat Contact Us

WE ARE HERE FOR YOU.
888-CIAO-FIAT
888-242-6342
M-F 7:00 AM - 12:00 AM ET
SAT 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM ET
SUN 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM ET

Whatever you may need, for any questions that you may have, give us a call.
Our FIAT Customer Service is standing by.

Contact Us by Mail:
FIAT Customer Care
P.O. Box 21-8004
Auburn Hills, MI 48321-8004

Good luck. Don't let them get away with giving paying customers crap service!

[Kevin1]

Did you even bother to find out why the dealership happened to be closed that particular day? Turning around and buying a Honda before dinnertime sounds a bit impulsive, but it's your money to spend. Waiting a day to see a car you are interested in buying isn't a big deal. It took Fiat 25 years to come back to the US. What's another day?

[ctbob]

Did you even bother to find out why the dealership happened to be closed that particular day? Turning around and buying a Honda before dinnertime sounds a bit impulsive, but it's your money to spend. Waiting a day to see a car you are interested in buying isn't a big deal. It took Fiat 25 years to come back to the US. What's another day?

No you missed the point they were not closed, They just choose not to have anyone working SELLING FIATS!!!!! They were all inside the KIA Showroom 50 feet away from the Fiat showroom which had its lights out and no one inside. All with there KIA shirts on, just sitting doing nothing to help, as we stood in the very hot heat looking over the two Fiats my wife wanted to test drive for 25 minutes while those three people never moved from the desk. Who knows maybe it was don't sell a Fiat on July 20th Day!!!!! and nobody told us,.

But when you just got grade A service 3 buildings down the driveway not even 150' feet from the Dodge boys makes you start to think maybe Fiat won't be here to long with this kind of service, and is this where we want to put our hard earn cash. So after having missed lunch by many hours we went and found a place to eat, and spotted a Honda dealer. Yet another car which gets near 40mpg we are looking for so what the heck. See how this place is, found a sales person in a few minutes, test driveway underway in very short time. everything we were looking for in a car and more. Plus still have 124 in garage.

[So Cal Mark]

sad to hear this story, but it's not too different here in So Cal either. When you get this treatment just trying to buy a Fiat, you have to wonder what will happen if you need an item fixed under warranty. This wasn't acceptable back in the 80s when Fiat had to leave, it's really hard to believe Fiat would put up with this again. It's not the first story like this I've heard, and not much different than what I've experienced

[lanciahf]

I wouldn't be to hard on the Fiat dealers. Sales of the 500 hardly justify standalone stores, hopefully with the intro of he 500L sales will pickup. Unless you think the 500L is the ugliest Italian car ever made.

[So Cal Mark]

Fiat has sold 80,000 500s in 2 years, if that doesn't justify customer service I'm not sure Fiat will survive in the US. It's hard to sell a car when the customer can't get ahold of anyone at the dealership. When I went to a dealer 2 weeks ago to get a part, they sent me two blocks away to the Chrysler dealership. The Chrysler parts guy sent a runner over to the Fiat store where the parts are stored, brought it back to the Chrysler dealership to sell to me. Don't even ask how long it took

[divace73]

reading this kind of angers me, how dealer treat the Fiat brand like this

I think of how I love my fiat and would love to see more on the road for a wave (even though a lot of the new fiat owners have no ideas what my car is)

I think of 2 things

Surely the principle owner of the dealership would be P*$$ed to miss a sale
And it does give the general public a lack of confidence

It really shouldn't be up to ctbob to do Fiat's customer service job for them, we all know it is basic stuff, give the people what they want and they'll buy it.

I do encourage ctbob to put in writing your experience so at least the kia reps get an ass kicking.

Sorry for the anger release.

[ctbob]

David, already sent a letter to the Manger of the Dodge Dealer who is owned by the same owners, to let him know why his pending order is not going to be placed. I also placed a call to Fait USA, who tried to come up with reason why this may have happen. Like gee maybe they were just not open??? Well if that is the case, then change the hours on the website and Doors of the building. But that was not the case. Even 2 months ago or so, when I stopped in in the middle of the week, I was the only one in the building, there were four workers working not one of them came up to ask if I needed help. I had to go and ask if I could test drive a 500, to see if I fit in it. I'm a big guy, 6' 300lbs and before my wife ever got near one had to make sure I could fit in it. Took them a 1/2 just to get a car so I could test drive it. They could not find keys for cars on the lot, other would not start, had to open the big doors and jump start one on the showroom floor and drive it out so I could test drive it. Guess I should have seen the writing on the wall that day, and never went back.