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

[Gyburc]

OP, I think you handled this absolutely fine. I think you were being scammed right from the start, particularly because of the 'excited' texts the salesman sent you (which to my mind were really unprofessional). The GM's manner was the icing on the cake, and really, they deserve to lose custom. Good luck with the new dealership!

By way of comparison, DH and I had our windows replaced a few years ago. We had a quote from one company, and then a salesman from a second company came round. He claimed to be able to match the initial quote, and when we told him what it was, he was visibly taken aback, it was clearly much lower than he had expected. Nevertheless, he called his boss straight away and they agreed to honour his word; we got the windows for the low price.

If we ever need more work, we will definitely consider them, because they behaved professionally.

[Kari]

No, you didn't go too far. This is a common scam among car dealerships, as my recent research into car-buying has indicated. I've read so many stories from people who reported that Suchandsuch Dealership promised them a car for one price, then sat them down with paperwork for a much higher price, blaming an invisible "manager" for the markup and pressuring the buyer to pay. The more dealerships get publicly called out on this, the more likely they'll realize that trying to milk a few thousand dollars more out of one person won't be worth the hundreds of thousands lost from bad publicity.

[JeanFromBNA]

I think they should have eaten the loss since they quoted it to you and you had it in writing. However, you said that you had another quote from another dealer. Why not just go to them now to purchase? Mistakes happen. Since no money changed hands and no contracts were signed, I guess they had the ability to back out of the agreement. it's unfortunate.

That's what we're planning to do now. The other dealer is 3 hours away, but we can combine it with a visit to see our brand new niece I confirmed the quote with this dealer again this afternoon and can only hope everything goes smoothly this time.

Fingers crossed for you that all will go well.     Pictures, please, if it does!

[DavidH]

A couple of things to consider when financing a car.  One is that the dealer in many cases gets money back from the finance company based on the interest rate you pay.  If the finance terms are the same, it can even be helpful to finance through the dealer since that may get you a better deal on either the new car or the trade in.  The flip side to that is that you need to know your credit score and what type of interest rate you can get elsewhere before simply relying on the dealer to finance the car. 

Another point is that you may get a better interest rate by financing through the manufacturer if they are running a promotion.  You need to balance the value of the low rate with any incentives that apply if you buy the car rather than finance it.

[Spring Water on Sundays]

I don't know the legalities, so this is just from an ethics/smart business perspective: *If* it had been an honest mistake (and I don't believe it was, but let's pretend for a minute), and that mistake would cause them to lose hundreds or thousands of dollars if they honored the original quote, I think they are within their rights to admit the mistake, and apologize profusely when they tell you they just can't do it. They should also go out of their way to help you find the car you want at the price you want as a gesture of good faith. And maybe throw in some free oil changes or tire rotations when they do get you the desired car. That's how you build customer loyalty, which is a hugely important piece of the auto sales business.

However, still pretending to believe it was an honest mistake, they handled it completely wrong and treated OP miserably when she refused to go along with it. They are jerks and I wouldn't buy a car from them even if they called me later to tell me they could do the deal after all. I wouldn't trust them or want to give them my business after being played like that. Buying the car is only the beginning of the dealership/client relationship - there is also maintenance, warranty work, etc to consider during the ownership of the car. These guys messed up big time.

[Girlie]

I ditto the above. I work in customer service and have had moments when we've really fallen on our duty to provide the very best customer service.
I am always embarrassed when this happens, and I bend over backwards to make it right.

The fact that no one at the dealership really seems to care about anything other than OP's money (and getting more of it!) tells me everything anyone should have to know in order to never attempt a purchase from them.

[hjaye]

I'm pretty sure it's a standard sales tactic at that dealership and many others.  It's amazing how many......oops math mistakes, going to cost you more.............................. stories I've heard, and been a part of myself.  I've never heard one where the mistake meant the buyer was going to end up paying less than was originally negotiated.

Mine is pretty straightforward. Everything was done, and then we get the ooooohhhh, there is a mistake, when you traded in your car there was a balance on it that was more than what the car was worth and we were going to add that to the price of the vehicle.  We made a mistake and subtracted that amount instead of adding it, so now your payment is going to be 75.00 a month more than what we said it would be, and even though I know what we said it would be was right at the top of your budget (it always is) this now puts you 75.00 a month above what your maximum amount is supposed to be.

They always bet on the buyer falling so in love with the car that they'll suck it up and agree to paying more than they wanted to for the car.

[Twik]

Me, it was the "Oops, we aren't going to pay you the amount we promised for your trade-in, because we checked it over, and it's horribly unsafe - the frame is bent."

Yes, the car I had driven with no problems for five years, with regular maintenance (and definitely no frame-bending accidents) suddenly became a death trap as soon as I traded it in.

[JenJay]

When I was about 8 months pregnant, in June (in other words hot, tired and cranky!), we spent about 5 hours haggling over trading in our car and buying a new one. Finally it gets down to a mere $300 difference on our trade and the salesman would not budge. We knew what the car was worth so we wouldn't budge, either. I stood up to leave and he got all exasperated "I can't believe you're willing to lose this deal over a few hundred dollars!" I replied "I'm not, I can go get a car just like that one for the price I want from somebody else. You're the one losing the deal." We left and he called us the next morning, begging us to come back. I guess he had to see for himself that yeah, we'd walk.

