ComplaintsforKarMART Volkswagen of Maui

• Initial Complaint

  07/30/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  2020, during the pandemic, I purchased a car from Karmart. My sales representative, ******, suggested financing an additional 4K for vehicle modifications at their shop, AMP (Alpha Motorsports Performance) Maui, due to my low interest rate of 1% which I agreed. January 2021, I contacted AMP regarding a seatbelt issue and using the 4K, but didn't receive a response. ****** mentioned that they were backed up and said I could use the funds later. Recently, on 6/27/24, I reached out to the service department at Karmart and spoke with ***** to inquire about the 4K credit. I needed a battery and potentially new tires. ***** got back to me a week later, on 7/1/24, and mentioned that the 4K had already expired (which contradicted previous info.), ***** offered to honor the credit if used before the end of the year. However, the tire rates he emailed me on 7/3/24 were higher than competitors and I would have had to order vs being already in stock. I asked for a refund on 7/5/24, and ***** said he'd have a sales manager contact me. However, It's been almost a month now without any response. It's disappointing to experience this poor customer service, especially considering that when I shared my experience with my co-worker, she mentioned she also knows someone who had a similar experience.

  Business response

  07/31/2024

  *****. When ****** purchased the Atlas from us in May of 2020 there was a $4,000 credit certificate to our aftermarket company AMP Maui. Attached is the "We Owe" document ****** singed stating that she had a "$4,000 Credit Cert with AMP". At the bottom of this document it states that ****** "accepts this WE-OWE with the understanding that it is valid for only 30 days. Also attached is the form used in negotiation to clarify that she would receive a "$4,000 AMP CERT" or certificate as part of her deal. This clearly states what the $4,000 was intended for in the car deal. ****** herself states that she didn't reach out to AMP until the beginning of 2021 about her credit/certificate. This is well past the 30 days required by the document she singed. Then, for years after her original contract and purchase date she reached out to our service team in ***** for some repairs on her Atlas. She informed the service department she had a "credit of $4,000". They reached out to me, the General Manager, on what to do. I looked into her deal and saw that this credit has expired and was from 4 years ago. Even still I told them ****** could use that credit for her tires and repairs. I also told them she could use that credit at either service or AMP by the end of the year until it was used up. Even though we were under no obligation to do so. I made this decision out of trying to be helpful to our customer ******. I then had a conversation with ****** yesterday when she called and complained that she can get tires for less of a quote somewhere else. I asked her if the tires she was quoted somewhere else where the same brand, style, etc as the ones we quoted her. She said no. She also expressed that she didn't think she would be able to use up the $4,000 by the end of the year. I told her that I would tell the team that she could use this credit until it ran out. Again, she wasn't satisfied. ****** will be able to use her $4,000 credit on her Atlas until she either no longer owns the vehicle or uses it up. It is unfortunate that she feels we haven't gone above and beyond to try to accommodate for something that happened 4 years ago even though her own singed documents say she needed to have used them within 30 days. 

  Customer response

  07/31/2024

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  

  I submitted my complaint before I was able to have a conversation with *******. I was feeling frustrated as I didn't receive a promised call back despite waiting for several weeks and multiple calls later which ***** had informed me I would, and the info. provided by ****** initially didn't align, which doesn't surprise me he no longer works there. ****** told me originally, I didn't need to worry about the deadline due to the pandemic backlog at AMP, as it's a subsidiary of KarMart, and I would have more time. ******* has since assured me AMP/KarMart would honor the agreement until I've used the 4K I financed, instead of year-end deadline. The current issue lies with the availability of service in a timely manner, as I was informed would take several weeks before becoming available. Thank you.
  

