By midmorning Kayla had learned that the dealership's reported sales performance concealed several costly problems. Customers purchased expensive service agreements they later tried to cancel because they had not understood the terms. Trades were sometimes entered before all inspections were completed, creating delays that fell on the service team to explain. Salespeople were ranked publicly on gross profit without any measure of complaints or customer retention.
"Who built this report?" Kayla asked.
"Chad had input. Dean used it for the weekly meetings. Pruitt approved the format."
"It doesn't show whether the buyer understood what they signed."
"No," Maribel agreed. "It doesn't."
Kayla thought of her years at the front desk, when people would come back holding contracts and asking why the payment differed from what they remembered hearing. She had referred them to finance, then watched some leave angry because the person who sold the vehicle was suddenly too busy to speak with them. She had always assumed management knew what those encounters felt like from the customer's side. Now she was beginning to realize that the complaints had often ended in a report without reaching anyone who could change the process.
At eleven-thirty, a man named Vincent Holloway arrived carrying a folder thick with receipts. He had purchased a used SUV three months earlier and had returned twice because a promised service repair remained unfinished. The receptionist offered him a seat and called the service desk, but Vincent asked to see the manager. A junior salesman sighed when he heard the name and said that Vincent was one of those people who would never be satisfied.
Kayla felt the old instinct to apologize on someone else's behalf, but Maribel gave her a quiet look that meant listen first. Kayla invited Vincent into the customer meeting area, asked whether he would like water, and sat across from him with a blank page in her notebook. She told him she could not promise an answer until she understood what had been promised and what had actually been delivered.
Vincent spoke angrily for several minutes. Then, when Kayla did not interrupt, his voice steadied. He explained that the SUV was his wife's transportation to dialysis appointments and that every unexpected trip to the service department required rearranging care, work hours and help from neighbors. The problem was not simply a rattling sound in the rear suspension; it was a family being told repeatedly that they should be patient while the dealership failed to finish a task it had promised.
Kayla read the original work order. A service adviser had noted the repair, but the part order had been canceled when inventory showed a shortage, and no one had called Vincent to explain. The sales department had logged his follow-up calls as customer dissatisfaction, but the service department's record said the issue was closed. Neither system showed the family living between those contradictory entries.
"I'm going to talk with the service manager and find out what can safely be done," Kayla told him. "If the vehicle needs to stay, we should discuss transportation options before I ask you to leave it. I won't tell you it's fixed until a qualified technician confirms it."