Our experience with our salesman Jamal was fantastic. He was a great guy and was perfect to work with. He was organized, informative, and extremely helpful. Unfortunately Jamal isn't running Burien Chevrolet. I had a pre-aproved loan from my credit union. Burien Chevrolet is part of the CUDL network making the purchasing process with many credit unions "quick and easy". We reached an agreement on the price with Jamal, filled out preliminary paperwork, we were even handed the keys and our car was taken out for last minute detailing. Then we were told we had to wait to see the financing person to finish the purchase process and our wonderful experience turned horribly wrong.
The financing person was busy with another customer and we would be next. We sat in the middle of the waiting room for more than an hour and a half for our turn to see the financing person. It was ridiculous. There were at least a dozen other people around the dealership but apparently only one person could actually take our money. When we finally got our turn with the finance person it only took a little over 20 minutes for her to complete our purchase, as we were prepared. We thought about walking out many times. If we weren't getting such a good price on the car and worried someone else would get it, as well as the fact we were an hour drive from home so coming back would be a huge hassle, we likely would have left.
The sales manager stopped in to apologize about a half way through our wait. His apology was a slick salesman's polished speech and hit us as far from genuine. He gave us excuses about how irregular business is and you never know when 3 or 4 people are going to show up to buy a car at the same time. If it takes two hours when two people are present on a Thursday afternoon it's amazing they are still in business. I would hate to imagine what it's like on Saturday when there actually is a rush. If he really was so sorry he could have found a way to get someone else to take our money.
I would recommend Jamal as a salesman to anyone however, I would be extremely hesitant to recommend anyone shop Burien Chevrolet. If you must shop Burien Chevrolet, bring a good book, plan to spend the night and don't go hungry.
more