Toyota - customer service (Toyota)

Member Name: tanyatigerlily

Product:	Toyota
Date:	18/08/09 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Immediate test drives

Disadvantages: Poor service from 2 salesmen

Replacing a car can be very stressful. The most difficult decision is 'what car' to buy. My husband and I decided that we would make a list of all the cars we fancy, visit the dealerships and then make a short-list. This review is intended to give you an idea of how we found the dealerships, in this case Toyota, as potential buyers. How we were treated and what their service was like. We cannot comment on after-sale service as we have not experienced it yet (we are still in the process of whittling down our short-list).

I have always liked the look of the Rav4 and have driven a Toyota in the past. Unfortunately Toyota is not a big car manufacturer in England and dealerships seem to be quite scare.

The first Toyota dealership we visited was in South East London. We did not get off to a good start. After phoning twice trying to book a test-drive we left various messages for the new car salesman, which were never returned. In desperation we got in our car and drove out hoping that we would get some service if we saw him face-to-face. Needless to say he was busy and asked us to phone him to make an appointment . . . we did not inform him that we had been trying to do just that and he had never returned our calls. I also do not understand why such a large dealership only has 1 new car salesman.

The Toyota dealership we chose to visit next was in North East London and was quite a long drive from our home. The dealership didn't have a lot of customer parking, but we managed to find a parking space. We had a good look around the showroom before approaching a salesman. We had spotted a nice looking used Corolla Verso as well as the new Rav4. I was very impressed that we were allowed to take both cars out for a test drive immediately.

The test drives themselves were very enjoyable, but it was spoiled by the salesman's attitude. He was scathing about other car manufacturers and insisted on telling us how bad all the opposition is. I was surprised and disappointed as this was the first time we had visited a dealership where a salesman had said anything negative about other cars. Once he had realised that we were not going to buy a car immediately, but were still making up our minds about which car to buy, he lost interest in us. This is not the way to treat clients who could possibly decide on Toyota due to the value for money and good reputation for reliability.

While the client service was not the worst that we have experienced, the salesman did not make Toyota an enjoyable experience for us.

Summary: I expected better service from Toyota