Landmark Lincoln

Treated like a criminal I get that my experience *might* be an exception to this dealer's rating, but I can tell you with no equivocation that no one bats 1000, and with me, I get that my experience *might* be an exception to this dealer's rating, but I can tell you with no equivocation that no one bats 1000, and with me, this entire dealership batted 0. It's not simple or easy to describe how poorly I was treated or handled at this dealership except to just be as detailed as possible. But here is the executive summary: My previous lease had damage, and we needed a new lease. Landmark put us in a new lease while the insurance was to cover the damage. Landmark estimated my damage and submitted to me a total for the damage. State Farm estimated my damage and submitted to me the money for the claim, minus my deductible. We called Landmark and confirmed what we owed, and confirmed it from our estimate the dealership provided. It was confirmed. We paid it. We called back 2 times, leaving voicemails, to ensure it was confirmed. No response received from the dealership. No other amount of invoice or estimate ever received from the dealership. No other estimate or update received from the dealership. Only calls to my insurance company accusing me of fraud and non-payment. Absolute mishandling of ALL communication from Landmark. Treated like a criminal even though they were the only ones in the wrong throughout. The general manager is a self-righteous lug head who would rather fight with and accuse his customers of fraud than admit to wrong doing on behalf of his dealership. He also is not to be trusted. His word is not bond. He offered me a deal when Lincoln Headquarters was mediating a call with us and did not keep his word. He lied to save face. The full story: I had an existing MKZ lease from TX that was reaching its end after I had moved to Colorado for a new job. The sales rep and leasing manager were both very eager and easy to work with, and told me they could make this process of getting a new lease as easy as possible. I was concerned about the existing damage on the vehicle from 2 separate wrecks, one from TX and one immediately upon arriving to CO. I didn't have it filed with insurance yet, but they assured me this was not a problem at all, and that they'd just work it out if I was ready to get into a new car right away. So everything seemed great. I went in with the old car, their service shop looked over the damage to provide me the estimate, and I was given keys to the new car. Too good to be true. The estimate was given to me for ~$5,000. I asked what we do next. Salesman said we needed to get the claim finalized with State Farm, so the checks could get sent to Landmark to cover the estimate. I asked if those checks are supposed to go to us in our bank account, and then we write one check, or if they were supposed to be sent to the dealer instead. He said, "either, it doesn't matter. If you'd prefer to handle it, go ahead". State Farm had to sort out the separate claims, and ended up sending 4 different checks to us for different amounts. 1 check went directly to the dealership for some reason. We were told this was to cover a "supplement" (an additional charge that was not initially identified). My wife received the other checks and deposited them into our account. She called Phil Luna (the contact in charge of determining what we owed) to make sure we knew exactly what else we owed before she sent me the 30 minutes away to the dealership without the right amount. Phil confirmed they received a check directly (the supplement mentioned above) for ~$850, and that we owed a remaining ~$4150 to cover the total we owed, which was the ~$5,000 estimate we received. I went to the dealership to pay this to Phil, and he wasn't there, so I dealt with Doug Case instead. I paid him the check, and he said that the amount wasn't right. Doug did 20 minutes of math, completely confused about what he was looking at, telling me at times I owed $2,000 more, or wait a minute, looks like only $150 ... actually, it might not be anything. He told me he'd call back the next day after checking with some people to confirm if we owed anything more. I received no follow up from Doug. After 48 hours, my wife called Phil Luna and left a voicemail saying "Phil, I paid what you confirmed I owed, and your guy was confused and said we owed more. If we didn't pay the right amount, please call us right away to let us know what is going on" We never received a call from Phil Luna or Doug or anyone else for over 1 1/2 months. The next call I received was from State Farm, telling me that someone from Landmark accused me of not paying them what we owed and tried to get State Farm to sort it out. I told State Farm everything I just listed above, and told them that I've NEVER been given any total that I owe, nor received any other estimate other than the one I paid in full, and that I have NO IDEA why Landmark would call them instead of me. We discussed the fact that State Farm had estimated the damage higher than Landmark, and paid us on their amount, not Landmark's. I asked "if we receive more money for the damage from you than Landmark estimated it would take, does that mean we keep whatever overage (minus our deductible)?" They told me absolutely, that was routine. It was in fact an experience I've had many times with insurance companies. I told them I'll deal with Landmark to see what the xxxx is going on. I wrote David (my sales rep) and Phil an email listing my grievances on 11/6. I specifically requested to be communicated to by email so I could