Charles

Thanks for your apologetic call today. But I wanted to explain why I haven’t given Honda of Slidell my business.

I drove out there yesterday on the understanding from your salesman, Mr. Ceritelli, that I would be able to lease a vehicle for $159 a month with $2,000 down. I was initially quoted that rate in an email, and your finance people spent the day trying to get it approved. I was told on the phone that they had worked out a rate so that I could “drive off the lot in a car tonight,” so I assumed that the $159 lease had worked out.

I drove 45 minutes from New Orleans, but when I arrived I was told, “no, we couldn’t get you a lease approved, but you can buy the vehicle, if you like.”

I felt like I’d been lured out there on false pretenses. If only your dealership had been honest with me, or not hinted very strongly that I could get what I’d asked for, then I might have been lured back later. But I felt I’d been misled at least by omission, and that soured the customer relationship, for me. I don’t think any customer ever likes to feel they’re being treated like an asshole. They simply want to feel respected.

Still, having been treated like an asshole, I apologize, but I can’t help behaving like one. Royal Honda in Metairie ended up getting my business, and I’ve attached a photo of me over there this afternoon, picking up my car for $159 a month with a $2,000 downpayment, just like you guys had promised, earlier.

I feel a bit like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, you know?

“Big mistake.”

Still, no hard feelings.

Matt