Portsmouth Kia

Hello fellow Unilocalers!
This has to do with a 15,000 mile service on six month old Kia Sorrento. A couple of points. First, it is AMAZING to me that the dealership would push $ 400 worth of «services» on me for a 6 month old vehicle that has 15,000 miles on it. The fact that the «services» are printed on a service department brochure form meaning «one size fits all» is just A COMPLETE RIP OFF! I felt like I was back in the 70’s before consumer protection laws were enacted. There is NO WAY, NO HOW $ 400 worth of preventive maintenance work could ever be justified on a 6 month old car – period! Second. The $ 50 air filter replacement. Another total sham! If a cabin filter is dirty, vacuum it out and re-​install it. Total sham to charge a customer $ 50 for a $ 3 piece-​of-​crap paper filter that helps me breathe better air? Huh? Third. After all of this high pressure salesmanship on unwarranted services, I paid for the 15,000 mile service for my brand new Kia and guess what? The cashier asked me for my ID!!! That is right, if it wasn’t insulting enough to be quoted these unnecessary services, once the $ 50 air filter and $ 40 oil change were complete, the cashier wanted my I.D. for my credit card. What rock did the customer service team not shake out of their head to understand that people don’t come in with a NEW CAR (on a lease) and pay for PM services only to present a credit card that you want an ID for? Absurd and completely 100% out-​of –bounds for even the most basic customer service skills. This place is worthy of a visit from the United States Attorney General. TOTAL RIP OFF and in Portsmouth New Hampshire no less (not Queens New York or Newark New Jersey).

My wife was an ardent fan of the «No Dicker Sticker» motto they once preached — Between us we have bought 5 cars there in 10 years. I can say with complete unadulterated faith that we will never buy from here again, as it is no longer what it use to be. Our last experience involved one of the many middle aged, hating life salesmen abruptly telling my wife that he had a rough night and that if we need anything he will be inside — SERIOUSLY. We aren’t tire kickers, we knew what we wanted — However we were interested in driving a couple of other options before deciding. Well let me tell you, aside from clearly interrupting his golf conversation with another popcorn eating salesman, he was obviously put out of his way because he had to «Find the keys» — It had to have taken 10 minutes, granted I was frustrated so it may have only been 5 minutes, the fact that he had to look for them was a telling sign of what the rest of the morning was going to be like. We opted to go with our original selection, money down, car we bought from them 2 years previous as trade-​in, both of us exceptional credit… After running our credit and approving at a really good interest rate we told them we wanted to trade in the car we bought 2 years previous — This is where you realize how slimy the business is… After trying to low ball us on the trade-​in with a value that was lower than KBB worst condition pricing for a car that was immaculate, I told him he was f’ing crazy… It is insulting to think that as a customer we aren’t allowed to negotiate the price because of the «No Dicker Sticker» mantra, but they can try and screw you over with the trade-​in, no way was I going to eat a loss on the car, some how they managed to give us $ 1,000 over payoff which would be applied as a down payment — HOWEVER, when it came time to start the paperwork — The really good interest rate we had earlier had now changed. Go Figure… We were told that the original rate was lower because we were borrowing more! The new rate, when worked out actually added $ 1,500 to the life of the loan. My wife and I were done at this point and walked out. We bought a vehicle the following week at a local dealership, for an even better interest rate and ZERO frustration and we didn’t waste half of a Saturday.

After 2 horrible experiences at other dealers in one week, I made my purchase here. No pressure and no haggling. Price is on the vehicle, buy it or move on, simple. Mike Berry was a great finance manager to deal with.

My experience with this establishment started when their sales manager crashed into my girlfriends van. Luckily the kids weren’t in the van because he did a fair amount of damage. In any other accident the van would have been towed, and a rental would have been set up within a few days, and the repairs would happen in a shop of our choosing. Instead, my girlfriend had to drive the van home because they wouldn’t pay for a tow, we have been without a car for two weeks, getting a rental was like pulling teeth and I have to personally pay for some of it, and they said they had to fix it at their shop. We are looking at another two weeks for repairs. If this is how their sales manager handles an accident that was 100% his fault, I definitely wouldn’t trust him to sell me a car.

I was a loyal customer to the service department before the business changed from Portsmouth Ford to Portsmouth Kia. However, since the change, I have had nothing but poor service, dissatisfaction, and a whole lot of frustration. To get straight to the point… sell your soul before bringing your car to get serviced here. Long waits, high cost, billing for different costs then what was quoted, and mysterious nickel and dime charges are all that await the unsuspecting consumer. Please, save yourself the hassle and just don’t do it. Ever. For any reason.