  Sincerely,
  ***********************

• Initial Complaint

  01/09/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  So I first bought a 2022 ****** frontier truck from karmart in May of 2022 the next day I'm driving around as I turn into the gas station I hear my tire is rubbing on something and a popping noise coming from the front end so I go to karMart if you times for them to realize the tires were too big so they changed me out the smaller tires and as I'm driving home I turn into my driveway to hear it popping noise again coming from the front end so I take it back down the next day again they look over the truck and tell me that they don't know why it's making noise to maybe take it to another shop see if they can figure it out and bring it back to them to fix I told them I don't want this truck no more so they put me in a 2022 ****** Tacoma ruin my credit by doing this and I come home with the brand new 2022 ****** Tacoma turn into my driveway and I hear a squeaky noise so I inspect the front end and notice there are loose nuts on my front driver side the nut I could loosen with my hand the passenger side nut was literally not there and the bolt was coming out of the sway arms so I called Car-Mart to tell them the issue they send a tow truck up towed my truck back down to fix the loose bolts and nuts when I was down there I asked him who lifted the truck and of course they denied it after me finding the bolts loose so they fix the truck and as I'm driving home I kind of notice if vibration in my steering wheel but I thought it was just the tires but over the months it has gotten worse so I did a little studying and found out that there is a bearing they need to be replaced with a bushing when you lift the truck also you need to do a differential drop in the front end and a differential drop for the rear end so the drive shaft and CV axles come straight again so I go down there to karmart try and get this figured out and I was little up set this is the second truck that I bought from them and I told to sell a manager down there **** my issues and he gave me attitude and told me why haven't I bring in the truck sooner because when I had the ****** frontier I brought it in real quickly and I told him well I had thought it was the tires making the vibration on the ****** Tacoma but it has gotten worse lately so I figured I'll bring it in and ask the question again who lifted the truck and see what can be done and he got kind of mad when I told him I didn't believe him when he says that it didn't lift the truck so when I told him that he looked at me and said if you don't believe me as a sale manager you can go ahead and kick rocks I'm sure that's not how a sales manager should talk to you and now I'm stuck with it a $52,000 truck that has a vibrating steering wheel and no differential drops I would like my truck to be fixed but i will not allow them to touch my truck ever again I'm looking to get them to pay to fix my truck at a ************** after I had my problems with them told my story to a few people I hear a lot about them and never want them to touch my truck again they forget to tighten in bolts I hear so much horror stories about this place I just want something done and they need to realize they will hurt somebody one day if I wasn't mechanically inclined I wouldn't have noticed to lose boats and I could have died when my front wheel came off they're going to hurt somebody one day if they don't tighten boats on the front ends when they lift trucks

  Business response

  01/26/2023

  ******************** purchased a 2022 lifted frontier from ** in May of 2022. Shortly after he

  purchased the lifted Frontier he came into our AMP, aftermarket facility, saying his tires were

  rubbing. This is a common occurrence for vehicles with lifts and larger tires. We addressed the

  tires rubbing for ******************** at no cost to him. On 6/15 Mr. ********* again reached out to us

  saying that his tires were rubbing and there was a popping noise while turning. We were

  unable to verify this complaint from ********************. After further discussion with the customer,

  he told us he drives his truck offroad on his property and the tires would come close to rubbing

  but wouldnt rub. On 7/7 the customer again called to inform us he hears a popping sound still. We inspected the vehicle and couldnt recreate any popping sound or the concern from the

  customer. We spoke to the customer and agreed to replace the tires on his truck for smaller

  tires at no cost to the customer. At this point ******************** was no longer happy with his Frontier, so we helped him trade it in on a lifted Tacoma we had for sale.

   

  Shortly after ******************* purchased the Tacoma there was a noise coming from the Tacoma and ******************* did not feel comfortable driving it to us for inspection. He had found a bolt that was loose in the suspension. We paid to tow the Tacoma in and found that one of the bolts had backed out and needed to be replaced. We replaced this bolt at no charge to ********************. We performed a road test and full inspection of the lift and truck to make sure there were no other problems or

  issues. We then performed an alignment on the Tacoma. All at no cost to ********************. After a

  full inspection of the vehicle, tightening the suspension, performing an alignment, and then

  road testing the Tacoma there were no other issues present. Not too long after ******************** had his Tacoma back, he called and was extremely upset. Stating there was a vibration he could feel and wanted to know a whole breakdown of the lift and who installed it. When we explained that we didnt install the lift ourselves he became aggressive on the phone and our staff tried to deescalate the situation with no success. Our staff finally had to end the conversation as even given our best efforts we couldnt come to a resolution with *********************

   

  Thank you for the opportunity to respond.   We will not be paying another shop for repair.

   

   

  Sincerely,

   

   

   

  *******************************

  General Manager

  KarMART of Maui

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