Car dealer kerfluffle...did I go too far? Updates in #18, #38, #75, #77

[Cat-Fu]

I'm guessing the issue isn't their math or their price sheets—this is just their shady way of bargaining.

I think you were fine in what you did. TBH, I recommend you update your review to inform about this development.

[rose red]

They are trying to wear you down.  If it was me, I would walk away even if they finally agree to the original agreement.  If this is your dream car, it may be difficult to walk so I don't blame you if you stick to it.  However, if you can be happy with another car, I don't see the point of letting them string you along and then reward them with a sale at the end.

[MrTango]

I'd walk away from the dealership and get the same car ordered through a different, more honest dealer.

[miranova]

Something similar happened to me recently.  I was looking for a particular car and my husband can be on the phone during the day more than I can, so he did a lot of the research.  He got on the phone with a particular dealership over 100 miles away and they promised a certain price.  They KNEW we would be driving almost 2 hours to get there.  My huband asked, over and over, so this is the FINAL price, no other fees etc and they said yes, over and over.  We said we'd come by that night, and we were ready to buy.  We cancelled an event with friends and went.

Went, drove the car, ready to buy and sure enough an additional $700 in fees were added on.  For a $10,000 used vehicle.  We were absolutely firm, we would not be paying a penny more than the quoted price and we weren't going to wait around and argue about it either.  We got the "but that fee is on every car we sell, there is nothing we can do about it".  My husband says, fine then make it up with the price of the car, I don't care how you do it but I'm not paying a penny more than what was quoted.  Back and forth to manager who moved about $100.  Do we look like idiots?  I was like look, this is not about money it's about integrity.  I'm not giving any money to someone who lied to me to get me in here.  There are thousands of other cars out there.  And if this fee is on EVERY car you sell, then your representative should have known that and should have told us that on the phone.

Here's the best part.  Their response to that is that "she isn't really supposed to get into that when people call".  My response:  "Oh so it wasn't a mistake then, it's actually your POLICY to lie to customers over the phone.  Got it".  And we left.

The crazy part is, that salesman called my husband (not me, even though it was supposed to be my car, because you see I'm just a female) over and over and over again for weeks, trying to get us to reconsider, and STILL not honoring the original quote.  Even when we told him we had bought a car elsewhere, he wouldn't stop calling.  My husband had to threaten him with a harassment charge before he stopped calling.  We did not ever give him any indication that we would consider buying the car after the moment we walked out, so it's not like we were leading him on either.  It was "we are not buying a car, any car, from you.  Stop calling".  For weeks.

I still need to sit down and write that review.

[JeanFromBNA]

I think that you've been fair in your dealings with them.  You didn't misrepresent what they did anywhere.  Review sites are fair game.  I have no patience for reviewers who slam businesses online for non-legitimate complaints, like the jerks who reported me to the BBB for enforcing the contract that they signed, or a friend who was dogpiled on yelp and FB because the hipsters thought that his business should provide free parking for nearby restaurants.

[gemma156]

No I think your actions were fine.  My aunt had a similar thing happen many years ago.  She and her husband had taken their old car for a trade on a car they had decided to buy.  Get to the nitty gritty of the deal in the office, the salesman then at the last minute added an extra $2,000 in cost's.  My aunt was livid at the bait and switch method deployed by the car dealership and then cancelled the deal on the spot, and demanded their old car back immediately.

The dealership were so comfortable they were going to get away with it, they had already begun to trash the car mats, and other such stuff from their car long before it was officially theirs to do what they wanted to it.  The salesman commented that it was too late and they had reconditioned their car already, so my aunt said fine, it's a straight case of theft and she would be calling the police to retrieve their car back then.  They ended driving out the dealership with their old car all spruced up at no cost.

[lowspark]

I had a very similar experience to that gemma. This was y-e-a-r-s ago. We bought a new car and it was one of those situations where they wanted us to drive home in our new car TO-NIGHT! and then bring it back tomorrow for the final cleaning and spruce up they usually do. OK. Next day I bring it back and sit in the waiting room for them to do their thing and the salesman comes over and tells me that it turns out they underestimated what we still owed on our trade in and we owed another $xxx (I don't remember the amount now, but several hundred at least) and "how do you want to pay for that?" (his exact words).

