2023 Koons Factory Order Review

[44Dan44]

Ordered 30 Nov 2022, Picked up 28 April 2023

On the forum (at the time I ordered) they offered 6% under invoice/6.5% with Affiliate
$1,000 deposit, no dealer financing required. $899.00 Processing Fee
In February, on the forum, they made the offer better, 6% under invoice / 7% with Affiliate
$500 deposit, no dealer financing required. $899.00 Processing Fee

On the day of pickup, they honored the full 7% Affiliate offer with a few scattered reports on the forum of doing the same for others. Appreciate that.

Fellow members, I get it, the $899.00 Processing Fee is high compared to others, you have to make your decision based on your own circumstances, with Koons being just one hour away from me, that eliminated any travel expenses I may have incurred traveling to Louisiana or Iowa.

The ordering process itself, very straight forward, email koonsgroupbuy@gmail.com a PDF of your Build and Price from the Ram website, they email you back with a Invoice Build Sheet with all the options you selected and the price you will pay.
Note: Triple check this very carefully, make sure everything you want is on there, better to take a little extra time here than try to make a change after you’ve had your order submitted to Ram.
Some things you might have selected, could be on constraint at the time you place the order, I know that Mark Dodge does an excellent job at figuring out what’s going to be a problem for your order and letting you know. Because I didn’t encounter any inconsistencies between my Build and Price PDF and the Invoice Build Sheet I can not review Koons on this aspect.
Once you have finalized the Invoice Build Sheet, Koons informs you of what they need to proceed which consists of:

Copy of your drivers license
Exact name and address you will register to for purposes of calculating tax and tag fees.
Signed Pricing doc (Buyers Order Sheet)
Sign the Invoice Build Sheet
Sign Acknowledgment form (You agree the build is what you want, a deposit is required, etc)
Provide your phone number
$1,000.00 non-refundable deposit (see Acknowledgment Form for caveats such as material damage to the vehicle in transit or factory cancels your order, etc) You pay the deposit online and can use a credit card, no extra fees incurred. Invoice due by email received, Invoice paid by email received.

I paid at 6:59 PM and had my VON at 7:59PM with a note that I would have my VIN within a few days and any email for requesting status updates at koonsorderstatus@gmail.com

Received email 2 days later from info@brand.ramtrucks.com letting me know my order was received with a link that I could click to see my VIN. This same email address provided the following updates during the process: Your Ram is scheduled, Your Ram is in Production, Your Ram is Built, Your Ram has shipped.

INSERT 4 months of wait time. I found that koonsorderstatus@gmail.com was useless along the way, generic responses telling nothing more than I already knew from the Ram tracker and funnier still I knew from the tracking spreadsheet here on the forum before anywhere else, then later I’d receive notifications from Ram. As I got closer to the expected date of arrival for my truck I made an inquiry to Koons to see if I they would lock a given price if I wanted to trade in a vehicle, they will not as seen in the response below.

As for the trade, we do not recommend bringing it in until the vehicle arrives. Unfortunately, due to the volatile used car market, trade values are typically only good for 7 days and can not be locked in. We can do a sight unseen value for you. That will give you a good ballpark for now, we will re-evaluate when the vehicle arrives. See below.
As far as the trade, I can work up a sight unseen for you. A "sight unseen" is a rough number until we see/touch/drive the trade.
- To get the most money on your trade I need; (Please fill this out exactly how I have listed)
Vin number
Year
Make
Model
Miles
Engine (manual/automatic)
Trim Level
4X4? 4X2? AWD? FWD? RWD?
Cab Size (If Truck)
Bed Size (If Truck)
Options
How many keys
Pictures of interior and exterior
Any aftermarket equipment installed? If so, I will need pictures of what was done.
Any equipment you will be adding/removing?
Do you have the window sticker?
Are you the original owner?
Any accident/damage?
Smoked in?
Exterior Condition of vehicle on scale of 1-10?
Interior Condition of vehicle on scale of 1-10?
When was your last oil change?
When was the last time the brakes/rotors were changed?
When was the last time the tires were changed?
On a scale of 1-10, how good are the tires?
When was the last major service on the vehicle? What was it for?
Do you owe anything on the vehicle? If so, how much? Who is the lien holder?
Have Title in hand? If so, whose names are on it?
Please keep in mind that if a Chrysler lease is within 30 days of terminating, I cannot take it as a trade. If it gets to the time frame that your order has not arrived and you are close to 30 days from the lease termination date you will need to buyout the leased vehicle and have the title switched to your name. Or if you buy it out and have it financed, we would need the payoff amount for the lien holder. For any other brand leases please let me know when the termination date is and who it is leased through so I can determine if we can use it as a trade or not.

