So I was at Rosenthal Fairfax Volkswagen recently for a new car. Got the most humiliating, disrespectful and insulting experience ever ... and I am not exaggerating. I have a written a letter about it and I am trying to find out company contacts information to whom to send it. Anybody know how to find the right person to address it to?

BTW, I have since done some research on them on various forums and I agree with what I found: they are the bottom of the barrel in professionalism, courtesy and respect to their customers! Avoid at all costs.

One thing that I read has still stayed in my mind: how the hell are they still in business?

Good luck. They don't give a fuck. Any Rosenthal dealership has always been the worst place to buy a car. I'm amazed that they are still in business after all of these years. Unscrupulous, disrespectful and insulting. I've had one dealing with their Honda dealership which was enough for me. My aunt hates the VW place and I have stories from friends and family that go back 20+ years for various dealerships.

__________________________________
That's not a ladybug, that's a cannapiller.

Isn't Rosenthal one of those dealers that advertise about credit by saying something like:

>>> "All credit applications accepted!"

in their ads without telling you that accepting an application (duh...what are they going to do, just throw it away without reading it?) does NOT mean approving credit.

Anywho, I've always considered those words a red flag for a dealership (I do not know if it is them) since I figure if a dealer is essentially going to lie in and ad then they're probably going to lie in person, too.

=======

On the positive side, I had a very good experience with Sheehy Nissan in Manassas, though my entire dealing/dickering with them was via email...hmmm...maybe that's why it WAS a positive experience?

I have been to two other dealerships in the area recently for this car. Top notch service! Courteous sales people, respectful and honest. All questions that I had were answered appropriately. They even specified the conditions on financing and various constraints.

Rosenthal Fairfax Volkswagen, on the other hand, went so far as to mention my wife in a disrespectful and insulting manner! (as I wrote earlier, I wasn't exaggerating) ... and that before we even started discussing the actual price; i.e. right from the get go of the sales talk. See why I am wondering how they stay in business?

To be fair, the sales guy at that place was respectful, it was his manager that was extremely obnoxious. What a management!

Roll over to their North American HQ in Reston.

What are you expecting to accomplish though? I'm not saying you are in the wrong, but every car dealership has negative reviews. Just conveying that you hated your experience probably won't accomplish anything. Take your business elsewhere and leave it at that.

I see your point about taking my business to some other place. And I will.

The thing is, I was shocked at the way they treated me over there. I myself do not work in customer sales but I know that that kind of behavior is unbecoming of a sales person. I wanted to "take it to the top" under the assumption that this was not a normal behavior and that somebody should know what is going on. However, if the general opinion is that Rosenthal Fairfax are like that by nature, then I see your point.

Have you ever seen any kind of a sales manager keep interrupting his customers by virtually shouting at them and demanding to know answers to his own questions? During this time, I remained calm and courteous, solely because I knew I did not *have* to deal with them.

My google-foo is not working. Where in Reston are they located?

Driver Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I see your point about taking my business to some
> other place. And I will.
>
> The thing is, I was shocked at the way they
> treated me over there. I myself do not work in
> customer sales but I know that that kind of
> behavior is unbecoming of a sales person. I wanted
> to "take it to the top" under the assumption that
> this was not a normal behavior and that somebody
> should know what is going on. However, if the
> general opinion is that Rosenthal Fairfax are like
> that by nature, then I see your point.
>
> Have you ever seen any kind of a sales manager
> keep interrupting his customers by virtually
> shouting at them and demanding to know answers to
> his own questions? During this time, I remained
> calm and courteous, solely because I knew I did
> not *have* to deal with them.
>
> My google-foo is not working. Where in Reston are
> they located?


You are funny. Do you really think anyone at Rosenthal will give even the slightest fuck? If you send them an irate letter it will be shared with all of the staff for a good chuckle.
You sound like one of those clients that noone wants. Some people are just not worth the trouble. I suspect you have an attitude problem and/or a very low fico score.

Car Salesman: no, none of the two of your guesses are correct.

By interacting with several sane car dealerships over the course of years, I am pretty sure I know to interact in a social setting.

You don't happen work at that place, do you?

I am actually sound like a client that Rosenthal do not want: informed, sure, shopping for the right price and service. How do I know? One of guys later admitted to virtually the same thing before I left!

Rosenthal dealerships are set up to prey on the ill prepared and ill informed.

