Joe Cecconi’s Chrysler Complex Of Arrogance and Rudeness

Back in September, I was fresh off an incredibly unpleasant purchase of a Jeep from Joe Cecconi’s Chrysler Complex on Military Road in Niagara Falls. This is what I had to say then:

The customer service at Joe Cecconi’s Five Star Chrysler Complex is no better than One Star. We traded in the old Jeep for a new one and my beloved Kane Doyle Jeep has recently closed its doors, thus forcing us into the arms of Mr. Cecconi. Not a pleasant experience. If you need to buy a Jeep/Dodge/Chrysler, I’d recommend you go somewhere else. The salesman was disorganized, the sales manager couldn’t find my car for three days, and the entire experience was just a mess.

What follows is a lengthy dissertation on awful customer service and is written for the sole purpose of my personal venting. Read at your own risk of being bored.

At the time, it was just another in a long series of mildly unpleasant sales transactions that have littered my life over the past ten years. Customer service is in a general state of disarray in America, so I stopped really getting worked up about the minor slights and rudeness years ago. However, the purchase process was a mere prelude to the incredible rudeness, arrogance, and outright lying that I have had to deal with over the past couple of days. Absolutely incredible.

When we purchased our vehicle, John Simone (our salesman), only provided us with one key to the vehicle. In the morass of waiting several hours to close our sale with the finance guy, wrangling the baby, dealing with my wife who was on the verge of burning the dealership to the ground, and other general nonsense…the fact that he only gave me one key went unnoticed.

If you have purchased a car in the last five years, you’ll know why having only one key can be difficult. The key has a computer chip in it which works with the ignition and also has the remote lock/unlock functionality built into it. These keys can be a bit pricey, usually $300 retail. So, after a day or so, I called Cecconi’s Chrysler to inform them that I needed the second key to the vehicle. After leaving seven voicemails over four days with my salesman and the sales manager, I was informed that they couldn’t find my key, but I was welcome to make a service appointment to get a new one cut and programmed at their cost. I called the service department and was told the soonest I could get in was 37 days later. Ugh. I made the appointment and moved on with the day to day.

In the interim, I filled out three separate customer service surveys with Chrysler which rated my buying experience at Cecconi’s as the worst of my adult life. I received calls from Chrysler in which I informed them that this was absolutely the last Chrysler I ever intended to lease/purchase and it was totally due to the ineptitude and rudeness of the dealership. Piss me off? Well…a VERY nasty customer survey pox upon your house, Mr. Man! HARUMPH!#! Lame, I know. But I had no other recourse after taking delivery of the vehicle. You take what you can get in life.

Of course, I was sent out of town for a training class during the week of the appointment and I had to reschedule at the last minute and I was told it would be another two months before I could get in. I was incensed. To make this portion of the story shorter, I decided to just move through life with only one key to the vehicle and just forget about it. I filed it under “to be taken care of when I was less irritable”, so 2023 would probably be the date for that.

Bored yet? Stick with me, it’s about to get a little more entertaining.

My wife primarily drives the new Jeep as she transports the baby more often than I do, thus, I decided to get her a remote starter for this Christmas. I thought it would be nice if she could start the Jeep and let it warm up past 3 degrees in the morning when se is taking the baby out. Yeah, I’m thoughtful, it’s how I roll.

My appointment to have the starter installed was this morning at Custom Radio in Amherst. Upon arrival, I was informed that they would be unable to install the starter I purchased in December without two keys. If one key is lost, well, the car probably will not start without some huge cost to me at Jeep and with them. So, I decided today was the day I would take a jaunt up to visit my good buddies at Cecconi’s Chrysler Complex and get my second key.

Upon arrival, I asked to speak with Clyde Van Every (the sales manager who was ducking my calls earlier). He deigned to speak with me and I requested his assistance in following up on his promise to give me my second key. He initially agreed, but was interrupted by Mike Jensen (the dealership’s general manager). I was then informed that he mailed my key to me last month and that I should go back home and “give a good look around for it”.

Of course, this was news to me and I immediately undertook the following line of questioning:

Q: When did you specifically mail it?

A: I don’t know, sometime last month

Q: How did you mail it? UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS? Certified? Return Receipt? Insured? Delivery confirmation?

A: Nope, just dropped it in an envelope and mailed it to you

Q: You dropped a $300 key into an envelope and mailed it to me? Where and when did you find “my key” at the dealership? How did you know it was my key and not someone else’s? Did you need to run a check on the chip or what?

A: Nope, I just knew it was your key

Q: Is there any evidence whatsoever that you actually mailed this key? Is there a note in my customer file? A post it note stuck to a monitor somewhere? Anything? Because it sure seems awfully odd that you would just find a random key, intuitively know it was mine, not make a note of it nor contact me, and just drop it in the mail. And to remember with such clarity that you mailed it but to have not retained any other details of the process.

A: It was mailed, you’re free to buy another key if you want. Hell, I’ll even sell it to you at cost ($150). Seems pretty clear to me that you just want a free spare key out of us so you can set up your remote starter. I’m not gonna get screwed on this deal. ya know.

Q: I see what you did there, you flipped it! Oh, you’re the clever one Mr. GED-having car salesman! I’m the liar and thief! So, you’re telling me that I have no recourse here and that I should go fuck myself?

A: That is exactly what I am telling you.

Super. I went out to the car to calm down.

I decided to call Chrysler Customer Service to see if they could help influence the process in some way. After calmly and rationally detailing the situation to the agent, I was put on hold as she attempted to contact the dealership and broker a truce. I sat immediately outside the dealership in my vehicle, from which I had a direct view of Clyde and Mike yukking it up in the office. Moments later, the agent came back on the phone to inform me that the dealership receptionist said that both of them had left for the day and they would call back next week. To wit, I informed the phone agent that I was staring right at them and they were sitting in their office. I instructed her to call back and let them know the customer is sitting outside, has visual lock on them, and that she would like to speak with them. They refused again. Classy.

I filed my complaint, requested that Chrysler help me, but I was informed that this was a problem with the sales process and I needed to take it up with the dealership. They couldn’t do much for me and she apologized. That and six dollars will get me a cup of coffee at Spot.

It then occurred to me that if these assclowns had indeed mailed a key in a Chrysler envelope and it was actually lost, there was someone walking about town with my address and a key to my Jeep. Not cool. I went back inside and asked if there was anything someone would do to remedy that situation and I was told to get bent. Great. “If your Jeep is stolen, take it up with your insurance company. There is absolutely nothing that I am going to do for you today.”

So, at a loss for what to do, I had to leave as it seemed the only matter of recourse was to go all “Frank Rizzo” on them.

So, as it stands; I have one key for my Jeep, cannot install the $200 remote starter I bought my wife for Christmas, was abused and called a liar by the guys at Cecconi’s Chrysler Complex, Chrysler refuses to get involved, and if by some chance the unethical (allegedly) sales manager is not lying…someone is walking around Buffalo with the key to my Jeep and my address. Awesome. My only recourse is to purchase a new key from another dealership and have that one and my current key reprogrammed or I could take them to small claims court.

While I decide what to do next, I’ll litter the various Internet car portals with poor ratings for Cecconi and this story.

Any suggestions from the peanut gallery on what to do next?