I did submit the requested info and found them fairly low on the sight unseen valuation, I provided full quality photos and video however….It’s a Jeep thing, if you know you know. You can always do better private sale, in this case I know I can do $10,000 better so I decided not to do a trade-in at all. Unless I’m getting a good number on my trade I prefer to keep the transaction as simple as possible, removing any leverage points they can use against me on pickup day. The “tax advantage” of trading in simply isn’t enough of an advantage to lose that much on trade in. In this same vein, I secured my financing with Navy Federal and have the check in hand for pick up day, if they can beat the rate I’ll take it, give it your best shot. I let them know the rate I secured in advance.

I received this email from koonsgroupbuy@gmail.com when my truck arrived at the dealership, a boilerplate copy paste.

GREAT NEWS!!! Your vehicle has arrived!! A couple things to note:
We are being delivered orders in record numbers. Although I understand you are excited to pick it up there is a process to ensure the vehicle is received and processed properly before it can be delivered. This involves a pre delivery inspection, a full detail and of course a full tank of gas. It will take a minimum of 48 business hours from the time your vehicle arrives from the manufacturer to being ready for pick up.
We encourage you to pick up your vehicle in person. To ensure that each customer receives the proper amount of time and attention they deserve we work in 2 hour intervals for each delivery. I work by appointment only so that the dealership and the vehicle are fully prepared for your arrival to streamline the process once you are here for delivery. If possible, vehicle would need to be picked up within 14days of vehicle touching ground per agreement with Stellantis
If you are looking to complete this process remotely that is fine. This is a longer process and will delay your delivery of your new vehicle. We are a large dealership with currently 1000 factory orders as well as selling retail stock vehicles. Preparing the paperwork through our finance department will take on average 5-7 business days before you receive your paperwork. Once your paperwork is received by us we will give you the clearance to arrange the shipper. Please do not arrange shipping prior to our authorization as it is imperative that the paperwork is verified and the funds you've provided externally have cleared.
- Please let me know some available days/times we can set an appointment. Once we confirm this, you will be scheduled and my time will solely be yours. (If flying in, please confirm with me for an appointment before booking a ticket)
You will be financing with us, correct?
Please note that we can only swipe a credit or debit card for $3,000 max. So, if you are using a card for down payment, plan ahead and have another form of payment.
We do require you to have insurance on the vehicle before taking delivery of the vehicle, this will actually help with the tag/registration process. Your vin number will be . So please make sure you have the insurance on the vehicle and provide us with the card ahead of time.
I appreciate your patience. We are doing everything we can to make this the easiest purchase possible. Please be patient with us!!
I responded to that email with my requested date and time and my secured loan rate and received some additional information.
The earliest we have, does that work? Let me know what rate and term, in most cases we can match or even beat it.

