February 25th- It gets interesting!

Earlier in the day I looked up and printed the listings for a few Toyota and Honda vans at Brenengen.  It seemed like the Brenengen-Chevrolet in West Salem had quite a few.  I decided that it would be best use of my time to simply go to West Salem and look at a few of these.  This didn't work out so easily.  Here is my "letter to the editor" I wrote about my experience:

Dear editor,

In small towns businesses rely upon their reputation and name for continued business and loyalty. I am writing because I want my neighbors to know about my unacceptable experience with the customer service at Brenengen Chevrolet and to a lesser extent with Brenengen KIA in West Salem, WI.
Imagine walking into an auto dealer, asking about a few vehicles, and being told that you cannot look at them. The other day I went to Brenengen Chevrolet to look at a few vehicles I was considering switching into as a part of their Confidence Plus warranty. I originally had purchased my vehicle from Brenengen Ford in Sparta. I was planning on working through my original salesman there to work out the Confidence Plus warranty. I had not been informed of the fact that if I tried to go to another Brenengen dealer to simply look at a vehicle I would be coldly received by the sales people and ultimately denied the opportunity to look at, sit in, and drive a vehicle. All of this because I wasn’t there with the original sales person? Don’t let Brenengen deceive you and make you think they care about the customer. Each location and many sales persons only care about the customer if you are THEIR individual customer who will make them a sale. To be fair, I received good customer service from Brenengen Ford, even when I was not working with my sales person.
The story gets a little better and a little worse. After being received coldly at Brenengen Chevrolet I went to Brenengen KIA to look at a vehicle there. I was received warmly by the sales person until the words “Confidence Plus Warranty” were said. At that point, the sales person wasn’t interested anymore. Luckily, at Brenengen KIA the sales manager was willing to help us and things worked out ok.
Then the story gets HORRIFIC. I returned to Brenengen Chevrolet thinking that if I were to talk to the sales manager I might be able to get some better help. I was thinking that this person wouldn’t have to worry as much about the fact that he wasn’t getting credit for a sale. I told the sales person this and was brought to the sales manager, Mr. Dennis Zee. I was promptly informed of their policy that I could only look at vehicles at the dealer lot where I had purchased the vehicle. This was a different story than I had been told earlier when I talked on the phone to Brenengen Ford in Sparta. When on the phone I was told that I could look at cars on any of the lots but the deal would have to be ultimately worked out through Brenengen Ford where I purchased my vehicle. I was fine with working with my salesperson and the Brenengen Ford lot in Sparta. I simply wanted to look at some vehicles in West Salem, especially since I was already there! Is it really that much work to let someone look at a vehicle?
At this point I told Mr. Dennis Zee that I felt like I was getting ‘the run around.” Combined with the fact that I was getting different stories and cold looks from sales people was the fact that I was at a car dealer and they wouldn’t show me a car! While Mr. Dennis Zee was on the phone with Brenengen Ford in Sparta, he turned to one of his sales people and said they were not going to show me any cars that day. I was then put on the phone with Matt Brenengen in Sparta and he kindly explained the same thing regarding using the warranty only through the same Brenengen location. I explained that I simply wanted to look and had no problem working the deal through their store. Then I gave the phone to Mr. Dennis Zee who told Matt Brenengen that he was not going to show me any cars because of ‘what I had said.’ What exactly had I said? I said I felt like I was getting ‘the run around’ and that the sales people were not very willing to work with me. I am sorry Mr. Zee, but if you can’t handle being told that your customer service needs some work maybe you need to learn something about customer service. Mr. Zee hung up the phone and I asked if he could call Matt Brenengen back because I felt I had been unfairly represented. What exactly had I said that was out of line? Once on the phone I was told that Matt Brenengen had left his office. Instead I talked to my sales person and told him that I wondered if Mr. Zee was treating me so harshly because I had somehow challenged his power in front of his employees by naming my cold reception by the sales people and my feeling of getting a run around. In the background I could hear Mr. Zee laughing at me. After my call Mr. Zee again told me that I could not see any vehicles today because of what I had said. I asked if he could explain what I said. I was told that I had said he was giving me ‘the run around.’ I explained why I felt that way. Since I felt I had explained away his reason for his being so rude to me I again asked why? This time he referenced my comment about his power. Oddly though, he had already made up his mind much before my comment about his power. I can agree that though I believe it was true I didn’t need to make that comment. Finally, since so much time had been spent debating about how their Confidence Plus Warranty worked and discussing on the phone, it was closing time. Mr. Zee said he wasn’t going to talk anymore and led me out of the store.
My neighbors in this community, be warned! If you shop at Brenengen you are not allowed to criticize their customer service. It is their way or the highway! Also, if you don’t know their rules and follow them exactly, you will be treated rudely and not served. Finally, if you can’t make them more money, you are not important. Pray and hope that nothing goes wrong with your purchase! There is a chance that you will not want to be a “Customer for life.”


