This is a follow up positive review to a negative review I just submitted yesterday concerning a bad experience my wife and I had with a new car purchase on 28 Dec 2021 from Wesley Chapel Hyundai concerning an unfair Perma Plate up-charge. As I mentioned in my last review, leaving a negative review was the last thing that we wanted to do, but due to the lack of any kind of response at all from the General Manger we had during our sale to try and resolve our Perma Plate issue over the last two months, we felt we had no other choice but to leave a negative review yesterday. See below for updated positive review.

This follow-up Positive review is being submitted because of a call I received today 28 March 2022 from Mr Moody the head Administrator for Wesley Chapel Hyundai & Mazda. I have to admit his call was a big surprise to say the least after over two months of trying to work things out with our original sales General Manager with no luck. We are very grateful for his call though as we know Mr Moody is extremely busy in his position and did not have to call us as he had nothing to do with our sales and/or did he know anything about the big issue we had with the unfair Perma Plate up-charge. Not only did he patiently listen to our concerns, but he was very apologetic for the way we were treated by our Wesley Chapel Sales team, and he immediately offered to help resolve our issue in any way he could. To have someone at Wesley Chapel Hyundai finally show a genuine concern about our issue after all this time and a willingness to work with my wife and I to try to make our new car purchase right, was a real welcome and we could not thank Mr Moody enough for that. As I said in my earlier review, it was not just about the unfair up-charge for Perma Plate for us, but also about integrity and the principal which for some reason our sales team lost sight of during our purchase. Because of Mr Moody's openness and honesty while we were talking today, and his genuine concern and desire to ensure customer satisfaction, I am changing our negative review to a positive review with this writing. To be honest we had no intentions of ever buying another car from Wesley Chapel Hyundai or recommending anyone buy a vehicle there before we talked to Mr Moody today as we were that unhappy with the issue we had with our resent purchase. The generous time that Mr Moody took to talk with us and truly care about trying to resolve our issue, showed us that integrity and principal do really matter still to most people. For that reason, we have changed our review and we will continue to be loyal customers of Wesley Chapel Hyundai as we have been over the last 10 years since buying our first new Hyundai back in 2012 and will also consider stopping at Wesley Chapel Hyundai again now when we go to buy our new second vehicle in the very near future. Thanks again Mr Moody for reaching out to us and taking the time to address and help resolve this long outstanding issue. Just FYI despite everything that went on with our sale, my wife does love her new 2022 Hyundai Tucson. Stay Safe.

Original Review

03/27/2022

Category: Sales

PERMA PLATE SCAM

" PERMA PLATE SCAM - Wesley Chapel Hyundai"

I've never had to submit a negative review before but the Wesley Chapel Hyundai (WCH) Sales team we unfortunately had for the purchase of our new 2022 Hyundai Tucson on 28 Dec 2022, could care less about customer satisfaction. After an agonizing 2 months of patiently trying to work with WCH with no luck, we felt obligated to post this review to help prevent anyone else from getting scammed with a huge PERMA PLATE up-charge like we did at WCH. Would give a ZERO rating if possible. Due to a family emergency it took me a little longer to get this review out.

My initial writeup actually listed our WCH 3 person sales team by name so people seeing this review would know who these crooked people are, but decided attacking them personally by name, would make us as bad as they are.

Our sales team knows who they are & should be ashamed of how they treated us. In short, WCH unfairly tacked on a $3495 up-charge to our purchase price by cleverly using “PERMA PLATE” and finance person manipulating our final sales numbers to work it in. Unfortunately, we didn't discover the scam until the day after the sale when we finally had time to really read our contract. We contacted sales person immediately next day questioning the up-charge saying we told finance we did not want Perma Plate. We were misled from the start to finish about Perma Plate & never given honest information or even a brochure when we asked on Perma Plate.

The sales GM was as disrespectful as they come & none responsive to any calls, emails or even a personal visit to the dealership the following week to where the sales team shuffled me around saying they couldn’t do anything & that the GM I had for our sales was too busy to talk to me & to come back later. The only thing the GM unapologetically & arrogantly said to me when I finally got to talk to him two weeks after the purchase, was that he was sorry it took so long to get back to me & that it was basically our fault because we agreed to & did not catch the Perma Plate up charge which was totally not true & then unbelievably the GM insulted us further by actually offering us 6,000 dollars less than what we had just overpaid him for the vehicle saying he would buy our new Tucson back if we were not happy.

We finally had to reach out to Hyundai Corporate in California to let them know about the Perma Plate scam WCH was running. Hyundai Corporate customer service was extremely supportive & very surprised to hear how WCH management treated us & how they are using Perma Plate as an shady sales tactic. Corporate called WCH numerous times, with sales GM promising Corporate he would call me but GM never did call again. The GM did make the sales person call shortly after Corporate talked to them (afraid to call me himself) and had the sales person make the same offer of buying my new Tucson back at a huge discount. Shows how unprofessional management are at WCH.

We ended up paying because of the Perma Plate up charge scam of $3495, $41,000 for a 2022 Tucson SEL with MSRP Window sticker of $32,975 (this price does include $1866 for 10 year warranty we did agree to). It’s criminal as we could have purchased a new 22 Hyundai Sante Fe SEL for less.

I could go into more detail but reviews can only be so long. We know we will never get any satisfaction out of WCH, but for us it is not just about $3495 they stole from us, it is about the principle and integrity which obviously WCH sales could care less about and reason we felt obligated to send this review now because we do not want anyone else getting scammed with Perma Plate. In the end, I have no one but myself to blame for not paying closer attention to the numbers until after the sale but shame on WCH again for knowingly & willingly cheating us and other honest hardworking people.

If anyone else has had a Perma Plate issue with Wesley Chapel Hyundai & have not been able to resolve their issues, you can call Hyundai Corporate California at 833-462-8722 who unlike the sales team at WCH, truly do care about customer satisfaction.

WILLIAM J D. from Hyundai Of Wesley Chapel responded on 03/28/2022 06:08 AM

Thank you for taking the time to tell us about your experience at HYUNDAI OF WESLEY CHAPEL. We appreciate your feedback since it helps us improve our service and your experience.

As GENERAL MANAGER of the HYUNDAI OF WESLEY CHAPEL store, I am sorry to hear that you found your buying experience to be unsatisfactory.

Please feel free to reach out to me directly at the following email: williamdimitras@lithia.com. My phone number is 727-569-0999 if you prefer a phone conversation.

Sincerely,

Bill Dimitras

GENERAL MANAGER

Hyundai of WESLEY CHAPEL

williamdimitras@lithia.com