Volvo of San Antonio

It saddens me to write this review because typically I’ve had a great experience with the purchase of my vehicle but I feel the servicing is overpriced when it comes to parts and labor. I was charged over $ 450 for labor and $ 350 for parts. Total over $ 800 for 75k mile maintenance package. Steve and Jim are very friendly and nice and they provide excellent service but if I had one piece of advice I would say provide customers with options. Don’t let me pay $ 50 for fuel injector cleaner when its $ 10 autozone and on top of that charge me labor. Really its the first time I felt taken advantage of and i feel hostage cause i have a warranty and feel I can’t go elsewhere. Also why does it take 4 to 5 hours to do an oil change. Lastly to add insult to injury the said my brake pads might need to be replaced and it would cost an additional $ 800. I’m so dissapointed because I’ve recommended Volvo San Antonio numerous times and my wife and I where looking at a new XC60 because where expanding our family, but now I have to look elsewhere.

Last week I purchased a 2013 Volvo XC60 from Volvo of San Antonio. I am intentionally giving the dealership and its employees a «middle-​of-​the-​road» three-​star review. I will leave it up to the readers of this review to decide whether I have been too generous or too harsh.
The positives |
The renovated dealership is beautiful and comfortable. Everyone is dressed well and friendly. On first impression, it feels like a great place to buy a car. Before driving down from Austin, I did over a month’s worth of research on cars in the same class as the Volvo XC60 as well as studied pricing on all XC60 models available within a 100-​mile radius. Volvo of San Antonio consistently had the fairest pricing. After finding close to exactly the model I wanted and a virtually painless negotiation on the price of the car and the trade-​in value of my old Audi, I was feeling better than I ever have in a dealership … and then the fun started.
The negatives |
Financing — On a pretty quiet, rainy Saturday, I waited an hour to see the Finance Manager. No explanation for the delay was given (it felt like a psychological ploy). I was then presented with a FICO score 50 points lower than the score I looked up 48 hours earlier. I was at a loss for what my options were, so I did nothing (my fault for not preparing for this scenario). My low reported score continued to bug me long after I closed financing on my car and that night I paid $ 50+ in fees to get more scores. Two of the three scores were 50 and 60 points higher than the score used by their Finance Manager and they were up-​to-​date; including the loan I had closed that day in the calculation. Volvo of San Antonio used the lowest of the three scores available. I don’t know if this is standard industry practice, but I will be refinancing shortly.
Dent and paint — Purchasing a 2013 model, I expected there to be some minor dents and scratches. The salesperson assured me that all dents would be removed and all scratches would be touched-​up. A week later (more on this to follow) when I came to pick up my car, the dents had been removed, but the scratches were still there. There was an acknowledgement and an apology, but their solution was to hand me a paint pen kit to do the touch-​up myself. Never having done this before (and the way it was presented by the salesperson) I assumed this was easy. I came home and did some online research. Turns out it is time-​consuming, challenging to get right and the paint is highly toxic.
Detailing — The cleaning of the car was atrocious. Again, this was a used car and it had been «loved» by the family that had owned it. The car was filthy. There was dirt or food in just about every crevice of the car. I was assured by my salesperson that the car would be delivered, «like new». When I inspected it at pick-​up, there was still dirt and or food in every crevice of the car. There was less of it than before the detailing, but it was still there. When I pointed this out to my salesperson, he said, «I know … our detailing guys are not good». He sent it back to detailing. I expected to wait an hour+ for the job to be done correctly, but miraculously, my car was back in 10 minutes. The detailers had simply cleaned the sticky stuff out of the front cup holder and were done. I gave a sigh of frustration and made a mental note that I would be spending $ 200 to have the car detailed in Austin.
Delivery — My home, in Austin, is an hour from the dealership. Before I left the dealership in their loaner car (I should add, it was a very nice, new S60) I made a point of stressing that I was an hour away. I respectfully asked that the dealership call or email me in advance on the progress of having my car ready for pick up so I could plan my work week. I was assured that they would do that and that the latest my car would be ready was Wednesday. Mentally, I planned to pick up the car either Thursday or Friday morning and intentionally cleared my work schedule to make that easier. No one from the dealership proactively contacted me that week. I had to initiate all communication. And the flawed body work and detailing (+ the programming of a missing second key) took five days, not two-​to-​three to complete. The explanation given was that my salesperson was on vacation. It was only a minor irritant to be in a loaner car for a week and to have cleared my schedule for no good reason. It was a major irritant to have the sinking feeling that because someone was on vacation that the whole process had broken down.
I have intentionally withheld the names of the people who worked with me at Volvo of San Antonio. While they could be significantly better at what they do, they could not have been nicer. I don’t blame them. I blame the senior leadership that instructs, evaluates and rewards them for customer service that is mostly flash with little substance.

This is my second vehicle to buy from Volvo of San Antonio (aka Principle Auto), and the experience has been great both times. My salesperson this time was Ray Aguilar. Ray greeted me very well on the phone when I called regarding availability of a vehicle advertised on their website. The vehicle was parked in front of the dealership, under a shade tree, waiting for me to test drive it by the time I got there. Details like that are great when the temperature is 100 degrees!
Ray was very knowledgeable regarding my vehicle and others we discussed. I had to leave for some meetings that afternoon but said I would call back later. Ray’s demeanor was great; there was no pressure to buy immediately and no condescending tone. This contrasts with other dealerships I visited earlier in the week.
The sales transaction was the quickest I have ever experienced, and it was great to see that their online inventory was accurate. You would think this would be standard, but in my recent experience there are other dealerships that do not have the vehicles listed on their website.
Thank you to Ray and Volvo of San Antonio :)

Worth the drive to Volvo of Austin, where they only charge you a diagnostic fee if it takes more than one hour to diagnose (usually does not take that long), at Volvo SA, they want to charge you 150 diagnosis fee no matter what the issue may be (even if it’s a loose gas cap says the Volvo CSR). I will be gladly making the commute to Austin to service my Volvo, as well as purchase my next Volvo!