 

[44Dan44]

Not a problem if you only want to go with your bank or pay cash. Now anything that is considered outside financing or cash deals, it is our dealership policy that we have to do an internal single bureau inquiry to verify no history of fraudulent activity (financial fraud, counterfeit checks, Identity Theft, etc). It is not for loan approval, it is just making sure you have no history of fraudulent activity. I can send you the dealership policy of it or go over that a little more via phone or in person if you please. Personal checks or outside liens (Credit Union or Bank) are accepted but a credit application must be completed through us first, this is company policy. If you don't want to fill out the credit application the personal check or outside lien check must clear first before picking up the vehicle.
If not financing through us please see payment options below.
Finance Application: https://www.routeone.net/XRD/saveProductSelection.do (must fill this out if not financing)
***IF YOU ARE PAYING CASH***
1. Personal/Certified Checks are accepted but a credit application must be completed through us first, this is company policy. If you don't want to fill out the credit application the personal check or outside lien check must clear first before picking up the vehicle.
2. Outside liens (Credit Union or Bank) are accepted but a credit application must be completed through us first, this is company policy.
3. We accept up to $3000 on a credit card.
4. We do not accept wire transfers.
5. Checks can be made out to Koons of Tysons Corner.
Refer to this checklist for pre-appointment items.
Here is the link for the app.
https://www.routeone.net/XRD/mpsStart.do?profileDealerId=TF2NP
How long are you looking to finance for? Any money down towards the vehicle? What bank do you normally use?
Let me know once the app is submitted so I can have the finance director pull it and contact you.
Insurance Card (has to be for the vehicle you are buying), if unable, send your current insurance card. Must be the same policy number that you plan to add a new vehicle to.
Registration (if there will be a trade/or transferring)
Title (If there will be a trade)
Copy of Plate (If Transferring)
Affiliate Code (If FCA Company affiliate) (https://www.fcausaffiliates.com/index.html)
Copy of most recent pay stub for affiliate
-or-
Copy of Company Id Badge (If affiliate)
Tread Lightly Membership Letter (If affiliate)
Code from Stellantis for First Responder/Military
Make sure all 3 credit agencies are unlocked/unfrozen at time of delivery

Things to note from the above response, essentially an additional credit check will be required (for fraud purposes) I’ve encountered this before as early as 2013 when paying cash for a car. I honestly think its nonsense, just giving themselves an opportunity to sell you financing and collect a spiff or kickback from lenders. If you haven’t heard of this, do a little digging around and you’ll learn that Capitol One might be offering you 1.9% based on your credit score but the dealership is free to mark it up to say 2.79% and secure themselves a little bonus. I digress. Key words above, your check (in my case from Navy Federal) must clear before picking up the vehicle if you refuse to do the extra credit check. Obviously I allowed the extra credit pull, I’ve waited long enough for the truck and in the grand scheme of things its not a big deal. Per the above I did let them know I completed the app and what rate and term I have but I never heard from the finance director separately, just to “bring the check with you on pick up day and they’ll try to match” lol, I don’t need it matched, beat that rate or pound sand.

Pick up day, driving rain
Military discount was honored
The full 7% with affiliate was honored
They could not beat the interest rate I got from Navy Federal, they offered me a cute 6.5% and said they’ve never seen below 5%. (Probably meant to say, we never offered below 5%) I declined of course. Tried to run credit AGAIN, saying they just pulled scores before. Come on.

For such a nice building and facility somehow they never thought to have a covered area or bay to deliver vehicles to customers out of the weather. As you might imagine, damage and scratches are harder to see so I look forward to giving them less than all 10s as appropriate. The show you your new truck phase was half hearted at best.

The finance lady was apparently having a bad day or unhappy that I wasn’t interested in her great interest rate, or an extended warranty and left the room and slammed the door behind her. She is the one who later did the fuzzy math below.

This is where it gets fun, the check from Navy was made out for the amount on the buyers order that DID NOT reflect the $1,000 deposit, Military Discount, and Tread Lightly, I asked for a check from Navy with the best and most updated numbers available, Koons certainly never reached back at any point in the whole week after I sent them the affiliate code and the authorization code. All of a sudden, “we can’t take that check its for too much, there is nothing we can do, we can’t refund the difference”.
One solution they offered was that I could buy an extended warranty to bring the total price up to the check amount
I said ok, just refund the security deposit (which the Acknowledgment Form signed upon ordering allows for) and then the check will be about right, maybe I’ll owe you 50 bucks or so and I’ll pay that cash. This never occurred to them, they did some crazy math and came up with me owing them a couple hundred, I look at the math, uh no, you’ll still owe me, the check is still bigger than the final price. “Ok we’ll refund the difference”. But wait, earlier you said “you couldn’t do that, there was nothing you could do”