__________________________________
That's not a ladybug, that's a cannapiller.

Driver Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I see your point about taking my business to some
> other place. And I will.
>
> The thing is, I was shocked at the way they
> treated me over there. I myself do not work in
> customer sales but I know that that kind of
> behavior is unbecoming of a sales person. I wanted
> to "take it to the top" under the assumption that
> this was not a normal behavior and that somebody
> should know what is going on. However, if the
> general opinion is that Rosenthal Fairfax are like
> that by nature, then I see your point.
>
> Have you ever seen any kind of a sales manager
> keep interrupting his customers by virtually
> shouting at them and demanding to know answers to
> his own questions? During this time, I remained
> calm and courteous, solely because I knew I did
> not *have* to deal with them.
>
> My google-foo is not working. Where in Reston are
> they located?

Volkswagen Group of America
2200 Ferdinand Porsche Drive, Herndon, VA 20171-5884

It is right off the toll road. You can see it driving by. I thought it was Reston, but I guess it is technically Herndon.

The other posts are correct. There are some dealerships/sales managers/salesmen who butter their bread with "old school" strong arm tactics with uninformed buyers. Ultimately if the guy makes his numbers, the owner of the place probably doesn't care how he does it.

They are also right in saying that Rosenthal probably doesn't care that you walked out the door. Just a pain the ass customer who will probably try and squeeze them for every dollar. They'd much rather have someone who goes "Oh, I just want to pay less than $400 a month", and then they all start salivating.

My GF went to a Rosenthal dealer. She got a price on a car then called me to ask if it was a good price. I told her no and to try to jew them down. The dummy went back to the salesman and said her BF told her to try to jew them down. I dont think the term jewing you down works at Rosenthal.

All car salesmen suck has human beings. That's why the sell cars instead of curing cancer. Complain all you want. If the sales guy you dealt with is making his numbers, nothing will happen.

If you're smart, you'll send a letter to consumerist.com explaining your experience and asking that advice. They love that sort of thing. Also they have a database of who to send EECB's to exec's.

I don't often buy Volkswagens...but when I do, I buy from Volkswagen Springfield.

http://www.vw.com/portal/en/dealers?p_p_id=dcc_WAR_dccportlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-1&p_p_col_count=2&action=dealerDetails&dealerId=09454&returnApp=dealerSearch&returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vw.com%2Fportal%2Fen%2Fdealers%3Fp_p_id%3Ddcc_WAR_dccportlet%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_col_id%3Dcolumn-1%26p_p_col_count%3D2%26action%3DdealerSearch

The OP is probably upset that the salesman shared the fact that only hipsters and homosexuals buy VWs.

The Sheehey Nissan dealership in Manassas is awesome. I bought a Murano last year and have had nothing but great things to say.

I have a VW too. I bought it from Lindsay VW in Sterling VA three years ago. I have had no problems with sales or service.

Good luck. A great dealership makes a huge difference.

Well I just recently went to Sheehy Nissan of Manassas to look for a new family vehicle and my visit was NOT PLEASANT. I felt like the male employees were all on drugs and inattentive assholes and all the female employees were major cunts who don't give a shit about good quality customer service.. Never going there again

I have found complaining via Twitter to be very effective in getting a company's attention. Tweet something like "Had very bad experience with salespeople at @rosenthalauto Fairfax VW, was not treated well"

...and you may find they contact you directly to apologize or try to resolve the issue. Companies that give any kind of crap about their business don't like bad reviews in social media.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2011 01:05PM by justsayin.

You must have been really douchey to get treated like that.

and, I am sorry your wife is a pig

Nissan of Manassas Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well I just recently went to Sheehy Nissan of
> Manassas to look for a new family vehicle and my
> visit was NOT PLEASANT. I felt like the male
> employees were all on drugs and inattentive
> assholes and all the female employees were major
> cunts who don't give a shit about good quality
> customer service.. Never going there again

Somebody in Manassas on drugs... no way!

Rosenthal, Ourisman, and to an extent, Koons, basically exist to take advantage of a newcomer's ignorance to this area. The way things are going in the rest of the country, they're going to be making a lot of money from people who don't know better. They could care less about the way you were treated. I was born here and go out of the area for cars, new or used. The Internet helps a lot, too. This area is full of sleazebags.

Rosenthal Jaguar is one of the sleaziest places I have ever stepped foo0t into. Their "service department" are quite literally thieves, Ill spare the details but they tried to inflate my bill with unneeded services and fake repairs.

So who are the decent dealers around here? I unfortunately have to get a timing chain replaced on a POS Nissan Xterra at 75k miles because Nissan fucked up designing the engine and won't recall it.

As of now, I just judge dealers by the shitty sticker they put on the car. Brown's is last in my book. I can't believe people like these dealers ruin their car like that.

