I was going to buy a car from them, left them a $500 deposit. On the day I was supposed to pick up the car, they went back on all the warranties and perks that they initially put on the contract. Then when we noticed on the final test drive that the car made a knocking sound every time it turned, the manager said he couldn't sell me the car. So the deal was cancelled by the dealership and I cancelled my $500 check. Two weeks later, I get a collections notice in the mail for $520, $500 for the deposit on the car I never bought, and $20 for a returned check fee. If they knew I never bought the car, why would they try to cash my check? (which I have proof, they didn't try to cash until days after the deal was cancelled). The scummiest of the slummiest **! I got on the accounting department's ** and now, it's all resolved. Typically, doesn't a company try to contact you before putting you in collections? Steer clear of these **!
Consumer Complaints & Reviews
After having my Hyundai for only 3 months and with many difficulties with the GPS, the backup camera stopped showing images and was only white. I brought it in for service and was later told that the lens was cracked and I would have to pay over $150 for repair. When I asked about the warranty and the many times I complained about the GPS, I was told that I had to have cracked it.
Looking where the lens is located, it would be impossible for me to have hit something backing up. The lens is located under the overhang of the trunk and is not flush with the body at all. The only way it could get cracked is if it was hit with a hammer. And that is exactly what I was accused of. I had to pay the charge to get my car back.
When I leased my car, Advantage Hyundai said that they would pay the last 2 remaining payments on my Lexus lease and I then left my Lexus with them and took a new Hyundai. This practice is normal for dealerships to tempt new customers. Shortly after, I stopped in the dealership for service and when I tried to find out my former car, they had no record of it. It was as if it disappeared. I was told not to worry, it would turn up. A couple of months later, I received a bill from Toyota financial services, Lexus, for an additional month's payment because the Lexus was not returned at the end of its lease.
When I spoke with the manager, Mike **, he first gave the impression that it was my fault and that I was trying to pull a fast one. After confronting him on this and after bringing in evidence showing the lease with Lexus and the lease with Hyundai, and the explanation on the Toyota bill, he stated "yes, we really dropped the ball on this one ". I took that to mean he would handle it. He did not and I am being billed by Toyota and they are turning it over to a collection agency, damaging my credit history. Additionally, when I asked the owner's name, (he has several dealerships), I was told it was "Stalupi" and I would never be able to speak with him.
I bought a brand-new Hyundai Tucson from Advantage Hyundai in Hicksville in February 2011. The salesman's name who "assisted" me was Rob **. When we were negotiating the deal, Rob said he "always brings his open heart to the customers." I trusted him and purchased the car from him. This was the biggest mistake in my life.
I heard from my friends several complaints regarding doing business with Advantage Hyundai, but I did not take it seriously. Too bad.
Four days ago, on Saturday, October 8, 2011, my car stopped driving on the highway. It had just 8312 miles on the odometer. I called Hyundai Roadside Assistance for help. They sent me to 911. Police came and I was towed away from the highway (I-495). Finally yesterday, October 11, 2011, my car was towed to Advantage Hyundai. I got a replacement car after a long argument with an unnamed supervisor from the Service Department who is a short guy with no smile.
Then I called Rob ** yesterday evening, having some questions regarding this replacement car. He was not available at the time, and I was told that Rob will call me back this morning. He did call this morning at 8:40AM. I introduced myself and was going to ask him my question, but what I heard from yelling Rob ** was:
"I do not remember you! Goodbye!" And he hung up the phone.
I was shocked to say the least. And I will follow up with a complaint about this gentleman who is a very unprofessional and rude salesperson.
I was attempting to contact the general manager to see if he could perhaps shed some light on the tricky and bad judgment I was receiving from his salespeople. When he came to the phone, I asked him who he was and he replied "sales manager". Since it was my second call to Advantage Hyundai requesting to speak with the GM, I assumed this was as far as I was going to get. John ** was very rude and insulting to me and hung up in my face. I have never met this type of bad behavior in any sort of customer service business. I am a current customer of Advantage Hyundai and have been for over three years.
As the GM would not speak to me and the "sales manger" told me off, I decided to put a call in the service manager at Advantage Hyundai, this person's name is Mike. I asked Mike if he recalled who I was. He did, so I proceeded to share the events of my very unpleasant incident. Mike was more than apologetic to me and told me if I did purchase another Hyundai somewhere else I was always welcome at Advantage service department. Mike and I also recalled a time when things were less than perfect in the service dept and how we handled it professionally and politely. In conclusion, I will never step foot into that Advantage Hyundai sales department again. I care only to do business with pleasant people who treat me nicely.
