Bad Experience With Dealer

[Anonymous]

Especially those with credit issues.

Here's a story of how I got screwed by one car dealer a while back, and screwed them right back. My credit is better now, and I have some takeaways that I'll share at the end.

Went in pre-approved through Cap One. Told this to the sales guy. Settled on a price, well under my preapproval amount. Preapproval was a "range" of percentages pending final pull.  Gave my info to the finance person, and she came back with numbers outside the range I knew I had been preapproved for.  I told her what I had been preapproved for, and she shrugged, and said, "they're telling me this rate, but if you buy the extended warranty, we can give you extra points for that, for each product you buy, blah blah blah, and we can get it down to the rate you were expecting." 

I KNEW she was lying, and I hated her for it.

But I also knew that I could work around her bull**bleep**.  So I took it. I bought (and financed) the extended warranty for $3800.

As SOON as my paperwork came, I began working on cancelling that warranty. The fine print on the contract told me it was cancellable for a full refund within 60 days. Told me exactly who to notify (the Dealer and/or the Plan Administrator).  I chose to notify the Plan Administrator, because I had exactly zero trust in the dealer.  After receiving the cancellation confirmation letter from the Plan Administrator, it took several weeks of contacting both the lender and the Dealer to coordinate the payout of the refund, but it was worth every penny, because contrary to Finance person's statements, my interest rate did not change on cancellation of the extended warranty.

So with a few weeks work, I was back to the deal I came in expecting, and the payment I came in expecting.

After speaking with Capital One, I was informed that there are two ways the finance people can pull my credit, one is by putting in my info and searching for a preapproval, and one is a cold pull. She KNEW I had a preapproval, but went for a cold pull anyway. I don't know what she did differently that caused her to get different numbers for me, or whether she just made that up on the spot.

So in addition to screwing ME, she screwed Capital One out of a loan, probably because she gets more kickbacks from Ally.  As they are on Cap One's preapproval list, I also composed a nicer, more polite explanation than this one and sent it on to Capital One so that they can be aware. I was told by one of the reps that if a dealer does shady things they will be removed from that list. So I can hope for that as well.

Takeaways:

Sales guy is all smiles.
Finance people will lie through their teeth.

things they stick you with can sometimes be undone after the fact.

Read the fine print.

Next time (given my positive credit trajectory) I'm going in with a firm preapproval from my Credit Union, and will demand that they DO NOT run my credit AT ALL to reduce the possibility of finance shenanigans.

So in the end I got the $3800 refunded back to my lender, and my lender (which ended up being Ally) was able to adjust the payment downward to where we expected it to be.

Three things are certain:

Death

Taxes

Deceptive auto dealers

[settleordelete]

Thanks for the insight.

[TXinandout]

Wow great story!

[Anonymous]

The same thing happened to me last year. I knew my credit would have to be pulled when I went to the dealership, but I was told that I had a hard approval for 1.99% based on the amount I wanted to finance. I negotiated everything online and I went in with my approval from Cap One and showed it to the sales guy. The finance guy told me that I was approved for 6.1% from Cap One and 5.9% through Ally. I knew something wasn't right, but I went ahead and agreed to finance with Ally. The next day I called Cap One to inquire and I was assured that I had a firm approval for 1.99%. I figured it was too late to do anything about it, but I wrote an email to the finance manager and expressed how disgusted I was with their underhanded tactics and how they lied to my face about my approval. I got a call right away from the finance manager and he told me the finance guy who did my paperwork did not understand my approval and since the paperwork did not go in yet, they would tear it up and redo the contract with Cap One for 1.99%. I went in and signed the paperwork and everything is fine now, but I still can't believe what they tried to do to me.

[Anonymous]

You should try to refi thru NFCU..

[Anonymous]

Finance guys (and gals) are the scum of the earth. I give relatives advice on buying cars and the MAIN thing I tell them is very simple: Every time you say 'YES' in the finance office, it's going to cost you. 

People have to get emotionally detached from buying a car. Don't hesitate to get up and walk out from the finance office if you feel you're getting screwed and say you're going home. I guarantee they will come running after you. 

[surferchris]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Finance guys (and gals) are the scum of the earth. I give relatives advice on buying cars and the MAIN thing I tell them is very simple: Every time you say 'YES' in the finance office, it's going to cost you. 

People have to get emotionally detached from buying a car. Don't hesitate to get up and walk out from the finance office if you feel you're getting screwed and say you're going home. I guarantee they will come running after you. 

---

LOL

[surferchris]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Especially those with credit issues.

Here's a story of how I got screwed by one car dealer a while back, and screwed them right back. My credit is better now, and I have some takeaways that I'll share at the end.

