I was looking to buy a nice BMW and spend a few hours browsing around cragslist.com posting when I found what appeared to be a good deal of a 2004 BMW offered by Fremont Ford. I called the dealer and spoke with Mr. Ronald Edward A.K.A “Ron” . When I asked him for his best price for the vehicle he said that is was against company policies to negotiated prices over the phone and that I will have to go the Fremont Ford to discuss it in person. So I did.

On Thursday, May 29 2008 at 5:00 pm, I paid a visit to Ron at Fremont Ford to look at the car and negotiate a deal. Ron introduced me to his assistance Mr. Azif, who showed me the car and took me for a test drive. Assuming that Mr. Azif was a sales person, I started talking about the price of the car and asked him what would be the best deal he could give me. Mr. Azif promptly explained that any price negotiation will have to be taken to Ron.

After we finished the test drive, Mr. Azif took me back to the showroom where I was asked to fill a few forms. A few minutes after, Ron made his appearance and we started talking about the price of the car. I told Ron, that I was on a budget and my price range --out-of-the-door!!! was between 23 to 24K. He said he cannot go lower than the listed price of $24, 988 and went on and on giving me his sales pitch to which I patiently listened to. Once he was done with his speech, I told Ron and Mr. Azif that there were other BMW listed in craigslist at very competitive prices and that I was motivated to buy a car on the spot if the price was right. Since he did not give me any discount, even though based on our phone conversation he insinuated he will give me a better price face to face, I told he and Mr. Azif, who was present during the whole negotiation, that I’ll be looking for other options and that if I made me mind I’ll give them a call tomorrow. We shook hands and I took off.

So far everything was ok until….

About 15 after leaving the Fremont Ford, I received a call from Mr. Azif (called id 510 512-4587). Mr. Azif asked me what price I was willing to pay for the car. I carefully thought my answer from a few seconds to ensure I come up with a price that was something I’ll be willing to pay but not to low as to kill the deal, so I told him I will pay the listed price of 24, 988 out-of-the-door and clarified to him that this price included taxes, fees, registration etc. I also told him that if he gave me that price, I would immediately do a U-Turn and go back to the dealership to pick up the car. . He said he would have to discuss with Ron.

In a matter of two minutes, I received another call.It was Mr. Azif. He said he spoke with Ron and that Ron agreed to the deal. So I went back to the dealer. 10 minutes later, I received yet another call from Mr. Azif asking me if I was going back to the dealer, I told them that I will be there in 15 min so I did.

I arrived at the dealer and was received by Mr. Azif. He gave me some additional forms to be filled and told me that the car is been cleaned. I found interesting that Ron didn’t approached me at all and that I was again been taken care by Mr. Azif. I ignored this and started filling out the forms. After that I waited for almost an hour watching a nice salt water fish tank in the middle of the room and looking how the fishes eat each other alive, a person who identified himself as Thomas told me that the financial manager left for the day and that the financial manager from the dealership next door will assist me with the process once he is finished with his current customers. After yet another long wait, the financial manager was ready to assist me. After all this time, Ron did not approach me and when passed in front of me, he seems trying to avoid any eye contact. For some reason, his behavior made me a bit unease.

I meet the financial manager, Mr. Spencer, and started with the signing process.After signing all sorts of documents, I noticed that I had not seem any document mentioning the final price so I requested confirmation of the final price. Mr. Spencer kindly showed me the final amount to be financed, which was $24, 988. By that time, I had already handed over a check for $2, 800 so I asked a clarifying question, “is this the final price including the $2, 800 or is the $2, 800 in addition to the $24, 988?”. He looked at me surprised and said that it the final price was the $24, 988 plus $2, 800 which equals $27, 788.

That’s when it hit the fan

I did not know where did that number came from and explained to Mr. Spencer what I negotiate with Mr. Azif and Ron. So he called Ron to clarify.

Ron came to the office and denied everything! He said he didn’t know anything about the deal or my conversation with Mr. Azif. He very quickly threw all the blame in Mr. Azif and with demeanor of a righteous man he took his cell phone and called Mr. Azif. Of course, he couldn’t reach him so he went on an on explaining that the car was at the cost, that the reason for the price was just to move the inventory, that anything lower will be a lost, blah, blah, blah, blah and that he will kick Azif ass as soon as he get hold of him. By that point I was very outraged, the whole scam was crystal clear. Mr. Azif, his assistance was nothing but a sidekick, an accomplice in a cheap and dirty trick. I took my check and left that cauldron of tricks and deceptions called Fremont Ford.

At around 9:00 pm, I received a call (caller id 510 651 1938) from somebody who identified himself as the sales director of Fremont Ford, he apologized for the incident, and claimed that Mr. Azif would be suspended for a couple of days . If what he said is true, which quiet honestly based on my experience with Fremont Ford I feel inclined to doubt, I feel sorry for Mr. Azif as I think he was just an artifact, a dummy in the whole charade. Then he invited to save the deal. I respectfully told him that I was no longer interested in the deal or in any dealings with Fremont Ford that matter and promised him that I will post the details of this deception in craigslist to warm any potential victims of the tricks and deceptions of certain member of the Fremont Ford staff.

Note to the reader. If you a reading this note, I kindly ask you to email it to 10 of your friends and ask the to send it to 10 of their friends so the whole will know the kind of dealership Fremont Ford is and perhaps you can spare one of your friends or relatives from been another victim of Fremont Ford