and dealerships, and Tonkin Gladstone Hyundai is the reason why these stereotypes exist!
I went into this dealership with a PRE APPROVAL from OnPoint for a 2013 Ford Transit, fully ready to move forward with purchasing the vehicle utilizing my OnPoint loan and a down payment. I am a self employed business owner and have been running my business since October of 2023, I was completely and 100% transparent about that from the very beginning. When I sat down with the financing department, Ali convinced me to let him see if he could find me a better loan, which with a little convincing, I was open to. When he let me know that OCCU would fully finance the vehicle for me at a slightly better interest rate that sounded like a great deal.
So we signed the deal, they gave me the keys, I drove off the lot, switched my insurance policy, canceled my original loan pre approval, started moving all my house cleaning equipment into the vehicle, and then TWO WEEKS later I get a call from the dealership saying that OCCU decided not to fund the loan because I have only been in business for myself since October of 2023, and that I had 3 days to find alternative financing.
As a consumer I had no idea that the loan was only 'pre approved' by a computer algorithm or that it was not a 100% guarantee.
How it was overlooked that I am SELF EMPLOYEED with a newly established business is beyond me.
BEST BUSINESS PRACTICE WOULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY. Someone at this dealership should have, at the VERY LEAST, made me aware that this loan wasn't 100% approved yet or guaranteed. Especially in the finance department, seeing that, again, they were fully aware that I am self employed with a newly established business. They should have been practiced at their job enough to recognize that the loan could have potentially come back as denied based upon this information, and advised me not to cancel my pre-approval with OnPoint or establish a new insurance policy for this new vehicle.
But instead they let me drive off the lot under the assumption that the loan was fully funded.
When I tried to get to the bottom of how in the xxxx this could have happened all anyone would give me were vague responses, gas lighting, some sort of run around, or just not getting back to me all together when they said they would.
Finally, I decided that I would only deal with a manager about this issue. Evan responded to me promptly with a clear response about how this issue was a huge oversight by their dealership, and then proceeded to offer me a 'genuine sorry' about the immense amount of trouble and inconvenience this all caused. Unfortunately that didn't really do much for me in the situation, having to take time I did not have to go BACK to my bank to REAPPLY for a loan, getting hit with 6 hard inquiries on my credit score, and all the time and frustration this caused me.
As a business owner myself, if a customer is upset or there is an error on my part, I am the first one to take FULL responsibility, offer ACTUAL SOLUTIONS or some sort of COMPENSATION for their time and trouble. Not just offering some xxxxxxxx 'genuine I'm Sorry' I was the one to have to ask Evan to get creative on how the dealership was going to right this wrong beyond 'i'm sorry' and days later I had to ask AGAIN to see if he had come up with any solutions. To that he responded with a free tank of gas and a free car detail (which I have to drive all the way out to gladstone for) which I do appreciate, But why in heck was I the one that had to insist on this multi million dollar dealership offering me something other than a useless sorry?! Ridiculous!
It's so unfortunate that big dealerships can get away with a useless 'sorry' and bad business practices because they have 2000 reviews on google and my voice won't create much of a ripple in the water.
At one point, their finance Manager Austin made the analogy that you can get all the wa