Ken Garff Volvo

Reviews 3

RE

restever99

Judge companies by how they treat their low end clients. Honest companies take the time to appreciate everyone who comes through the door. When you pass off a client without care, treat them without respect and shuffle them around because they aren’t going to be a big sale, you’ve exposed exactly how you treat everyone you sell to. You do not care about your customers, just the bottom line. There are other car dealerships in Salt Lake City. Don’t waste your time with Ken Garff, they will not respect yours. Here is my experience with Ken Garff: I’ve been looking for a particular model and year of Volvo for about 15 years. A great looking one showed up on their website and Mark emailed it was still in stock. We set an appointment to meet after work. I am a salesman by trade. When I walk into a high pressure sales environment like a car dealership, I do so because I am ready to buy. I enjoy being sold to, I learn a lot about how I can improve my technique. I walked into Ken Garff last night with cold hard cash in my pocket and I was ready to drive away with a car. I saw Mark as soon as I entered. I greeted him and held out my hand. A quick handshake without looking me in the eye I was handed off to Thomas. Basically: I can’t help you, here is someone else. The appointment he had set with me wasn’t even worth his time to brief Thomas. Thomas asked several questions to Mark which received very hurried & annoyed answers. I get other customers can show unannounced, but a warm greeting and making sure your client is well situated goes a long way in making someone feel comfortable and that their business is wanted. Especially if you’ve set an appointment with them. I applaud Thomas for his work and patience with me, though again, he made no attempt to build repoire or even ask me questions about why I was looking at the particular car I came in for. He turned to go to the vehicle. He was surprised when he discovered me following him but he made no attempt to ask me to have a seat before starting off. At the vehicle he let me take some time to look it over. The entire time he was on his cellphone, my business wasn’t worth their time. I tried to initiate conversation commenting on the condition and my excitement at finding this vehicle. One word answers in return. I asked for a trade in cost on my current vehicle out of curiosity. I had every intention of paying for the car in cash and keeping both cars, but since they hadn’t asked or even attempted to sell me anything, I kept that to myself. I was very upfront about the condition of the vehicle and the price initially offered was fair and close to what I had already calculated on my own and at another dealership. When Thomas left to get a print out a very glib and superficial woman, who was obviously an employee, began to ask around about a car that was left running outside. She then proceeded to loudly proclaim, “What kind of idiot leaves their car running outside,” several times. Loudly calling someone an idiot multiple times in the middle of the sales floor is the definition of an idiot. You showed an extreme lack of respect for everyone in that room, further souring my impressions of Ken Garff. After multiple attempts to print out the offer to no avail, Thomas informed me that due to the nature of the vehicle I was wanting to purchase and the loan I couldn’t do a direct trade. I knew this would be the case and asked for refinement of the process so I better understood it, seeing if he was going to take time to walk me through it. It was lightly explained and left at that. No alternative method was proposed. He never once mentioned that I could buy the vehicle with cash, which is what I had intended to do in the first place. Had any needs probe occurred in the beginning he would have known I was ready to buy and we would be signing the paperwork at this stage. I was throughly offended at the treatment and experience at this point, I asked for the offer in writing and left. I sent a counteroffer in the morning I expect will be declined just to see if they respond. Nope.

