After receiving intense criticism on social media, a Tallahassee, Florida car dealership has removed its inventory of vehicles from a Florida State University parking garage that had been open to the public during Hurricane Irma.
Last week, with Hurricane Irma quickly approaching, Florida State opened up its parking facilities to the public to allow Floridians to keep their vehicles safe during the storm. However, according to FSUnews.com, many of the spots in the garage were claimed by a local Infiniti dealership, which reportedly parked its entire inventory in the garage.
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Pictures quickly spread on social media showing what appeared to be new luxury cars with “Napleton Infiniti” dealer plates lined up the garage.
Florida State U had free parking in its garages during Irma...so an Infiniti dealership brought its whole inventory. https://t.co/LeynjBQTvx
— Robert Kelchen (@rkelchen) September 11, 2017
According to Florida State’s official Twitter page, officials ordered the dealership to remove the vehicles at some point over the weekend.
We has addressed the matter. The vehicles have been removed.
— Florida State Univ. (@floridastate) September 11, 2017
However, the damage was done. A Facebook page for Napleton Infiniti that includes a link to the dealer’s website has been spammed with negative comments, some of which allege the company disabled the “reviews” feature of the page after the dealer’s rating plummeted.
Napleton Infiniti has not yet commented publicly on the issue.
Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.