Herb Chambers complaint, commentary & update

I am the Saab buyer who took his business elsewhere. My Herb Chambers experience can be told in greater light at a later date, as I am still entwined in a battle over recouping my deposit. Come to think of it, I need to call MasterCard right now!

That’s just so freaking awesome! Hail, the power of “some guy on the internet”!!

Well, FYI to Herb Chambers Infiniti:

Anthony is not just “some guy”…

and It’s all about karma, baby!!!!

your brother jay

Some Herb Chambers are better than others – I just wish Mr. Chambers [himself] were aware of the goings on… Cheers to you Internet Guy. Your word is a strong one and heard crystal clear. Im in process of a couple issues myself otherwise i’d elaborate. Until then – know your words were a relief, in that I know Im not the only one.

I did not purchase a car at Herb Chambers but I was recently lied to and harrassed (called at 10:00pm) by an internet sales person. She insisted that I could be in the car I wanted for the price I said I wanted. I made an “appointment” which she told me was necessary. When I showed up, not only was the person I set the appointment with not there, but there were no available sales people to assit me, (so much for the appointment). That didn’t upset me but when they told me they couldn’t even come close to the price she quoted me, I went nuts. They would do absolutely nothing to accommodate me.

I am very dissapointed in Herb Chambers Ford in Westboro Ma. My husband and I went in looking for a used truck. The salesman was very nice and helpful
we found a truck that we liked, signed papers on it on the next day, and a week later we are still waiting to pick the truck up. The service department keeps coming up with excuses, we have to order another part, we’re still waiting for the part to come in.
I will never send anyone to a Herb Chambers Dealership, and subject them to the BS that we are going through.

I too have had issues with those people. And they lost a sure sale because of that. While negociating the purchase of a dodge minivan, an offensive sales manager came to me with a monthly payment. When I asked for the interest rate, he told me the bank didn’t release that info. This even after I informed him that to be illegal (truth in lending), he kept repeating it. It was a young kid with an obvious used car attitude. I bet Herby would love to know his sales people are losing sales left and right because of their attitude, but their corporate web site does not list any phone number at all. This way I can help other people not to shop at Herb Chambers Chrysler and Dodge of Milbury.

I just purchased my seventh car from the Herb Chambers group… Nothing but a pleasant experience.. that man is probablly one of the most successfull business people in the automotive industry (Nation wide) … When you own a ton of dealerships like that you’re bound to sometimes have some issues some where.. He can’t be everywhere at once.. But i DO know that sending a letter directly to him does WONDERS!!! He truly does care…

I recently bought a car at Herb Chambers of Auburn, the price was agreed upon by sales person, sales manager and myself as the highest that I would go. After leaving the finance dept I came home, was told I would get copies of the paper work, but hadn’t as of that time, but was still believing that my car was costing me what I had agreed on. When I picked up the car and got the paper work home and read it, I was floored, immediately called the finance with no return call. Have called the company, and various other places that I felt would help with delemma. The last call was from the Customer Relations Manager, who was referring it to the District Manager who has yet to make the effort. More than likely the car will repossessed as I am only going to pay the price I agreed to. So add my name to your list of disappointed persons, and wish me luck.

I recently bought a car at Herb Chambers of Auburn, the price was agreed upon by sales person, sales manager and myself as the highest that I would go. After leaving the finance dept I came home, was told I would get copies of the paper work, but hadn’t as of that time, but was still believing that my car was costing me what I had agreed on. When I picked up the car and got the paper work home and read it, I was floored, immediately called the finance with no return call. Have called the company, and various other places that I felt would help with delemma. The last call was from the Customer Relations Manager, who was referring it to the District Manager who has yet to make the effort. More than likely the car will repossessed as I am only going to pay the price I agreed to. So add my name to your list of disappointed persons, and wish me luck.

AS AN EMPLOYEE FOR HERB CHAMBERS-LET ME SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT-WE AT DEALERSHIPS DO NOT RIP PEOPLE OFF-YOU(THE CUSTOMER)SHOULD READ THE PAPERWORK,ASK QUESTIONS BUT NOOOOOOOOO!!!! YOU ARE SO WRAPPED UP IN THE EXCITEMENT OF BUYING A NEW CAR YOU DON’T STOP TO READ THE FINE PRINT. PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS HAVE HORROR STORIES-IT COMES WITH THE BUSINESS….BUT TAKE A GOOD LOOK IN THE MIRROR. MOST OT THE PROBLEM IS YOUR OWN IGNORANCE….AS FOR YOUR SERVICE PROBLEM-YOU ARE AN IDIOT-SIMPLY PUT-YOU HAVE VERY LITTLE KNOWLEDGE OF HOW CARS WORK,NEXT TIME TAKE YOUR CAR TO SOME GARAGE AND HAVE THEM REPLACE YOUR TRANNY FLUID WITH THE WRONG TYPE SO THAT AFTER YOU DESTROY YOUR TRANSMISSION YOU CAN COME BACK TO THE DEALERSHIP WITH YOUR LITTLE TAIL BETWEEN YOUR LEGS BEGGING FOR GOODWILL ASSISTANCE! GROW UP LOOOOOSER-GET A LIFE,STOP BEING CHEAP,AND QUIT SPREADING LIES. I WILL CONTINUE TO PROVIDE EXCELLENT SERVICE TO NORMAL CUSTOMERS-WACKOS LIKE YOU SHOULD BE BANNED FROM BREEDING…OH AND BY THE WAY H.C INFINITI HAS ONE OF THE HIGHEST SATISFACTION RATINGS IN THE U.S. YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE ISSUES SERVICING YOUR CAR AT ANY DEALERSHIP BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPIDITY. (WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY IS THAT THE SERVICE ADVISOR WILL ALWAYS REALIZE YOU’RE A DICK AND WILL PROBABLY NEVER WANT TO HELP YOU WITH ANYTHING-THAT’S KARMA MY FRIEND.)

My husband bought a used Jeep Celebrity at Herb Chambers in Auburn, MA. He too signed the papers, took them home, read them, and was floored at the rate. Called to no avail. But here is the kicker, he paid a handsome down payment, and a trade-in and its been a month and he still doesn’t have his Used Jeep he purchased. The give him BS and runaround that the title isn’t in, and he is now forced to pay on a car he doesn’t have. Is that legal someone???? My daughter had a bad experience at Chambers in Westboro. They took her $50 deposit, she bought the car, financed herself, and still haven’t given her her $50 deposit back – this was two months ago. So this happens frequently at all Herb Chambers dealerships…real bad place – would never recommend to anyone!!!!! We still don’t know what to do about NO CAR we paid for in our case!!!!

Does anyone else find it a bit funny that these “Herb Chambers” employees: a. write like eight year olds and b. seem to have a “blame the customer” approach? Give me a break.

If you, the unsatisfied customers of Herb Chambers, ever saw yourselves on TV taped by hidden camera, you would ALL be absolutely horrified and deny to your friends & family that who they saw was in fact you. If we, the American public saw you we would laugh endlessly & ridicule you on the street if we saw you. Alas, we don’t have the honor of watching you all act like fools. You should all be ashamed you act the way you do in public & in front of people who do nothing by try to help you select your next vehicle. For those who come in acting civil, I can assure you sales people feel what you are going through and bend over backwards to help at Herb Chambers. I have recently purchased my 11th vehicle from Herb Chambers and every time I have the short, distinct pleasure of watching at least one of you bitch or moan about forces out of Herb Chamber’s dealerships control. Listen, if you don’t like your 11% interest rate, PAY YOUR BILLS ONTIME! If you cant afford a $400, $600, $900 payment per month, BUY A CHEAPER VEHICLE OR SAVE MORE. But, I Digress- It is awful fun for everyone else who doesn’t work there who has the distinct privilege of watching you act like a baby. Didn’t your mother teach you manners? Grow up. Or don’t.

I am an employee of Herb Chambers. I actually work at the store where the Infiniti service problem occured with Anthony. I had worked in the Infiniti and Honda service department for over a year and I now work in the Honda sales department. No big name dealership in this country, including Herb Chambers, benefit from lying to customers about sales or service. The service advisors nor the technicians make more money by making up false problems with your vehicle. All of our employees get compensated very generously. This store is one of the highest in the country for customer service satisfaction. And when you are dealing with something as detailed as selling or servicing a vehicle, you have to understand that there are several things that can go wrong. 95% of the time things go great, the 5% that doens’t always go smooth, we do our best to make it right. So I hope everyone who has had a bad experience, or has heard from someone who has, would give Herb Chambers another chance. And keep in mind we sell over 40,000 cars a year and service even more than that. Out of those thousands, most walk away very happy…

LD -HC BOSTON

Herb chambers dealership in Milbury, Mass., has a dishonest salesman named Jared Finch, as he identified himself to me over the phone when he set up an appointment with me on Feb. 18th 2007 at 1pm. I had dutifully filled out their online form under the vehicle that I wanted to try out for their big George Washington sale. Spelled out exactly what I had to trade and at the bottom of their form there is a bid box. Jared (if thats his real name) called me and I informed him that I lived over 55 miles away and did not want to waste the long trip if my bid and trade in, were not sufficient to buy the car if all vehicles were as stated. Not only was the car not there, but the sales manager said “At least lets put the numbers together so that we are all on the same page.” Instead of the $ 3500. difference that Mr Finch said was “No problem” They wanted over $7,500. The long 55 mile trip home left me with the attitude that whatever dealership Mr Chambers owns, I will have nothing to do with them as these people who work for him are an unscruplious bunch to say the least. I wonder if he condones their lack of character and ethics. My wife (66) and I (74) are both Very Senior citizens an feel we have been taken advantage of.

I’ve been here almost 2 years. What is it that I am unaware of?….Whatever it is, it goes on in every dealership in the country. We don’t try to set ourselves apart by practicing bad business.

I am not planning to purchase a vehicle right at this time, yet I have to admit that reading this comments is quite disturbing, and yes the Herb Employees sound very rude and unpolite, that is a shame, remember,the customer is always right, that is the way you build a seccessfull business. Good Luck to the Herb employees and the future buyers.

Has any one ever sued Herb Chambers over the lemon law? did you win?

I’ve been with the company for over 6 years now.
We are not here to fight and argue with the clients that come in our doors! How does that benefit us? True sometimes things don’t go as smoothly as we all want them to go. However we do whatever we can to make the client happy,our very livehoods depend on repeat business. I believe we go above and beyond the call of duty to make EVERYONE happy. It sometimes astonishes me exactly how far we will go to make the customer happy. I wish every business went as far to make their clients happy. I can think of many times I have been dissatisfied with the services I recieved from companies I have done business with. For instance I recently got married and I was very dissatisfied with the company who did our photography. First when I called to pay over the phone the woman there was more interested in discussing with her coworkers the events that had happened the previous night while I sat on the phone waiting for her to finish then she calls me days later to inquire as to when I was going to pay for it. Hello I already did she misplaced the receipt in the midst of her conversation with her co-workers. Then the photographer did not care about how we wanted our photos done there were some things in the background that we wanted removed before he took the pics he ignored us then Eight months later when we finally got our pics we had to pay to have the items removed from the pics. We got the pics and thanks it looks like someone cut them out and stuck them to a yellow background what did I get for my inconvenience,NOTHING I had to pay for the pics that were “fixed” and I had to wait eight months for them! That is not the case with the Herb Chambers Companies Satisfaction is Herb’s number one concern,in my opinion and our company will do whatever we can to make the client happy no matter what the cost. Many of our Dealers have the highest satisfaction scores in the Country. A new vehicle purchase to most people is the second biggest purchase they’ll make right next to purchasing a home. Ever go into a realtors office and expect for them to give you all the info you need to make a conscience decision in five minutes? Honestly give us a little time were giving you ours. As far as interest rates are concerned we use over thirty different lending institutions we don’t know what your rates going to be until we’ve come to an agreement and have shopped the banks,but I can tell you this you’ll know what it is before you sign your bank contract and if for some reason you can get a better rate,go ahead but we can normally beat or match any credit unions rate. Have a little patience were not here to rip you off were here to help you find the right vehicle at the right price! I was brought up to believe that you should treat every person you meet with the same courtesy as you would like to be treated with. I wish everyone had this same philosiphy! Simply put we want everyone to be satisfied but if you act like an animal chances are you’ll be treated like one. We try to look past that and try to think that your not really an animal that its just sometype of defensive reaction or is it? I know for a fact that if you act like a rational person your concern will be addressed no matter what the cost. As for waiting for a vehicle do to a Title issue. It’s not us its the state that requires that the dealer have the title before delivery of a vehicle. Most people still have loans on there vehicles when they trade them in for a new one and occasionally someone is interested in something that just came in on trade. We sell it then when we go to get the car registered theres no title we want you to take delivery of your new vehicle as badly as you do,however in this case it’s in the hands of the bank who has the title as to how long it takes to get to us. True we should know if the title is in or not but guess what we’re human and sometimes we make mistakes or overlook little things. I do know however that if this instance comes up we will gladly pay for a rental vehicle so your not without a vehicle as I said we want you happy.
I can only say that whoever had this issue must have been an animal and refused our offer to provide them with another vehicle for transportation in the meantime. As for service
Sometimes parts need to be ordered and sometimes when they come in it’s not the right part, what does service have to gain by lying to the client as to the wait for parts or work that needs to be performed on there vehicle. We are the Herb Chambers Companies we service hundreds of thousands of vehicles each year,we don’t need to nickel and dime you. One of the first things I was told when I started was to NEVER LIE to the client if they ask you a question and you don’t know the answer simply tell them you don’t know,lying comes back to bite you in the rear so don’t do it.
Do unto others as you would do unto yourself!
True sometimes you get a bad apple in the bunch but thats not a good excuse just know that these bad apples are quickly disposed of and they probably now work at the dealer down the street or at Midas or Jiffy Lube because they don’t make the cut!

excellant service in sales-3/29/2007

Wow, the Herb Chambers employee posts are doing Herb Chambers more damage than the ticked-off customers.. Hilarious.

I am buying a CRV from the Boston Herb Chambers, they promise to deliver the vehicle in 2 weeks, now they told me the car is still on a ship?

Without a doubt, Herb Chambers Infiniti is the most despicable, dishonest, unprofessional, bunch of meathead high school dropouts that I have ever encountered. DO NOT USE THEM FOR SERVICE. YOU WILL REGRET IT.

I have been the auto business for almost 30 years and in that time, I have never heard anything postive about the Herb Chambers Company. Now he is buying the auto group I work for and no one is really looking foward to working for him. Our company tried to please (and hopefully did) everyone who walked thru the door. Everyone knew what the interest rate was, everyone got a title with their used car, you don’t own the car unless you have the title and salesmen should know better. We got alot of repeat business and referrals because we went out of our way. Now Herb Chambers is buying us, will my company remain the same ?. Hey Herb, how’s your new Bently, want some more money off ?.

When you see the someone that works at the dealership calls his/her customer “animal”, you’d know you should stay away, right?

I bought my Mercedes from Herb as well. Didn’t get that great of a deal on the price and financing, but they still did an adequate job on service until a young female service adviser started working there. Since then, even their service has been lack luster. If you go to their Somerville location, use Kim Trott by all means.

As I’m typing this message, my car has been sitting in Herb’s body shop for 10 weeks for a job that was estimated to be completed in less than 2 weeks. They claim I’ll have my car back tomorrow, but they’ve been saying similar things in the past 5-6 weeks, so I don’t know whether to trust them or not.

