I don’t know about you, but I hate going to car dealerships! I used to sell cars for a short stint of my life while I was in-between jobs. I’ve been in the meetings where the salespeople are trained how to be dishonest and how to lie to gain a sale, so when it comes time to buy a vehicle, I hate it and get serious headaches as well, I get in a bad mood.
On top of having to go purchase a vehicle, this is a horrible time to have an SUV that you are trying to trade-in. It is a great time to be in the market for a SUV. My family and I were in both predicaments. We had a 2005 Nissan X-Terra that we needed to trade-in as our family just grew to the place where we could no longer legally and safely fit in it, but we needed a larger SUV or van to solve our problem. We were siding with the SUV…just because we are not the van kind of people.
Saturday morning we went to our normal breakfast place (Sunrise Grill) before we went to Master Pontiac, Buick, GMC of Augusta. I said a little prayer to myself that God would give us a salesman that would do us right and not play games with us. We pulled into the lot and there he was, the salesman that was going to be
our headache for the next several hours or the man that God was going to answer my prayers with. Fortunately, Archie Hixon, was the answer to my earlier prayer. He was a great salesman and a very great guy overall. My wife and I left the lot feeling like we knew a great deal about his family. It turned out that Archie goes to a local church and is very involved in their small groups. When he found out I used to be a full time youth pastor and was praying about God opening a door for me to get back full time, he urged me to check into the opening at his church as their youth pastor just left to start a church. As serious as Archie was, I knew this guy was not about to pull a fast one on us, when he was wanting to see us every weekend.
My wife and I were very pleased with the deal they gave us on our trade and the price that we got our new/used Chevrolet Trailblazer for. We asked for them to lower the price on the Trailblazer but they said it had already been discounted and they were firm on their price, but they easily gave us a new set of tires without any hassle. We were never put under pressure to add anything, Archie wanted to make sure we were offered the extended warranties and the other extras, but once we declined we faced no rebuttals. The bottom line is, we left the dealership $2,000 under what we were expecting to pay, we feel the price for the vehicle we purchased was fair and right, and Archie was a great salesperson. We did not purchase from him because he was a Christian, but a good salesman (trust me I have not bought from people because they were horrible salespeople), however I am glad I found out we were helping provide for a fellow believer with our purchase, as I know the car market is a tough business period, but especially with a tough economy.
If you are in the CSRA or the Augusta area and you are looking for a vehicle, go talk with Archie Hixon at Master Pontiac, Buick, GMC in Augusta on Washington Rd. You’ll be glad you did!
Join the Conversation: Have you had a great experience or a poor experience with a recent purchase? Tell me about it!
I actually had an amazing customer service thing happen yesterday. I’m happy to tell it.
We are relocating 2500 miles. So yesterday I booked airfare for my wife and son to fly on Southwest. Their intention is to take the family cat as carry-on.
So I booked it, was 100% satisfied with my purchase. Then I checked online to see the procedure for carrying on an animal with Southwest. Within 2 minutes of booking it I realized my mistake… Southwest doesn’t take any animals. Ooops!
Long story short. I called Southwest and they refunded my money in about 3 minutes. No hassle, just explained the problem and they put the money back in my account.
Here I was NOT buying something from them and they were cordial, nice, and AWESOME.
@ Adam – Very cool. Companies like that get my business again! I had a very poor experience a couple of years ago with Delta, however I only still use them because from where I fly it is cheaper to fly direct than with layovers on other airlines.
Yeah, we had a similar experience with the real estate agent we eventually went with on our house. A lot of the ones we had worked with before him were completely clueless so it was nice to work with someone who not only knew their stuff but was fair, honest and likeable.
Congratulations on your new Trailblazer!
Oh, and I don’t believe the bit about you not being a minivan kinda person. I think you’d look great driving down the road with a minivan full of kids! 🙂
We’ve had several great experiences at Master Pontiac this year. We bought a GMC Sierra when my husband totalled his then a Yukon not long after that since we needed a bigger SUV for the kids. Our salesman is Randy Bradberry and he is also so great about not pressuring you to buy the extras that you don’t want.
My dad actually just bought a Grand Prix from him this week. We gave them a detailed list of what he wanted…down to the color. They made sure to find him exactly what he wanted. He loves it. We always refer everyone we know to Master Pontiac.