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Unethical Treatment of Customers
By -

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA -- This Review is in the form of a letter prepared to go to Rohrman's: Let me tell you up front that I am a very disgruntled customer. This story is long and complex but by the time you hear my story, I am confident that you will agree.

In May 18th, 2002, I bought a 1999 Mustang from your dealership on Illinois Road in Fort Wayne, for my son. The 15 cars that I have owned throughout my life was purchased – using my own bank for financing. This time, one of your salesmen (I did not retain his name, but I do know that he is no longer with your company) assured me that I “could relax while he took care of everything.”

As he filled out the paperwork, he looked up and asked me for my driver's license and my insurance card. At the time, my insurance was with Geico, and I carried liability only. I owned all three of my vehicles outright. He disappeared into another room, and when he returned he said (this is a quote) “I called your insurance, and as soon as I put this temporary plate on your car, you are good to go.”

Ten days pass, and I am waiting for a bill from my insurance company when my son hits a light pole on a foggy night. When I call Geico, they tell me that they have no record of being contacted regarding this car! When I called and spoke to your manager, he told me that it is unfortunate, but there was nothing he could do, and I was on my own.

This ordeal – caused by one of your salesmen, cost me a considerable amount of money. My son could no longer work since he had no transportation. In order to keep a clean credit history, I was forced into refinancing my home, paying the car off in full with Midwest Federal Credit Union, and using equity in my home, pay $6,800.00 in repairs to put the car back into service. After speaking with an attorney, I decided not to pursue legal action, since it appeared on paper that I was negligent. Yes, from a legal standpoint, you had me. From an ethical/moral standpoint, I firmly believe that I was deceived. My story is not over with – bear with me.

In November of 2004, realizing that my daughter needed transportation, my wife and I decided to let her have what we were driving, and we began to shop for a different vehicle for us. After swearing that I would never step foot in your store again, I became very interested in the Kia Sportage. We stopped one Saturday and was met by one of your salesman named Mike **. He showed us a few used Kia Sportages, and told us that they were on sale. I should have known something was up.

One of the 2002 Sportages caught my wife's eye, and it was priced at I believe around $13,000.00. After the last ordeal with your company, my wife told Mike that if he could get the payment down to a certain low figure, we'd talk about it. We did not believe that he could ever hit the number. We went home and forgot about it. The next day, the phone rang and a manager at your store said that he could hit the number. Like I said… this should have been a warning. Well, we bought the car.

When we got into the car, we found that it had never been cleaned. It had dog hair in it, and it had milkshake spilled inside the dash louvers, among other things. Mike ** said not to worry, he would have it detailed for me. I added, that if they clean it up and take all the swirlies out of the paint (the kind that touch-type car washes put into the paint), I would buy it.

He calls me and tells me that the car is done, but when I show up, it doesn't look like anyone has touched it; so… I left it again and was assured it would be taken care of to my satisfaction. The next day, I am called, and I pick it up. When I get it home, my wife sweeps the dog hair out of it, and I clean the milkshake out of the dash.

A few months ago, on a rainy Friday night in Fort Wayne, I put the key in the ignition and it simply would not turn. We had it towed to your Kia dealership and took a taxi home all the way to Columbia City. The next day, Shirley (service manager) called and said that they put a new ignition switch in it. I came up, picked up the vehicle and told her that I was having some other problems as follows: exhaust pipe rusted off, very loud rattle since it was new in the engine housing, but only when it's cold, belts slip and are very noisy, coolant odor when it operates.

She scheduled a time for my exhaust and the other issues. The next Saturday, I dropped off the Sportage for the exhaust repair. At this time, they found a leaking radiator and a fan clutch with a busted housing. When I talked to Shirley, she tells me that I am also due for my 40,000 timing belt replacement, along with all my other belts. She also said that I was due for all these other maintenance routines – all totaling about $800.00!!!

If I had known that a Kia Sportage had such high routine maintenance costs, I would have never bought the vehicle. I marched up front and had a word with Mike **, and his manager overheard our conversation. He was very cordial and told me that if I was unhappy, he would do whatever is necessary to make me a happy returning customer. Mike and I looked around the lot for a used (I think you call them pre-owned these days) pickup truck that would serve our needs, and you didn't have one. I told Mike to keep his eyes open for what we talked about, and I told him that I wanted to get rid of the Sportage before the warranty expired. I never heard from Mike.