They also did a hack job on my car. While the paint job on the body of the car looked ok, my spoiler wasn’t painted correctly (patchy paint job due to inadequate baking and curing) and installed right (drive side is lifted and not sitting flush with trunk). They let a mechanic shop at a Shell Gas Station work on my 96K car’s exhaust, wheel and tire, and 4 wheel alignment, which should have been done at the Mercedes dealership’s own shop. There was also a cut wiring harness in the driver that was not adequately addressed by the body shop’s manager.

The other problem that I have is with their Enterprise Rent-A-Car as well as the body shop. The body shop refuses to give my insurance company an update on the status of my car’s repairs. So, my insurance company cannot authorize my loaner car since the original repair is estimated to be 2 weeks or less. As of now, I’m stuck with paying for 10 week worth of rental charge at 100 bucks a day with collision coverage. Why do I have to pay for a bill due to the incompetence of the dealership? Really beats me…… I’m just glad that I have legal representation to fight for my rights at this point.

For my complete story, see:
http://blog.kevinluk.com/2007/05/to-recap-what-had-happened-so-far-to-my.html

I recently purchased a used car from Herb Chambers Ford in Westboro. And I can say with all certainty that I will never go to another HC dealership again. In addition, I am telling everyone I know to save them the issues I had. These people totally wasted my time on several occasions. And they were also a bunch of liers. I have bought cars from other dealerships before and never had such dishonest sales people. I wanted to walk away from the sale at several different points. But I had given them a deposit, I knew that I would never get it back.
Before I went to the Ford dealership, I had been to the Jeep one in Millbury. They were just as bad. But luckily I had figured it out before I put down a deposit.
I guess the Westboro dealership is just better at BSing people that the Millbury one.

Herb Chambers is an arrogant prick … I had first hand knowledge of just what a bad person he is. He has 1400 employees in his company and over half quit EVERY YEAR!! He has no minorities or women (except for his neice, and believe me, she doesn’t qualify as a woman) in management. The Boston Globe won’t touch him because he spends so much in advertising. Those who have had problems should flood his office with calls … 617-666-8300 or 617-763-1000.

Herb Chambers Saturn of Warwick is a bunch of a**holes who think they can get away with pulling a fast one on me. I asked for the car fax numerous time and they decided to FINALLY give it to me right before I signed the papers which stated that it had been in an accident… then they tried to screw with me when I brought in a $300 coupon and the price magically went UP instead of going down- I caught them on this and ended up arguing with them for two hours and all I heard from them was about how they need to keep the lights on and they need to pay their employees. They are an AWFUL company and the only reason I ended up buying the car was because I needed one due to mine being broken beyond repair. I am HOPING that I get a customer satisfaction survey so I can lay into them about how they are in NO WAY for their customers and how they really suck at what they do. I know a few different people that went through the same bull**** that I went through.

I traded in my 2005 Hyundai Sonata XL this month when I purchased a 2008 Hyundai at Herb Chambers in Auburn MA. We brought the Kelly Blue Book value of 10,000 for my Sonata which had 38000 miles and was in excellent condition and had all of the mainentance including the 33,000. The salesman said he would offer 9,500 for my Sonata XL and we said 10,000 because it also had two new Michelan tires. The salesman went to talk to his manager and came back saying everything was all set. The account manager handed me the sales agreement and discussed all of the extras and I glanced over the document unsuspecting dishonesty and I signed it while listening to the account manager. Later on I discovered that I was given 8.500 for my Sonata, what a rip off. I will take my car to Herb Chamber’s in Framingham for warranty work and will not go not back to Auburn.

I must say, this is very interesting. I have never worked at HC stores nor have I ever purchased A vehicle from any of his stores. Mostly for the reason’s all of you people are talking about. A dealer in Mass. can not legally sell you a car without posession of a title. Also, guess why the finance guy talks to you while you are trying to sign? You think he wants you to see the interst rate and all the add ons. How about the $595 Doc fee!! thats a profit center. I walked out of the store without signing after I read the contracts. Everything I heard was TRUE!! I am sure for the most part HC has good people working at his stores. The more customers, the more complaints I guess.

This is great. HC is not going to be where I buy my G37 thanks to this site. People like them are the reason why I hate buying cars. They’ll realize the power of “a guy on the internet” soon enough…

yeah!

Having bought a Ford truck at Herb Chambers two years ago from their, Westborough,MA location the sales manager at that time insisted I buy an estended warrenty on the truck. His comments were I would be foolish not to buy it. I was told that if no service issues should arrise over the time I was paying for the vehicle that I would get the full amount I paid back. Last week I received a notice from the insurance company that Herb Chambers company used stating there would be a class action suit due to this company filing for bankruptcy. Now what???? Mr Chambers

Cancel NOW!!!!

I just brought a new car from a different dealer, but I did visit Herb Chamber’s Honda in Westboro MA while I was looking. They played games and told lies to me. All in all they were definitely one of the worst dealers that I ever encountered.

I am a former employee of the Herb Chambers Co., I will keep the name of the particular store anonymous. I was with the co for 7 years. I left the company over a year ago, and I am happily employed at another dealer, which I am happy spending over $50 more in gas p/week to get to…that must say a lot.
My story begins here: I was a happy service advisor, who like a lot of people who still work for the company would never let anyone bad mouth the HC company, I felt strongly about the level of service I provided and had a strong customer following. Over the years, I found ways to make customers want to keep returning to the company for continuing maintenance, warranty needs, and even to buy new vehicles.
Somewhere along the way, I moved my way up the ladder and became service manager, working under the so-called service director. 3 yrs went by and the service department never saw better numbers and customer satisfaction was at an all time high. I then was called into the General Manager’s office with the “service director”, where they proceeded to give me an option, become a service advisor or leave (demotion, or as the GM called it a “lateral move”). They needed to “make a change” with the position and bring in someone else, plus they “needed me to do what I do best and work with the customers”…so wait–take something that isn’t broken and try to fix it with me changing positions, I remind you the service department, under me, was doing numbers it had never seen before and was climbing every month. Makes no sense does it, here is where it gets interesting, I was told that they didn’t know who they were going to hire but they had interviewed some candidates. A week later there was a new manager in place, who I was asked to train–haha. It turns out he was a former manager who had worked with someone very close to the “service director” before. Funny huh…it’s a shame that they lost out on a dedicated employee. By the way, they did nothing to try to keep me there when I did leave a few months later…I don’t know if Mr. Chambers knows this story or not, I never pursued it…maybe he may see this and wonder who I am…probably not though.
–A former dedicated employee

I want to thank you for this site. I have a 2005 Saab 97X and all that it has been is an “X” . My car has been acting up since the first day that I bought it. If I took it back every time it acted up it would say in the shop. Its not about the money but the fact that even when they see the lights going crazy inside the car, the next day everyone is mute and cant remember the lights. After weeks on end, they return with a “We can’t find anything wrong with the car, you can come pick it up. Which is what I am about to do now. Thank you for acting and thanks again for this site

I had my Mercedes-Benz which I bought from Herb Chambers Mercedes fixed when someone bumped into the rear end while it was parked. It was a hit and run. So, I took it to Herb Chambers Collision. It took them a month to get a new bumper, and when they received the bumper they put it on and the upper bumper had spider cracks all over it. Furthermore, the Mercedes emblem was removed for some reason from the trunk. And when they gave it to me they put on the hood ornament from one of the ML series, which looked ridiculous, as if it did not belong there. When we called her Chambers Cooperate offices they did not care nor did the management at the lower levels. After much debate, they agreed to fix the spider cracks and put the correct Mercedes emblem on. After this event I have decided never to use another Herb Chambers Store, or any of their services. For my Mercedes-Benz service now I bring it to Viti http://www.viti.com who gives me excellent service and excellent customer satisfaction. Actually they come to my front door and pick the car up. I learned a lesson, never shop at Herb Chambers.

I bought Accord 2007 at Honda Herb Chambers Boston on DEC 2006. After I bought a car, I’ve been there for services. It was so bad. SUCK SERVICE!! If you pay them money, they’ll speak nice to you. But if you’re not, they’ll shout to you.

I HATE HERB CHAMBERS

I bought Accord 2007 at Honda Herb Chambers Boston on DEC 2006. After I bought a car, I’ve been there for services. It was so bad. SUCK SERVICE!! If you pay them money, they’ll speak nice to you. But if you’re not, they’ll shout to you.

I HATE HERB CHAMBERS

here,s my wonderful experience. In May they were running a sales event to buy back suv’s. With the rising gas prices I thought I would check it out. On May 20th I went in to the dealership in auburn and found an older camry that I wanted. The salesperson came out, showed me the car and we took it for a test drive. I agreed to trade in my vehichle and buy the camry. We went thruogh the paperwork and he informs me the title is on its way and will be there in a couple of weeks. They gave me a rental to drive. I had to immediately clean my old vehichle out and take the rental. Two weeks passed
and I heard nothing so I called to see if they received the title. The response was that it will be in in a couple of weeks and that we will call you when it is ready . I waited for another month and called back again, this time to speak to the sales mgr. He again told me that the title is not in and it will be in in a couple of weeks and that they will call me. By now my payments had started and to keep my plates I had to start to pay insurance onmy suv that they had already sold. I again called back in july with the same answer. I called a day ago( in August ) and the title still wasn’t in. I told them they had till the end of the week to produce the title and the response was that they loaned me a rental car and if I break the contract I will have to pay for the rental(3 months worth). I told them if you do I’d see you in court and am now waiting.
Great business being run here. Customer service is definately their #1 priority.

See how Herb Chambers fixed my car incorrectly at

http://www.rmlarson.com/chambers

It’s Illegal in this state to sell a car without a title. They bought you by giving you a rental. I say call the attorney generals office, drop off the rental and either get your suv back ( which by law) they cannot get rid of until your deal is complete, or tell them you want a check for the value of your trade Immediately!!!

I am looking to buy a new crv and my husband works near a hc dealer. After reading the nasty responses from hc employees I will never step foot in one of their dealerships.

Wow…I have found a family of fellow sufferers. I bought from Foreign Motors in Natick, which has been recently acquired by Herb Chambers. At first, was going to lease the car and had worked out everything with the finance manager. Later, AFTER I drove off with the vehicle, I was contacted by the finance manager and told that I could not lease the car (because I use a Hong Kong drivers license) and that we would have to unwind the transaction. @!@#. After some fancy talking by the finance manager and (admitedly) a good deal, I agreed to buy the Merc (and in the process save the ass of the finance manager). Then the service guys kicked in, taking two weeks to install the promised extras when they were promised in two days. Still, they delivered the car to my home in Mass…and I thought the ordeal was over and I left with some positive and some negative views on this dealership.

Now…three months later…I get called my MB Finance saying we are delinquent on the payments, despite having set up the auto pay with the finance manager (twice actually…once for the lease and once for the loan). Am now in the process of clearing my credit report. Extremely frustrating!

Bottom line….well intentioned people with nice demeanor…but just not effective or thorough or diligent. And to those semi-illiterate “employees” who would seek to blame the customer or suggest I should read the fine print……….I did. I am a banker.

So the question is…is such ineffectiveness endemic to Herb Chambers dealerships or just rotten luck?

My wife and I were recently deciding on purchasing a used car from Herb Chambers of Seekonk, when we realized how much they did not care about us or our welfare. The vehicle we were about to purchase was in great shape. The tires however were a different story. Not only were the tires completely bald, but they would not pass an inspection in any state. It would have cost my wife and I about $600 to replace both tires; as they were high performance tires. We asked the sales agent to cough up the cash to put two new tires on, or lower the asking price $600.

Both ideas were thrown into the trash without a second thought. The sales agent eventually became fed up with my ranting and called the sales manager; “so he could deal with it”. Long story short; the sales manager told my wife and I that if we didn’t like the deal they offered; we simply didn’t have to buy the car.

Both the sales agent and the sales manager became flustered in a matter of 10 minutes because we refused to play their games. Pretty pathetic when they claim to be the best dealership.

Needless to say, we will never go to a Herb Chambers dealership again!

My wife and I were recently deciding on purchasing a used car from Herb Chambers of Seekonk, when we realized how much they did not care about us or our welfare. The vehicle we were about to purchase was in great shape. The tires however were a different story. Not only were the tires completely bald, but they would not pass an inspection in any state. It would have cost my wife and I about $600 to replace both tires; as they were high performance tires. We asked the sales agent to cough up the cash to put two new tires on, or lower the asking price $600.

Both ideas were thrown into the trash without a second thought. The sales agent eventually became fed up with my ranting and called the sales manager; “so he could deal with it”. Long story short; the sales manager told my wife and I that if we didn’t like the deal they offered; we simply didn’t have to buy the car.

Both the sales agent and the sales manager became flustered in a matter of 10 minutes because we refused to play their games. Pretty pathetic when they claim to be the best dealership.

Needless to say, we will never go to a Herb Chambers dealership again!

For a laugh, check out http://www.goaskherb.com
Can you say massive ego?

I found this page accidentally while I was searching for Herb Chambers Corporate site to email my complaint to. I was a proud owner of a 2003 Saturn Vue purchased new at HC Saturn of Warwick until the incompetent service team got their hands on my vehicle. It seems that each time they touch my vehicle more and more things go wrong and their excuse is “not our fault”. There were even a couple of issues that the service team insisted I was responsible paying for even though I had purchased (not cheap) an extended warranty. Only after refusing to pay and throwing a fit did they look into it and called me a couple of days later to advise me that it indeed was covered by my warranty. I am so disappointed because although I love my Saturn, I couldn’t possibly purchase another because there is no one to service it should it need repair, no one qualified anyway. I actually just arrived home from another visit where I was having an oil change and mentioned that a few months ago I had them replace my rear windshield wiper and they may have installed it too tight because ever since then it goes over the window very sluggishly. A member of the service team advised me that it is not too tight, that I need a new motor and it is covered under my extended warranty, but (and there is always a but with them) I have a $100 deductible for each repair. Not an annual deductible, but every time the warranty is used, $100. They get ya coming and going!!!!!

Mike, dont do it!! Ask them about turnover, it’s almost 80%! Why subject yourself to that!

I too have had an awful experience with herb chambers saturn of warwick. I bought an 05 ION 2 there almost three months ago. First of all the salesman larry who is probably one of the biggest shitbags working there never returned my calls after the sale regarding me getting my registration. I drove around in a car with no reg for almost two weeks and had no clue when I would be getting it. He also was supposed to set up an appointment to fix a scratch on the bumper which was there prior to sale and we had agreed upon being fixed. Wouldn’t return my calls until I called and threatened to go down there and cause a big scene if I didn’t hear from him. Called him back after this and never heard back. Now here’s the great part..i took the car to be inspected and it FAILED. Bring the car back and talk to the sales manager. He brings me over to service to speak with Pat I believe his name is and he blatantly lies right to my face about what’s going on with the car. I could even hear him get pissed that he gad to come and talk to me when the sales manager went into his office. I then decided I had enough of this BS and lies and took my problem to saturn of seekonk which is also a herb chambers company. They stepped up took care of the problem and put a legit sticker on my car for me. As the service guy at saturn of seekonk said “it seems like they gave you the inconvenience package with this deal”. And he couldn’t have put it any better. Long story short I just got the bumper fixed after being blown off for nearly 3 months by them. Ohh and it only took me having to threaten legal action against the dealership seeing as we had a signed agreement about the work.(once i reminded them of that they changed their tune real quick) I kept track of all the voicemails I had to leave over a three month period to get this done and it totalled over 20!! That’s ridiculous..

i just stopped in herb chambers ford in westboro. we quicly looked around and left after being grilled by a rediculous salesman. i dont see how anybody would do business there

you freaking morons! youre all abunch of lowlife losers wit6h credit scores of 400 im sure… people who actually have good credit have no problems its always the deadbeat that has a problem… whren and if you all grow up and gain some credit you will see how different the world of auto sales can and will be for you

Oh, and by the way. You need to go back to school and learn how to spell/type. Your sentence’s make no sense!! Another clue as to the people that are employed at H.C stores!!