Sadly submitted,
Timothy Johnston
Cashton, WI


To add to what I wrote to the editor, after this I did try stopping in Sparta to talk to Matt Welch and Matt Brenengen.  I ended up catching Matt and talking to him for a few minutes.  He was as accommodating as he could be.  I would say that the people at the Sparta-Ford were all pretty helpful.

February 23rd- Our First Road Trip

Today we headed to the funeral for Sara's grandpa in Chicago.  The long drive gave us some time to start getting comfortable with the new van and to learn how it worked.  I drove quite a bit this day and after a while I was very uncomfortable.  I could not, no matter how much I adjusted the seat, get comfortable!  We also noticed today that Toyota is much better at thinking about the organization of the interior of their vehicles.  Where is the neat little pocket to the left of the steering wheel to put change in?  Not there, nothing is there.  What about the CD's.  Well, there is a great big hole below the stereo, but it is about 1/2 an inch too small to fit CD's.  Dodge, what were you thinking!  You couldn't make it 1/2 inch bigger?  and on and on... The van drove nicely, except for one time when I was stopped and while waiting at a light the van was shaking more than I had experienced up to that point.  Overall the van was good, but those little details that we were used to in our Toyota vehicles were not there and we noticed!
I decided to call and ask how the 30 day exchange policy worked.  I first talked to Matt Welch, our salesman.  He didn't know many details so he transferred me to the financing guy at the Sparta Ford location.  I was told that I could look at vehicles on any of the Brenengen lots and then just talk to Matt when I had figured out what I wanted to do.
I decided I would look up a few Toyota and Honda vans and just go sit in them and look at them to decide if we really wanted to do this or not.  It would end up costing us about $4000 more to switch to a Toyota so it was a big decision.

February 20th- Picking up our "new to us" van

Today was a sad day.  We had to turn in our beloved Toyota Camry with around 160,000 miles.  That thing was so reliable!  Probably would have run for another 100,000 miles.  Yet, we needed more space for our family.  I was a little scared as well to be the owner of a Dodge vehicle.  Up to this point we have owned two Toyotas and they have been great!  Reliable.  Easy to maintain.

But, we had to get a bigger vehicle.  So, we went to the dealer this morning to pick up our van.  Things went very well.  We forgot our title to the Camry and they were very accommodating.  They said we could just mail it or drop it off within 2 business days, and we did that.  The van looked good, we signed a few papers, decided to skip the extended warranty because it was very expensive and we thought we would just save for anything that might break.  Plus, it is a 2007, not that old, should be pretty good.  Though, again, I am nervous because I know Dodge is not as reliable as Toyota!

February 17th- A second look and signing the paperwork

Today we went back to the Brenengen-Ford dealer in Sparta and looked over the van again.  Matt was off for the day so we worked with a sales man named Troy Ziegler.  We also talked over the details for the final contract.  After looking at the van I wanted them to put on two new tires because the tread depth was very shallow.  When I questioned Troy I was told that it had "passed inspection."  Still, passing inspection and being good enough to sell to a customer might not be the same thing. 
After A LOT of back and forth we were able to have them replace the two tires as well as give us $900 for our trade in.  We had been offered $1000 by Sleepy Hollow in Viroqua and Brenengen offered us $800.  I wanted to get the same amount, but $900 was fine.  Everything about this day was fine, except I felt weird around Troy.  He was accommodating, but not happily.  He acted like we were inconveniencing him or being unreasonable asking for a few things with the vehicle.

February 16th- Looking

We decided to look at a few vehicles at Brenengen and did just that.  One evening we wanted to look at a vehicle located in Sparta at the Brenengen Ford and then another in West Salem.  The sales people were very helpful.  Matt Welch, the man we were working with, lined up our being able to see both vehicles- one in Sparta and then driving to West Salem.  It was a crazy situation because it was the end of the business day and we wanted to look at them still that day.  Matt was great.  By the end of the day, we had tentatively committed to purchasing a 2007 Grand Caravan from the Ford dealer in Sparta.