Reviewed : 12/10/2025
Comment : This Dealership Ruined What Should Have Been a Once-in-a-Lifetime Moment
I have never written a review like this in my life, but what happened at Jack Volkswagen of Scarborough left me shaken, humiliated, and honestly heartbroken. I went in to buy a 2018 Subaru as a surprise for my son’s sixteenth birthday — something I had been planning for weeks. What should have been one of the happiest days of my life as a parent turned into one of the most stressful and upsetting experiences I’ve ever had at a business.
It started out normally. Emmett, the salesperson, was pleasant and kind. But everything changed the moment the managers got involved.
On the morning of the pickup — my son’s actual birthday — after I had already arranged financing, activated insurance, paid the $500 deposit, taken time off from work, and even gotten into an Uber to the dealership, the Sales Manager Zac Bean suddenly texted me saying the car wasn’t ready. No apology, no solution — just a message that left me panicked because this was supposed to be a huge surprise.
When I got there, instead of helping me navigate the situation, Zac raised his voice at me in the middle of the lobby, blamed his junior employee repeatedly, and refused to give me any clear time to return. I told him — calmly — that I didn’t need someone to blame, I needed a plan so I could still surprise my son. His response:
“If you don’t want to buy a car, you don’t have to.”
I cannot describe how humiliating it is to be spoken to like that after you’ve already invested your time, your money, and your emotions into a major purchase. If I weren’t desperate to still pull off this birthday surprise, I would have left and never returned.
But the worst was still to come.
When I went back to finally pick up the car — red bow in hand — the F&I Manager Savannah came out to handle the paperwork. I was already exhausted and emotional from the earlier experience, but what she did was beyond anything I ever expected in a professional setting.
She became immediately defensive, talked over me every time I tried to speak, and told me — loudly — that the dealership “does not have to sell cars” and that customers expect too much. She gestured to the lot and said there were “plenty of other cars out there” and acted as though I should be grateful just to sit in her chair.
She insulted their own employee Emmett, calling him “the kid,” saying he probably shouldn’t work there, and that “selling cars is easy” and she could replace him with anyone.
And then — unbelievably — she tried to charge me again for the $500 deposit I had already paid, because she didn’t even know it existed. I had to explain to her basic information that should have been in their system from day one.
At one point, Savannah became so aggressive and dismissive, repeatedly telling me I could just leave without the car, that my boyfriend was texting me asking whether he needed to come be with me because he was worried about how shaken I sounded.
By the time I finally got the keys, I was fighting back tears. What was supposed to be a joyful milestone — the moment I picked up my son’s first car and brought it to his birthday celebration — was overshadowed completely by hostility, chaos, and disrespect.
This dealership didn’t just mishandle a transaction.
They ruined a memory I can never get back.
I will never step foot in this dealership again, and I want others — especially parents, especially anyone going through a big life moment — to know exactly what happened to me. No one deserves to be spoken to the way I was. No one deserves to feel small, or powerless, or humiliated when they are trying to do something special for someone they love.
Please, for your own sanity, go somewhere else.
Buying a car should feel exciting.
Jack Volkswagen of Scarborough made it feel awful.