I had to take my Kia in to have a part fixed that was under warranty. i was very impressed with the efficiency and professionalism of the Service Representative. He went above and beyond in not only fixing the problem but making a tire recommendation. He was not pushy– simply very helpful.

I found a car I liked on
at Portsmouth Used Car Super Store, so I contacted them through the website, and shortly after I got an email from Josh. I set up an appointment with Josh to go see the car, and all was good. I get an email about an hour later saying that the car is not at their store yet, it was bought at an auction in NY, and it won’t be in for about a week, but he let me know that they have other cars I should still come check out. I didn’t respond right away, because I wanted to think the situation over. So a couple of hours later I get a call from Josh, saying that he has had a lot of calls on the car I originally contacted them about, and since the car wasn’t there yet, they would be willing to take a $ 500.00 refundable deposit on the car to make sure I would be the first one to look at the car when it arrived at their location. I agreed to do this, and shortly after I gave Josh all of the information he needed, I got a call from the sales person Joel, he wanted to make sure he had my right email, and wanted to me to send him over information on my car that I was going to trade in, and then he would send over a purchase and sales agreement for the car, which was subject to my trade once they go to actually see it. So after getting all of the paper work signed and sent back to him, I was told the car would be at their location in 10 days. So little after a week went by I checked in with Joel to see if they had an exact date of when the car would be in so I could make plans, because I live about an hour and a half away from there. He said he wasn’t sure yet when the car was going to be in, but assured me that we were the only ones that were going to be seeing the car as soon as it came in, and if my trade was in order we would be leaving with the new car when it was ready. So a couple of days later on Monday the 22^nd I got a call from Joel saying that car would be in on Tuesday, and it had to go through their service department, and he wanted to make an appoint for me to come in on Saturday the 27^th at 9:00am, so I agreed to this. My wife and I drove up to Portsmouth a day early, just to enjoy the city, and stay overnight since we love it there anyway, so the next day we show up to the dealership at 8:40 in the morning, and as we walk in the door Dave Bettinger came over to greet us. I told him that I had an appointment with Joel to have my car checked out, and purchase a car that he was holding for me. At that point Dave told us that Joel has left the dealership, because of personal reasons, but would be happy to help us. So we go over to his desk, and tell the car we had put money down, and showed him the signed agreement, and told us that the car had been sold. He told us that his general manager told Joel to call us, and tell us that we had to come in that day or they were going to sell the car on us, but Joel never called us to tell us this. So Dave told us to hold on for a second, and he grabbed his finance manager to come over and talk to us, the finance manager told us that he saw the agreement that we signed, and didn’t know why they sold the car on us, but they would take care of us. So he sends Dave back over, and Dave also tells us that he will take care of us, and also that they would take care of us on our trade too. So we went outside to look at other cars they had, and narrowed it down to two cars we liked both the same year, and model, just different colors. Dave told us he would talk to his manager Caleb Wilson, and see what they can do for us. After about 20 minutes Dave comes back out to us, and tells us that their prices are non-​negotiable, and there wouldn’t be anything they could do for us on the cars. We then asked him why he told us he would take care of us, and keep us there for over an hour if this was true, and why did his finance manager also tell us they would take care of us. He said that his finance manager was new, and didn’t know what he was talking about, and that he didn’t tell us he would take care of us, but he thought the right thing would do would be for them to help us out, and that he wanted us to talk to Caleb directly to see if he would help us. So we go back to Dave’s desk, and wait for Caleb to come over to talk to us. He tells us that he sees there was a disconnect somewhere, and for us to find another car and he will see what he can do. We told him that we found two cars, and Dave just got through telling us that he talked to you (Caleb) and that you couldn’t do anything for us. So Caleb looked at the cars again, and said there wasn’t anything he could do for us, and it was Josh’s fault, because he wasn’t supposed to take money over the phone, and he has been fired for doing this with other people, and it was also Joel’s fault as well, because he should have known that they aren’t supposed to do this. So an hour and a half later we got my keys for my car, and left without a sorry.

Our family isn’t the most put together crew so the salesman, Nick, did not take us seriously. He literally left us in the parking lot and never came back. It’s a shame because we actually had a wad of cash to spend and great credit. Went elsewhere and bought same day.

The sales people, well particularly one, don’t care about you. It’s all about the sale. I felt so rushed… when I decided I needed to get my father’s opinion on the car I selected, they were nice enough to hold it for me. When I came back my dad thought I deserved more for my trade. He also simply said, «I wonder what a new model of this exact car would cost?» Only in comparison to see if a new model would be a better deal. The owner or highest manager immediately grew angry and argued with my father and yelled «Well we won’t be holding this car for you any longer! (Insert name here) go put that car back on the lot!!» It’s too bad he did that because he could have had a sale.