Car dealer steals car back after giving too good of a deal

wow, is that even legal?

 

The claim in the dealership's statement is that it's legal for them to repo the truck as long as the customer knew the sales price was a mistake. Who knows if that was really the case (or if that's really the law).

Dealerships do stupid things sometimes. When my wife was buying her new car a couple of months ago, the F&I guy was telling us about a current screw-up they were dealing with.

They sold a car and accepted a trade-in as part of the deal. Confident the deal would get financed, they sent the trade-in to auction and sold it. As it turns out, the financing didn't go through on the new car. So, the dealership obviously wants the new car they sold back, but they can't give the trade-in back because it's already been sold.

 

Is this the same Bill Heard that Hakeem and the boys use to hawk?

 

Here's the story from the news station...

NewsChannel 5 Investigates:
Dealership Doesn't Like Deal, Takes Car Back
Posted: 7/17/2006 9:55:00 PM
Updated: 7/17/2006 11:23:17 PM

NewsChannel 5 Investigates:<BR>Dealership Doesn't Like Deal, Takes Car Back
Car dealers are often the butt of jokes. But one local truck buyer is not laughing about the deal that he got -- and lost. Consumer advocates say this case raises lots of questions about how a well-known auto dealer does business.

Earl Kieselhorst thought he owned a 2003 Chevy Silverado -- a truck that he bought from Bill Heard Chevrolet in Antioch.

Kieselhorst says he "paid cash for it. Made the deal. Sales manager signed off on it. Signed all the paperwork. And drove off."

He traded in his car and gave the dealer a check for $8,100.

"I have the keys," Kieselhorst tells NewsChannel 5 investigative reporter Jennifer Kraus.

But he doesn't have his truck.

Bill Heard does.

"I can't see any reason why this wouldn't be my car," he adds.

Just one day after he bought the truck, a salesman from Bill Heard called to say the dealership was having second thoughts about the deal.

He told Kieselhorst that if he wanted to keep his truck, he needed to fork over another $10,000 -- something he refused to do. After all, he says, they had a signed deal.

But the next morning, when Kieselhorst woke up, his truck was gone.

"And I was like I can't believe it," he recalls.

The dealership had come and taken it in the middle of the night.

"I've got a contract. This is a legal contract. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say."

Metro police investigated and wanted to file charges against Bill Heard for stealing the truck.

Detective Ray Paris got a statement from Bill Heard, blaming a rookie salesman for what happened and calling it a mistake. (Read the statement given to police by Bill Heard.)

"They inadvertently sold the vehicle at a lower cost than what they should have," Paris says.

Kathleen Calligan says the Better Business Bureau has received literally hundreds and hundreds of similar complaints about the Bill Heard dealership -- more complaints by far than any other auto dealer in all of Middle Tennessee.

"Not only is this an unbelievable volume of complaints, most of them are unresolved," she adds.

Calligan says that, in this day and age, dealers know exactly how much a vehicle is worth.

And if a dealership truly does make a mistake, she says they'll take the loss -- rather than call the customer and demand he make up the difference.

"There is absolutely no reason for a sale not to be final when the customer walks out of the dealership," Calligan adds.

Yet even after Bill Heard had taken back the truck, the salesman called Kieselhorst again.

"He calls me back and offers to sell it to me for $11,000 more than I paid for it," Kieselhorst recalls.

Kieselhorst said no way.

And even though he still believes he is the rightful owner of the truck, when we went looking for it at Bill Heard, we found a customer checking it out. It was for sale, the customer and a saleswoman told us.

"The whole thing has just gotten more and more ridiculous," Kieselhorst says.

And now the self-proclaimed largest Chevrolet dealership in the world is accusing Kieselhorst of "trying to pull a fast one" on them.

"This is the way this company does business," Calligan says. "They really thought they would be able to pull a fast one on their customer."

After we tried to get their side for days, Bill Heard faxed us a statement just before air time, saying that Kieselhorst "should have known" that the deal he got was too good to be true.

The company says:

"It is not reasonable or fair to expect for Bill Heard Chevrolet ... to be bound by a sale where a clear and material mistake was made, and the customer was aware that it was a mistake."

(Read Bill Heard's statement provided to NewsChannel 5.)

Kieselhort says he just thought Bill Heard was giving him the type of good deal they advertise.

As for the police investigation, the DA says this is a civil case, not a criminal case. He says Kieselhorst is free to take the dealer to court -- something he's now seriously considering.

http://www.newschannel5.com/content/investigates/20762.asp?q=dealer

 

This is ridiculous, but doesn't surprise me...What a bunch of idiots...I havn't bought from them, and of course never will...

 

I think he'd win in court. He's got a contract, not made under duress. The salesman is an agent of the company.

The law doesn't protect bad deals.

Then again, I don't know what he could sue for. If he is refunded the money, he is essentially made "whole."

As for the DA, I disagree. He outright owned the vehicle. It was taken. I think the dealership commited grand theft auto and should be brought under charges.

He should have called the police and reported the truck stolen immediately before doing anything else.

 

How can people still want to buy cars from that dealer? Good thing we don't have that kind of dealers in this area. All the dealers I have done business with were very good.

 

I HATE car dealerships.
I used to work for an all automotive advertising agency...and car dealerships are one of the most corrupt sneaky industries.

Of course the agency I worked for was just as bad.

They had a copy of a notary stamp and would photocopy it onto documents in order to have major auto companies pay back the dealers for advertising.
Like a Ford dealership would say they ran 100 spots on a radio station and then Ford would give the dealership co-op money back based on the run. But they never ran 100 times. It was all bogus and stamped (illegally).

Jeez....I HATE the auto industry!

 

that is some BS!

 

omg, this is grand theft auto if I ever saw it. I mean, I'm assuming the dude parked his car on a curb so they could tow it away the next day. What if he parked in a garage? Would they break into the garage and then tow it? And when's the last time a car dealer allowed you to return a car because you paid too much? But if they screw up, they're allowed to justify this crap? and if you want to nitpick, you can say once you drive off the lot, the car has already depreciated, so technically it's a used car and thus the difference is nulled or close to nulled. At least this story is in the media so the dude gets momentum to really grill them in court.