Not that we needed a reminder of how horrible they are, but just for the hell of it...

A friend of mine has an '06 Acura TL with a number of problems that she wanted to get checked out. Since there's no Acura dealership around, she figured that Allen Honda may be able to help. From the get-go, the service guy treated her like crap and played the "what does a girl know about a car?" game. She also tried to explain that her 3rd gear wasn't engaging smoothly and the guy interrupted her and said "wait a minute - it's a stick?." "Are you sure you know how to drive a stick?" She was obviously pretty furious at that point and basically asked the guy if they could help her or not. He said that Honda couldn't touch an Acura if it was under warranty or that the warranty would be voided. She understood and was almost glad that she wouldn't have to do business with them. Sucks to make a trip to Houston for service, but I'm sure it beats dealing with the idiots at Allen...

I hate their commercial!!!! The one with the song with all the 'H' names...and then at the end it says, "wonda has a Honda"...it really makes me mad!

The 90-year-old names in that commercial make me want to destroy a Honda.

I had a horrid experience on their used lot; enough to keep me from even considering going to them for anything.

what happened, txdragonfly?

Found a Jeep Liberty listed on their website. Printed the ad and took it with me to go look at the vehicle. Mind you, my ex-husband (we were still married then) was with me. We wandered the lot and found the car. Salesman walks out and asks if he can help us. So, we ask a few questions about the car. He immediately gets the key and opens it up for us. Looking around the car, I make note of a few things to ask while the ex-husband gives him a few basic questions (anything that could be answered off the window sticker/print-out). The entire time, the guy could only tell us off the top of his head the year, make, model, and asking price. Any other question and he'd say, "Well, I really know Hondas. That's what we sell." Looking around the steering column, I notice that it appears to be lacking cruise control. I tug on the ex-husband's shirt and point. He catches my drift and asks about cruise control on the vehicle. The guy then looks over the window sticker and says, "Well....it should have it, I think it says here it does." Then he looks inside the car and says, "Oh, doesn't look like it does...you can get that installed for an extra fee." Umm, extra fee my tuckus. You're advertising it online and in the lot as having cruise, it better damn well have cruise. We started to ask a few warranty questions and the guy was clueless; back to the Honda statement. I finally walked off in mid-sentence and just went to sit in the car and leave.

they were using the "wanda has a Honda" jingle when I was in school.

fly...tuckus?

tuckus...butt...ass

I had a great experience. They set me up and gave a great deal on my trade-in.

well, i knew the implied meaning from the context...

...as well as having heard the word used by my grandmother many, many years ago.

-T

I went in to Allen Honda to look at and test drive the S2000. I was in sneakers, shorts and a cap. The guy tells me how great they are. I ask him what it would take to test drive one, and he says we have to negotiate and agree on a deal before he will let me drive it. Tells me the people that buy the S2000 don't want any miles on it. The next day I went down 290 to Eagle honda on Jones rode. They let me test drive with no hassles, and I bought it on the spot. Allen Honda is full of idiots.

Lovely Day for a Guinness

hank, your post reminded me of a personal experience with Varsity Ford a few years ago.

with the arrival of our youngest son, we were in the market for a larger vehicle and went to look at the Expedition. we must have made quite a first impression on the sales staff because they immediately brought me inside where some guy started asking all kinds of questions aimed at determining whether or not i made enough money for them to bother with.

i left and won't be back.

This discussion is a little like griping about cell phone providers. Every cell company has billions of unsatisfied customers. Every dealership in the world has billions of unhappy customers.

If you do your own homework when shopping for a car, you rarely have to mess with the bull**** that meets you in the parking lot (except for basic stuff like starting price).

HA! I must look poor, too, or something because I've had that happen twice.

The first was my sophomore year of college when I went to Tommie Vaughn to order my '00 Lightning. I walked in with a buddy in shorts and a t-shirt and were looking at some of the Saleens in the showroom while waiting on someone to come up and talk to me. Everyone ignored me and I finally had to go to the receptionist and tell her to get me a salesperson. When the salesman finally came up I said that I wanted to talk to him about a Lightning. "We don't have any." "Yeah, neither does anyone else, but you'll be getting a shipment of '00s at some point in the future." "Well yeah." "Well I want one of those." After he found out I was willing to put down a deposit and had cash, he started kissing my butt.

Same thing when we went to Wiesner to get the wife an '05 GTO. We finally got someone to help us and talked to the salesman for a bit. After going through everything, he basically said that he wasn't going to sell us one because "he didn't think that we were at the right point in our lives for one." WTF?!?!? My credit was/is in the 770s and this guy is trying to tell me that I can't afford a $30K car? We walked out and bought one from Lawrence Marshall the next day. I'll have the thing paid off next year (less than two years) and am going to send the idiot at Wiesner a "thank you" card with a copy of the letter from the lender saying that we're paid in full.

Nice, Emeril.

I've had the same bad experience with Allen Honda. Been in there a couple of time and got really bad customer service. Maintenance staff treat everyone like dirt. After my time there, I ended up buying a Honda from Streater-Smith in Conroe. S-S staff are great.

I bought a van from Allen Honda last year, and knew what I was willing to pay for it. I went in and talked to Bob, one of the sales staff, and signed papers + drove off the lot within half an hour with no problems.

Best purchase experience I've ever had.

I hadn't been very impressed or overly pleased with the maintenance department - and the posts here don't surprise me much based on my own experiences there.

Overall, very happy with Bob in the sales dept., and not so much with the service dept. It sounds like the service and used car depts share employees =)

Bob is absolutely the best salesman they have at Allen Honda. We have bought at least three vehicles from him and it has been as easy as can be. Jakc Neville, who used to be one of the sales people and is now the sales manager is awesome as well.

As for the service department, it has consistently gone downhill because the service advisors are constantly changing. I swear in the last year or so there have been about 8 different people come and go from there.

Case in point, Emeril.

So you got lucky at Lawrence Marshall.

I remember the "Wanda has a Honda" ads too, didn't they used to be called Howdy Honda though?

Can't go wrong with Bob.

quote:

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"he didn't think that we were at the right point in our lives for one." WTF?!?!?

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Man - that would make me mad too - at that point I would have told him that I have employees that make more money than he does, that I was willing to pay cash, and then done my 180 out of there.

But then again - we shouldn't be surprised that salesmen are superficial - especially car salesmen.

Good to hear about Bob...We have been dealing with him (After a rec. from the in-laws who are very prudent with their car purchases) and have a CRV comin in next week...