Joe,
This is in response to the Can you Trust Pohanka? comments on your Blog. More specifically the comment from Anonymous 9:06 asking for us to tell them exactly what we do for the Community.
Pohanka Automotive Group of Salisbury provides jobs to over 250 local people; those employees are encouraged by the owner to donate money and time to the local community to make it a better place for everyone. The owners and management of Pohanka do not only encourage their employees but they lead by example.
Last week you could see Pohanka’s Owner, General Manager, Human Resources Director, Public Relations Director, Marketing Director and many other employees in the Wicomico River pulling out recliners and bicycles along with 13 giant bags of trash, to help make Salisbury a little more beautiful.
Like any other company Pohanka Automotive Group of Salisbury is in business to make a profit, making a profit is not wrong, ask any business owner. However, Pohanka is committed to filtering a large percentage of their hard earned profit back into the local community. Pohanka chooses to care about this community; not just because it is where we do business, but because we care about our employees and our customer’s families and are focused on making the Eastern Shore of Maryland an even better place to live for future generations!
Sandy Fitzgerald, the Owner of Pohanka focuses so much on our community that she hired a Public Relations Director. Not one car dealership I know of has ever hired someone to do charity work in the community. But it doesn’t stop at hiring an employee to do charity work. Every employee of Pohanka is encouraged to and are ready and willing to help with local charity events by: purchasing raffle tickets, selling subs, collecting backpacks for local needy children for back to school, serving on local charity boards, collecting money from other employees and baking 48 dozen cookies for our troops overseas, donating 45 shoeboxes full of toiletries for our troops, driving Pohanka provided vehicles in the Christmas parade, donating time shares and personal condo’s to charities to auction off to help them raise funds. These are just a few of the things that we as Pohanka Automotive Group in Salisbury do for this community.
You asked for exactly what we do for the community and here is a list of the events, charities and other community activities that have been supported by Pohanka Automotive Group of Salisbury between January 2007 and September 2008 either by monetary, in-kind or time donations. Please click on the link or cut and paste into your browser.
http://www.dicarlo1.com/uploads/DPI-DONATION07-08.pdf
Next time you are at a golf tournament for your favorite local charity and see a car on a hole, watching a parade and see a car driving a dignitary, or watching your kid’s play football remember this event is possible because of Pohanka Automotive Group of Salisbury, its hard working employees and our customers’ business support and satisfaction.
I think I speak for all businesses when I ask, next time you have a problem with Pohanka or any company, please take the time to call and get the issue addressed and give the company a chance to earn your business back. Things do go wrong and no business is immune to setbacks. However if you don’t give the company the chance to fix the problem and earn your business back, then you have no right to criticize. We want your business and we want to earn your business so please give us the opportunity to make it right!
Again, if you have any issues with Pohanka Automotive Group of Salisbury, please feel free to call or e-mail me directly @ 410-548-3411 x8158 or ndicarlo@pohankaofsalisbury.com
Thank you for supporting local businesses trying to do the right thing!
Respectfully Submitted,
Nina DiCarlo
Public Relations Director
Mercedes-Benz of Salisbury/Pohanka Automotive Group
2013 North Salisbury Blvd.
Salisbury, MD 21801
p. 410.548.3411 x8158
f. 410.749.4626
m. 410.251.8028
36 comments:
I know business is slow, but wow, what a risky business move. Something smells like fish here.
There was a time when I dealt with Pohanka professionally and personally.They helped my particular Law Enforcement agency that I worked for at the time with assisting the needy during the Christmas holiday for years without hesitation.They donated money,bikes food etc. I must give credit where credit is due.On a personal note I have had a car sales issue with them that was plesantly settled with due haste,but you must give them a chance to address your issue.BB
the only thing that smells like fish here is the clothes and shoes worn by the employees of pohanka when they pulled over 1 ton of trash out of your Wicomico river last week. Way to go Pohanka, keep up the good work!!!!!!!!!!
LOL, can't argue that one. Good come back.
Whatever, good letter to late trying to make your conscious feel better. Did you drive Mercedes down there to clean up?
ANON 1:20 Well said, I agree with you 100%.
Breaking news. I was on my way to work this morning and thought I saw the wolves in the the part of the zoo were they keep their deer and I could see a deer on the ground and all the wolves around it. Apparently there was a failure in the exhibit and the wolves got out an into the deer exhibit killing at least one deer. You should get down there and take pictures of this Joe. I am sure they have rigged something up without really fixing it.