I am not buying any car until they bring back The Dog

I know that most Car Manufacturers have a "Big Brother" or Obudsman type of Management. For Toyota it is CAT- Central Atlantic Toyota. If any complaints from a person are sent to CAT, they contact the Toyota dealership and give them heck.

Look into the Baltimore/Washington area for the big VW chain.

Driver Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Rosenthal Fairfax Volkswagen, on the other hand,
> went so far as to mention my wife in a
> disrespectful and insulting manner!

Can you be more specific? How do we know you're not just being really sensitive?

More details please, tell us what happened...


Car salesmen suck. So sleazy and they always think they're getting one over on you, but in reality most of them are losers scraping by. The moment I detect any slimy sales tactic or "buddy buddy, good deal" shit, Im outta there. Most people can see honesty and I think they appreciate it.

Im going to go troll Rosenthal VW this weekend. Test drive about 3 cars with some muddy boots on, then leave. Maybe take a knob or two out of the consoles.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/2011 06:36PM by friskydingo.

Just email over your final deal. Print it out and be on your way. I did this with my last two cars. I never did haggle and they honored the deal.

@More Complete: Well, I am experienced enough social person to know when somebody is being insulting and sarcastic. Besides, the other sales guy himself agreed when I expressed my feeling to him afterwards. Finally, I am sort of ambivalent whether to give all details here before I have formally sent a letter to somebody in the upper management or to a newspaper or some such medium. Moreover:

@Jeremy Clarkson: I have been to a some other dealerships in the area, Alexandria, Springfield and Tyson's corner. All have behaved consistently well and shown appropriate respect and mannerism as is expected in our society. My experience at Rosenthal Fairfax was exceptionally bad.

In closing, I would say that all those horror stories of trickery and thievery that I have read about regarding dishonest car salesmen became real life in Rosenthal Fairfax VW who included sarcasm, insults and arrogance to mix!

Join a credit union with vehicle buying svc. Northwest comes to mind.

Our extended family has bought five cars in the last six years and somehow I always get tapped to help - probably because I do I lot of research and am pretty thorough. Volkswagen of Springfield is the absolute bottom of the barrel as far as sleazy tactics and subpar cars. I'm pretty sure the only reason they are still im business is because they prey on the soldiers from Fort Belvoir. At the other end of the spectrum, all of the dealers from Lindsay Automotive group have been reliable, fair and honest in our experience.

Driver Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @More Complete: Well, I am experienced enough
> social person to know when somebody is being
> insulting and sarcastic. Besides, the other sales
> guy himself agreed when I expressed my feeling to
> him afterwards. Finally, I am sort of ambivalent
> whether to give all details here before I have
> formally sent a letter to somebody in the upper
> management or to a newspaper or some such medium.

Fair enough. Mostly I'm just curious. If it's as insulting as you say, one would think the guy could be fired over such an instance.

@More Complete: The guy was quite adversely affecting customer relations. So I have to be careful in putting that on record for it not to have unintended consequences. What I would like to do, however, is to state the facts to a responsible party and to let the company sort it out in their own way, hopefully, professionally. All I know is that such kind of a behavior is just unacceptable at all places I have worked at, and mine is not even a customer relations fields in which the demand for etiquette is much higher.

Last time I bought a new Ford (BIG mistake but that's another story) they were all over me about giving giving them a good "report card" to Ford Motor Company. I can't remember what they called this comment card sort of thing, but it must have been a big deal. They kept saying if you have any kind of problem, tell US, not Ford.

I'm told a dealer's "rating" customers send to the manufacturer affect all sorts of things like how many of a hot selling car they'll receive.

If VW has this, blast their asses on it.

THey better be.

say Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Last time I bought a new Ford (BIG mistake but
> that's another story) they were all over me about
> giving giving them a good "report card" to Ford
> Motor Company. I can't remember what they called
> this comment card sort of thing, but it must have
> been a big deal. They kept saying if you have any
> kind of problem, tell US, not Ford.
>
> I'm told a dealer's "rating" customers send to the
> manufacturer affect all sorts of things like how
> many of a hot selling car they'll receive.
>
> If VW has this, blast their asses on it.

I sold cars for a short time while taking a year off from college. For us, that comment card could earn us money. If I sold a car and the customer returned a card with "Excellent" on everything I got like $200 on top of my commission from the manufacturer. Anything less than excellent meant I got nothing.

So that is why the salesman will push it. I think the sales manager probably can get a bonus if the overall score is high enough too.

I don't think it really affect allocation. They want to send cars where the demand is. Where I sold cars (not around here), the big volume dealer across town had a terrible customer service score compared to my dealership, which was much less volume. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the case with other brands as well. Especially at "main stream" brands, the high volume dealers are just trying to close deals as fast as possible. At the "small" dealer, you might get more attention and care through the process.