On 30 Aug 11, I visited Advantage Hyundai in Hicksville, New York and met with Brandon, the used car salesman. I found a 2008 Hyundai Accent, and while the car was being repaired for what was supposed to be minor ding, I gave a $100 deposit to hold the car pending my looking at it the following Thursday. When I took a closer look at the car online, I noticed that there was a damage to the front as well. First, they were unwilling to honor the $9,998 website price and said that either the car would be taken as is or the price would be $11,200.
I decided not to take the vehicle. I called Brandon and told him to refund my $100 and he said that he would take care of that immediately. I checked my Master Card debit account the next day and it wasn't put back on it yet. The following day, I went down there and asked Brandon where my refund was. He first said that it was done and then said, "Oops! We can't put it back on your card. A check would be put in the mail." This was Thursday, 01 Sept 11, and to this date, 08 Sept 11, I still have not received my refund.
Deceit and dishonesty are what this dealer stands for. I hope and pray that no one will ever purchase a vehicle from them. Atlantic Hyundai was fantastic, incredibly honest and fair. I purchased my vehicle from them and I hope that everyone else does. My next step will be the Hyundai U.S. corporate office and then an attorney.
This is a response to a complaint from Dominick of Hicksville. Advantage Hyundai cares about all of our customers, and does its best to accommodate everyone. Unfortunately, the internet enables people to tell one sided stories. Much of what you read about the previous complaint is misleading. Hyundai Motor Corp., not Advantage Hyundai, denied the customer warranty coverage on the engine due to lack of basic maintenance (oil changes) and lack of service records. Hyundai Motor Corp. then, under no pressure, offered Dominick and his wife a new engine, if they were willing to pay $1500 for labor to install it. Dominick and his wife refused to work with Hyundai Motor Corp. Advantage Hyundai stepped in, and paid the $1500 labor, so Dominick and his ex wife did not have to pay anything out of their pocket. Dominick was happy with the solution, but has yet to post any corrections or updates. He also does not answer the phone when called for additional feedback. Advantage Hyundai is one of the top rated dealerships in customer service, and prides itself on doing this right thing for all our customer, especially those in our neighborhood.
Looking to buy a new car? Does your son or daughter need a good quality new or used automobile? Then you'll probably want to AVOID Advantage Hyundai at all costs. To say, this car dealership located at 430 Plainview Rd in Hicksville, NY has service and sales department problems, would be an enormous understatement. ADHD and Bi-Polar does not make for a pleasant car buying experience, so my first mistake was to let my wife pick out the car and complete the sale by herself. Unfortunately, Advantage Hyundai truly lived up to their name and immediately took full advantage of my wife's lack of automobile knowledge.
The happiness of driving her 2007 Hyundai off the lot was quickly replaced by worry within miles of the dealership when she pulled up at my work and the ticking in the engine was already noticeable. I wondered aloud whether the car was broken or somehow she not only purchased a car but a time bomb as well, judging by the insensate tick-tick-tick of the engine clearly she must have missed exploding pistons on the cars list of features. Within days I realized I was right on both fronts, we did indeed bought a car and a bomb, just two years after purchasing this lemon, our 2007 Hyundai Sonata squeezed out its last frustrating mile and went BOOM!
The cold raw winter morning did little to help the mood we were in when this Advantage Hyundai time bomb hit 0:00. The resulting explosion normally found in action movies such as lethal weapon propelled our little piston right through our under powered 6 cylinder engine. AAA sent us a tow truck within an hour to drive this useless piece of junk to a local gas station to perform the autopsy. It was clearly evident that the engine was now defunct and the only determination that needed to be made was if the car died of suicide or my wife was some sort of mad Automobile Dr. Kevorkian who helped it on its way out on that last drive into Muttontown.
After the cause of death was discovered, we called Hyundai's towing service to bring the car back to Advantage Hyundai's service department since the cars warranty clearly states that exploding pistons were fully covered. Hyundai's towing service informed us on Saturday March 5th that the car had arrived at Advantage Hyundai. As the days past and no word from Advantage was forth coming we called on Wednesday the 9th to asked about our recently departed but all we got was a recording, clearly they were deep in morning for our little baby blue bomb and were too distraught to answer our call. Leaving our name and number and the reason for the call, we went back to hitching our rides to work and reveling in the fact that we no longer had to pay gas prices that were quickly approaching $4 a gallon.