Another time the sales manager tried to puff up his chest and get in DH's face. DH works in law enforcement so he just laughed and said "I've got guys a lot bigger & scarier than you threatening me every day, and they actually mean it. Sit down." Boy did he deflate fast!

Before we bought our last car I emailed every major dealership within 50 miles and said "This is what I want. Do you have it and how much?" Only one salesman refused to give me a quote. The winner was the guy who not only gave me the best quote but bumped the car from the base model I'd been asking about to one with a few goodies. I said "I'll be there by 6!" he said "I'll have your paperwork ready!" We were in and out of there in about an hour.

[miranova]

I don't play the trade-in game.  It's just another way for them to mess with you.  Easier to just sell my old car on Craigslist. 

I also don't play the financing game.  Yeah, it means I drive cars forever because I will pay myself a car payment into a savings account until I have enough for a quality used car.  I don't make a lot of money, I just do this instead of a car payment.  You would be surprised how many dealerships want nothing to do with cash.  We had several tell us not to bother, they can't make any money on us if we had cash and they pointed us to other dealerships that might help. 

[bansidhe]

I second, third, or fourth the suggestion to open an account with a credit union

We did this and bought our cars through the credit union's broker. So.much.easier!

[JenJay]

I don't play the trade-in game.  It's just another way for them to mess with you.  Easier to just sell my old car on Craigslist. 

I also don't play the financing game.  Yeah, it means I drive cars forever because I will pay myself a car payment into a savings account until I have enough for a quality used car.  I don't make a lot of money, I just do this instead of a car payment.  You would be surprised how many dealerships want nothing to do with cash.  We had several tell us not to bother, they can't make any money on us if we had cash and they pointed us to other dealerships that might help.

We always figure out what our car is worth and then take it around and get trade-in quotes from several dealerships. When we're ready to buy I expect the place I'm buying from to match the best quote.

I've never financed through a dealership, we always got pre-approved through our credit union. I'm going to see if they have a buying service next time we buy or do the Costco thing! I envy you being able to save up and buy a car outright. DH is a "buy a new* car every few years" guy so as long as we've paid it down enough that it'll get paid off I don't fuss about it.

*When I say new I mean new to us. We always look for something that has 10-25k miles so it's sold as used but still under warranty for a bit.

[zyrs]

I'm pretty sure it's a standard sales tactic at that dealership and many others.  It's amazing how many......oops math mistakes, going to cost you more.............................. stories I've heard, and been a part of myself.  I've never heard one where the mistake meant the buyer was going to end up paying less than was originally negotiated.

Mine is pretty straightforward. Everything was done, and then we get the ooooohhhh, there is a mistake, when you traded in your car there was a balance on it that was more than what the car was worth and we were going to add that to the price of the vehicle.  We made a mistake and subtracted that amount instead of adding it, so now your payment is going to be 75.00 a month more than what we said it would be, and even though I know what we said it would be was right at the top of your budget (it always is) this now puts you 75.00 a month above what your maximum amount is supposed to be.

They always bet on the buyer falling so in love with the car that they'll suck it up and agree to paying more than they wanted to for the car.

Yes, it's a standard sleazy sales technique.  I found this out in the 1980s when I needed a job and started selling vacuum cleaners.    I didn't know about the sleazy, underhanded stuff that particular company did until after I had sold a few and to this day feel bad that I exposed the people I demonstrated for to their sleaze.

If the sale was cash or credit card, that was one thing.  If they went for the in-house financing with a down payment, it always ended up with "the finance company refused you credit unless your down payment is higher, so we need to pick up the machine."  Usually the person had made the mental switch to " the machine is mine" and would find more money somehow in order to keep it. 

If you didn't buy a machine, you'd get a call a few days later from someone in the company offering you a much more attractive deal than the salesman could ever offer you. 

They also scammed the salesmen out of their commission, but that is a whole other story.

[kherbert05]

Mentioned this thread to my sister and she reminded me a story about one of our cousins.


Cousin and her DH were newly married and this was the first major purchase they were making together. The dealership tried the ooops we forgot a few fees you owe us $XXXX after the deal was signed but the ink was still wet thing. She said, "no you just attempted fraud" - and put down her business card - she is a lawyer. "Now honor our signed contract or I'll be pressing criminal charges against you,". They got the orginal deal - though she did have to tell her DH to pick his jaw up off the floor.


According to her DH - when they left he asked, "How did you do that," And she replied, "Just remember (my parents) and the glasstop table story. (Basically table was marked  on sale for $150. Mom called Dad. He left work. They had finished paying for it when the manger came running over saying it was mismarked it was supposed to be either 1,500 or $750 Dad basically said the same thing it was marked $150 and you sold it to me for $150 honor it or I press fraud charges and go to the press - the table is sitting my my breakfast area right now)

[mich3554]

I've never financed through a dealership, we always got pre-approved through our credit union. I'm going to see if they have a buying service next time we buy or do the Costco thing! I envy you being able to save up and buy a car outright. DH is a "buy a new* car every few years" guy so as long as we've paid it down enough that it'll get paid off I don't fuss about it.

The last 2 times I bought a car, I had financing set up through my bank and allowed the dealer to attempt to beat it.  I did not tell them what my financing was, so they had to give me their best possible rates in order to try to beat what I had already set up.

Each time, the dealer beat my bank's financing by 2%....