Last Friday, July 15th, I began to have problems with it not starting. As we were traveling south of Warsaw, toward the water lab with collected water samples (part of our business), the car died running down the highway. We coasted to the side of the road, and it refused to start. We called Kia roadside service and had it towed to Kia in Fort Wayne.

This cost us directly about $700.00, due to lost work and work that we had to repeat. Bacteria samples went bad, lab was closed, etc. Again, we are using our daughter's car (156,000 miles and has never left us anywhere) while the Sportage is in the shop. We drove up to Kia Saturday morning and talked to Mike while they worked on our Sportage. He found two trucks that would work for us.

But after talking to “Gene” the manager, (the other manager that I talked to previously was on vacation) they could not come up with any financing that would not cost me at least $450.00 a month! He justified this by saying that while it may be true that I am not happy, he can only give me $6,000.00 for my junk Sportage. After a few hours of dancing around, he said that he could give me $9,000.00 for my Sportage if I bought one of the trucks (which was overpriced by about $3000.00).
The story doesn't end.

After spending 6 hours at your dealership on Saturday: Your salesman could not help us because he would not acknowledge my problem. They could not find the problem with my Kia Sportage, but they told me that someone would work on it until 6:00 pm. Since they could not find out why it wouldn't run, they could not authorize a rental vehicle for my use. After messing around with your “manager” from 8:00 am until 2:00 pm, and being told that Kia would not authorize a rental for me to use, I left the store.

I called at 3:00 pm, and was told that the service shop closed when I left – “work on my car until 6:00 pm” was another lie! Oh, they found the problem, and it was under warranty, and now they would issue me a rental – only problem was after 6 hours of frustration I was almost back in Columbia City! Screw the rental car!

Now, for the 2nd time, I feel like I have been stiffed by your company. Again, the issue is not a legal one, but a moral/ethical one. I have always took pride in my life by thinking that I learn by my mistakes. This time, I let myself get taken by Bob Rohrman – not once but twice! Your salesmen and managers toot their horns about how important customer satisfaction is in your organization, but the reality is -- customer satisfaction is important only as long as not one single dime comes from your pocket.

In my business, I also believe in customer satisfaction. I have inspected real estate, and honestly reported issues that were accurate. But in a few instances, my client did not read his report, I went ahead and compensated him anyway. That is customer satisfaction. You people talk the talk, but you can't walk the walk.

By the way, on the way home from your dealership, I stopped at two used car dealerships. They told me that they would give me about $8,000.00 for the Kia (that is what Kelly Blue Book says) - not $6,000.00 like Rohrman's- the payoff is $10,600.00. They are also going to put me into a truck, comparable to what I messed around with all day at Rohrman's for between $320.00 and $360.00 / month – not $460.00 to $525.00/month like your manager's best offer. These used car companies are reputable.

A reply would be appreciated, but you must know, I expect to be swept under the rug – the same as I have always been at your company. If I cannot get satisfaction from your company, this email is an excellent foundation for my “DON'T BY ROHRMAN” campaign.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: I had to travel about 5 hours south of the area, to attend to my mother who was having heart surgery. At the hospital, I get a call from my son, that excitedly tells me that he bought a Kia Sportage just like mine from Bob Rohrman's! Of all things, I finally thought I had washed my hands of this business, my blood pressure was back to normal, and I was finally getting to the point that I could actually start trusting someone again – on a limited basis.

My son bought it on a Saturday, and was told that someone would be calling him on Monday. No one called on Monday. The excuse was the person that was responsible for calling him had the day off. Do you know how many times that the person responsible for calling me has had the day off? I think it has been about 4 times now, so this was expected in my eyes since I have already been through all this.

When I got home and saw the Sportage, it looked like it had been “rode hard and put up wet”. There were scratches and dings all the way down the side, the front rims were black with brake dust, the rotors were shot, the tailpipe had rusted off (just like mine did), and the inside was filthy (ashtray was still full of butts). To top it off, he bought it for the same price that I bought mine a year ago. Well, the next day, since he had not actually signed the financing papers yet, I believed that if I remained calm, we could just nullify the contract.