Oh, and by the way. You need to go back to school and learn how to spell/type. Your sentence’s make no sense!! Another clue as to the people that are employed at H.C stores!!

Is it ironic that “no one” “likes it here” … The subtle irony may have been lost on that Chambers employee!

You think buying from Herb Chambers sucks? Try having to work for them because his monopoly expanded and took over the dealership you work for. Cuts pay. Old time employees walking out left and right to be replaced by puppets that just do as they’re told at the expense of the customers and employees. The way they nickel and dime everyone is horrible while herb has multi million dollars worth of vehicles in his personal private garage.

“Service Advisor” is a joke. They get paid a commision on what they sell and only a commision. So they make no money unless you buy repairs.

I bought my 2003 CR-V from Herb Chambers Burlington, having negotiated the transaction via the internet. The past two weeks now, I was in the market for a new 08 Civic EX-L sedan. After negotiating on-line with several dealers, I found myself right back at Herb Chambers Burlington last Monday afternoon. The negotiated price wasn’t so much the issue. I got them to essentially match my best deal from another dealer. I pressed the issue with them that I wanted to be a repeat customer of theirs. Anyway, the Civic we wanted was basically nowhere to be found in New England. We wanted the 08 EX-L (leather seating and heated seats and mirrors) 4-door automatic, and we wanted the Tango red, Royal blue or Galaxy grey, in that order of preference. In all honesty, ALL of the dealers told us that the red and blue were going to be long waits for delivery of the car. We didn’t want the EX-L with navigation system. That was readily available, but the nav system pushed the price up $1700. We didn’t want to negotiate on that because we still would have ended up paying at least a 1000 for an option that I simply had no use for. The red and blue Civics, we were told, were nowhere to be found on any New England Honda dealership, according to their dealer exclusive Honda stock website. It would be upwards of 2 months before they could get the exact car we wanted in red or blue. However, there WERE a couple of them in New England in the Galaxy grey color. In fact, the reason we went with Herb Chambers Burlington was because they told us they had the grey on one of their 3 other Herb Chambers MA dealerships. It would take them a couple days or so to get the car delivered to the Burlington dealer for us. It was mid afternoon on a Monday, we had other things to tend to that day, and we had no desire or ability timewise to drive 30-60-90 minutes down the highway to the other dealership, as the afternoon commute was beginning. We had to pick up our daughter from a neighbor’s house (she had to miss her piano lesson), my wife had to go to work soon for the evening. So, we fully expected to have the car handed over to us by Wednesday or Thursday, DEFINITELY BY FRIDAY!! So we signed the papers. Now the financial part of the transaction. We were paying $6500 with our own cash and our credit union was loaning us the rest. I was very naive about what my rights as a consumer were when it came to putting money down and signing the papers and so forth. Not sure why, as I purchased 3 new cars previously over the years, but whatever. I told the guy we were paying $6500 ourselves and the CU loan would cover the balance. Somehow, I allowed this Josh McCarthy jerk of a finance manager (business mgr) to railroad me into mandating that the entire car had to be paid for (my check and the CU loan check) that day! Here’s how it went down. As stated earlier, it was getting late in the day, after 3pm, and we had to get heading home ASAP to deal with our other issues. I stated this to Josh McCarthy, the finance manager. He said we could wrap it all up within 25 minutes, so I allowed it all to continue. I denied all of his attempts to sell me various levels of extended warranties. Told him I was getting X rate from my CU, and we finally got around to signing the documents. Again, I stated the we we running short on time. Naively, I straight-up asked him if it was “mandatory” that we finish this pay-off today, if we had to secure the loan chack from the CU and turn it over to the dealer today. And he said yes. I was stupid. I didn’t give it a second thought. I’m writing out a check here and now for $6500, the car won’t be delivered to me for 2-3-4 days, and I let this Josh McCarthy jerk of a finance manager dictate that I had to go out and get my loan chack and turn it over to him before the end of the day. I headed over to my CU, which, fortunately for us, was only 5 minutes away from the dealer. And with some enlightenment from the CU loan reps and branch mgr, I realized how this Josh McCarthy jerk of a finance manager swindled me for all of the cash paid in full that day, as it was 9/24, the last week of the month, and of ocurse, the dealer wants to collect as much cash as possible heading down the closing week of the month. Still at the CU, the dealer didn’t even provide us with the requisite paperwork for the CU to release the loan check to me. CU couldn’t locate the VIN # on their system. They finally worked it out, and I went back and handed over the loan check for the balance of the purchase price of the car. “We’ll call you in a couple days when the car is delivered to Burlington.” Two messages from the salesman on Thursday. First the car is in and we should have it registered and ready for pick-up on Friday. Then another message. Somehow, the car arrived without a title, or the car was delivered in a batch of new vehicles to their other dealership ahead of the titles. Probably won’t be registered and ready until Monday 10/1, Tuesday at the latest. Today is Monday. My wife just called the dealer and spoke with a female general manager, asking for a status on the delivery of the car, mentioning that it’s taking a week to get the car delivered from their other dealership that is also in eastern Massachusetts. The general manager was apparently (and not surprisingly) rather rude and offered to refund our money now if we wanted. While you wouldn’t think a dealer would EVER offer to refund $$ to back out of a sale, I’m guessing that they really wouldn’t have minded getting the 08 back in their “for sale” inventory in an effort to stick it to the next customer for more $$ and profit. Anyway, my wife just said we want the delivery of the car ASAP. I told my wife when she called me that we are essentially stuck be tween a rock and a hard place. We’re already under great stress trying to function with just one car for the past two weeks. I don’t want to have to start the negotiation process all over again with Honda dealers and have it take that much longer to get the car delivered to us in the specs that we want. So, we are anticipating delivery of the car tomorrow. Finally, let me share with you the 100% bullshit that this Josh McCarthy jerk of a finance manager gave to our CU loan officer when she went to bat for us asking him why the loan chack balance had to be handed over to the dealership that day. He told her that full payment of the car was the agreed upon deal that we made with him since the car was sold to us at $80 under invoice. WHAT A CROCK!!! There was NEVER any such talk or agreement like that when we were signing the purchase and sale! I am just waiting to drive the car home and ensure that I have no problems with it, and then I will write nasty letters to the general manager, Mr. Herb Chambers himself, and to the MA BBB and maybe the MA office of cunsumer affairs and/or the Attorney General’s office, as well. This car buying experience has reduced my ignorance level a bit more. Boy, they aren’t kidding when they say you never stop learning in life. Put me down for a NO, as I will never deal with Herb Chambers again.

herb is a great guy and his dog lucky has a nice ass.you are just jealous of lucky because you are on food stamps and lucky eats caviar for breakfast and shits in an oynx toilet..

Several members of the sales department of Herb Chambers Toyota of Auburn blatantly lied to my wife and I recently.
In a nutshell as follows:
An inexperienced sales person took the most simple of business transactions and made an honest mistake due to lack of experience. We researched a Camry with specific options, brought in the internet quote and they agreed to sell it to us at invoice. The whole process took 30 minutes. The salesman entered “LA” package instead of “QC” on the electronic order form and presented it for signature. It only said “leather package”, without any further detail on the options page. (The “QC” package is $300 more and includes heated seats and mirrors.) The car was delivered a month later, looked great, but was not as requested. They acknowledged the salesman’s oversight, and offered to split the cost of aftermarket heated seats at $550 each. We agreed, recognizing that we should have brushed up on dealer option lingo prior to signing on the dotted line. When I picked the car up with an unexplainable 135 new miles on it (on the second attempt because it was hacked up the first time) I asked for an itemized receipt. I have asked four times and been there in person to request one. All they will provide is an EFT report from Timberline or some equivalent indicating the check was deposited into Herb’s vault of gold at Citizen’s bank. “No itemized receipt is available” I have been told. Well, I know where the heated seats were installed, and I know they cost $499 a pair retail, but several members of the sales staff have looked me in the eye and stated “We are splitting the cost”.

To the sales staff, they only see a customer that likely will not return. Not that it matters, but I am an ASE Certified Master Automobile Technician with 20 years in the industry, most in management, who just wanted to buy his wife a new car. I know all too well how the industry works, and wish I had found this site and many others like it before my purchase. Perhaps I will update this when we finish in small claims.

Moral of the story; Never pay a dealer to warm your ass. You might get burned.

come on people. I have been in the car business for just over a year and half. salespeople will do what they can to make a sale, sale equals money. Some salespeople are dishonest but so are some customers its that simple. While selling fords at another nonHC dealer in Norwood I was told by a customer that his caddilac was in great shape and worth all the money. Sadly to say we put a deal together based on his assesment of the vehicle. When he showed up with the caddy it had more dents and dings than a nascar, 20K more miles that he said and needed an exhaust. He got mad at me and told me I was unfair in my assesment of his car.
This has happened more often than not, customers being dishonest about their vehicles. Next issue, if you have bad credit and cant pay for your KIA why do you think that we can get you into something newer and more expensive for less money, pay your bills. Read about your credit online and see what you need to do to fix it. Selling cars is about making money car dealers will always try to make money so when you dont read what you signed until later we are the bad guys. I even had someone come in and test drive a mustang GT convt. with manual trans. 3 days later the wife comes back in and wants her money back, her reason, she didnt know it was a manual and could not drive it, she test drove it.
Customers are more often than not to blame for the problems, not to say that the car business is the most honest. I was in the Army for 11 years and have been injured in Iraq so suck up that you didnt read all the fine print or ask the right questions. Lesson learned.

Did you ever here the statement, buyers are liers!! It’s unfortunate, but the truth. Also, when you sell a car before seeing the trade, it’s very simple to put on the p&s, subject to seeing the trade!! No, I do not work for Chambers and never will. People, Always remember. Never sign and Pay for a vehicle that the dealer does not have phisically!! or, if they have the car and not the title, do not sign. it’s illegal in Mass. for a dealer to sell a vehicle that they do not have a title for.Yes, leave a refundable deposit if you really want it, but dont pay for it. In closing, referring to my first statement about buyers are liers, although sometimes true, its the sales people that made us like that. Not all sales people lie, but most stretch the truth!!

I was thinking of going down to HC Lexus to look at cars and hopefully find a decent RX330 and then I came across this website. No way will I waste my time after hearing how so many others have been treated. Sound like a bunch of real sleaze bags!

Wow. I can’t think of a better way of spending ten minutes. Some of these posts are just hilarious. The Chambers employees are not doing Herb, themselves, or anyone in the business any favors. Herb, while you’re on your $60,000,000 yacht you should log on and read.

I’m a high level manager in the automobile industry. I love what I do. Helping people is a fun and rewarding experience. I’d like everyone to understand that the vast majority of professionals in this business are honest, competent, and most of all caring. Sure, it gets tough to please everyone, and let’s face it, some people are not very nice, but it’s a good business to be a part of. The reason for my post is to simply remind you that it’s your friend, your neighbor, your nephew, or your son that is workign in this very challenging industry. Cars today are more complex than the first Apollo space craft. Give us the opportunity to help you and we’ll do our best.

The other reason for my post is to proudly admit that I have hired many ex-employees from the HC Corp. They are talented, committed, and for the most part are just looking for a good home. As far as great employers are concerned in this business, their getting harder and harder to find as the big guys (Herb) are buying up all the small guys.

If you deal with a small local dealer now please do what you can to keep them in business. If you’re dealing with the big guy, well it seems you may or may not be happy. You may have saved $5.00 a month, but what did you get in return?

Anyway, since Herb is worth $1.6 Billion (yeah, with a “B”) it’s doubtful that he can relate to anyone anymore.

Best wishes to all the consumers and automotive professionals out there, keep doing your best to treat the customer like family.

nice post

nice post

if you dont get a title at the time of sale, they are breaking the law! Technically, you can get a refund of the purchase. I would call the Attorney General’s office.

A car is just a car. I want the car to be reliable and get me from A to B safely. So I am glad there are options other than Herb Chambers out there, and I will take my business elsewhere after my recent experience. I know there are not the appropriate channels within the Herb Chambers company, or the industry, for that matter, to address what happened to me, so when I saw this website I thought I might at least be able to warn others.

I was told the price of a car. I gave my credit card for deposit. I was happy and excited about finally having my car search behind me. I should have known that was far too easy. I recieved a follow-up call to come back to the dealership because there had been a “mistake”. It seems, the salesperson and the manager had a miscommunication and made a “mistake” where the price I had been quoted, and agreed to, was $2000 wrong. The offer was $2000 less than it should have been. When I resisted this extra charge, I was treated with complete and utter cruelty. I was called a thief. Apparently, according to the dealership, this was all my fault. I was told I was an awful person, someone that would steal groceries from an old lady or not return someone else’s belongings. I would steal, I would lie. I must be “Miss Perfect” if I couldn’t understand their mistake. As I was berated, I sat there uncomfortably, other than trying to get a word in edgewise to say that actually I wouldn’t steal from someone else, I didn’t know what to do. I am woman. As my discomfort increased, nervous laughter escaped at one point. I was told sit there – smirk! laugh! sigh! You are a bad person. You think you are perfect. Well, sorry, I am not Mr. Perfect he said, and I make mistakes. He told me that he was a good person, and I was trying to take advantage of him. Afraid to respond, and unsure how to handle his attack, I got up to leave. At this point, he began to raise his voice more so, to scream at me, loudly enough for everyone in showroom to hear, saying that he “Did not want the business of a person like me. Get out!” He followed behind me and yelled back to someone at his front desk dramatically to call the police. I got in my car, and drove away as far as I could handle, then pulled over and cried my heart out. What kind of treatment was that? I am extremely saddened. I know that I should not take personal offense to this incident. I am sure it is one of many that man would have on that day. I am sure he sleeps just fine every night. I won’t. It does impact me. I am sure that other dealerships lie and scam to get what they want from the customer, too. But this just seems outrageous to me.

This is my Herb Chambers story.

These stories are unbelieveable! Why doesn’t someone take this guy down!?

You’ll love this Herb Chambers experience….my husband and I were actually made fun of by the sales manager, to the finance manager right to our faces! He found it necessary to poke fun at the fact that we were purchasing a new, base model pick-up truck. Let me let you in on something, Herb Chambers….not everyone on the planet has to buy a fully loaded, all the bells whistles vehicle to impress their neighbors in order to feel accomplished in life. Not that there is anything wrong with buying such a vehicle if it makes you happy, but…if you are buying a pick-up for a work vehicle why would you trick it out when in all likelihood you are going to beat on it (filling it with dirt, hay, rocks, brush etc)? I guess the problem lies in too many “desk jockies” buying pick-ups these days, never actually using the vehicle for its intended purpose (other than throwing the family christmas tree in it once a year). Being made fun of right in front of us was not only unimaginably rude, it was infantile and showed a complete lack of tact and professionalism on the sales manager’s part. I will never return to herb Chambers.

