Well there is always a first, a few months back I did a story on the Keyes Woodland Hills, Buick, GMC, Cadillac dealer. And said to avoid the place at all costs. Keyes has to be one of the biggest automobile dealers in the United States and maybe the world. This organization is headed by Howard Keyes and Howard Tenenbaum, and it’s impressive to see the size of it and all the different brands, Mercedes to Toyota and all in between. It became obvious to me very quickly that the Keyes organization was not happy with my experience at one of their new stores.
Now there is no way in hell they built it by having nitwits like the one I met at the Woodland Hills GMC dealer on my quest to buy a new SUV. Background, my son Chris and I drove over one day to see about buying and or ordering a new 2010 GMC Yukon 3/4 ton SUV. We got to meet “Charlie” with his less than friendly attitude and demeanor of someone with inflamed hemorrhoids and a lumpy chair cushion. He was directly responsible for Chris and me walking away from our purchase. In other words, he committed the ultimate sin as a car salesperson, he turned a “buyer” into a “shopper.” And the second biggest sin: he never followed up with any calls to see what he had done wrong in shooing us away (I had left my card). Note: Charlie is an L.A.P.D. retired officer who now works as a reserve officer, and his little office is just full of pictures of chiefs of the L.A.P.D. and other pieces of memorabilia to impress that he is either a cop “groupie” or had something to do with police work. Great pictures, well little did he know I too have pictures of me and my family having dinners with some of these people at birthdays and private BBQs…welcome to my world.
Anyway, when I never heard back I decided to send a letter to both Howards, Keyes and Tenenbaum, and you know what, Howard Tenenbaum himself called me to see if he could sell me a car! These two guys are “bigshots” in the world of car sales and he took the time to call me and apologized for the way Charlie had treated us. Well, when one of the owners calls and does that what do you think I did? I drove back to the dealership to see if this was for real, and we were greeted like customers and not parolees or grand theft auto suspects. As a matter of fact, we were treated like people with money to spend on a new SUV!!! The General Manager Evan Hoffman and Howard Tenenbaum sat with us and listened and took the order, and a few weeks ago the new 2010 GMC Yukon that was built to my specifications was delivered.
The whole process was simple, professional and a total pleasure, as you-know-who was not involved. Then we got to meet Oscar and Roberto, both porters who drove us and picked us up could not have been nicer. Their service vehicle to shuttle us around was a new 2010 Cadillac. When small problems surfaced as they sometimes do with any new car, they were handled by Mr. Hoffman and his team quickly and smoothly, competence does live at Keyes Woodland Hills. One of the highlights was when a young man named Lior showed my sons and me how to work all the options on this Yukon…lots of stuff. Certainly not like my 2001! The bottom line is this folks, I bought my new truck from a group of people that somehow had escaped my son and me on our first visit to Keyes Woodland Hills, and instead fell into the hands of “officer charlie” and we were handled “the old way,” you know the attitude and behavior that caused General Motors to go bankrupt. Mr. Tenenbaum along with Evan Hoffman and people like Oscar and Roberto and of course Lior are the people who will turn General Motors around. So in closing, when you visit Keyes Woodland Hills, BUICK GMC CADILLAC avoid the “substation” and get into the showroom and find Evan Hoffman and his crew will take care of your purchase.