After a few days we thought Advantage Hyundai had taking this period or morning a little too far and called on the 12th of March. My spirits soared as the phone was answered and an actual person from Advantage Hyundai said "Hello" just as quickly my hopes were dashed when "Paul" Our Hyundai Automotive consultant informed me there would be a $103-charge just to look at the car. They claim that they were trying to reach us all week to make sure we would pay this $103 extortion rate before their well oiled machine sprung into action. Strange how our cell phone never recorded even one call from Advantage Hyundai?
After giving the okay to their blood money request Advantage Hyundai's crack service team of Moe, Larry and Curly went to work diagnosing the problem with our now defunct 2007 Sonata, hopefully the $103 and the rather large size hole where the piston once occupied would help them quickly discover the problem. We understand the 3 amigos start their day at 8am and God forbid we would ever be the cause of them missing the Coffee trunk that arrived everyday promptly at 8:05am.
Another week goes by with no word, so on 3/20 a full 15 days after it was delivered I called Advantage and they informed me that due to my wife missing an oil change the car was so "Sludged" up that the engine seized and they will not cover the repair. Wonderful news for Advantage Hyundai, not so wonderful for us.
Having worked on engines my whole life I knew that missing an oil change or two could NOT! have caused this kind of problem. "What would caused all this sludge in the first place? " I wondered. After running a car fax report on the car, I discovered the sordid details of our recently departed's past. Did my wife miss oil changes? Yes, but the real question that should be asked is, was it my wife missing an oil change or the approximately 27,000 miles that Hertz rent-a-car, the original owners, put on this car in less than 1 year? I will repeat, that's 27,000 miles in less than one year! An average driver drives around 10,000 miles per year. So in less than one year, Hertz put almost 3 years worth of wear and tear on this engine.
Hertz rented this car to an unknown number of drivers who would not give it a second thought of driving hard and fast and placing undo strain on a brand new engine. Hertz's only real concern is about the cars condition goes as far as the interior and the body. Hertz knowing full well they will only have the car for less than a year could care less about the engine or the wear and tear placed on this vehicle by reckless drivers. Advantage Hyundai purchased this car from an auction in Pennsylvania on 8/17/2007. They brought this car as a "Fleet" vehicle. A fleet vehicle is a vehicle that was once part of a fleet. It may have been a rental car, a taxi, a police cruiser, or other government car.
A Fleet cars definition is a vehicle relatively new but that often has lots of wear and tear on it. So after 27,000 excessively hard miles, what does car fax show as maintenance preformed by Advantage Hyundai after they purchased the car? An oil and filter change, rotated two tires and washed and detailed the car before placing it up for sale in their dealership. The Car Fax also said they preformed a so called "maintenance inspection" but judging by the bald spare tire that AAA refused to use when my wife had a flat tire a few months after we purchased this car, this so called "inspection" was anything but detailed. In truth, I must confess the car was indeed spotlessly clean and waxed to a brilliant shine.
When our lease was up on our old car, my wife proceeded to look for a good, quality used car and having already owned a Hyundai we thought it was a good place to start. Entering Advantage Hyundai armed with credit that was less than stellar and I assume a big red "SUCKER" sticker plastered on her forehead, she was an easy mark for any experienced Advantage Hyundai salesman looking to dump a lemon on an unsuspecting girl. There was no mention that this car had at one time been a Hertz rent a car and no mention was made that the car which had 27,000 rent-a-car miles on it, basically only had an oil change done on it after it was purchased by Advantage Hyundai.
I asked Hyundai what they did to the car when the originally bought it from the auction? I knew from years of working on car engines that the sludge was created from the excessive wear Hertz placed on it. I wanted to hear in detail exactly what steps Advantage Hyundai took to prepare my car or for that matter any used car they were going to sell. I was informed by Hyundai that the only thing by law they needed to do on any used car that they sell is to have the car pass a NY State Inspection......wow! So if you're thinking of spending $20,000 on a car from Advantage Hyundai be aware that it is a car that is worthy enough to pass the tough NY State inspection standards? Well if that is the case please don't be surprised about what you'll be getting for your hard earned $20,000. I never knew "sludge" could cost so much!
In November 2010 the car was brought in because it was huffing and puffing like an overweight man who just went up 3 flights of stairs. Hyundai informed my wife that the car had so much sludge there was nothing that could be done and they recommended she pay $7,000 for a new engine. My wife of course refused and the mechanics then recommend she comes back in 30 days for a new oil change.