You’ll love this Herb Chambers experience….my husband and I were actually made fun of by the sales manager, to the finance manager right to our faces! He found it necessary to poke fun at the fact that we were purchasing a new, base model pick-up truck. Let me let you in on something, Herb Chambers….not everyone on the planet has to buy a fully loaded, all the bells & whistles vehicle to impress their neighbors in order to feel accomplished in life. Not that there is anything wrong with buying such a vehicle if it makes you happy, but…if you are buying a pick-up for a work vehicle why would you trick it out when in all likelihood you are going to beat on it (filling it with dirt, hay, rocks, brush etc)? I guess the problem lies in too many “desk jockies” buying pick-ups these days, never actually using the vehicle for its intended purpose (other than throwing the family christmas tree in it once a year). Being made fun of right in front of us was not only unimaginably rude, it was infantile and showed a complete lack of tact and professionalism on the sales manager’s part. I will never return to herb Chambers.

NUF-CED, I WILL NOT BY A CAR FROM ANY HERB CHAMBERS DEALER

IF A DEALER CAN NOT SHOW YOU A TITLE OR A CERTIFICATE OF ORIGIN(for brand new vehicles) ON A VEHICLE YOU WANT TO PURCHASE, DO NOT BUY IT!!!! AND I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT A COPY!!

IF A DEALER CAN NOT SHOW YOU A TITLE OR A CERTIFICATE OF ORIGIN(for brand new vehicles) ON A VEHICLE YOU WANT TO PURCHASE, DO NOT BUY IT!!!! AND I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT A COPY!!

I goggled Herb Chambers as I am in the market for a Mercedes, though having spent the past half hour reading the above and in particular the blog from the Banker from Hong Kong, I have changed my mind. I will find another Merc dealer in the Boston area.
The HC Employees who blog really should spend some quality time in school taking creative writing. Their comments are incoherent and ridiculous.

Employees of HC. If you are out there how is he to work for now that the company is employee owned?

I also just want to make a point. In order for HC to be in the luxury car market he needs a tremendous amount of really good customer service scores.

You cannot get a Bently dearlership on bad “service/sales complaints. And that goes for Mercedes, BMW etc……you just won’t get the franchise.

When you do the amount of business that HC does you are always going to get a good 5% of dissatisfaction, for every 95% of satisfaction.

I do not work for him nor have I ever purchased anything from him, but fair is fair.

In general, buyers have an imbedded fear of salespeople and service people.
They enter into the folds with the expectation that “something” bad is going to happen and I won’t be able to handle it.

So, if they are just looked at the wrong way or if they don’t like the tone etc of the person talking to them their defenses go up and they run to blog their horrible experience.

People…….if you truly had such horrible experiences why didn’t you go to a lawyer or the attorney general. You know, once the AG has enough complaints about someone they are shut down. So if you where truly dealt “bad deals” why didn’t you do some serious complaining instead of this blogging crap,

Another thing google any car dealer, you people have plagued them all. The intelligent buyer/service customer doesn’t have these problems and/or
knows how to deal with them.

HC didn’t make billions doing the wrong thing………..you don’t like being ripped off? Go to Boch, he makes the devil look sweet.

You people are a bunch of overly sensitive born mad people to begin with.

Obviously you work for Boch. Simply pompass ass comments!! you would be a great HC employee. After working for a new car dealer the past 18 years and having to put up with the changing way’s of the auto industrie ie: the survey’s you talk about, it is not all true that he can not open another franchise. He has a checkbook big enough to buy anything he wants. Although the CSI scoring is a small factor, no one will keep HC from buying what he wants. The Auto industry is so down in numbers they will do whatever it takes to stay alive! HC just bought Foriegn Motors West, and I happen to know he is in the bottom 50% in csi with his Toyota stores, Chevy store and Lexus store. He is in the top 50% in 4 out of his 40 stores, middle of the road on most others. No one here will ever get his store’s closed down no matter how much complaining you do. Call the AG and you will get your complaint satisfied by the HC group. They are not going to let complaints go un-answered. Tactic’s throughout the industry are common throughout. Including Boch. Try to buy that advertised vehicle at one of those stores. It just got sold!! Every time? Give me a break!!

Me work for Boch? Are you kidding? I agree with you on that wonderful adverstised car that just got sold, but, if you feel you where truly ripped off than go the AG. Enough complaints and he gets a juicy fine.

This is just a way to blow off steam, but it doesn’t solve anything. Toyota’s CSI is taken very seiously, and he wouldn’t own the franchie with bad csi.

And that’s the facts!!!!!!!!!!!!Oh, by the way I don’t work for HC either.

Me work for Boch? Are you kidding? I agree with you on that wonderful adverstised car that just got sold, but, if you feel you where truly ripped off than go the AG. Enough complaints and he gets a juicy fine.

This is just a way to blow off steam, but it doesn’t solve anything. Toyota’s CSI is taken very seiously, and he wouldn’t own the franchie with bad csi.

And that’s the facts!!!!!!!!!!!!Oh, by the way I don’t work for HC either.

Here is something I did and boy did it work. I have been driving Acuras for almost 15 years now. I started servicing at Acura of Boston but found Claire to be closer and tried them. They had a female service rep and boy did she do a number on me. I won’t be jerked around.

I called and wrote to Acura. This was 12 years ago. I told them exactly what she did to me and that the dealership backed her up.

I received a letter of appology from Acura and she is no longer working for them. As far as Claire Acura, my complaint is still out there and boy do I get the red carpet every time I go in. It works. Instead of blogging your complaint write to the manufacturer and if they are credible like Acura you will get action.

Here is another on. Just last year I went to Claire Acura for a simple service. They did what they where supposed to do, but told me the next time I come in I will need this and that. Well, the car is only 3 years old, out of warranty and I am the second owner, but still, it’s an Acura, and the things they told me I needed seemed a little outrageous. So I wrote to Acura.

Within 3 days I received a phone call from Acura. They explained that these items are wear and tear items and if I am having a problem paying for them they will help me. The repairs totaled $700. They sent me a check for $250 and called the dearlership and asked them to do what they could to make it easier for me. They gave me a $100.00 discount per service. All together is ended up costing me out of pocket $350.00.

To show my appreciation I wrote a wonderful letter to Claire which they have posted in their service room for other customers to see, and they have a whole wall full of these letters.

And the red carpet is still out there. I love it. Now I live in Ashland and had to use Herb Connolly in Framingham. Holy Cow……….I went right back to Claire, I don’t care how far I have to travel.

Go to google and type this ” complaints against name of your dealer”
Watch what comes up. They all have these complaints you can’t please everyone all the time. I LOVE ACURA’S.

Google attorney general complaints about Herb Cgambers and you’ll find they are ranked first in the State! You will also learn he is a huge contributor to the AG. Any questions?

Oh, so what you are saying is the AG is on HC’s payroll? First in the state for complaints? And in reply Scott, I work in a store in Worcester area. I here what your saying but as you know we all have our 2 cents worth. I know quite a few people that have worked and still worked at HC. The ones that work there love it and the ones that no longer work there have horror stories to tell. Although that is typically how it works especially if you did not leave on your own terms! We just happen to be mostly speaking of the HC companies because of this site. I am sure there are other sites about other companies that are similar. I’m sure you know plenty of others in the car business that could tell you a horror story about where they work too! Iknow I do.

Hi : I am an unforunate victim of HerbChambers empire.
I have bought a R500, S500, S550 4 matic, a G55, and ML350, and several other cars from Herb chambers of Lynnfiled.
The servicve department is at best useless.
I took my G55 for service, I paid the bill, When I went to pick up the car the dash board was ripped , and all the mechanics trash was still inside the car, car was a mess in the interior. The never washed the cars after service for me. Then I looked the web to find out Nattick dealership is also taken over by Herb.
I am more than mad.

I should look for a dealer who is not Herb, who can deliver good service. I am fed up with Herb .

I am sending this to you as I cannot find the e mail of your customer service head if there is any such person.
I am tired of complaining, Mike Hanafin acts like he is a loard .

This incedent happened on 10/22/07.

Forward this to Herb Chambers , and all in the enterprise.

I am determined to find a way to rectify this kind of wrong done to me by Flagship of Lynnfield.

You know how to contact JDPowell , who is the state agency that deal with these .
TV people , who will get me action.

I am more than angry frustrated and humiliated.

Lalith Tissera,MD
Melrose wakefield Behavioral Health
11 Lafayette st
Wakefield, MA 01880.

If you look up 4 comments there is a name there. Its Scott. He works there at the Natick store. Maybe he can help you.

I had the misfortune of being talked down to by a bully manager of Herb by the name Mark.
Herbs bullies do not believe in customer service.They think We are at their mercy. They are arrogant ,rude, crude and ignorant.
Herb is too rich to be a polite business man he hires bullies and thugs. My experience is that. They have attempted to cheat me before.
I have the misfortune I have to spend time getting aggravted by idiots,
I want to see him go under.

We bought a used Hyundai Sonata from Herb Chambers in WEstboro, MA. AS part of the deal, they were to put on four new tires, new brakes, and do the 36,000 mile service. Here it is October, and we just had to go to a tire dealer and purchase 4 new tires because the tires put on the Hyundai were defective (Belts broke). This was after shelling out over $300.00 for an alignment (which they said was the problem). We had less than 10,000 miles on the tires. When we took it back to them last week and said replace the tires – they gave us the run around and told us they would call to set up a service appointment – meanwhile we’re driving around on unsafe tires. I’m looking for a corporate address or someone to write to that will hear what we say – because when we call, write the dealership we get no response.

Call JIm Xaros at 617-763-1000, he’s the VP

I wrote apolite note to Herb Chmbers the billionaire.
I went to a car serviced , I paid for service. They did not comply with their job.
They have always made it an unpleaseant filthy , nauseating experience my going into their glass house.
The service department guys always make electric jobs complicated.
When they fix something they break another.
The bully Mark was upset with me.
The reason, I told him that his apology means nothing to me , if keep doing the same mistake.
His attitude was he has been merciful to me he offered an apology, I should be glad that billionaires subordinate apologize.
I am sad, this experience has made me think a lot.
Human dignity , politeness has no place in the car dealship , or sales culture in the USA.
MB USA should outsource the services to polite competent aliens – not the USimmigration service definition of aliens- I mean Martians or some other bunch of creatures or robots.
These kind of experiences have made me stay away from any dealing with infra human creatures.
I will not go to a car dealerships for ever.
Explain to me why people are so arrogant, do they get a thrill being so.
People like scott can help me understand the minds of these types.
I am polite, I never will to go to the level of a barking dog.
My being a naturalized citizen not a mascular man has anything to do with this , I don’t know.
These bullies are not human. They have muscles. Very little brains, I think.
Too much fast food and coffee and stress in making more and more.
I will sit back an observe your responses.

I also wrote to Herr.Lieb – I found out Herr .Lieb is the President of MB USA.
I don’t want to obsess about this anymore.
My anger is the way that bully shouted at me was not called for.
I can clearly and politely speak to any devil, yet the devils at Herbs , i couldn’t tame.

I wrote apolite note to Herb Chmbers the billionaire.
I went to a car serviced , I paid for service. They did not comply with their job.
They have always made it an unpleaseant filthy , nauseating experience my going into their glass house.
The service department guys always make electric jobs complicated.
When they fix something they break another.
The bully Mark was upset with me.
The reason, I told him that his apology means nothing to me , if keep doing the same mistake.
His attitude was he has been merciful to me he offered an apology, I should be glad that billionaires subordinate apologize.
I am sad, this experience has made me think a lot.
Human dignity , politeness has no place in the car dealship , or sales culture in the USA.
MB USA should outsource the services to polite competent aliens – not the USimmigration service definition of aliens- I mean Martians or some other bunch of creatures or robots.
These kind of experiences have made me stay away from any dealing with infra human creatures.
I will not go to a car dealerships for ever.
Explain to me why people are so arrogant, do they get a thrill being so.
People like scott can help me understand the minds of these types.
I am polite, I never will to go to the level of a barking dog.
My being a naturalized citizen not a mascular man has anything to do with this , I don’t know.
These bullies are not human. They have muscles. Very little brains, I think.
Too much fast food and coffee and stress in making more and more.
I will sit back an observe your responses.

I also wrote to Herr.Lieb – I found out Herr .Lieb is the President of MB USA.
I don’t want to obsess about this anymore.
My anger is the way that bully shouted at me was not called for.
I can clearly and politely speak to any devil, yet the devils at Herbs , i couldn’t tame.

You are obviously one of the good guy’s. You are also correct in almost everything you say. Isolated instance’s yet the one thing a customer remember’s is the last thing told to them as they are walking out the door. There is your lasting impression. Most all that I read here is of a similar instance involving differant people. As far as that saying about helping people buy car’s not selling people car’s, well, I don’t really agree with it. All in all, well said!

what a post by a public relations guy. My experiences with Herb Chambers have been bad for the most part. Not sure if Herb is aware of it or not, or if the a** kissers keep it away from him. My emails went unswered, that tells you something. I bought my 2000 300M at herb. The sale job was good. The scary part was on I first took it to service: they washed the car with brushes, well, you know how the scratches in the paint all over. I visited them again for a minivan this year. I was going to buy it. There was just a question of financing. No bad sales person comes with a monthly payment, that’s a store policy. Nissan Marlboro thanked you. Now I’m looking to buy a Ford, and unlucky enough they bought the dealership in westborough. Well Ford, you’re going to sell one less car. I really don’t care how many dealerships they have, if I have to go buy what I want out of state I will. Herb Chambers is a place to avoid. Oh, should I say that after the store wash with brushes they never saw my 300M again? Herb Chambers will continue to do just fine because the market is full of unsuspected buyers.

I brought my truck into Herb Chambers Service Department in Danvers, MA., this morning at 7:30 AM. I waited until 7:45 AM for them to open the door even though they advertised 7:30 AM and instructed me to bring in my truck at that time. They were supposed to call me at work when they were through diagnosing the problem (I need a brake job). It is now 3:30 PM. I called them at 1:00 PM and an acid lady told me that they would call be when they had completed their “diagnosis.”

If my truck isn’t ready tonight, I don’t know how I’m going to get home. I is my sole means of transportation and I live 66 miles away.

I brought my truck into Herb Chambers Service Department in Danvers, MA., this morning at 7:30 AM. I waited until 7:45 AM for them to open the door even though they advertised 7:30 AM and instructed me to bring in my truck at that time. They were supposed to call me at work when they were through diagnosing the problem (I need a brake job). It is now 3:30 PM. I called them at 1:00 PM and an acid lady told me that they would call be when they had completed their “diagnosis.”

If my truck isn’t ready tonight, I don’t know how I’m going to get home. I is my sole means of transportation and I live 66 miles away.

I have written called, e-mailed – and no response. So – as I shared a few weeks ago – we had to buy 4 new tires from a different place and are now at that money – plus the $300.00 plus that we paid for an “alignment” that didn’t work. I did file a complaint with Better Business Bureau, but in my experience that never goes anywhere either. At this point, I’d be satisfied to just get paid for the replacement tires (for 4 new tires that were put on new when we purchaesd the car). Guess I won’t hold my breath waiting! I also won’t ever go near a Herb Chambers dealership of any kind again – and will do my best to make sure anyone I know doesn’t as well.