Ok, the brain trust agrees, hands me a completely unfilled out heading “we owe you” form with ‘we will refund the difference’ written across the page, no amount even written down. Really?
What about my deposit? “We will refund in 30 days or sooner”. Cool, what document are you offering me that says that? “Uhhhhhhh, I will check” Really Koons?
I felt really slimy dealing with these people on pick up day, like everything is trying to be a gotcha unless you catch it yourself. MSRP was of course higher than when I ordered and it felt like they were trying to say I owe more even though they offer price protection, they backtracked when I brought that up.

 

[44Dan44]

No pictures when the truck arrived at the dealership last week, don’t need it but it nice to have. Ordering a truck is an experience, you could do little things like that to make it better for the customer.

So we leave it for now with:
Driving home, full inspection out of the rain to come.
License plates in a couple of weeks in the mail.
Small refund check in the mail in a couple of weeks.
$1,000 deposit to be refunded within 30 days to the credit card.
Lets see what happens, I feel like this is a waiting for the other shoe to fall scenario and they did their best to mess up the very clear instructions on the Navy Federal check about who signs where. Won’t be shocked if this comes back to haunt me.

I drive away with a bad taste in my mouth from the haphazard crew at Koons, go upstairs, go downstairs, where is that guy….etc. Ultimately it is my opinion that when they couldn’t charge more or sell me a higher interest rate, or sell a warranty they shut down. Really sloppily handled transaction that should have been the cleanest; no trade, the price is locked, you have all of documents a week ahead of time. Show and sign and bye but that’s not how it went. 2.5 hours of frustrating incompetence. And 23.3 miles on the odometer??? For a factory order? No

The last thing I’ll share with you is this, every email from start to finish from Koons, nearly 40 of them, no one ever told me a name, no signature, no salutations, who I was corresponding with, felt weird. I inquired a couple of times with no responses, finally the day before pickup I asked who shall I ask for when I arrive at the dealership and they said “ask for Craig and he will come out or send someone out”. Like nobody ever wanted to have their name on a document.

In summary:
My deal ends at 7% under invoice which equals out to 12.3% under MSRP and bumps up to 13.1% under MSRP with the military discount.

This review was, at first intended to be positive (I’ve been pecking away at it this whole week as I thought of things) with just a few things Koons could do better, such as being more helpful with status inquiries, providing rail car info which they claimed not to know how to do, pics upon arrival etc with a summary statement from me saying I’d buy there again. I CAN NOT say that today, maybe if I get all the money due back to me in a timely manner and there are no problems with registration and the Navy check and I’m happily driving my truck around for a couple of weeks I’ll feel better than I do today.

For now…. I can happily recommend…….Mark Dodge.

 

[whitexc]

Nice write up. Sorry for your troubles. People (consumers) need to hear about this but so do the dealerships.

I just picked up a 2023 5th wheel that we signed for in November and feel it went about the same way. As soon as we told them a rate we had at a credit union and refused to purchase their insanely priced extended warranty the whole deal headed south. The salesman remained neutral and did his best but he only has a fingertip on what actually goes down. Delivery day was his week was just a tail chasing ordeal. I know more about my RV than almost everyone there. They had just about zero time for us. It’s unfortunate because I’m not even that excited about something that I should be pretty excited about. I feel exactly like you do. Sorry for that.

Good luck with the truck. Enjoy it. They are great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[slvrsix7]

Good Information. I ordered my 2022 from Chapman Ram Horsham, PA. 5% under invoice at the time. Excellent experience start to finish. No games or pressure at pickup. Paid cash, no credit check required. Always responded to emails throughout. No deposit required and even though we never discussed price protection, they stuck with the original price even though MSRP was several grand higher on delivery. Just figured I'd mention Chapman since it's somewhat close in proximity to Koons for people looking for an alternate.