have record of it because I'll be damned if I'm going to have my reputation questioned to my insurance company without receipts of our communication to show them I am doing EXACTLY what I'm supposed to be doing. Phil left me a voicemail instead, defying my request for an email. His tone was offensive, it was accusatory, and unprofessional. He then wrote an email with no information I had requested contained. Instead he added his trademark "you're wasting my time" tone and insinuated that we knew we owed more money and must pay an amount that I STILL HAVE NOT been shown why I owe. Later, in a dispute call with Lincoln headquarters, the GM Tom Daniels tried using Phil having a speaking disability as an excuse for the communication I received. This was distasteful and didn't address the email, something his disability would have no effect on. Phil said the remaining amount was for $1,500, but that was merely spoken, and absolutely no justification, receipt, invoice, or estimate was provided to show what that phantom number represents. You know, like any transaction with any reasonable company would operate like. I responded with a very specific list of requests that I needed before I paid another single dollar to Landmark on the matter. The list was super easy information to provide, and I received absolutely no response to it: - What is the extra money supposed to pay for? - Why have we only been shown one invoice that we have paid in full only to be told we owe more with no reason or invoice or proof of any kind? - Why hasn't anyone at the dealership contacted us for months about this when we tried many times to get a straight answer from you? - Why was my insurance company contacted and why were we accused of not paying what you're owed when that's literally what we've done? - If we haven't paid our full amount, why don't we know that? - Why couldn't I get a single solid, straight answer when I came in and paid Doug originally? 3 weeks later Landmark called my insurance company YET AGAIN to try and force them to make me pay Landmark, a move that even confused State Farm. I told them the whole story above with updates, and they called Landmark to get it sorted out. State Farm called me right back and told me what had been discussed. She mentioned that Phil was using the same unprofessional, "this is not worth my time" tone he used on me, and without giving her much info, then tossed her onto the phone with someone named Dan who treated her the same way. State Farm confirmed with me that I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to. They estimated damage on my car and paid me accordingly on those claims minus my deductibles. The only person Landmark should have been communicating with is me. Landmark estimated my total damage and gave me that estimate, then confirmed that estimate as the total I owed. Landmark had NEVER ONCE shown me anything else otherwise. Landmark had NEVER ONCE provided me another estimate. Landmark had NEVER ONCE returned a call to me confirming that we owed anything more than we paid. Landmark had NEVER ONCE provided me even the most basic information I've requested by them to show me what I owed, nor justified a single additional charge after the estimate they made. I was absolutely upset and furious at this point. I was being repeatedly told by my insurance company that Landmark was accusing me of not paying my bill, and Landmark REFUSED to return any contact or provide ANY information. I was also being told by them that our business was concluded and that if they paid me more than Landmark said we owed them, the overage was ours to keep. I was not in the wrong for anything. I called Lincoln corporate to lodge a complaint and see what they could do to force Landmark to back off. Lincoln corporate confirmed that I was in the right, and also said they had little power to force the dealers to do anything. However, he mentioned that he could mediate a call with the GM and me. Before the call, Tom sent me a rude and accusatory email again attempting to paint me as a thief and fraud. During the call with Lincoln corporate, even though I summoned unheard of patience and never once let my emotions get the best of me, Tom continued to lose control. He was aggressive, loud, accusatory, and generally un-empathetic. I could use a number of choice words to describe him and his behavior, but you can fill in the blanks. The Lincoln rep even told me he was using that same rude and aggressive attitude on the phone with him before the call. It seems this is just who this guy is. In the end of the call, Tom made an offer to reduce my "remaining owed bill" from $1,500 to $1,000. But he did this while trying to rush off the phone to pick up his kids. I told him I needed to make sure I had the funds, and would likely take him up on the offer if State Farm indeed would not cover the bill themselves. He said that would be just fine. He's a liar. I tried contacting him for over a month after the offer was made and he ignored each and every email (a method of communication that he showed earlier was great to reach him by). Finally he responded saying that he had Lincoln pay out the bill and that I would have to pay them in full, and that his offer was not available to take. He lied because I had Lincoln corporate on the line and he was trying to save face. He had no intention of making good on his word, because he's not a man of his word. I highly suggest taking your business elsewhere, or choosing another company over Lincoln. Clearly having loyalty to this brand over generations of your family means nothing to them whatsoever. More