Went in pre-approved through Cap One. Told this to the sales guy. Settled on a price, well under my preapproval amount. Preapproval was a "range" of percentages pending final pull.  Gave my info to the finance person, and she came back with numbers outside the range I knew I had been preapproved for.  I told her what I had been preapproved for, and she shrugged, and said, "they're telling me this rate, but if you buy the extended warranty, we can give you extra points for that, for each product you buy, blah blah blah, and we can get it down to the rate you were expecting." 

I KNEW she was lying, and I hated her for it.

But I also knew that I could work around her bull**bleep**.  So I took it. I bought (and financed) the extended warranty for $3800.

As SOON as my paperwork came, I began working on cancelling that warranty. The fine print on the contract told me it was cancellable for a full refund within 60 days. Told me exactly who to notify (the Dealer and/or the Plan Administrator).  I chose to notify the Plan Administrator, because I had exactly zero trust in the dealer.  After receiving the cancellation confirmation letter from the Plan Administrator, it took several weeks of contacting both the lender and the Dealer to coordinate the payout of the refund, but it was worth every penny, because contrary to Finance person's statements, my interest rate did not change on cancellation of the extended warranty.

So with a few weeks work, I was back to the deal I came in expecting, and the payment I came in expecting.

After speaking with Capital One, I was informed that there are two ways the finance people can pull my credit, one is by putting in my info and searching for a preapproval, and one is a cold pull. She KNEW I had a preapproval, but went for a cold pull anyway. I don't know what she did differently that caused her to get different numbers for me, or whether she just made that up on the spot.

So in addition to screwing ME, she screwed Capital One out of a loan, probably because she gets more kickbacks from Ally.  As they are on Cap One's preapproval list, I also composed a nicer, more polite explanation than this one and sent it on to Capital One so that they can be aware. I was told by one of the reps that if a dealer does shady things they will be removed from that list. So I can hope for that as well.

Takeaways:

Sales guy is all smiles.
Finance people will lie through their teeth.

things they stick you with can sometimes be undone after the fact.

Read the fine print.

Next time (given my positive credit trajectory) I'm going in with a firm preapproval from my Credit Union, and will demand that they DO NOT run my credit AT ALL to reduce the possibility of finance shenanigans.

So in the end I got the $3800 refunded back to my lender, and my lender (which ended up being Ally) was able to adjust the payment downward to where we expected it to be.

Three things are certain:

Death

Taxes

Deceptive auto dealers

---

Good story - glad it worked out and that you looked out for yourself.

[SMikulski49]

You can NEVER turst a dealer. 

Less than a year ago I went to get a car for my wife. It was at a subaru dealer. I called and asked about different promotions they had, he specifically told me $1000 off if I lease a car. I had a friend at ford but the same dealer company, so he called in a favor for me and tried to get me the lowet price. After they lowered the price they no longer gave me the $1000 but instead gave me $750. That already was shady to me but at the end we still got a good price below the invoice. We settled for 19K.

When we came in to sign the paper work, the first thing they gave us was to sign off on the monthly payments. Well the payment seemed off  to me by alot, so I asked the guy to show me all the numbers and all the paper work so I can look it over before I sign anything. Well the price we agreed on which was 19K, changed on the paper work, it turned out to be around $21,500!!!! I have no idea where they go this number from so I asked them haha and they could not explain how in the world that number got in there. The manager came, few different sales people came no one could figure out why they placed that number in there, so they had to re-do the entire paper work as I was checking number by numer, all taxes, all fees making sure I understood every number and where it came from. This way we were able to save around 60 dollars in montly payments.

These dealers are just trying to get you. If I did not ask for paper work and didnt look at the numbers they would make a lot of money from me, and I am sure a lot of poeple don't look over the paper work, and they should. Never feel pressrued into signing anything until you are comfortable and understand everything. At the end of the day they gave us 50 dollars cash for dinner, threw in mud guards and trunk insert, at that point for them trying to make me look like a d*** I milked them for everything I could or I was gonna walk. 

[6speed8]

Finance manager tried selling me on an extended warranty. He told me - the retired mechanic and service advisor - that "say for example, an oxygen sensor fails because of this Texas heat, it will not be covered by your basic warranty".

ME: "So you're trying to tell me that a component like an oxygen sensor that operates in 800-1200 degree temperatures at the inlet and outlet of my catalytic converter, is going to fail because it's 100 degrees OUTSIDE ?! And someone can PROVE that ?!?!? Riiiight. Let me tell you Bob, I'm a retired mechanic. IF.... BIG IF... That oxygen sensor fails outside of the basic warranty - as well as the FEDERAL EMMISSIONS WARRANTY - I'll buy a new oxygen sensor at whatever it costs and replace it myself in an hour. Save the sales pitch for someone who doesn't know any better".