My eyes are burning because of all the testimonials I have read. I used to be an employee for this wrethced company. I was a student at the time that got up at 5 am everyday and worked until 9 pm at their store everyday. I was underpaid and under appreciated. In the end, I threatened the GM at the Boston Honda store with a lawsuit of sexual harrasment because he was a sleeze and if you google him you’ll know what I mean. After I did my research it turns out that 2 other women took him to court and sued his ass! Why that idiot Chambers still keeps him around I have no idea. So when I asked the e-commerce manager to talk to chambers and the GM about what happened, they replied a month later with “you have no proof and your accusations are lies” Well of course theyre going to say that, they want to protect their name. But, how can you call me a liar when you were not there? It was only him an I when he decided to grab his balls and give me a seductive look. I would be happy to tear his fucking eyes out and there isnt a day that goes by without me wanting to get back at him. What can I say, I speak about it everywhere and when I went to another Honda store, I took all my clientel with me and Im glad I dont work there anymore.

I read all these posts and say fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice. And i tried to give them a second chance to buy a car from them. Two different dealerships, same type of morans. Treated a woman alone shopping like I was stupid. Know whos stupid?, the car dealer who cant close a deal and lets me purchase over sixty grand in cars elsewhere. You are sooo stupid, theres always going to be another dealer selling the same kind of car and I will buy it elsewhere. What goes around comes around

It is funny how the customer comes in with a plan and lies to their salesperson about everthing. For example they say I have 16,000 on this car at another store and they sales person will say I am sorry that is a great deal I can not beat and then the customers say “well what can you do?”. What does it matter? We salespeople get a name like liers and snakes but we tell them everthing they want to know. You ask for invoice we show it to you. We will even buy you car even if you do not buy one from us. Customers always ask whats the interest rate? Well here is the scoop WE DO NOT KNOW untill we send the whole deal to the bank. And if you are made because its too high pay your damn bills! oh and if our invoice on the car 12,000, what would you get in your mind to offer us 10,000? to even pay invoice (what we pay for all of you slow ones) on the car you have to put a big blue sign with a H on it and that cost about 12,000,000.00. The fact of the matter is that you (the customer) get upset with the dealership because you could not get your way on the sales aspect of it and when you in for service you get upset because you have not changed your oil for a year and we wont fix your blown engine. Their our a few bad apple in the Herb Chambers Company that we would like to get rid of and if you are having trouble with one of these people call the gm of the store and if he is one of them call the gm of another store and ask for Herbs number or help. We will help you. Herb loves his employees and loves his customers that why I find this as an insult. Just remember when you call in the 800 number and then come in and complain that one of our reps said something about a car being here or a price they will sell it for ask them to play the recording they record all incoming call on the toll free line. and for all those people who are like randell who say we write like we are 8 year old…when the last time a person like Herb insulted you> Now who is the 8 year old again?

Tony, you’re not doing you dad Herb Chambers any favors. First, he has more employees coming and going that he should install revolving doors in his dealerships. Second, he gets so many complaints, not just here, but everywhere, that Herb Chambers tries to buy favors from politicians and the Attorney Generals. Third, I will GUARANTEE you that you won’t be at Honda of Seekonk by next summer.

Really That is funny cause I have been at this store since 2003 why won’t I be here by the summer? And as far as the dad comment I was try to say that he teaches us like a father if you have kids you know what i mean repeatedly telling us over and over again how we are sopose to take care of customers. The funny part is selling over 40,000 cars a year and if we get a few “dis” satisfied customers I think we are still doing a great job. oh and at my dealership the only salespeople that go are the ones you people are complaining about the good ones have been here for atleast 5 years.

My wife and I went to the Auburn, MA. Herb Chambers to look at a used Subaru. When we wanted to test drive we were told that the “Manager” had taken it home, but we could make an “appointment” to test drive in a couple days. When we went back for our appointment, the car was not available. We asked about a used Hyundai that they brought to our attention, but could not drive that car because it was in Braintree. We ran away as fast as we could. Unfortunitally, we ended up at another “Herb”, but this one was a “Connolly” in Natick. They refused to repair a ding in the passangers door and refused to put floor mats in. AVOID ALL “Herb” dealerships, they are one in the same!!

You people need to understand something (and I do not work for HC) If you want a perfect car with no dings and floormats included, buy a new one. Is your used car “DING FREE” ? As a matter of fact, floor mats are an option in most new vehicles, and they run anywhere from 60 to 100 bucks. Lets not be stupid

Mike thanks and sorry for the hotheaded words earlier, as you know this is a bad subject for anyone in the industry.
I was sitting around today and thought hey, why do we devalue our products for the public. I mean really if you go to buy sox tickets from a dealer you will pay more than face for them, trust me that is why I work so hard so I can afford them. Here we are with products that the public wants, New C300, Mustangs, Tahoes whatever you sell that is hot. We take away our money once the customer walks in the door. Imagine a day when the sticker said, $31,875 and could then they say whats can you get it to me for, answer $42,675!!!! because of demand. No instead even when we have something the public wants we discount it. Think about it they dont discount gas, food, clothes or any other things we WANT.
Customers are going to get mad and some are going to not get the great treatment. HC companies sell 125 cars a day on average, can you please three times that a day? I you took all the people in your life right now and thought about I bet you have made some of them mad from time to time. It is impossible to please all the people all the time. HC companies do an outstanding job at pleasing most of the people most of the time. JD Powers seems to agree.

The only thing we want is reimbursement for defective tires that were put on our card and we had to replace. We get no responses to e-mails, letters or calls, so I guess we know who got the short end of that stick. Mention Herb Chambers to us – and we’ll let you know exactly what we think. Defective tires – unnecessary alignment ($300.+ including labor) and having to purchase tires elsewhere because of the safety factor.

Herb Chambers dealerships – NEVER AGAIN – and will do our best to discourage others from going as well.

At Herb Chambers of Westborough MA, I spoke on the phone with a man by the name of Josh Mono, about a 2007 Honda Odyssey. I wanted to trade in my leased 2005 Accord and try to keep the same payments with a 2007 Odyssey. The payment I currently have is around $227.00 a month. I told Josh that I had been to a couple of different Honda dealers and that I was close to making a deal with Auto Fair out of Manchester.

Josh told me that he could get me a deal of $270.00 a month or even better. I told Josh that I din’t want to waste his time or mine, because I was also coming from Londonderry NH, about an hour away. Josh told me don’t worry about it, we will be able to take care of you.

Needless to say, I went to the dealership, this deal was no way able to even happen. They were asking me for $5,200.00 , for this to happen. I just want people to know that I deal with clientel on a daily basis, this is no way to handle a potential customer. I do not reccomend this dealership to anyone. It is sad to say, that these people, do not care about you, they just want to get you into the dealership and then finagle you into buying something.

Very bad business.

Did you tell him you did not want to put any money down when you talked to him on the phone? It’s almost impossible to come out of a vehicle (especially a lease) with no money down and have the same payment on a newer vehicle. Just wondering!

if you bought an api service contract from any herb chambers store cancel it now and get your money back. api went bankrupkt and herb ‘s dealerships have been giving customers a hard time on refunds

As a matter of fact, if you bought an API extened warranty from any Dealer, go get your money back!!

So I am back on here again checking the list of complaints and seeing if there was a way I could help. As for grammar I am not going to be writing in queens english so deal. As for hiring dumb employees, I see we have gone back to third grade with the name calling. I have finished High School and then a nice long time in the US Army till I got injured so sorry i didnt rush off to college like you, someone had to do something while you were scared.
Reading some of these complaints I find it funny that the “customer” never really posts a name with the complaint on here. Another funny thing I see more and more is that noone has said anything about good treatment? How can a man have 42 dealerships and continue to make all this money with the competition in the area if we treat everyone soooo wrong.
If you as a customer have a complaint call or go back into the dealership and talk to the manager and if that does not get you results then ask for the general manager.
Keep in mind this is a business and we are here to make money. Take your time and read all the contracts you sign. If you have questions ask, ask for the carfax. Do take a test drive in every vehicle you look at they all drive different. If you are not in love with the car let the saleman or woman know that you are not in love with the car and price wont matter at that point. They will in turn offer you another vehicle to see if that meets your needs.
One last thing if you really are not looking to get a vehicle and just seeing what a car is like please just look on the internet.

After contacting the Better Business Bureau (when we got no response from Herb CHambers Ford in Westboro), we were finally able to reach a compromise settlement on our issue.

There is a new Service Manager at Herb Chambers Ford, WEstboro, and he was very polite, making sure that all our concerns and issues were dealt with – and we were offered – and accepted – an acceptable refund for the trouble we had with this dealership during the summer.

Thank you Frank – at Herb Chambers Ford in Westboro

I am on my fifth new vehicle from Herb Chambers and have never had a problem. As Herb Chambers is probably the largest car dealer company in New England, they are bound to get a few unhappy customers. Not by design, but because of the crazy things employees sometimes do. I know, I have 92 employees in my company. 99.9% of the time they are great. However, wacky stuff happens sometimes. If anyone has a complaint with a company they should write to the company owner directly. I am sure Herb Chambers did not become so successful by accident. “The guy on top of the mountain, didn’t fall there.”

It’s very simple … Herb Chambers talks about being victimized by car dealers, who were arrogant and out of touch. Well, guess what, he now is that car dealer! Try calling his office, see if you get him! See if he calls you back, or some lacky. Do you see him in the showroom talking to customers? No, he’s in his office. He should rename his yacht Arrogance.

I was just hired by a Herb Chambers company and I am looking forward to being employed there. However, I find it hard to believe that the only experiences people seem to have are bad ones. I have worked in the automotive industry for the past five years and have enjoyed myself. Mostly. I have been yelled at, degraded, cursed at and brutalized by customers who have issues with their vehicles. Most issues are completely out of my control. Yet I get up and go to work every day. I am not a millionaire by doing this work. I do it because I want to help people. I don’t want to take advantage of people!! I know that there will always be bad apples, but to blackball an entire company for a small percentage of assholes is really unfair. I think some consumers need to step back and realize that the people who are working at these places are not their personal punching bags. Do you know what it feels like to kiss the ass of someone who is treating you like crap? Probably not, but in this business, that is our job. Think about it.

We tried multiple times to get a response from Herb Chambers Ford in Westboro – and never heard from anyone – until we contacted the Better Business Bureau – and the BBB contacted them – Boy did we get a response then. As I said above – we did come to an agreement with them, and the new Service Manager of HC Ford in Westoboro seems to be on the ball – but we’ll not go back. Fool me one, shame on you, fool me twice – shame on me!

It all starts at the top … Herb Chambers is an arrogant man, I know, I worked for him!

I’ll never buy from H/C again. I purchased a used GMC Yukon from H/C Chevy in Danvers. The salesman new nothing about cars, the sales manager was rude and treated us like we were idiots. There were issues with the car that they said they would fix that thay could not fix. The service dept couldn’t fix a flat without replacing the battery, headlights and transmission just to make more money. H/C dealerships took the enjoyment out of buying a car. The only bigger idiot I know is me for buying from them.

I will never buy a car from a HC dealership. I did purchase a 2004 Honda Civic and returned it within the 3 day period due to a transmission issue. We were told that we would get our deposit back in 2 weeks, it has now been 5 weeks and they are refusing to return the money. Time to get a lawyer, go to the BBB and call the consumer reporters!!

Ann,

The only way we got anything was to contact the BBB – once the dealership got a call from then, we were contacted and a settlement reached. I strongly encourage you to contact the BBB.

my son bought a 2005 chevy cobalt in april and they talked him into buying an extended warranty, a 7 year -70,000 mile one. he just received the paper work fom chrysler financial and to his surprise he found that the extended warranty started the day the car was manufactured. so he is paying for the prevouse owners factory warranty and he is out 3 years and 30,000 miles. how can herb chambers get away with this? there was s disclaimer on some paper work my son signed but you need to be a lawyer to understand it.

my son bought a 2005 chevy cobalt in april and they talked him into buying an extended warranty, a 7 year -70,000 mile one. he just received the paper work fom chrysler financial and to his surprise he found that the extended warranty started the day the car was manufactured. so he is paying for the prevouse owners factory warranty and he is out 3 years and 30,000 miles. how can herb chambers get away with this? there was s disclaimer on some paper work my son signed but you need to be a lawyer to understand it.

Marcy, it is illegal to sell a car (or even display one for sale) in MA without a title. If you want to talk to Herb Chambers, don’t waste your time. When I had a problem with his dealership, I fought through five people and finally talked to him. He was shocked to talk to a customer! He didn’t really do anything other than make promises that werent kept.

I would call the Boston Globe or the AGs office. Herb Chambers broke the law by selling you that car without a title, you should get your money back!!

Thanks for posting everyone – was going to look at a used SLK at HC Lexus, but have decided to forget it and look elsewhere. Thanks!

Hello…Ok here’s my beef with Herb Chambers, We had good luck with Ford until we came to Herb Chambers in Braintree Ma. We wanted to get into another car before our lease was up..We had about 3 payments left to pay. We dealt with the most incompetent person ever..thats another story..We were told this and that and we had to make our last lease payments in order to get into another auto and all…Ford sucks anyways,We went to another dealership on the south shore and got into a jeep liberty…and we were happy. When returning the taurus…We were billed for a scratch that cost over 200.00,smaller then a fingernail’s length…car was in great shape…I refused to pay…over 1,000 bucks later when they could have made it easier on us and put us into another lease..We are now in a legal matter with chambers(Ford) We had about 5 leases through Ford and this is how it all ends..so much for customer loyalty…What a joke! Not to mention they will keep you waiting for hours on end to close a deal…excuses excuses…Best of luck to all of you who were rooked by Chambers!

That’s crap that they only fined Herb Chambers $75,000. Herb Chambers knowingly violated the law. They generate over a billion (with a b) in sales and get fined $75,000!!! That’s less than it costs Herb Chambers to fly his Gulfstream to St Baarts! Shame on the Attorney General!

well Tim, you are one of the lucky one’s!

I work for an H C company. Love the job, hate the business. I can only hope that someone who deals with me has nothing but a good experience. My manager jumps through hoops to please our customers and rectify any issues they may have. I hope everyone who reads this blog isn’t turned off. There are good, bad and downright ugly situations in the car business. I definitely agree that dealership employees can be arrogant, rude and lie through their teeth. But there are some great people who hope to make the buying and service experience an excellent one. Sometimes it’s tough to keep everyone happy and rudeness is unacceptable. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t like helping people, but customer service is tough. I myself have been treated badly by customers but I know for every “bad” one there are 10 good ones.

Mike M, I am sadly not a Manager as of yet. I am still new to the business and am doing my part to try and be honest and fair with everyone I deal with. Part of that may be my military background and also the fact that my family had a Pharmacy in Brookline for 72 years, I was taught the old way to do business.
Here is one of my customers comments after she was not happy here with the salesperson.
“Good for you. It’s the right thing to do. I want you to know I really appreciated your time and your efforts with me. I found you very professional and someone I could trust.

Regards,

Gail “
For reason I did not include her whole name or email. She did not purchase here and I am working on that situation. I just want to try earn money and do it with honesty. I know that some people in this very building will not follow my lead but I can only control one person.
What I tell customers is that if you can come in we can be honest and have EXACT numbers to deal with not ball parks and if at the end of the day we are not at a deal we shake hands and move on.

