Horrible experience on 8/10/17 while visiting to view cars and test drive. I wish I read these other reviews before wasting our time at Gateway Chevrolet.
First, we had to engage the salesman Darius to get service, then he could not locate keys to the car that we wanted to test drive and had to make multiple trips to try and locate the keys. After the test drive, we informed that we had a pre-approved loan and were interested in making a deal, so we went inside to discuss cost. No basic customer service skills were displayed by the salesman and it was obvious that he was new and either untrained or not interested in making a sale. At the very least, an offer of water would have been nice after walking around the lot for about an hour viewing cars, going for a test drive and showing interest in making a purchase.
The salesman proceeded to conduct the routine information gathering that takes place in the sales process. It was not a problem until he began asking for financial details that did not make sense since we already told him that we had a pre-approved loan. He asked for a social security number (RED FLAG) to conduct a better background check for credit?? Not sure what part of pre-approved loan he did not understand? The information gathering stopped at that question and he asked to see a letter showing the pre-approved loan. Asking for evidence was a second RED FLAG because at this point I'm trying to negotiate to buy a car and not go under full investigation. We kindly let him view the proof of our pre-approved loan on the cellphone and he asked for a copy. He offered us to use their desktop computer to logon to our bank website and print the pre-approved loan letter... third RED FLAG. For some reason, we continued the process and logged on to let him view the letter on the computer monitor. During the entire time of logging on to the bank website, he was hovering over the shoulder while typing the password (really?) fourth RED FLAG.... password has since been changed. Before printing, I questioned the reason for the printout and he said for them to have a copy of it. Nope, that was the end of this suspicious method of doing business and we did not print the loan letter. Logged out and cleared history.
I told the salesman an out the door price to get a reaction and he was convinced that it is not possible with all of the taxes and extra costs that need to be added to the sticker price. I have purchased many vehicles in the past and most experienced buyers do not purchase vehicles at the full sticker price. In many cases, a deal can be worked with absorbing extra costs into the vehicle cost, cutting cost, etc. I think customer service, making deals and selling is a salesperson's job, but that was not my experience here. Be cautious and do not provide information that does not need to be disclosed.