I love the companies that pat themselves on the back because they "give back to the community"
"Pohanka is committed to filtering a large percentage of their hard earned profit back into the local community"
Yeah that is hard earned money from your CUSTOMERS if I want to donate to something thats what I do. I choose where I want my money to go. I dont expect a company to do it for me. They will never get a penny of my "hard earned money"
Excellent letter.
the only thing fishy i smell is the poor grammars and sentence structure.
Would Pohanka be willing to donate that lounge chair they pulled out the the river to a poor university student? I just moved in to my new apartment & need something to sit on.
I think that is great! Doesnt matter if you are "Picture Perfect" people will find a reason to complain. They will go as far as saying "Poor grammar and sentence structure" really? How about get a life or become a teacher!
Wow that CR person must be working overtime to clean up this mess. Joe hats off to you again for posting something that has long been an issue. It is not just Pohanka but most dealerships hit you hard on the service side of the shop. I have had work done by Center Auto and Delaware Tire. I had good luck at both. Also Mienke gave me a $3000 estimate on my 2002Yukon brake system. I felt it needed a new master cylander the breaks were hanging up. It was a saturday and they were it. The guy used an old soda bottle that had coagulated greese in it and told me my entire system was shot due to the petroleum product someone had put in the resovior and that this bottle test proved this HMMMMMM.I risked driving it home and had it towed to Delaware Tire a guy named Rob worked on it and it cost me just over 400.??? I feel these people should be charged with theft when they pull this type of bull shit. I was lucky but the old lady or the family of 5 that cant afford to drive away get screwed by "Criminals Covered in Grease". Do what is right and honest. I am in no way saying this about Pohanka, but with Mienke beware. I spoke to the manager there he knew I was pissed and tried to cover for the mechanic if that is what you want to call him. Joe is there any legal action you can take on these issues ?
Car dealerships have a reputation for being slimey.
As a former Pohanka customer, I can assure you that Pohanka is the slimiest of the slimey!
I once took my new vehicle to Salisbury Pohanka for a tire rotation and oil change.
They said "no, you have to take this service for $105." I said all I wanted was an oil change and tire rotation for $48. They said they could not do that because I was on their "Tires For Life" program, and that required that I service my vehicle under the extreme conditions maintenance schedule, even though my driving conditions were very clearly under the Normal Schedule. I told them to shove their tires and rip off somebody else. I wrote to Honda Corporation and they said my warrenty would be perfectly valid if I just followed the Normal Schedule. So now I take my vehicle to Jiffy Lube, Oil Spot, PetSmart or ANYWHERE except Pohanka!
Even if you buy a car at Pohanka, never even think of getting it serviced there. Pohanka should kiss anyone who brings a vehicle to them for service because they are certainly going to FU** that poor, dumb son of a bitch! They have meetings thinking of scams like their infamous "Tires for Life" program to fleece those who Pohanka who believes need to be seperated from their money.
My baby spits on Pohanka!
Darn! Years of planting fishing structure gone all to heck! Guess I need to start all over..... ;-)
the guys who owns Meineke is a crook who needs to be invesigated (if it's whom I think it is)
There's nothing like tooting your own horn. When charity REALLY counts is when is is not reported to either the media or the IRS. Pohanka got a good tax write off. Nice try...you still suck!
Lets remember that the question was posed by someone asking Pohanka to tell us exactly what they did for the community.
They are giving this to us because someone asked for it. Not to toot there own horn. If the person that asked for the information had given there information instead of hiding behind the ananymous screen name then they wouldn't have had to write this at all.
funny i saw public works employees looking at that chair one low tied a few months back. i thought they had pulled it out with the rest of the trash but i guess not.
Car Dealers are slimy and I must say I live in Salisbury and I take all my business to Pittsville Motors, now Pittsville Ford. Thank you Donald Bounds and your staff for bending over backwards for me. They have always been there for me and never complained.
Pittsville Ford ROCKS!
Joe, I agrees with anonymous 2:04, there's is poor grammars and sentences structures all thru-out this letter.
The people who have nothing better to do than to bash local businesses for doing good are SAD! Remember, these types of businesses provide jobs which in turn produce tax revenue for the city...in turn making your ride to work smoother, your kids and grand kids public education better and so on! People like you make it worse for everyone - your negativity and slander are just as low as your committment to this community is - so you have no room to talk!
Good for Pohanka to stand up for whats right! In fact i had the chance to meet Sandy at a recent local event - shes a stand up gal!