The sad truth is if we all do buisness close to our homes build relationships with the people at the local buisnesses pay a fair profit so that the buisnesses can afford to serve us as we wish all of our experiences would be better

I went into Herb Chambers today 01/11/2007. I had called them and told them I had a pre-approval at 13.5% not a great rate but I dont have great credit with Transunions new scoreing system. I told them If they think they could do better than let me know. They told me we can absolutely do better. So, I looked at a few Toyota Corollas and Yaris and Scion. Then I went in, I was told I would be at 21%. I looked at the sales manager sitting with the sales person and told him “I wouldnt buy a candy bar at 21%” They amaze me. They lie like I have never seen before. Did they expect me to take a loan from them at 21%? This is one of the few poor dealerships ive been in. I just wanted to share my experience. Also, when looking at vehicles there be careful they dont salt the ice around the cars. Mabye they cant afford rock salt. I would think if they can get enough people buying at 21% mabye they could have a heated driveway….

UPDATE-
To the above post, I recieved a call from the dealership today. Asking me if my experience was good. I told them it wasnt. And I explained why. I could hear salespeople laughing in the backround. I guess they think its funny 21%. ***Buyers Beware***

Well Mr. Anon,
It seems that the dealership tried and since we do have banks we use and teir systems with credit, your credit did not fit the bill. I would not jump right off and say the dealership was still trying to get you. If you had the pre-approval then you could have still bought the car all you had to do was settle on a price. If your credit is bad and it seems that you know it is then please dont be shocked if a dealership comes back with a rate you dont agree with. Dealerships are bound by law as to how much they can mark up rates so really it was close to the 21%. If you want a fair deal it seems you had one with the pre-approval. Why did you not buy the car then since you had the money? I wish you the best of luck in getting into a new or preowned car that you want. If I can help let me know.

sorry ed

I just had an atrocious experience with Herb Chambers as well. It was exactly as another commenter had said: we were told one price over the phone, used our credit card to put down a deposit, and when we got to the dealership they informed us that the price was actually much, much higher than we thought. The sales people’s stories changed over the TWO HOURS we were there trying to buy a car: we were even accused of lying and trying to cheat them!!! I was absolutely astounded and felt so terrible.

DO NOT EVER BUY FROM HERB CHAMBERS.

Katie,
Not all people in the car business are like that. please call me at 781-492-4573 that is my cell I would like to see if I can help.

I worked for Herb Chambers flagship Mercedes for 5 years. When I started as a salesperson I was happy and making good money. Within two years Herb had cut our pay by 60% at the same time, he hired Managers who were shiftless and dishonest! I didn’t want to screw anyone, so I quit…these things are commonplace within the herb Chambers Companies. If you need a vehicle I would recommend going to a dealership that is not part of a huge CHAIN!!! I hope Herb sleeps well knowing that he has single-handedly ruined the car business and screwed thousands and thousands of people. FU HC!!!!!

–Shaggy

I have been reading these again and I see that is an issue with price being given and not followed through on. As a consumer if you see a vehicle online I recommend you print the ad with the price on it so there can be no confusion when you show at the dealership. All of the vehicles are online at http://www.herbchambers.com. Next I would also print any internet only coupons that pop up!! If you call or inquire about a new vehicle my advice is to simply go into the dealership and get a quote on the actualy vehicle you want to own. If you do not purchase at that time ask for a copy of your worksheet.
This may help some of the problems we see with price differential.

Scott,

What do you recommend when the dealership ignores all your calls, inquiries and requests for problems with defective parts that they put on a “new to us” car.

IT was only when we contacted the Better Business Bureau that we were offered a settlement – and it didn’t cover nearly 1/2 the cost of the new tires we had to purchase to replace the defective ones.

We just had a HORRID experience with Herb Chambers Toyota in Auburn, and here is the letter I sent to Herb Chambers. I have never been so frustrated with a dealership.

Dear Mr. Chambers,

My name is XXXXX, and my husband M and I have been Herb Chambers Toyota customers for the last several years. In addition, because of our primary positive experience, we spread the word, resulting in my mother, my sister, my father-in-law, and several friends all becoming Herb Chambers customers.

Sadly, as a result of our most recent experience with your Toyota dealership in Auburn, Massachusetts, none of us will return to a Herb Chambers dealership again.

In 2005, my husband and I wanted to upgrade our Tracker to something larger and more stable. We decided to stop at your Auburn dealership to look at a used Rav4. Our sales person, XXX, was very nice and helped us out courteously and promptly. We asked him how much he needed as a down payment in order for us not to be upside down were we to trade the vehicle in sometime in the future. He said $3000 plus our taxes and fees would cover us, so we took his advice, and we purchased the vehicle.

We loved the Rav, but shortly after we purchased it, we decided to have a baby (thus giving us two children), and we thought the Rav felt a little cramped, especially with one infant car seat and one toddler car seat. But because XXX’s service had been so wonderful in 2005, in 2006 we decided to return to Herb Chambers in Auburn. In addition, since purchasing the Rav, both my mother, my sister, and my father-in-law had purchased vehicles from Herb Chambers at our recommendation.

When we went to the Toyota dealership in Auburn, we worked with XXXX, now a former sales manager, and a sales associate named XXX. They showed us a used Chevy TrailBlazer, and when we took it for a test drive, we loved it. We were concerned about the mileage, but XXX assured us that the posted mileage was on the low side, and the vehicle actually performed better than stated. We were also concerned about being too upside down to be able to trade it in at a later date, and XXX told us that if we waited a year before trading, we would be fine.

Well, Mr. Chambers, XXX either didn’t really know the car business or he flat out lied to us. This month, upon trying to trade in the Blazer for a Corolla, we found out that we were grossly misinformed both about the mileage and the trade in value.

A few weeks ago, my husband stopped in to see XXX to talk about purchasing yet another vehicle from your dealership. We wanted to purchase a Corolla because the Blazer was costing us too much in gas. XXX was busy and told M he would call him back. Unfortunately, XXXnever returned M’s call. So Mcalled again. And again. And again. And still, he received no return call from XXX.

Finally, M decided to stop down one day on his way to work. He waited for XXX for almost two hours to no avail. In addition, none of the sales associates seemed willing to help. So he left.

And he went to Harr.

Harr was more than willing to help us. In fact, they had the paperwork ready to be signed within two days. They recognized the upside down-ness of the vehicle and were going to give us $11,500 in trade, thus rendering us only $10,000 upside down. We were approved through Toyota Financial, and using Harr’s computer screen, they showed me their cost of the vehicle, the additional fees, the interest rate, the trade in amount, the final cost, and the monthly payment. The only thing left for us to do was to cancel our extended warranty on the Blazer in order to make up the $2000 gap. Depending on the value of the warranty, Harr told us that if the refund did not equal $2000, the dealership would absorb any additional monies in order to make the sale. Thus, we were all set to purchase our new Corolla S.

When M stopped at your Auburn dealership to cancel our warranty, suddenly everyone was willing to help him!!!! He was approached by a sales manager, who profusely apologized for how M had been ignored during his previous visits and said that this was an issue he had been working on with XXX. He told M over and over again that he wanted M to stay in the Herb Chambers family, and that he was sure something could be worked out. So Mark and the manager sat down to come up with a deal.

The deal included a better car, a lower interest rate, an equal trade in value, and a lower monthly payment. We were told to cancel the deal with Harr and that Herb Chambers Toyota of Auburn would rework our deal. The paperwork would be ready the next day; we could come in and sign, and take the car home. And, honestly, we were thrilled.

The next day, we cancelled the deal with Harr, and called your dealership to find out what time to come in and sign. We were then told that the car we were looking at had been sold, and that they needed to find something else.

So we waited.

A couple of days later, we called back, and we were told that they needed to rework the deal because, since we would again be financing with Toyota, the deal needed to be different from the one submitted to the bank by Harr.

So, again, we waited.

Then we called back again and were told that we were having a hard time getting approved, primarily because the collateral was not worth the value of the loan. So we suggested gap insurance.

And again, we waited.

We called back a couple of days later and were told that the finance manager was going to meet with Toyota financial to try to get an approval (an approval, mind you, that had already gone through at Harr). So we reminded him of the extended warranty refund.

And again we waited.

Finally, we called yet again and were told that we needed to come up with two thousand dollars down in order to close the deal. When we asked about the final cost of the vehicle, the trade in allowance, the warranty cancellation, and the interest rate, we were told that all of that would have to be looked up, and that if we couldn’t provide the $2000 down, none of it mattered anyway.

Then, we asked how Harr had been able to make the deal, but Herb Chambers couldn’t. Believe me, Mr. Chambers, I did not expect what I heard next.

After getting what we consider to be the runaround for almost a month, we were finally asked, “Well why didn’t you just stay with Harr in the first place?”

At first I was shocked to be treated in such a way, but I quickly realized, Mr. Chambers, that during this hellish month-long experience, that utterance was probably the best advice to come out of your dealership.

I know that losing my business, my mother’s business, my sister’s business, my father-in-law’s business, and my friends’ business means nothing to your bottom line. You will go on selling cars, and my friends, family, and I will purchase all our future vehicles from someone else.

But we used to be highly satisfied Herb Chambers customers, and now we are not.

And I thought you should know.

We just had a HORRID experience with Herb Chambers Toyota in Auburn, and here is the letter I sent to Herb Chambers. I have never been so frustrated with a dealership.

Dear Mr. Chambers,

My name is XXXXX, and my husband M and I have been Herb Chambers Toyota customers for the last several years. In addition, because of our primary positive experience, we spread the word, resulting in my mother, my sister, my father-in-law, and several friends all becoming Herb Chambers customers.

Sadly, as a result of our most recent experience with your Toyota dealership in Auburn, Massachusetts, none of us will return to a Herb Chambers dealership again.

In 2005, my husband and I wanted to upgrade our Tracker to something larger and more stable. We decided to stop at your Auburn dealership to look at a used Rav4. Our sales person, XXX, was very nice and helped us out courteously and promptly. We asked him how much he needed as a down payment in order for us not to be upside down were we to trade the vehicle in sometime in the future. He said $3000 plus our taxes and fees would cover us, so we took his advice, and we purchased the vehicle.

We loved the Rav, but shortly after we purchased it, we decided to have a baby (thus giving us two children), and we thought the Rav felt a little cramped, especially with one infant car seat and one toddler car seat. But because XXX’s service had been so wonderful in 2005, in 2006 we decided to return to Herb Chambers in Auburn. In addition, since purchasing the Rav, both my mother, my sister, and my father-in-law had purchased vehicles from Herb Chambers at our recommendation.

When we went to the Toyota dealership in Auburn, we worked with XXXX, now a former sales manager, and a sales associate named XXX. They showed us a used Chevy TrailBlazer, and when we took it for a test drive, we loved it. We were concerned about the mileage, but XXX assured us that the posted mileage was on the low side, and the vehicle actually performed better than stated. We were also concerned about being too upside down to be able to trade it in at a later date, and XXX told us that if we waited a year before trading, we would be fine.

Well, Mr. Chambers, XXX either didn’t really know the car business or he flat out lied to us. This month, upon trying to trade in the Blazer for a Corolla, we found out that we were grossly misinformed both about the mileage and the trade in value.

A few weeks ago, my husband stopped in to see XXX to talk about purchasing yet another vehicle from your dealership. We wanted to purchase a Corolla because the Blazer was costing us too much in gas. XXX was busy and told M he would call him back. Unfortunately, XXXnever returned M’s call. So Mcalled again. And again. And again. And still, he received no return call from XXX.

Finally, M decided to stop down one day on his way to work. He waited for XXX for almost two hours to no avail. In addition, none of the sales associates seemed willing to help. So he left.

And he went to Harr.

Harr was more than willing to help us. In fact, they had the paperwork ready to be signed within two days. They recognized the upside down-ness of the vehicle and were going to give us $11,500 in trade, thus rendering us only $10,000 upside down. We were approved through Toyota Financial, and using Harr’s computer screen, they showed me their cost of the vehicle, the additional fees, the interest rate, the trade in amount, the final cost, and the monthly payment. The only thing left for us to do was to cancel our extended warranty on the Blazer in order to make up the $2000 gap. Depending on the value of the warranty, Harr told us that if the refund did not equal $2000, the dealership would absorb any additional monies in order to make the sale. Thus, we were all set to purchase our new Corolla S.

When M stopped at your Auburn dealership to cancel our warranty, suddenly everyone was willing to help him!!!! He was approached by a sales manager, who profusely apologized for how M had been ignored during his previous visits and said that this was an issue he had been working on with XXX. He told M over and over again that he wanted M to stay in the Herb Chambers family, and that he was sure something could be worked out. So Mark and the manager sat down to come up with a deal.

The deal included a better car, a lower interest rate, an equal trade in value, and a lower monthly payment. We were told to cancel the deal with Harr and that Herb Chambers Toyota of Auburn would rework our deal. The paperwork would be ready the next day; we could come in and sign, and take the car home. And, honestly, we were thrilled.

The next day, we cancelled the deal with Harr, and called your dealership to find out what time to come in and sign. We were then told that the car we were looking at had been sold, and that they needed to find something else.

So we waited.

A couple of days later, we called back, and we were told that they needed to rework the deal because, since we would again be financing with Toyota, the deal needed to be different from the one submitted to the bank by Harr.

So, again, we waited.

Then we called back again and were told that we were having a hard time getting approved, primarily because the collateral was not worth the value of the loan. So we suggested gap insurance.

And again, we waited.

We called back a couple of days later and were told that the finance manager was going to meet with Toyota financial to try to get an approval (an approval, mind you, that had already gone through at Harr). So we reminded him of the extended warranty refund.

And again we waited.

Finally, we called yet again and were told that we needed to come up with two thousand dollars down in order to close the deal. When we asked about the final cost of the vehicle, the trade in allowance, the warranty cancellation, and the interest rate, we were told that all of that would have to be looked up, and that if we couldn’t provide the $2000 down, none of it mattered anyway.

Then, we asked how Harr had been able to make the deal, but Herb Chambers couldn’t. Believe me, Mr. Chambers, I did not expect what I heard next.

After getting what we consider to be the runaround for almost a month, we were finally asked, “Well why didn’t you just stay with Harr in the first place?”

At first I was shocked to be treated in such a way, but I quickly realized, Mr. Chambers, that during this hellish month-long experience, that utterance was probably the best advice to come out of your dealership.

I know that losing my business, my mother’s business, my sister’s business, my father-in-law’s business, and my friends’ business means nothing to your bottom line. You will go on selling cars, and my friends, family, and I will purchase all our future vehicles from someone else.

But we used to be highly satisfied Herb Chambers customers, and now we are not.

And I thought you should know.

