New truck deal fell through, what do I do??
 

Dealer located a truck for me from another state. We worked a deal, signed the contract, and set up financing. After a week I did not hear from the dealer. I called yestarday and my saleman said the vehicle had already been sold. I knew the name of the dealer where he located the truck from, so I called them and they said they never had that truck in stock.

Is this just a mistake by the salesman or could something else be going on? Maybe they felt their deal did not make them enough money and they backed out? I have a $1000 deposit which I will get back today, hopefully without issue.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks

Hey Ken, Dont feel bad. I thought i had my truck sold and the guy that was going to buy it backed out. And my new one is sitting at the dealer now. But i just had another call so i hope this one pans out. Bobby

Kinda happened the same way to me a few years ago. I told the dealer "sure was sold, TO ME, I have the contract". I argued with the sales guy and he said he located another one exactly like it, well after review it was the same car but different options. I continued to argue and finally spoke to the manager. In a polite way I told him to either deliver my car OR I will take my case to the Owner of the dealership (this was a huge dealership that has corporate offices). He let things go to long, I picked up the phone, talked to the owners secretary, she said let me makes some calls, hour later manager called and said, "come pick up your car".

I found afterwords that the car I bought (located on another lot) was not released to my dealer BECAUSE the manager refused to pay the transfer fee that the second dealer was asking for. My dealer manager figured it was too much of a premium and figured he would simply get me "another" car.

Look at your contract and see if there is a VIN# listed or the words "transfer from another dealer" etc.... You are still entitled to a vehicle it just gets more complicated since the truck never existed. I would argue with the manager.

It's the old "Bait and switch" tactic that still all too frequently happens.
My dealer located a new 2500HD for me, called the dealer and said it was a done deal. Well, the owner of dealer that had the truck said "No way", the truck hadn't even shipped yet.
It takes a lot to make a dealer trade happen.

There is no vin # on the contract. So I gues it could be "any" truck I purchased. Right now I just want my deposit back and I will move on to another dealer.

Thanks for the advice.

Typical game dealers play....they get you all worked up and then hope youll just settle for something they have on the lot..ie: "bait & switch" as stated above.

bunch of A** holes if you ask me. but who am I? Just a shmuck consumer

PS... definately go to another dealer. tell them to F##** off, they just lost a sale

You shouldn't have any trouble getting your entire deposit back.
It wasn't you who defaulted on the purchase.
Don't let them tell you otherwise.

If you go to another dealer, try to deal with somebody in Fleet sales instead of a regular sales guy. I usually cll a dealer and ask for fleet sales and have not had a problem getting through. Most fleet sales guys are pretty straightforward with prices, etc and you don't have as much BS with them. You still need to watch the finance guys because it seems like they have many ways to get a few more bucks out of the deal through financing..

lets us know how you do in getting your money back

Just so you dont feel too bad. Here is what happened to us last week. (long story..kinda....but crazy)

01/01/2003 (Wednesday)
The objective was to trade in a 2002 1500 Z66 Avalanche for a 2003 2500 Avalanche 4x4 (pretty simple).

Went to dealer in Buford GA to test drive one, but the color was not good. As we are about to leave the dealership they offered to locate a vehicle for us. (sounds fine to me). They locate one (they say its local) and say that they can have it at the dealership the next day, plus, swap out the tires on the new 2500 Avalanche for larger ones. This all sounds fine to us, so we do all of the finance paperwork, credit checks and such. They also say I need to leave our trade at the lot because its been appraised and if something happens on the way home the whole deal is off. (So they loan us a Tahoe) (again, fair enough). My wife asks if her Avalanche will be safe, and the salesperson says it will be put in the employee parking lot to be safe there.

01/02/2003 (Thursday)
Today comes and no call from the dealership. (I initiated them all). Now remember the new 2500 was supposed to be here around 1230. (no vehicle yet). Its now 230pm, I place another call and am told they are tracking the driver down with the vehicle. They are not sure where it is on the road. At 5pm no new Avalanche in site. We head down to the dealership at 7pm and here is the status.
1) No 2003 Avalanche 2500 as promised. (in fact they never did send a driver for the car all day, so tracking must have been real hard?) I was told 3x that someone was on the road.
2) Our 2002 trade-in was already tagged for sale, and in the used car lot. (safer there I guess...)
3) Our 2002 Avalanche had "no warranty" checked even though it only has 11K miles on it, so I guess the dealer was planning on making money selling that to somone when it was not needed.
4) They could not tell us exactly which local dealer had the new one (because again, the locators were down they said). I asked many times where the new Avalanche2500 was, never got an answer, only that it was at one of the local Atlanta area dealers.
5) They now promised that a driver would be out to get it first thing Friday morning. I said to the lead manager of the night, that if I did not receive a call before 9am that the car was in process the deal was off. (this was their 2nd chance to make good on the original commitment, which is the only reason any paperwork was
agreed to in the first place. The promise that I would have a new car by 1230pm the next day)

Hmm.....do I need to he smacked on the head with a brick? I also got about sick of hearing how busy it was today, yadda yadda yadda, and could not take care of me. (guess how happy that also made me) So, we took back our 2002 Z66 Avalanche that night, and in short-terms said that when the new vehicle arrives I will be back with ours immediately. Also, if they can not confirm with me by 9am (Friday 1/3/2003) that the contracted vehicle is on-its-way (for real this time), not to bother calling back. What even makes this worse is that this was supposed to be kinda special for the wife.


1/3/2003 (Friday)
I get a call at 815am that a driver is on his way to get the car from the lead sales manager. Good news, its only about 300miles away. Now, at 2:30pm, I call the dealership in KY to see when the car left their lot heading back down to Georgia...here is where it gets good(or bad).......it is still there, yes the 2500 Avalanche.

In-fact, the 2500/Avalanche I was contracted for, was never available because it was in the middle of a deal at that owning dealership. (and the dealer knew this Thursday because the dealer in KY told the other dealer had no right to pull from their inventory like they did and warned them about this before). When the Sales Manager told me on Thursday he was gonna get the car, he/they already knew it was not available. So when I left last night (Thursday), they already knew it was not gonna happen.

So, how many lies can I/we count in this entire story.......WOW....I did report it to Chevrolet. (what a waste that was also). One example was where I mentioned that my car was in the used car lot already for sale, the Chevy rep said it was semantics....There probably was not room in the other lot. (even though I said it had for-sale papers on it).....When I asked about the car being local, he again said semantics......local to them is within their search range. (even though I was told Atlanta area)....and on and on and on......