Note I ordered my truck in Jan 2022, not sure if they are still doing things the same way.

 

[popeye2002]

No pictures when the truck arrived at the dealership last week, don’t need it but it nice to have. Ordering a truck is an experience, you could do little things like that to make it better for the customer.

So we leave it for now with:
Driving home, full inspection out of the rain to come.
License plates in a couple of weeks in the mail.
Small refund check in the mail in a couple of weeks.
$1,000 deposit to be refunded within 30 days to the credit card.
Lets see what happens, I feel like this is a waiting for the other shoe to fall scenario and they did their best to mess up the very clear instructions on the Navy Federal check about who signs where. Won’t be shocked if this comes back to haunt me.

I drive away with a bad taste in my mouth from the haphazard crew at Koons, go upstairs, go downstairs, where is that guy….etc. Ultimately it is my opinion that when they couldn’t charge more or sell me a higher interest rate, or sell a warranty they shut down. Really sloppily handled transaction that should have been the cleanest; no trade, the price is locked, you have all of documents a week ahead of time. Show and sign and bye but that’s not how it went. 2.5 hours of frustrating incompetence. And 23.3 miles on the odometer??? For a factory order? No

The last thing I’ll share with you is this, every email from start to finish from Koons, nearly 40 of them, no one ever told me a name, no signature, no salutations, who I was corresponding with, felt weird. I inquired a couple of times with no responses, finally the day before pickup I asked who shall I ask for when I arrive at the dealership and they said “ask for Craig and he will come out or send someone out”. Like nobody ever wanted to have their name on a document.

In summary:
My deal ends at 7% under invoice which equals out to 12.3% under MSRP and bumps up to 13.1% under MSRP with the military discount.

This review was, at first intended to be positive (I’ve been pecking away at it this whole week as I thought of things) with just a few things Koons could do better, such as being more helpful with status inquiries, providing rail car info which they claimed not to know how to do, pics upon arrival etc with a summary statement from me saying I’d buy there again. I CAN NOT say that today, maybe if I get all the money due back to me in a timely manner and there are no problems with registration and the Navy check and I’m happily driving my truck around for a couple of weeks I’ll feel better than I do today.

For now…. I can happily recommend…….Mark Dodge.

I appreciate your write up and respect your opinions much more as you provide examples of your experiences. I'm so thankful for this forum that led me to MD to place my order. I spoke with Koons and the other popular place neither of which were able to help me as pleasant as MD. I have since obtained Tread Lightly, I would have never known this existed without these forums. I pray my arrival and pickup of my new baby will be much less frustrating than yours. Enjoy your truck!! BTW, I will be flying from Seattle to Houston and then MD will pick me up and I'll drive her home... I can't wait but my build is not even scheduled yet.
I plan to use Navy Fed Credit Union as well. It will be interesting to see how much to have the check made out for and how that works out.

 

[44Dan44]

Small but in my opinion significant update: Koons provides you with all your documents (with the exception of the Virginia Temp Tag) on a USB thumb drive which includes all possible documents that get populated for the sales order even if they are not relevant such as things like Hydrid/Electric battery disclosure form, used vehicle as-is no warranty form, clean vehicle tax credit form, disclosure of non factory items such as upfitter installed flatbed or the like, etc.
Reviewing all of these documents at home I found within these documents are an unsigned credit application, I refused to sign allowing yet another credit inquiry on the day of pickup.
*Yet magically, somehow, on the Agreement to Furnish Insurance form they have listed Chrysler Capital as the lien holder.
*And on the unsigned Retail Installment Sale Contract (this is the long yellow/pink/green triplicate form that you may have seen in in the past) 6.54% is listed as my interest rate.