RH

Rhett Dial

Ive worked on and bought and sold cars for over 35 years. Yesterday, 02/26/14, I brought in a clients 2006 Volvo S40 2.4i to their Volvo Service Department in Salt Lake City to have warranty work done. The car’s engine had a whistle and needed the engine oil trap assembly and hose replaced. I want to tell you of the great experience I received from the staff. I arrived on time for my 8:30 AM appointment and was promptly met by Clay Williams. Clay was pleasant and professional and took my information. He invited me to have a drink and donuts and a seat in the customer lounge. I was impressed with how efficiently I was handled in the service drive both checking the car in and checking it out. I was further impressed with how clean and neat the facility is including the customer lounge (and quiet). Most customer lounges are next to or in the middle of the busy operations of a car dealership. Theirs isn’t and I like that. After having a donut and a drink, I went to the parts counter. There I met with Dan Anderson, who listened to my needs and was pleasant and professional. He answered my questions, gave me prices and printed pictures I requested of systems breakdowns for the parts I will install in the future. He admitted to me he had only been at Volvo Parts a few months, but was able to handle my needs. Clay talked to me about a missing engine splash shield and a broken radiator fan assembly on the Volvo. I could tell he wasn’t trying to sell me parts, but was letting me know things my Technician found on the car I should know about to tell my client. He gave me prices for parts and labor. Another man stopped to say hi and make sure I was being well taken care of. I didn’t catch his name. When the car repair was done Clay had me sign documents and gave me copies of the work done. The car had been washed and was waiting for me. The repair was done in a timely manner. I appreciated the work done by Mike Brown (the Technician), Clay Williams (the Service Advisor) and Dan Anderson (Parts Professional). During my 35 years working on cars I’ve worked for and been to many dealerships and auto repair shops, so I know how things typically are in the car world. I was shocked and surprised to find the Dealership so pleasant and staffed by good people. No one jacked me around or wasted my time. I did feel heard. I sent my comments to the General Manager (Will Schaerr) and he asked me to please post my comments online. It’s hard in today’s world to find good, honest auto repair places to take your car. Most auto shops aren’t very well run. They might be good at fixing cars, but they suck at business management and customer service. I would recommend Ken Garff Volvo Salt Lake City Service to anyone looking to get their Volvo worked on. I had a great experience and would give them a grade of A+.

AA

Aaron Penn

My Grandma drives a Volvo S70 GLT with 148,000 miles on it. She took it in for a diagnosis because of the check engine light and the ABS light I believe. They charged the standard $120.00 diagnosis and replaced a belt (forget which one) that was causing the check engine light, and properly assess the ABS light which we chose not to repair. My grandma forgot to tell them that there was a start issue, the car would not start when it was cold outside but would still start when it was warm. For whatever reason, she was under the impression that the belt would have fixed that too, not knowing mechancial technicalities she assumed the diagnosis would find everything that was having issues and thats what she was paying for. Volvo towed it back in for free, and made a misdiagnosis on the starting issue saying it was a clogged valve or something, the next day they went to start it and discovered it would not start because it was cold outside. They called my Grandma and told her about it and said they would be charging a 2nd diagnosis fee IF they went back into the car. For whatever reason, she didnt understand it (maybe she was thinking it was the first fee? Or maybe she was distracted on the phone?) but did agree to allow them to move forward. They properly diagnosed it the third time, stating it was something with the distributor, plugs, and wires and there was a lot of corrosion on it. They went to bill my grandma for the 2nd diagnosis and she felt she was being misled and that she had already paid for it the second time, she didnt feel like it was fair to be charged twice when it was a misdiagnosis. I spoke to the manager, Ryan and ripped his head off because I felt like he was swindling my grandma. He was extremely nice, despite the aggressive attitude I had, and explained it very clearly. He had the recording where she agreed to pay it, no matter what the circumstances were she did agree to pay it, and if she was distracted or whatever it really wasnt the dealerships problem. That was on her. Ryan swallowed the diagnosis charge and didnt charge us. I felt bad, offered to pay half at least to compromise and he said he wanted it clear that they werent being dishonest and that the free charge was a token of that. In all reality, I owe Ken Garff an apology for tearing them apart without allowing them to explain the situation. Ryan was a great manager to deal with, he is very concerned about the honesty and reputation of the business that hes running. I would recommend this dealership to others, even with other reviews saying mistakes were made - Cars are not easy to diagnose, and no one is perfect. Our experience with Ken Garff, and Ryan and Lindsey (assistant manager) were great. Highly recommend.