A few weeks later my wife thought that the sludge problem had finally taken her baby when it failed to start one morning. The car was towed to Advantage Hyundai and when the service department called later that day and said she could pick up the car because it was only a dead battery. She was relieved. Greeted with a bill over $200 for a battery which I could have gotten at pep-boys for $50, my wife asked once again if there was anything that could be done for the sludge problem because the car was making God awful noises and Advantage Hyundai's answer was "No, you caused it and you need a new engine"
We had called numerous companies asking to purchase a rebuilt engine, but over and over again they said "We do not make re-manufactured engines for a 2007 car, because no 2007 car engine should have died this early". My wife asked Advantage if they could do anything because we do not have the money and in truth this was a 2007 car and it really should not have died in the first place. Advantage Hyundai told my wife that "She was the cause of this problem and it would cost between $5,000 and $7,000 and they could not give her any breaks" so they waved goodbye to my wife as she drove this ticking time bomb off the lot.
Advantage Hyundai it seems is good at only two things and that is placing blame on the customer and placing profits over their customer's safety. Without so much as a thread of guilt or blame they sent my wife out into a potentially life threatening situation knowing full well the car's engine could blow at any moment. She could have been driving 70mph on a highway when this engine gave out and seized and there was a chance it could have even caught fire. The car could have broken down in the middle of one of the blizzards that hit Long Island, stranding my wife and kids with very little chance of being rescued for hours since some of the snowstorms dumped over 2 feet of snow. If an engine has seized you would not be able to run the heat and with below freezing temperatures her life, my children(s) or even my 1 year old nephew who my wife babysat for often could have died from exposure.
The car could have seized when my 18 year old son had been behind the wheel, he could have easily lost control and crashed, since he only had a few months or real life driving experience an exploding engine is something that even an experienced driver would have trouble handling. Imagine that! A billion dollar corporation risking not only my family's life, but if the car seized at the wrong moment it could have caused an accident and any car carrying any family on Long Island would have been in jeopardy as well, all because Advantage Hyundai did not want to spend $5 on engine flush or actually take the time to at least attempt to fix the problem.
Why would any company do this? Because our 60,000 mile warranty only had 800 miles left and when that odometer reached 60,001 miles Advantage Hyundai was off the hook for any damage or repairs on that car. Think about this when looking for your next new or used car, Advantage Hyundai and Hyundai Corporation will do or say anything in an all out effort NOT to honor the warranty that you paid for. They will risk people's lives in order to save themselves a few miserable dollars and of course you'll hear over and over how "They are only too happy to help you but this was your fault so fork over $7,000 and we will gladly help you in any way we can".
Complaint has been settled amicably. However, I recommend extreme caution when purchasing any vehicle from any car dealer. Question everything and read everything!
On January 9, 2010, I purchased a new Hyundai Tucson 2010 from Advantage Hyundai, Hicksville, NY 11801. The salesman who assisted me was a Mr. Steve T. My original intent was to purchase a used car for my daughter but decided to try to get a new vehicle for myself. That way I could give the other vehicle to my daughter. In any case, I was aware that the Tucson was priced somewhere between 19 and 22,000 dollars. After waiting the entire day for the dealership to get me a "good" price, I finally settled on a Tucson which would cost me approximately $419 per month. That was not really a problem. The issue concerns the following.
I was never shown the Monroney sticker. When I asked for it the dealership claimed they forward to me by mail because they "needed" it for some reason. Foolishly, I signed the retail agreement without looking it over carefully. I trusted the dealership because I had done business with them before. After about one month, the Monroney sticker never arrived. I emailed Mr. T. and received no answer. After allowing a day or two for him to answer, I filed a complaint with Hyundai headquarters.
It was only after following up with Hyundai that I finally received a Monroney sticker which was supposedly for my vehicle. The first thing that struck me was that the total price on the sticker was $22,590.00. This included all options, handling fees and freight charges. However, when reviewing the retail installment agreement, I was shocked to see that the cash price, including all extras, services, taxes, etc. was listed as 29,055.21. This explained how, even after leaving a check deposit for $7,000, my payments were still so high.
The amount of money financed was $23,616.71, far exceeding even the sticker price for the vehicle and especially after putting $7,000 down on the vehicle. I am not going to make any accusations. But I do think the implications are clear. Thank you for your help. I feel like a victim of a crime because even after leaving a $7,000 deposit (check), I am still paying an excessive amount on a price that I believe was greatly inflated. I am concerned because I feel that I should have known better and that now it is too late because I signed the contract.