I was like, ummmm... I don't. You quoted us a final drive out price, and that's the price I intend to pay for this car. If it's more than that, I don't want it. We went round and round with him (and now his manager) repeating the "how do you want to pay for that?" line. I finally said, Look, I'd just as soon have my old car back and you can keep the new one. Can I have my keys please?

Well, I have no idea what they'd done with my car between the previous night and that morning but they just finally backed down and said that they weren't going to charge me anymore and I should keep the new car.

If they'd been unsure of the payoff for my old car, if they'd said price contingent on payoff which has to be confirmed in the morning, etc. then I wouldn't have taken the new car home in the first place. We'd signed all the paperwork and everything was final. If they actually expected me to whip out my checkbook and smile as I covered their miscalculation, they completely underestimated me.

One thing I learned very early on: never get emotionally attached to anything till it's already yours. Plus, there are 10 more car dealerships just down the road which also have cars they want to get off their lot. No one dealership has the one and only car that I can't live without.

[Diane AKA Traska]

No I think your actions were fine.  My aunt had a similar thing happen many years ago.  She and her husband had taken their old car for a trade on a car they had decided to buy.  Get to the nitty gritty of the deal in the office, the salesman then at the last minute added an extra $2,000 in cost's.  My aunt was livid at the bait and switch method deployed by the car dealership and then cancelled the deal on the spot, and demanded their old car back immediately.

The dealership were so comfortable they were going to get away with it, they had already begun to trash the car mats, and other such stuff from their car long before it was officially theirs to do what they wanted to it.  The salesman commented that it was too late and they had reconditioned their car already, so my aunt said fine, it's a straight case of theft and she would be calling the police to retrieve their car back then.  They ended driving out the dealership with their old car all spruced up at no cost.

...and now I'm thinking of National Lampoon's Vacation.

[Please pass the Calgon]

OP w/ another update:

When the GM called me back I stated my case, politely. He kept insisting it was an internal mistake and refusing to honor the quote. I persisted that their internal problem shouldn't keep me from getting what they had offered and then he got all snotty and arrogant..."I'm soooo sorry that no one in YOUR world has EVER made a mistake!" Really? That's how they train GM's to speak to customers these days? After a few other condescending remarks from him, I was done. I asked him to thank the other two men for their time and ended with "I will not be buying this  or any car from your dealership if this is your idea of customer service". I did update my Yelp and Google+ reviews to reflect today's events. The one on their Facebook page has mysteriously vanished.

My "I dont want to go through this again" is currently outweighing my desire for a new car.

[miranova]

I'm soooo sorry that no one in YOUR world has EVER made a mistake!"

Oh I hate that.  The polite and correct response when one makes a mistake it to apologize and CORRECT it.  Not to make it someone else's problem.  I'm not paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars for someone else's mistake.

We got that same thing recently from customer service for a credit card company, that told us we could do a balance transfer with 0% interest and no fees.  Then we get hit with a ginormous fee and 24% interest.  You should have heard my Dh on that phone call.  They just wanted us to suck it up and pay the money because THEIR service rep was wrong and was stating an offer that didn't yet exist.  They even listened to the original call and knew that we were right and weren't just making it up.  They just insisted that we shouldn't believe everything they tell us on the phone because it might be a mistake, because anyone can make a mistake and some of the service reps are incompetant.  Yes, they actually said that.  We finally got them to just reverse the entire transaction, including fees, but not before HOURS of argument over whose job it should be to fix THEIR mistake.  Dh would not get off the phone until he could see the transaction reversed online, because as he told the supervisor, "I can't trust what you are saying, you just told me not to believe anything your reps tell me".  Yes, everyone makes mistakes but I can't remember the last time I expected someone else to pay money for MY mistake.

[magicdomino]

And this is why I have bought my last two vehicles, and steered a friend towards a particular dealership.  Do I get the lowest price?  Maybe not rock bottom, but it is a fair price, and no games are played.  There is a dealership less than a mile from me, but just walking into the showroom is like walking into a shark tank.