We’re a Volvo family, and two of our three Volvos have come from here in the past few years. Staff has always been friendly and prompt to address concerns. My sister and I both feel comfortable popping in when we notice a problem, and they’re great about calling back with info if you have to drop off your car.
Buying process and financing are quick and painless, pricing is competitive, and this is the only place I’ve been able to find both discontinued S40s with the wood-​grain interior as well as newer SUV models.

Rude and pushy salespeople. Deceptive and inaccurate information on their website.
Worst of all, we were driving out of the parking lot after this terrible experience and the salesman came out with his sales manager and stood in front of my truck so I couldn’t leave until I agreed to a test drive in a seriously crappu Sonata.
tl; dr Don’t go in here ever! They might take your children hostage until you buy.

I made an appointment a week in advance and called the day prior to confirm. When I arrived, the first loaner brought forward was completely out of gas and they asked me to wait while they went to get gas. I explained that I didn’t have time to wait, and that I had called the day before to confirm availability of the loaner and my appointment; another loaner was brought forward. The car had ¹⁄₃ tank of gas and had NOT been cleaned. I returned to work upset that the misorganized dealer caused me to be late.
The Volvo Center called me after 5pm that Wed. night, and then again the following Thursday night (also after 5pm) only to say that they were «short-​handed» and did not get to my vehicle. I clarified this meant they didn’t have time in two whole days to do an inspection on a vehicle that was brought in with an appointment made a week prior! I explained my dissatisfaction with the time frame and I also explained that due to not having my gate remote I was having to find alternative parking downtown. Had I known my vehicle would have been kept overnight I would have removed my car charger and gate remote. I asked to be called mid-​day Friday for a report of the inspection and was assured that the inspection would happen and the call would come.
I called Saturday morning completely fed up with this dealership. They claimed the inspection was done Friday and that they call was placed to me. For all of you Google Voice users, we know that we have a VM, a text, and an email record of any calls. They DID not call Friday nor did they call Sat. I immediately went to pick up my vehicle and told them they had lost a loyal Volvo owner for life.
Very Very poor service, communication, follow-​up, and NO offer to make it right.

PROS:
My salesperson Ricco was phenomenal. He was honest with me and admitted that he didn’t personally own a Volvo and took time to answer all of the questions i and about the car and walked me thru the cars in a «good-​better-​best» capacity. Greg in the service department has been equally as helpful. Anytime I had an issue Greg made sure I had a rental car to get to work and when I returned to pickup my car he made sure to detail all of the issues they found and how they addressed them in a way that I could understand, not being a mechanic myself. Most services were completed within 24 hours of me dropping the car off and it was a common practice for Volvo to call 24 hours later to followup and make sure that everything was in order, which is also a nice gesture. Both of these guys are truly an asset to this dealership.
CONS:
The finance office incorrectly entered the terms of my lease. This caused a TON of issues with me trying to sale/​re-​lease this car. Furthermore, I had to play phone tag with various people in the finance department for 2 – 3 months and it wasn’t until I reached out to the Better Business Bureau that someone actually called me back and really tried to get this fixed. Unfortunately by this time, I was informed that the bank would no longer allow them to modify the lease so they’d «put in a note in my file.» The issue with this is that the «note in my file» would only be applicable if I was buying another vehicle from Volvo as any other dealer would recognize the terms of the lease as signed. 3 months after the BBB closed the case, I randomly got a call from a manager saying he had found an email from the BBB buried in his spam folder and asked if everything was ok? This would mean that it was officially almost a year after the issue with my lease was initially discovered and almost 7 – 8 months after they had been first reported to the BBB and I’m just now getting a call back.
It should also be noted that the S60’s don’t come with spares anymore and I was told that Volvo’s roadside assistance would cover transportation costs to get me home and to pickup my car (as the only Volvo dealership here in town was over 30 miles away from where my car had a flat). After submitting my towing and taxi expenses to Volvo, I received a letter stating that Volvo would be unable to cover my expenses. After expressing my disappointment with Volvo Center’s dishonesty on both the roadside assistance and lease issues, they offered to meet me halfway and to give me a 30% rebate on the tire I ended up purchasing through Volvo to replace my flat and like all things Volvo, this never came to form. In other words, I’ve learned very quickly that you shouldn’t trust anything a Volvo employee says, even if their tongue is notarized.
In summary, the experience I had with Volvo’s finance department really made it hard for me to enjoy my purchase, as I felt as if I was duped and they didn’t put in any sort of effort to try to make things right until it was too late. When I ended up trading in my Volvo, I paid SEVERELY for this as it landed me extremely upside down in my lease. So for me, this was my first and last Volvo.
Finally, if you are going to present yourselves as a luxury brand, give your dealership a make-​over. It’s long overdue and has a 1990’s feel to it. It’s hard to imagine that this and the new Porsche dealership located off of I-​10 are owned by the same person. The age of this place definitely shows and Volvo has a reputation of being for more «dated» people so modernizing this dealership could only help overcome this perception.

I have always admired the Volvo brand for it’s quality. When my husband needed a new car he went thru the typical Audi, Lexus, blah, blah, blah. I drove him to the Volvo Center for a test drive of a C70 & after that he was hooked. Everyone @ this dealership from sales, parts, & service have been friendly & helpful.