This suggests to me that they intended to make sure I didn't get the opportunity to use my pre-arranged financing from Navy Federal at 4.74%. Reminder they had my confirmation number doc from Navy Federal with my interest rate and the business name/address for lien holder a full week ahead of my pickup day. So, I do not have a signed Retail Installment Sale Contract at all. I'm going to hold off on my mods a bit until I at least get some confirmation from Navy Fed that the check was cashed / loan effective this date or something like that because as a matter of principle I will give Koons the truck back rather than accept their interest rate if they try some nonsense related to an additional form in my packet called a Permissive Vehicle Use Agreement and/or Addendum To Proposed Installment Sale Agreement which includes the following terms:

1. This Agreement shall be either an addendum to the Installment Sale Agreement or the Lease or a separate agreement permitting Customer to use the Vehicle, or both, as the case may be. If any provision of this Agreement shall conflict with a provision of the Installment Sale Agreement or the Lease, the provision of this Agreement shall control. Customer agrees to execute or provide such other documents as Dealer may request in connection with the Lease, the Sale, or the financing thereof.
2. In the event Customer intends to obtain financing for the purchase of the Vehicle through Customer’s own sources, Dealer hereby grants Customer use of the Vehicle while Customer seeks such financing, subject to the provisions and conditions hereof.
3. If Customer has tendered payment to Dealer for the Vehicle and Dealer has not received cleared funds for the full purchase price, this Agreement shall entitle Customer to possession of the Vehicle, while Dealer awaits clearance of Customer’s funds in full and final payment for the Vehicle, subject to the provisions and conditions hereof.
4. Customer represents that he/she possesses a valid driver’s license and current motor vehicle liability and collision insurance coverage and assumes risk of loss of the Vehicle while in Customer’s possession. Customer agrees that Dealer retains a security interest in the Vehicle and Dealer shall be entitled to all statutory and common law remedies available to a seller or holder, including without limitation, the right to repossess the Vehicle. Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, Customer immediately shall return the Vehicle to Dealer upon Dealer’s verbal or written request, for any reason or no reason at all.
5. Customer shall be in default under this Agreement upon the happening of any of the following (hereafter referred to as "default"): Customer’s failure to immediately return the Vehicle upon Dealer’s oral or written request or Customer’s failure to comply with any request of Dealer not inconsistent herewith; Customer’s failure to make any payment or perform any obligation under this Agreement, the Buyer’s Order or any other agreement between the parties; if any representation made or information provided by Customer or any guarantor is false, inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading in any respect; loss, theft, damage to or destruction of the Vehicle or the making of any levy, seizure, or attachment thereof or thereon; death, dissolution, insolvency of Customer; the application for, or appointment of, a receiver of Customer, or an assignment for the benefit of creditors by Customer; the filing of a petition of bankruptcy by or against Customer; or should Dealer in good faith determine itself insecure.
6. In the event of default (as defined above), Dealer shall be entitled to recover from Customer any sums, expenses or losses caused thereby, including any costs relating to recovering or restoring the Vehicle to the condition in which it was received by Customer and Dealer’s reasonable attorney’s fees. In addition to other remedies provided herein, Dealer may offset and deduct any such loss or damage from Customer’s cash deposit, if any, and sell any motor vehicle traded in by Customer in order to reduce Customer’s obligation to Dealer.
7. If Customer is financing this transaction or leasing the Vehicle, any Installment Sale Agreement or Lease shall remain conditional until a third party lender or lessor approves the Installment Sale Agreement or Lease. If the Installment Sale Agreement or the Lease or Customer’s attempt to finance is not approved by a lending institution, either party may cancel the transaction, in which event the permissive use hereunder shall terminate. Notwithstanding anything in Paragraph 5 to the contrary, in the event of such cancellation, any downpayment and/or trade in vehicle Customer submitted will be returned to the Customer, provided that the Vehicle is returned to the Dealer in the same condition as delivered to Customer, normal wear and tear excepted, withing twenty-four hours of written or verbal notice of cancellations.
8. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed under the laws of the state where the dealership is located, without regard to conflicts of laws principles. Whenever possible, each provision of this Agreement shall be interpreted so that it is effective and valid under applicable law, however if any portion of this Agreement shall be determined by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid under or prohibited by applicable law, then only such portion shall be ineffective without invalidating any other provision hereof. The exclusive forum for any dispute relating to this Agreement shall be in the state and county where Dealer is located. Customer hereby waives presentment, demand, protest, notice of dishonor and all exemptions.