I just finised reading all these letters of complaints against Herb Chambers auto companies. I have to say after spending 25 years in the car business I have heard the same complaints made about every dealer in and out of the Boston Area. I also worked for a group of stores in the Northern Virginia area who owned 30 stores and see the same complaints there about there service and sales. The one thing that seems to be a constant complaint is the finance department. Why?? because as I have seen many times no one reads the contract before you signed it! why? because most people are just to much in a hurry to take the time if you did half of the people who wrote here would not even have written. for over 25 years I have never seen a customer read the contract! For that matter I have never heard a customer say he even took the time to go through the manual that came with the car. ALL customers have the right to leave the dealership and consult there own personal bank before they sign anything to deal with the buying of a car. So your lack of understanding what you are signing is your own fault not Herb Chambers. As far as buying a car with out a title?? why in the world would you even leave a deposit on a car that they dont have the title to ? Did you not even ask before you left the night of the sale ? Who’s fault is that?? Just about every letter here deals with situations where you let the salesperson be in control of what you were doing and that is why you are in the mess you are in. So when it comes to calling the salesperson stupid or arrogant I would reread what you are writing. 95% of the complaints you have are things you the customer could have solved just by taking a few minutes alone before you went and finished the deal. I have been an employee of Herb’s for over 8 years and I have not seen any of the things you guys have been writing about. I have over 800 truly satisfied customers who have bought from me year after year. remember if you don’t take the time to read the fine print you have no one to blame but yourself. all auto sales contracts are the same no matter what dealer you go to Chambers or Joe blows they are all the same. our dealership here in Braintree is a J.D. powers award winning dealership in customer service both in sales and service. I just think alot of what has been said here is unhappy people who would have never been happy even if the deal was the best there was. on Febuary 1 2008 Herb Chambers will be going one price on all used cars throughout the entire chain giving you the very best price for thar car right up front with no hassles or haggle. making it easier for the customer to buy a used car with limited problems. all of this is being done to improve customer service. All the sales and service people working in the store I am in have to pass there csi in order to stay working here. So although there are problems in every store with the amount of cars we sell every year as a whole company combined these complaints make up less than 1% . A great average from where I sit. by the way sales people are not stupid and most of us graduated not only from High School but in my case I graduated from UNC and im proud of it!

Really gotta love how HC employees continue to blame the customers, above. Perhaps you did graduate from UNC, which says very little about UNC given your writing abilities.

UPDATE…
they have contact me and have agreed to resolve this by refunding my price of the add on.

they have made this right by me…I am satisfied by their action.

Whoops, customer spelled wrong. I must have gone to UNC also.

WOW this has been a week on this forum huh? To Nancy. I really don’t know where to go with that one. I would prefer to handle this in house and try to resolve the issue at the dealership. I will bet you have already gone this route and now that is why the BBB is involved. If you are not satisfied with the results you have gotten through the BBB and your own efforts I think the next step would be small claims court. Recently I was there for another matter, bill being paid late by me. A few cases I heard in the Dedham court were consumers and dealerships, Boch Toyota was told to refund a customer her money because they did not follow through with promises. I say go that route.
Mike M I have a few questions for you just so I know who I am dealing with. What work do you do? What dealership did you work at?
As for a dealership not willing to give a work sheet I think that is odd, what are they hiding? I always gave my customers work sheets when I worked at a Ford Store. That way I was being honest and so was the dealership. If I was giving a huge discount and was killing my self just to make a number I would write on the work sheet this offer is good until XXXX that way there was no confusion. I guess I am a bit more honest than the average person in this business and also I have higher standards.

WOW this has been a week on this forum huh? To Nancy. I really don’t know where to go with that one. I would prefer to handle this in house and try to resolve the issue at the dealership. I will bet you have already gone this route and now that is why the BBB is involved. If you are not satisfied with the results you have gotten through the BBB and your own efforts I think the next step would be small claims court. Recently I was there for another matter, bill being paid late by me. A few cases I heard in the Dedham court were consumers and dealerships, Boch Toyota was told to refund a customer her money because they did not follow through with promises. I say go that route.
Mike M I have a few questions for you just so I know who I am dealing with. What work do you do? What dealership did you work at?
As for a dealership not willing to give a work sheet I think that is odd, what are they hiding? I always gave my customers work sheets when I worked at a Ford Store. That way I was being honest and so was the dealership. If I was giving a huge discount and was killing my self just to make a number I would write on the work sheet this offer is good until XXXX that way there was no confusion. I guess I am a bit more honest than the average person in this business and also I have higher standards.

Well, I sent my letter to Herb Chambers himself, and I thought I would hear nothing. Imagine my shock when my phone rang later that day, and it was the Auburn GM, apologising profusely for our horrible experience. I then spoke with one of the finance managers (who also apologised over and over), and he said that our paperwork and car would be ready to go the next day, and the extra cost was going to be absorbed by the dealership.

Honestly, I am thrilled. Writing that letter was more cathartic than anything, and I am still in shock that it was not only read, but acted upon.

Scott. How soon we forget. You have left message’s on here for me previously. I am just telling you my past experience. I just dont believe an offer should expire on a worksheet unless of course rebates end or something like that. And like I said, if you do get the worksheet copy, the offer is never honored. It does not matter where I work. It’s the same at every new car store out there. I have been in the car business for 18 years and have seen it all, and then some. I no longer work in a new car store because I was Fed up with the nonsense of daily meetings and Long wasted hours! The last new car store I worked at I was The GSM. I now Manage a Late Model pre-owned Lot and I get home for dinner everday!! oh, and I dont work weekends!!

I have another update!!!!

The General Manager just called me asking me if we were happy with the car. I told him that we were thrilled, and that we are already saving a great deal of money just on our decrease in fuel. He told me that Herb Chambers had personally called him and told him to put the deal through.

And that’s what happened.

Both the General Manager (Dan) and the Finance Manager (Jason) were wonderful. They have made us life-long Herb Chambers customers.

So for those who say that Herb Chambers does not care about the customer…well, I have to disagree. He does care, and his actions spoke volumes.

I would say, you are one of the lucky ones!!

Foreign Motors Bodyshop was not included in the sale

Went to Herb Chambers last night to lease from them for the 3rd time in 5 years. Don’t know if I had stupid written on my head or they are trying to make money any way they can to pay their fines. After sitting there for 2 hours the jackass manager came up with a price. (He based it on $4000 over STICKER! yes I said STICKER. What an insult. Stay away from this company. I don’t know who they thought they were dealing with, but I can read and do first grade math. as I stood there waiting for my keys, which were being held hostage, the Jackass went from $488 a month to what if I can do the low 300′s (which by the way was still way too high) in a matter of 30 seconds. I don’t care if they gave me the car for free, that sleezeball will never get my business.

One Price on preowned. Well I was not on-board with this one because I am a bit old school. Now that this has been in place for well over a week I am surprised at the results.
1) Customers look on the internet and see ours is the best price for vehicle X out there. They call in. Then hang up when they are not allowed to argue price??
2) This policy was based on CUSTOMERS wanting to eliminate the negotion process, it makes preowned shopping kind of like grocery shopping, you see a deal and purchase at the price.
3) We are now getting calls from all over the US and its funny to have someone call from Colorado- California and then ask if the price is negotiable. I mean this price has made you call from X distance and now you want to negotiate. The price is the price it was good enough to make you call here.
Well it has been an interesting few weeks with this one price so lets see if it catches on or dies out?
I would love to hear some comments about this pricing policy.

The people that want the one price thing are the people that had to negotiate there deals in the past, not the ones currently looking for vehicles. People are always gonna want to negotiate.

OOOhhh, yeahhh’ I was licking my chops for a blog like this. Has anyone ever run Herbie’s name under the ripoffreport.com?
Here’s my story…..I’ll try and keep it short and fun.
I recently opened a new business, but prior to to my heating business I was a master auto tech working on highline vehicles at the best dealers. I can go on and on as for why I left the automotive grind, but lets just say it sucks. If I put as much time into healthcare as I did into automotive I’d probably be a famous Doctor.
Anyway……. I had a Cadillac STS which needed head gaskets. I was 100% sure thats what it needed. The Cadillac northstar engine is known for this.
This job is expensive (I knew already) and the engine must be dropped to perform this repair. I have been very busy with the new business and I no longer have a car lift to complete this job.
I decided to “treat myself” and send it on over to Herb Chambers Cadillac in Providence RI.
I told the service writter flat out exactly what I wanted done and it had already been dianosed 3 times on top my my diag. I also asked for a top notch tech to take on the job. Of course the service writer “Steve” said “all our tech are awesome” YEAH RIGHT!!!!! He didnt know he was talking to someone who worked in the scam business of automotive for most of his life.
Next, 2 days later I get a call from Steve saying it’s NOT head gaskets, it need a coolant flush, a thermostat, and some “tightening” around the waterpump??? Funny seeing how I had JUST flushed the system the week prior and already changed the thermostat (so did the guy I bought the car from) I KNEW it wouldnt fix the problem and questioned the repair on 5-6 phone calls. Steve PROMISED it would………. again, figuring I’d get a call the next day saying “well it needs the gaskets” – that call turned into “your all set sir” all fixed-
My exact words were “there’s no way that car is fixed” He again PROMISED it was.
The main problem these engines have w/ head gaskets is an engine boil over (or over pressurizing out of the coolant bottle cap)
I picked up the car to have an eye popping 1023.00 bill. They also made me pay for a new, but dead key fob door control to open the door… They said sorry, we can’t get this to work but you still have to pay becuase we opened the box!!???
More like the clown technician didnt clear out the old remote programs to accept the new one!!
I made it 8-9 miles until the car boiled over yet once again. What REALLY pissed me off is when I opened the hood to add water/coolant to drive it home I couldnt because the Herb Chambers tech over tightened the cap to hide with huge plyers which left marks) to hide his failed attempt.
I had it towed home- I called “Steve” right away and he never called back. I then called the service manager…. No call back, I then called the General manager the next day…..no call back- I then put a stop payment on my check. THEN THEY CALLLED BACK!! They could have givin a crap less about my car, but ONLY ABOUT THE MONEY!
The General Manager is a COMPLETE ASSHOLE. If we were together instead of being on the phone I would have been arrested.
They then took me to court with yet another weazel- their collection Attorney Stephen R White of Warwick.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention the trunk lid latch they replaced…… well they forgot to put the trunk lid seal back in place and I ended up with 3 inches of water in my Cadillac trunk.
I also forgot to mention that 5-6 days after my major arguement with the General Manager someone broke my rear window with a rock at my house……. (probably one of his car cleaners) He is to used to people brown nosing his ass and forgot about the real world and people who might disagree. I’d pay 10,000 cash to have a chance to catch those guys in action. Well, I can go on and on but thats my ‘short story”
Oh, I did call Herb Chambers direct office and his right hand helper could have given a crap less about what I had to say.
Need more?

As a recent HC employee with knowledge limited to one location, I can relate to and understand how some prospects may feel they’ve had a less than satisfactory experience. I am no novice to the sales field but have no direct experience in the automotive business. Of course, we’ve all heard the horror stories. My feeling is that many of the problems spoken of stem from a few primary causes. One is the culture of HC. Working there is like being in a barrel of crabs. Each one tearing at the other trying to get to the top. Competition is one thing but cutting the throat of another for a bigger piece of the pie is another. There is little spirit of actual team work. Also there is the issue of compensation vs effort expended. Much is demanded and little is given in return. This can only create a feeling of deperate need and breed a devil may care mentality where the customer becomes a comodity through which the hope of reward is generated. Furthermore, the educational status of many salespeople is low to medium creating a lack of sophistication. Combine these and you get some poor bastard with mouths to feed willing to compromise their ethics and standards to simply make ends meet. The result is confusion and disconnectedness coupled with relentless pressure from the top to compensate for poor management. So it’s not so much trying to rip people off; it’s trying to reach a goal through a maze of inconsistant policies and thwarted personal aspirations. Although I have to admit, there have been times when I have been deliberately deceived which has caused me to unintentionally deceive others. I have my resume out there because I see no future with this organization free from the requirement to sacrifice my personal life for the attainment of their corporate mission. In some ways it’s like being a member of a cult or a religious order where they demand not only your heart but your soul as well.

The bottom line about so many companies is that the fish stinks from the head down. There’s no fooling an Ex- dealership tech…. Herb Chambers cadillac makes me want to vomit, so do the stories the poor other pople went though.
Does everyone realize dealership mechanics/technicians get paid on whats called “flat rate” or simply “commission”. I actually wrote a book and made a 26 track audio cd on how NOT to get screwed by dealerships like this. It was marketed wrong and I loss the farm, but Herb Chambers didnt know who’s Caddy they were working on when I was hosed.
I’ll be a thorn in herbie’s side for the next 20-30 years (I’m serious too)
Did I mention the General manager was an Asshole? (ha)
I think Herb Chambers should take an extra hour per day away from waxing his vintage Ferrari’s which were paid for with 60% blood money, and help ensure people don’t feel like we do.
If the dealership wants I could help them diagnose Cadillac Northstar engines?
I had a joke along with 3-4 other technicians at one dealership I worked for. We called it the 50/50 game. In other words, when we were done with the car (and flagged our commision time) we often times knew damn well it wasnt fixed due to the fact we had “better” (higher paying) jobs waiting….such as brake jobs, major tune-up’s etc- the 50/50 game was the flip of a coin that the car would (or wouldnt) come back. Many things could happen. Another mechanic could get stuck with it if it came back, the customer might get pissed and never return, the car might actually “pass” as fixed, you could blame an additional part, you could lie more, the customer might trade in the car out of frustration, I can go on and on…….
the thing is, I think Herb Chambers has a huge revolving door of mechanics and play more of the 80/20 game.
The thing is, being an “good” auto tech now requires a LOT of smarts & for the pay and hard labor required its just NOT worth it. I’ve Herb Chambers doesnt pay well, so what does that leave you as a customer? herb Chambers does however have a great nack on brain washing employee’s.
and let me tell you (and sorry to say it guys) Mechanics are easily brainwashed, and a solid 70% are followers, not leaders. Its a sad scene.
As I told their attorney steve white of warwick on my first call after put a stop payment on my check- “Tell them to learn how to fix a car” if they did we wouldnt be having this conversation…. “click”

I wish I had seen this before I put my money on a car….I will withhold comment until I see what happens as they say….The net net is they have my money but I have no car as of right now.

So…Another horror story from the HC Hyundai in Auburn.

I bought a 2008 hyundai elantra with 1200 miles on it. They quoted me a price of 15,466 and told me that included all taxes and was the final price. I went in and signed the papers after spending 3 hours in the dealership.

The sales kid stood over my shoulder watching me waiting for me to leave and the store was closing. I hurried up and signed all the papers and headed out. When I got home I realized that the price had some how gone up from 15466 to 15700 on the paperwork. While in the office I had also noticed that the mileage they had marked down on the paperwork was wrong by 300 miles (they had 800 written) . I should have ran for my life then but my car was overheating and I was in a rush to get a car to get back and forth to school.

I went back three days later to get out of the deal because according to the people at the bank I work at you have 3 busines days to get out of a contract. They told me that it was illegal to get out of a contract in massachusetts, but they could not produce any paperwork to prove it.
They ended up playing mr nice guy and cutting me a check back for $500 teling me it was a secret deal that no one could no about. This made me feel better for the moment because I thought I was stuck with the deal no matter what.

I had no idea about how a credit application works, I told the salesperson that I wasn’t sure of what to put down for income because I make a different amount every month. He said to write whatever I WOULD make IF I worked 40 hours every week. I didn’t realize at the time that this was how I ended up getting a loan without a cosigner, By being pressured to lie!

They told me that my car would be ready on friday for SURE, I bought the car on a Wednesday evening. They told me to call and let them know what time to pick the car up. I did not call Friday, instead I just showed up. When I arrived they laughed and asked “What are You Doing here” I told them I was there to trade in my car and get my new one and they said “Ha ur car won’t be ready for another 2 weeks to a month”. they thought it was funny, but I didn’t. I told them that I had been promised a car and I wasn’t leaving until I got one.