I doubt many businesses do this much for the community. Hooray to Pohanka for being so active.
At the same time, the money for this stuff has to come from somewhere!
MY QUESTION? Why on earth would this lady START this whole topic again? Pohanka, love them or not, got a serious a**kicking in this forum before, but finally people stopped "talking" about it...
to really show how stand-up they are, they should brave the Joe-cam and go to talk to Joe at his office.
THAT would be impressive.
What I would like to know is how that trash gets dumped in there and what is being done about preventing it from happening again. The real public service is not cleaning after someone it is going after the idiots who think it is ok to pollute. I guarantee you someone knows who that chair belongs to. There are tires, wheels, pic nic tables, grocery carts being dumped in our waterways and no one seems to care about it. Report these criminals, throw the book after them, hit them in theip pockets, put them on a chain gang to clean up trash. Do something other than continuing to pick up after them. Put them on a registered poluters list, lol. Public humiliation is a possibility.
Has everyone forgot the commercial years ago with the Indian paddling a canoe with a tear in his eye because we are polluting the environment. What ever happened to the commercial and campaign?
That would be me that asked exactly what they did for the community...and you are still tooting your own horn...so exactly what did you do before i asked the question? Now because i asked you are trying to cover up and make it look like youv'e done something. You are still crooks if it looks and quacks like a duck then you are still a duck. You tried to rip me off and i dont care how much you try to cover it up. Your customers are the ones giving to charity because of the rip off money from us. How MANY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS A YEAR DO YOU MAKE FROM RIPPING OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS? so you fish a darn chair out of the water...does that still make it right to put the screws to your customers? I will never buy a vehicle from you people or ever give you another chance to rip me off. I will tell anybody that ever mentions to me that they plan to go there to buy to go elsewhere because you will rip them off. One commandment thou shall not steel. You try to rob us blind. You steel from your customers therefore you will burn in hell for theft. REPENT. The reason i don't give my name is because of the harrassment. PS i'm right under your nose!
Hooray to Pohanka....
LMAO
These comments must be from the same dedicated person from Pohanka. They suck and they are one step above criminal.
This was brought up again because Pohanks is trying to get attention. Its been quiet now they bring it back up i guess thinking we will feel so sorry for them and regret what was said because they did something that will be used as a tax write off plus people are still being screwed so they make out like bandits and the community feels bad for them...my azz they are still crooks. if you go there, hold on tight to your wallet because the pick pockets are out. you will be leaving there very light for work that you didnt need or get even if you paid for it.
Dittos to 5:27. Pittsville Motors or Pittsville Ford runs an honest business. It is because of them, or should I say the lack of other honest dealers in the area, I will only deal with Pittsville Motors for sales and service.
People don't defend their strengths...they defend their weaknesses.....It would appear to me that if you are busy telling everyone what you do for the community that you might just be doing it for the wrong reasons...
anon 8:54 & Polly Markis
Amen! My experience with these dishonest merchants of deception and fraud at Pohanka matches yours exactly.
Ok so out of 250 employees only 4 other than Sandy Ftizgerald showed up?! How many of those 4 are upper management? Were they intimidated into helping? She's real good at that! I like what another person said about the tax write off. It's a shame that they had to hire a public relations person to cover up their slime. The only thing that she cares about is the bottom line and how much money they make. This public relations thing is just damage control!
Dear Nina,
Although you may only know what you are told, I for one, have tried to call Pohanka to have an issue resolved. The answer that I got back...none...no one bothered to call me back! That speaks volumes to me. That was a big "screw you" to me as far as I'm concerned...they got my money and obviously that's all that was important to them (and yes, I called back several times and still never got a call back).
Where are the "many other employees"? They could have at least submitted their pictures too! Looks like a big public relations thing to me! Sandy Fitzgerald is just as slimy as that chair that was pulled out of the river!
I knew a guy who worked for Pohanka and apparently did quite well there as a salesman. After he left them, they asked him to come back and return to his old job, more than once.
I asked him why he didn't. He replied that all the lying and manipulating that they did daily to fleece people out of hundreds or thousands of dollars on a single deal bothered him too much. Pohanka is not different from other dealerships; as Salisbury's premier autogroup, they are merely Salisbury's premier pickpockets. Look at a yachting magazine and see how many of those owners also own car dealerships.
Food for thought, next time any of you complaining go into a convenience store and pay $1.49 or more for a 20oz bottle of soda...think about your pockets being picked.
Do you negotiate with the cashier at checkout?
Something to think about.
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