When we walked into the showroom, I was immediately pounced on by several salesman, just like I always am – like buzzards waiting on something to die. I calmly explained that we thought we might wait and see what comes in, in a few months. We were told that the manager was the only one that could make that decision – and damned if good ol' GENE walks up. A few words fly and he tells us to leave the premises – shows us the door.

My son is stuck with the car. And once again, you got me. If I had three wishes, one of those wishes would be to never have heard of Bob Rohrman's. I still like my Kia, but I will drive all the way to Michigan if I have to, just to avoid Bob Rohrman's.

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When Is a New Car Not a New Car? When Leasing It From Rohrman
By -

ARLINGTON HTS, IL, ILLINOIS -- On 6/24 my wife and I leased a new Murano, actually a demo with 5836 miles on it. We were told it came with a full new car warranty. A few weeks later I brought the car in to have a couple of minor things taken care of including a new valve cover for the left rear tire, the top half was broken off. Didn't think anything of it. On 9/18 I brought the car in for a few minor things and it's first oil change. I was told the left rear tire was damaged and had to be replaced. They gave me no reason but I said fine, go ahead and replace it. I was told it was going to cost $385.00. I was astounded.

I had no idea anything was wrong and anyway the car only had 1300 miles on so I knew it had to be covered under the warranty. WRONG. I was told by the Gen. Mgr. that it was was not covered and I had to pay to have it repaired. He said he'd do me a favor and reduce the price by the labor, or $100. I told him it was very unprofessional of him to do that to a good customer. I had leased 2 Lexus's from Rohrman a few years ago with no problems. And since this was a new car it should be covered. I was never told the demo was fully covered by the new car warranty except for the tires.

As far as I was concerned, the tire had 1300 miles on it. He got up and said since I called him "unprofessional" he was taking back the deal and hollered to the service lady to charge me the whole $385 and walked away. I then gritted my teeth and told him he was not unprofessional and he hollered back to the lady to give me the $285 price which I paid. I was so upset that this moron embarrassed me (and himself) in front of the service lady. It was extremely demeaning, degrading, humiliating and embarrassing.

I then wrote a certified letter to Rohrman and 2 of his officers at their headquarters in IN on 9/18 explaining what happened and asking for a refund but have not even received the courtesy of a reply or a call. My wife's law firm has given me a couple of ideas, starting with sending a copy of the letter to every officer of Nissan in Japan and waiting to hear something from them.

Wife's law firm has drafted a letter to be sent next week. If that doesn't work, then I'll be going to the newspapers and the TV stations and finally to small claims court. I will NEVER do business with anyone even remotely connected with Rohrman again. If you need the names of the Gen Mgr I'll be happy to supply it.

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Insulted by General Manager
By -

ILLINOIS -- I have never been so insulted by a General Manager like I was at Bob Rohrman Honda in Schaumburg IL. I was ready to purchase a 2008 Accord Coupe, fully loaded. The salesman, Chase, was extremely pleasant and professional. The General Manager appraised my current vehicle, 2005 Equinox, $7,000 under resale. He gave me a price on the 08 Accord as listed on the car, $31,320.00.

I owe on my Equinox about $20,000.00. He basically told me he would take a loss on my car for $10,000.00 and would have to sell me the Accord for $40,000.00 to make up the difference. I told him he's crazy and he's ripping me off. My truck is worth more than $9500.00. He priced my truck as basic with no upgrades.

My truck is fully loaded with low miles, no dents, no rust. I bought it Oct 07. He told me it is worth nothing because of the price of gas. I told him then all cars should be thousands under market value, cause they all run on gas! He talked down to me while shaking his head back and forth. I did not appreciate it. He made me feel like since I'm a woman, I'm stupid. I have purchased 7 cars in the past 20 years and have NEVER been treated like I'm stupid. He was degrading egotistical jerk.

He also told me he was upset that he had the car transferred to his dealership for no reason. Though I gave them $1000 in cash to transfer the car. He's not taking my car, it would be a loss for him. I went out of my way to purchase a car with Rohrman because I thought they were a reputable dealership. But I guess I am stupid! Tomorrow, I will walk into another Honda dealer and purchase a car in cash. No one is to be spoken down to.