All of a sudden they had a rental and were “apologizing for any inconvienience”. I am not 21 so they really should not have rented me a car in the first place, but I took it beacuse I was told that I was stuck and couldnt get out of the deal.

After a few days of having the rental I called and spoke with the “Sales Manager” and he said a car that was paid off just 2 days before mine had come through, so mine should be in soon. 5 Days later I talked to hiim again and got the same Bull Excuses….the title is not in…we can’t tell you how long it will be….Havent you ever tried to deal with the registry.

After another week My mother called and talked to the general manager and he told ehr to be glad we even got a rental and to stop being impatient.

Then my step father called the district manager who told us that the registry had just received the title and it would be another 7 to 10 days. they promised to make my first car payment and to have free oil changes. This was yesterday, tomorrow will be a month since I purchased the car! I am writing a letter tomorrow to the attorney general and to Herb himself.

So much for having the car in two days NEVER GO TO HERB CHAMBERS!

Hi me again with the Cadillac- After reading more posts Im glad to see my scam receptors still work. Im going to file my report on ripoffreport.com – with that website anyone who types in the name your story usually comes up first or second for weeks.
I plan on telling anyone and everyone who will listen about my story. People usually get what they deserve…. its true. I know many people are internet “tough guys” I however would stand toe to toe and eye to eye with Herb Chambers and his general manager and tell them exactly what I think.
If I can personally take away $500,000 in sales and service with my posts over the next 10 years I’ll be happy.

This experience With Herb Chambers staff in Auburn, Ma can be summed up like this…..They were not honest…we were over charged $$$ over the quoted price on the final paper work…..it has been over a month and we still have not recieved the car purchsed and they claim the title is still not in…we have recieved the run around from ALL staff…..I have purchased other new vehicles in my life and have never gone through this type of experience with any other reputable car dealer. Every complaint on this web site cannot be wrong…I am sure your chances of being happy with your transaction will be an illusion just like the delivery time promised from the staff at this facility……BUYER BEWARE…when this is all over I plan on contacting the Att. General and making a formal comlaint!!!!!

Get your money back! It is 100% illegal to sell a car without a title in MA. No ifs and or buts, get your money back. Herb Chambers does this all the time. Its wrong.

I bought my beloved Infiniti at Herb Chambers 11 years ago . I have come to know the great people at the dealership very well. I have always been treated with respect and honesty. Many times they have gone out of their way to make sure I was a satisfied customer. Because of the great service I have always received there I would never go to any other dealership. As an owner of a retail business I can truly appreciate the notion of customer satisfaction. There will never be a way to make every customer happy mostly because the customer feels like they always have the right or best answer even if its not their expertise. I would highly reccommend Herb Chambers to anyone who is looking for a car.

“Angry In Auburn”: You say you are happy that they resolved your problem but it seems like they only did it after your complaint got to Herb Chambers. I work in a large company and other people have the same story about this store. They don’t help you with anything until they think you are going to call the attorney general or a lawyer. Then they will do anything to help you. Its good that you are happy with evrything now but they fixed the problem to help themselves not you.

So to clarify something from the above story about herb hyundai in auburn, The rental car is in my stepdad’s name and he is the one who is driving it. So yes, it is nice that they gave me a rental, but I am not 21 so I can’t drive it so meanwhile I am just running up miles on other peoples cars….still a crappy situation for me. If I had got the car in 2 days like I was told I wouldn’t be mad at herb at all. They have very nice people working for them, I just do not understand there way of doing things.

Jay G.
Do you work there? Jim Xaros had no clue what to do or what I was talking about. All of you were were ripped off will love this new plan.
Late next week I plan to actually Picket outside Herb Chambers Cadillac with 4 other military friends. I’m also having a large professional sign made up to install on the back of my trucks simply stating: I WAS RIPPED OFF AT HERB CHAMBERS. One truck will be driven locally, the next will be driven in the Boston area near Chambers district/personal ofice.
I e-mailed their bill collection attorney with this info, also stating that with Herb Chambers money he can try and have me killed, but as an X-Marine hand combat instuctor, then a sniper for 2 years that won’t be easy either.
But they can feel free to try.

Jay, thanks for the advise. You were right, I don’t want Jim to be swamped with calls but he listened to my case and story and the matter has been resolved to a point of fairness.
At least there are a few men of their words left. He said he’d call back and he did (twice) This still has to be signed off with Herb Chambers and the Attorney who was handling the case must write up a new agreement.

So an update on the situation with HC Hyundai in Auburn…I worked with the Exec. GM and he ended up replacing the car that I purchased with a new one (minus a sunroof) at the same price! So, all I would say is that I will live and learn. Next time I will pay attention to all the details and I wont be buying another car that they dont have the title to! Afterall, the people who work for herb chambers did a nice jobto make everything all better!

I bought a van at HC Danvers with the understanding there were DVD screens in the car and what a great re-sale valude they were as I really didn’t want them. But, it was the only model and the convinced me it was a good value. I picked it up on the 22nd, during the snow storm and was asked if I wanted a demo on the “DVD” and I turned it down due to the mounting snow and wanted to get home. On Sunday I picked up my grandson to go for a ride and play the DVD and he said “you don’t have DVD Gram” . I couldn’t believe it. I called HC and got all kinds of apologies, at this point in time they are working on rectifying it. We will see what the outcome will be, I wish I had read this complaint page before hand.

I want to add to these comments and this is concerning Herb Chambers Honda and Saturn on commonwealth ave. Boston .

I wanted to buy the accord coupe 08 but I wanted the stick shift , I was assured over the phone that they had it .I go to the dealership and discover that they don’t , then they promise me to get one ( since they are so big and so connected ) but they push me to make a deposit , so I do that ( 250 $) , they promised to call me 3 days later ….no one called , so the next day I call the dealership and they tell me that the sales assistant that I worked with is off , so I go there and what a surprise he is in the dealership sitting on is desk , ….you should see the look on his face .

So of course my suspicions of them beeing bunch of liars is now verified .
without going into details with him , I tell him that because of familial reasons I do not want to buy the car anymore and want my money back .
so now he has to talk to his supervisor who comes back to inquire in a very nasty way about why I want my money back since they are working on a swap with another dealer in Connecticut ect. ect. he was very unprofessional and after refunding the money says ” you can go now …” , what a jerk , what a bunch of liars ….I just want to keep my old car so I don’t go through this experience again .

hope that this review is helpful .

Great job!!!! This site is climbing the google charts like it’s on fire. It’s fantastic to see it burried in the HC sites making it readily available to the buying public. This can only bring reform to the nearly diabolical tactics that are obviously eating away at HC reputation like a cancer. The antidote? Honest, integrity, genuine concern for the customer, and respect for the workers who make the top echelon at HC filthy rich. This site would not exist unless it was filling a void. Believe me. The effects can be felt in the form of educated consumers who are to savy to allow themselves to be minipulated. There is no substitute for total honesty in business and genuine respect for the customer. Hopefully someone at HC will have a “road to Damscus” moment and embrace truth so working there isn’t such a hellish experience for descent people who only want to be absolutly truthful with the customers. A white lie is still a lie and there’s no shortage at HC. Then maybe everyone who works there won’t be so dissatisfied with their jobs.

Herb Chambers, Hyundai in Auburn….perhaps the mosr gruesome bunch to ever work at a dealership.

I am educated and each time they lied or did things like not comply with Truth in Lending laws and I called them on it, they changed their response, imagine that.

It took me three visits to finally get the sticker from the car, something that is supposed to be posted. Rates and prices quoted were not honored.

Why did I stay, well my wife totaled her Sante Fe and it was towed to this dealership, I had little choice. Unlike most people I like confrontation and these people (from the sales manager to the incredibly rude young ladies behind the counter) seemed to enjoy their rudeness.

I did get the last laugh however, I taped conversations and had my daughter video some other interactions with other customers. The day before the paperwork I saw the manager, showed him the evidence and threatened legal action and that I also would go to the press. Everything was documented and notarized.

They gave me $10,000 off the sticker.

As for you people that say you work for any Herb Chambers, I believe you are either brain dead, brain washed or simple brain deficient. I have never met a soul who has dealt with any Herb Chambers who would ever do business with them again.

Finially, I am the CFO of a rather large company in central Massachusetts. We lease about 10-12 cars per year. I went to a Herb Chambers and said I wanted to lease 10-12 vehicles and roll those leases over every two years, the sales manager told me not to waste his time…why, because I went in on a Saturday in gym shorts and a T shirt. The dealer two miles down the road was more than happy to give me what I needed.

Buyer beware, you go to any Herb Chambers and you better be prepared to get treated like you’re a moron.

How they stay in business is beyond me.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. It took 23 visits to properly diagnose the check engine light problem that my wife’s car had. Amazing, simply amazing.

I am grateful to those of you who have written to complain of an experience with The Herb Chambers Companies and who have allowed us to take action to remedy the situation.

In recent posts you have seen that we do try to make things right when given the chance. To that end, I want to make myself available to any of you who have a concern or issue with our company. I cannot promise to fix everything but I do promise to return your phone calls, investigate your situation and do whatever we can to restore your confidence in us.

Please call my office at 617-666-8333. I am not always in but if you ask to leave a voice mail for me, I will get back to you.

Thank you, Jim Xaros, Vice-President / The Herb Chambers Companies.

Jim Xoros is a gentleman and a man of his word…This company will
always do the right thing by it’s very valued customer.Take that to Herb’s
bank.

Jim Xoros is a gentleman and a man of his word…This company will
always do the right thing by it’s very valued customer.Take that to Herb’s
bank.

not the place for person-to-person communication. – ed.]

Jim Xaros is a goodguy i have had to pleasure of working with him and seeing his work ethic.. I only wish that he could fix u guys problems but he can’t make everyone on here issues go away.. I may not like sales but i’ll say one thing about herb.. His standing up to issues to resolve them is second to none.. I was given the authority when i was there as a sales person to solve virtually any client problem myself.. For the other things that go on well that’s another issue.. peace…

Re: Jim Xaros- After reading Jim’s post I hope I didnt mislead anyone on my post. I made a huge case out of my “misunderstanding”…..this was NOT a simple complaint, this was a multi court case problem with a thorn who would never go away (me)
The problem was not simply paid off, we came to a fair agreement to a 50/50 fault disagreement. Although I’d like to think that my faith in humanity has been restored, I’m not sure.
I’d just like to reiterate that Jim will not simply cut you a check, but he will listen. I know for a fact, I now know more about the actual Cadillac Northstar engine engineering problems than anyone at that dealership as far as rebuilds and I’m willing to agrue that fact.
Starting this Spring I will begin a new side business of rebuilding Cadillac Northstar engines and selling them on e-bay. I can promise they will have 10% more horsepower, and you’ll never have the imfamous head gasket problems ever again. My repairs will far exceed any Cadillac Dealership repair, period.
In my opinion the Northstar engine was the most advamced engine the US ever made @ 300 + Hp , General Motors just forgot some major weak points.
I can’t reveal my 2 years of reasearch and trail and error but I can promise a better than new engine that will shock the heck out of “sports cars”
My last project was a Cadillac STS which beat a Corvette, a new Nissan 350 ZX and more last September at New England Speedway. The best gifts were the looks out of the corner of my eye as a Cadillac ran them down at the track…… my best time was 13.28 not bad for a 4002 pound car with heated seats and A/C

I just recently bought a new Sebring. I signed the paperwork and purchase was made at the Millbury dealer. A month later, I was looking for document and when I checked the paperwork again, I noticed that a charge for 595.00 was made for Lo Jack. Yes, I agree that I should have look a bit closer to the papers but the weird part is, the dealer never informed Lo Jack about my purchase. I called and the finacial dumb ass tried to play one on me. I asked him if he knew the meaning of the word “Attorney General” and withing 2 days, they posted the money into my bank account.

Another complain… A month later, I have problems with the front end and called to make an apt. they told me I needed to rent a car because they don’t do loaners. They told me to bring the car at 7am. I arrived on time just to find out that their car rental doesn’t open until 8:30am. So I ended up spending precious gas for nothing and make another apt.
No wonder Chrysler reputation is going down the drain……Live and learn

This is a good one. I just tried calling the number This suppose Jim Xaros gave and ask to speak to him. They wouldn’t transfer me. Instead I got someone else…….why give the number if we can’t get through?

This is a good one. I just tried calling the number This suppose Jim Xaros gave and ask to speak to him. They wouldn’t transfer me. Instead I got someone else…….why give the number if we can’t get through?

I have bought 4 cars from Saturn of warwick. There has never been an issue. Any time we needed service they got is in right away. Today, the altenator went they took us right in no questions asked. The also gave me a nice loaner car. I have sent many of my friends to that dealership no complaints. People need to watch out for themselves. Read the paper work, and stick to what you want to pay.

Phone number listed….ha, I figured that number wouldnt be so easy- I got the same treatment when I tried herb Chambers himself. “UUmmmmm, he’s bust right now” yeah right. I do hate the expession but the squeaky wheel does get the grease. I had a slight advantage (knowing about cars) P.S. take what a “service writer”tells you in stride. 75% know zero about your vehicles problem, they only try to sell what the technician says (who again, is on commission)
Don’t bother asking the service writter for details, its as pointless as asking someone at Home Depot if this spray paint is good for painting plastic…. the “expert” starts reading the can for you & says, hummmm, should work ok- Its like “gee thanks”! I forgot my glasses ol’ chum.
I actually wrote a book on how “not” to get ripped off at dealerships. It was marketed wrong and didnt sell many, but if anyone has any questions here, its on the house.

The non-profit I work for just got a bid for a 12 passenger van from one of Herb Chamber’s dealerships. Needless to say, I called the person who went to HC to get bid and told him to go to this web site.

He has since changed the dealership from whom it got his bid.

The place I work is responsible for approximately 70 vehicles (if not more) throughout Massachusetts. Fortunately, I am in a position to see the bids when they come in – and when I see HC – I tell them to look here and seriously re-consider.

While my personal problem with HC Ford in Westborough was resolved (I still think in their favor), I wouldn’t trust another HC dealership – and discourage friends/acquaintances from doing it either

I would like anyone that was working with Herb Chambers and expected one price or monthly payment and then was given something much higher when they went to pick up the car or to sign the paper work, to contact me.
I had been working with sales for a week and after many times back and forth was told they could work out the car of my choice for the monthly payment I wanted to be at. Strange part is that one of the times I was talking to the salesman I was in a conference room and using a speaker phone because I was not next to the phone and at least 7 other people in the room heard what I was promised.
When I went to pick up the car I was told the payment was going to be around $250.00 per month more then what was agreed to by sales. To add insult to injury, I was told by the finance guy that I make enough money to afford the higher payment.
I was baited for along time to believe that I was going to be paying the figure we agreed upon only to be switched to a much higher monthly figure the day I picked up the car.
I need everyone that has had this paticular type problem only, with Chambers to contact me to put together a case for the Atty Generals office, Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce and the media. I feel that if we can save others from being tricked like this, we will have done them a major favor.
Please check back here in a few days because I will post a site for you to go to in order to collect all the complaints.

I have been to two Herb Chambers store. One I have bought 2 vehicles from and they are great and the infinity dealership in Allston where they are horrendous.
My friend went into service and they said he needed a 400 part and the car was in perfect order and needed nothing. There is something very wrong with the infinity dealership. Probably the general manager is not to be trusted. It is sleazy.