Not sure what I'm going to do if I want something other than a Ford next time.   

[magician5]

You might want to review pertinent posts at http://oncars.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

The guy knows what he's talking about.

[Cami]

A few years ago, we were in the market for a new car. We had decided on the make and model. We were all set to buy from Dealership A when we saw a full page newspaper ad for Dealership B that stated in letters 3" high, "We Will BEAT any written offer." So my dh went into Dealership B with a written offer, honestly expecting them to beat it by maybe a dollar. No great expectations. He went in and talked to a salesperson who looked at the offer, walked off to the coffeeclutch of salespeople who all proceed to break out into loud laughter.  My dh is standing there, wondering, "What the heck?" He finally has to walk over to them and say, "Excuse me?" They proceed to stand there and mock him and say that he's a fool if he thinks they are going to beat that offer. My dh points out that they have an ad in the paper saying that they will (and there was no asterick or fine print) and demands to speak to the GM. The GM comes out and tells my dh to leave the lot and to stop wasting their time.  My dh actually filed a complaint with the state AG office for fraudulent advertising and they told him he was one of many with the same complaint against that dealership.

As it happens, a year or two later, my dd was in speech class with the son of that GM. One of their assignments was to give a speech on some secret knowledge you have. The kid got up and gave a speech about all the ways his father's dealership screws people over. It was enlightening. (I can't believe the father would have wanted the kid to do that, but he did it.)

[BabyMama]

A few years ago, we were in the market for a new car. We had decided on the make and model. We were all set to buy from Dealership A when we saw a full page newspaper ad for Dealership B that stated in letters 3" high, "We Will BEAT any written offer." So my dh went into Dealership B with a written offer, honestly expecting them to beat it by maybe a dollar. No great expectations. He went in and talked to a salesperson who looked at the offer, walked off to the coffeeclutch of salespeople who all proceed to break out into loud laughter.  My dh is standing there, wondering, "What the heck?" He finally has to walk over to them and say, "Excuse me?" They proceed to stand there and mock him and say that he's a fool if he thinks they are going to beat that offer. My dh points out that they have an ad in the paper saying that they will (and there was no asterick or fine print) and demands to speak to the GM. The GM comes out and tells my dh to leave the lot and to stop wasting their time.  My dh actually filed a complaint with the state AG office for fraudulent advertising and they told him he was one of many with the same complaint against that dealership.

As it happens, a year or two later, my dd was in speech class with the son of that GM. One of their assignments was to give a speech on some secret knowledge you have. The kid got up and gave a speech about all the ways his father's dealership screws people over. It was enlightening. (I can't believe the father would have wanted the kid to do that, but he did it.)

It was Matilda's dad, wasn't it 

[AnnaJane]

A few years ago, we were in the market for a new car. We had decided on the make and model. We were all set to buy from Dealership A when we saw a full page newspaper ad for Dealership B that stated in letters 3" high, "We Will BEAT any written offer." So my dh went into Dealership B with a written offer, honestly expecting them to beat it by maybe a dollar. No great expectations. He went in and talked to a salesperson who looked at the offer, walked off to the coffeeclutch of salespeople who all proceed to break out into loud laughter.  My dh is standing there, wondering, "What the heck?" He finally has to walk over to them and say, "Excuse me?" They proceed to stand there and mock him and say that he's a fool if he thinks they are going to beat that offer. My dh points out that they have an ad in the paper saying that they will (and there was no asterick or fine print) and demands to speak to the GM. The GM comes out and tells my dh to leave the lot and to stop wasting their time.  My dh actually filed a complaint with the state AG office for fraudulent advertising and they told him he was one of many with the same complaint against that dealership.

As it happens, a year or two later, my dd was in speech class with the son of that GM. One of their assignments was to give a speech on some secret knowledge you have. The kid got up and gave a speech about all the ways his father's dealership screws people over. It was enlightening. (I can't believe the father would have wanted the kid to do that, but he did it.)

Did DD take notes? I'd like to hear about that, and I bet the AG would, too!