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Illegal Selling Practices
By -

FORT WAYNE, INDIANA -- On September 25th,2002 I went to Bob Rohrmans to purchase a car. When I looked at the contract I noticed there was an additional $1500.00 added to the price of the car. I questioned this and was told that it was an extended warranty. I told the salesperson I wasn't interested in the warranty. She then told me that Key Bank would not finance me unless I agree to the warranty. I thought at this time this was strange but since I wouldn't get financing I did sign on the dotted line. The next day I contacted Key Bank and they had no idea what I was talking about and said it was illegal to require someone to buy a warranty.

I then went back to the dealership to try & resolve the problem. I wrote the salesperson a letter and told her what I had found out and that I would be returning the car because I was lied to. From that point on it got ugly. A man named Luke ** called me and left a 5 min voicemail basically calling me a liar. I went up the chain to the Gen. Mgr. Larry ** he didn't return my phone call but a man named Shane did. Shane talked to me as If I was the worst person on earth, he told me I was nothing, he said because I contacted the Attorney Generals Office he had nothing to say to me and then hung up.

There is so much more to this story but it gets real complex. Shane was the worst of all employees and should be fired because he has no people skills at all. The bottom line I was lied to by the saleswoman and then everyone else tried to clean it up and that's wrong.

The other kicker was when I took delivery of the car it was at night and didn't know the car was never cleaned. There was trash in the trunk of that hour. There was what looked to be blood or catsup in the middle compartments. There is gum on the seats. The car was filthy and they refused to clean it. When I talked to Luke ** he stated that this was their normal selling practice to "sell dirty cars" and then clean them after the purchaser has taken possession of the car. I was appalled that anything like this goes on. Well if this is normal they don't live up to their words because they refused to clean the car. I don't advise anyone to deal with this company at all.

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Twice Bitten...
By -

LAFAYETTE, INDIANA -- Bob Rohrman has an unfair monopoly on car sales in Lafayette, Indiana, and his poison is spreading. The commercials and the products are enticing, but I have had two VERY bad experiences with the sales staff at this company.

First, in March of 2001, my husband and I were excited to buy our first new car, a Saturn sedan. This was a new experience for both of us. In order to make the payments manageable, we purchased a "demo" vehicle with about 4000 miles on it. We also went with the "GMC Smartbuy" program to reduce the finance cost. We were naive and did not read the fine print, but the finance manager did not treat us ethically, as he told us outright several times that "this is not a lease."

Two years later, when the blower and ignition switch no longer worked, we found that the wiring had been tampered with while it was a demo. Our warranty had expired, due to the extra 4000 miles on the vehicle, so we were looking at repair costs upward of $2000, which we could not afford. We looked into trading the car in, only to find out that our "Smartbuy" was really a lease. We had absolutely no equity and had already used up our allotted miles.

I had to trade the car in for a smaller vehicle that I did not like in order to roll a portion of the original loan over. Luckily, I was able to trade that vehicle in again, and now drive a minivan that I purchased for about $3000 more than what it was worth. Again, I'm still paying off the negative equity from the Saturn.

Though I vowed never to deal with Bob Rohrman again, I found myself enticed recently by a new Hyundai Entourage, a minivan that is quite the step up from my own. My best friend wanted to trade in her 2006 Mustang GT for the more practical minivan. As they were a similar sticker price, it seemed like there might be a fairly close trade. The salesman (who was very polite, though new and uninformed) assured us that he could get the payments to match her current payment.

The staff jerked us around for SIX hours, promising to get financing, working on a proper estimate for the nearly-new vehicle she would trade, and telling us why they couldn't reduce the sticker price of the van. Every time we would threaten to walk out, they would tell us that the estimate was almost ready.

I understand that there are many reasons that financing cannot happen, but the staff did not have to string us along all day to try to make a sale. At the end of the day, we finally got the offer at about $200 more than the current payments. Ridiculous! I will definitely drive to Indy to make future car purchases in order to avoid a Rohrman dealership.

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Beware of Bob Rohrman
By -

Beware of Bob Rohman! I went to purchase a Ford 2009 Edge vin# **. After I test drove the car I heard a noise in the front end. I questioned if the car was ever in an accident and they said no. The Carfax also showed no accidents. After checking Bob Rohrman finally admitted the car was in an accident by one of their employees. The car is still for sale. Be careful!!!

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Bob Rohrman Rating:
6 reviews & complaints.
Contact Information:
Bob Rohrman
821 Sagamore Parkway South
Lafayette, IN 47905
855-902-6446 (ph)
www.rohrman.com
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