Too complicated. Should be much, much easier.

Is it possible that you're a Negro and your wife is so fat she sweats gravy?

I don't always drive Volkswagens, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.

Years ago, I bought a car from Rosenthal Nissan. I was recently out of college and didn't know better. I will never do any business with them again.

In addition, I'll walk out of a dealership that isn't taking care of me when I'm looking at cars. If that's how they treat you before they have your money, how will they treat you after. It's happened a surprising number of times.

Years ago, I was shopping for a Mazda and found one I wanted at Rosenthief Mazda. Wasted two hours with the sales guy. I knew the value for the car and a fair price for it and was already approved by my bank for a very good rate. I finally said if you can get me a better rate but the payment is the same, then you have a deal. Guy comes back 45 minute later at 2% higher than the rate I already had. Walked out yelling in a very calm and collected but very very public manner at the salesman, manager and finance guy about how they are a f-ing waste of time, that they are dishonest and totally inept. Made a very very public show of it in a somewhat busy showroom.

Got a call from the GM that night wanting to make it right. I told him sell me the car for 6% under invoice and we would be good. He said he could do that then switched the car on me.

Got the car I wanted 24 hours later from Browns - very straight up.

Looks like some things never change

The trouble with Rosenthal is that, unlike most mega-dealers, they don't put the name on all their dealerships. You can be in a Rosenthal store and not even know it.

You are my bitch

Nishant

Short timer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For us, that comment card could
> earn us money. If I sold a car and the customer
> returned a card with "Excellent" on everything I
> got like $200 on top of my commission from the
> manufacturer. Anything less than excellent meant
> I got nothing.
>

So when you screwed someone, and they say they really enjoyed it, you got a bonus!

BTW: They call employees @ Rosenthal - RosenThieves

I use a buying service to purchase new cars, I have an independent shop do the service, that I don't do myself. I despise dealerships and you should too.

Olde Farte Wrote:

> On the positive side, I had a very good experience
> with Sheehy Nissan in Manassas, though my entire
> dealing/dickering with them was via
> email...hmmm...maybe that's why it WAS a positive
> experience?

I had a good experience with Sheehy Ford in Springfield. They fixed a warranty issue that Battlefield Ford refused to fix.

How do you report a dealership directly to Ford? I was dumb enough to buy a new Ford (and a used car at the same time from the same dealership, KipKillmons in Tysons, be careful not to slip on any of the slime trails.)

Buying a Ford was the worst investment I ever made. The second worse was buying their extended warranty.

Besides over paying on a rediculously inferior product, the dealerships comes up with rediculously ludicrous explanations for the shoddy craftsmanship and cheap construction so they don't have to cover damage.

"critter damage" was my favorite.

I had my 2011 Fiesta ese for 8 months.

Jerry's Ford in Leesburg (because I swore off KipKillmons) theorized a squirle jumped in an open window, wriggled under the front seat and chewed through some copper wiring, not touching anything else, then scittered off on his merry way after destroying a $900 airbag wire harness. The floppy headed, beady eyed mechanic "meach" said this with a straight face and only a slight speech impediment. He said he sees it all the time, so I'm obviously not the only customer they've pulled this on.

I'm the dupe for buying a Ford, but "Jerry's Ford" in leesburg should be Condemed for stupid.

If anyone knows how to get in touch with Ford I'm all ears. Ripping off the custome is probably a standard practice.

Getting Rosenthal to listen respectfully to a complaint stands about the same chance as getting anyone at Inova Fairfax to listen: about 1 in 1,000,000

The user is always wrong, even when they're right.

I've been a Volkswagen enthusiast for several years. I have been looking around trying to decide where to purchase a new GTI. I'm always on different VW chat sites and social media talking to lots of people. After speaking with several employees at Fairfax VW, it is clear to me that all the negative complaints are accurate. The owner is extremely cheap and treats employees poorly. Every employee i spoke with is miserable working at this location. quite frankly, the crappy work environment created by management creates pissed off employees who dont give a shit about pleasing customers.

It is time for a new Fairfax Underground meme. What shall it be? The theme is "thread resurrector".
Attachments:

My experience with Rosenthal is that they are the Kings of Douchebags of the auto business, which is saying something. Them and Ourisman, without a doubt, are on my shit list.


There isn't much you can do but blog, put out the word with family, friends, etc, although Fairfax Co does have a Consumer Protection Division. They might not be able to do much, more often that not that's the case as they don't have any real power per se, with the exception of a public list of business complaints. Resolved or Unresolved. Most are in the latter column.