 

[areuriding]

Great, I know what to expect now… Smfh

 

[jebruns]

Thanks for the detailed write up. Good to know. I'd read other threads/posts about not having a good experience at pickup time with Koons, so I can't say I'm surprised to read this. But it sounds like they delivered on all the discounts, which is the bottom line, I guess. Congrats on the new truck.

 

[b307a1]

That's a pretty intense report. Your time and insight is very much appreciated.

 

[venomonmytongue]

I had a similar experience with the financing, I financed through them because I'm not in a credit union and just though the entire transaction would go smoother but I felt the same, they were slimy and deceptive. Kept me there for hours, I felt like I was in an interrogation and they were trying to get me to crack to get their extended warranty and maintenance plan. They would not provide any of this info prior to driving 3 hours for the pickup. I would either never buy from them or go there with cash in hand and have everything arranged prior to pick up, if that's not possible I would go else where.

 

[Mikerob14]

Great write up. I will be making this trek soon when my truck clears the informal hold for hail. This activity was the only thing that worried me with them. I will keep all this info in my back pocket as I prepare everything with them. I will be doing almost the exact same as you from pick up to navy fed and so on. Good luck and I hope it clears up a little for you.

 

[bhal212]

I had planned on sharing more thoughts when I was back at my pc, but your thumb drive documents made me paranoid, so I just went through the ones I have, and luckily they didn't have any extra weird stuff. Other than the general malaise most people in nova seem to have, I think your issues all stemmed from the finance person. I had a young man do my finance stuff and he didn't push any of the add on crap after I said no and never mentioned financing the entire time as they couldn't beat my 3.99%.

We did have to spend way too long there, but I expected it going in, so I wasn't surprised...

 

[JimKIII]

No pictures when the truck arrived at the dealership last week, don’t need it but it nice to have. Ordering a truck is an experience, you could do little things like that to make it better for the customer.

So we leave it for now with:
Driving home, full inspection out of the rain to come.
License plates in a couple of weeks in the mail.
Small refund check in the mail in a couple of weeks.
$1,000 deposit to be refunded within 30 days to the credit card.
Lets see what happens, I feel like this is a waiting for the other shoe to fall scenario and they did their best to mess up the very clear instructions on the Navy Federal check about who signs where. Won’t be shocked if this comes back to haunt me.

I drive away with a bad taste in my mouth from the haphazard crew at Koons, go upstairs, go downstairs, where is that guy….etc. Ultimately it is my opinion that when they couldn’t charge more or sell me a higher interest rate, or sell a warranty they shut down. Really sloppily handled transaction that should have been the cleanest; no trade, the price is locked, you have all of documents a week ahead of time. Show and sign and bye but that’s not how it went. 2.5 hours of frustrating incompetence. And 23.3 miles on the odometer??? For a factory order? No

The last thing I’ll share with you is this, every email from start to finish from Koons, nearly 40 of them, no one ever told me a name, no signature, no salutations, who I was corresponding with, felt weird. I inquired a couple of times with no responses, finally the day before pickup I asked who shall I ask for when I arrive at the dealership and they said “ask for Craig and he will come out or send someone out”. Like nobody ever wanted to have their name on a document.

In summary:
My deal ends at 7% under invoice which equals out to 12.3% under MSRP and bumps up to 13.1% under MSRP with the military discount.

This review was, at first intended to be positive (I’ve been pecking away at it this whole week as I thought of things) with just a few things Koons could do better, such as being more helpful with status inquiries, providing rail car info which they claimed not to know how to do, pics upon arrival etc with a summary statement from me saying I’d buy there again. I CAN NOT say that today, maybe if I get all the money due back to me in a timely manner and there are no problems with registration and the Navy check and I’m happily driving my truck around for a couple of weeks I’ll feel better than I do today.

For now…. I can happily recommend…….Mark Dodge.

Wow - as others have said, nice thorough write up and sorry for the hassle. Also as another has mentioned, I'm grateful for going through MD as there was ZERO hassle, everything and everyone was top-notch no BS, friendly, names galore - Sandi, Charles, Aaron, and Jason, and they kept their word on everything. I financed through USAA and MD didn't bat an eye. I wouldn't have known of MD if I hadn't first found this forum. Also, when it was time, I flew from Seattle to New Orleans, was picked up by a MD driver (Louisiana native) who bought me a great Louisiana lunch (first time eating boudin!!) on the way back to the dealer (3 1/2 hr drive and every minute was a pleasure because of the driver), then drove the new truck home 3,000 miles. Fantastic experience!

 

[jebruns]

I had a great experience with Granger too. Did everything we could remotely before I got there, and told them I wanted be on the road home ASAP. I was in and out in about an hour. Everyone there was great to work with.

But it's interesting to hear about the Koons experience. Pretty much jives with everything I've read about them. Still, I'd tolerate it if I lived out that way to get that pricing.

 

[Kingland]

I ordered my 2017 jeep JKu Rubicon from Koons with Craig back in Decmber of 2016. Everything went great.
So when I went to order my Ram 3500 Laramie I sent him a email.
So on February 12th 2022 my order was confirmed by Ram.
I was required to put down a 2,000.00 deposit and if i wanted to keep the 6% discount I would have to finance though Ram. I wasn't worried about that as I could always refinance the loan if I could find a better one later.
Scheduled Jun 24 2022
In Production jul 18 2022
Built jul 26 2022
Shipped Dec 21 2022

Delivered to Koons in February of 2023 just in time for heater relay recall. They tried to get me to buy it before the recall hit. But we were on vacation.
This truck has 4 miles on it and has sat in the desert for 6 months and 3 months at Koons.
They wouldn't even let me look it over when we were in town. We live 3 hours away.
Just got the email last night from Koons that its has cleared the recall.
I haven't responded yet. I'm worried now about the Aisin transmission failures on these 2022s. So worried that I ordered a 2023 Limited 3500 last week from Mark Dodge.
I've waited 455 days for this truck. What's another 2 to 3 months on a 2023 with the cool new hood and new mirrors.
Now Ram care has given me 8 free oil changes on this 2022 for all my troubles. Which is nice, but I wanted a free extended warranty. Ram care has now put everything on the dealership and has washed their hands of the hole thing.

What are the chances of Koons refunding my deposit?
I thinking I'm out of luck on that refund.
I've considered buying the 2022 and then trading it in or selling it before the 2023 gets here.
Really curious if Koons is going to maybe give us a better deal then when we ordered back in February 2022. Even though the build price is a little higher then when we ordered in Feb 2022. Due to price increases before it was actually built by Ram. They probably don't want to be stuck selling this truck now. Looks like they a few 2022s on the lot already.
5,000 in incentives right now on 2022s, but when is the next recall coming on these Covid 2022 Rams?

Though I would share my story and frustrations with Ram and Koons.

 

[44Dan44]

I would take it as a sign and stick with Mark Dodge. Still don't have my plates, still no deposit returned, still no overage check received.

 

[Bombaman]

From that experience, I can't see how Koons are at fault to offer you a deposit refund. The Sale-Stop is done at the manufacturer level, so their hands are bound, and shipping out of Mexico, again not something the dealer has any control over.

 

[44Dan44]

From that experience, I can't see how Koons are at fault to offer you a deposit refund. The Sale-Stop is done at the manufacturer level, so their hands are bound, and shipping out of Mexico, again not something the dealer has any control over.

At fault is not the issue to focus on, whatever the cause, order failed to deliver in timely manner.

 

[werard]

RE deposit: What does the paperwork regarding the deposit say? Non refundable, refundable, refundable if certain conditions are met?