Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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Purchasing Strategies - Questions & Success Stories
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2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Go ahead and call, whats the worst thing they can do? I would advise not calling on a weekend, but just about anytime during a weekday would be good as most dealerships are not overly busy then.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Ya think?
Car dealerships don't have a worse than death reputation for nothing seaotter. They found someone who will pay more for the car than you would.
Ya snooze ya lose. As always...I would sue em.
You most likely wouldn't get anywhere. Unless you had a sales agreement with the VIN number of the car on it. Even then if you get your deposit back you won't get anything since there really wasn't any damage.
I, personally, would try to work this to my advantage to see if I could get even more off the car. But unless it is a significant amount of money I would be gone.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
In any case, I wouldn't bother with paying a deposit of that amount. Get your money back, and don't bother with that mileage alternative.
After reading your posts, I decided to keep the deal since I am getting the car (base 4x4 @ around $21,000 OTD with option pkg c (side air bags, etc.). I think they are only making $300 on the car (so perhaps the bait and switch).
I just got off the phone with the salesperson. She told me they have another car coming off the dock soon and I can take that one, but I will have to wait a few more days.
In addition, I found out more about the car that they are offering. It is a dealer trade. The car arrived at my dealership but the other dealer had to drive it back b/c my dealer didn't have the car to be traded ready. Now the car that they want me to take is finally in their possession with 180 miles on it.
And yes, the VIN number is written on the deposit receipt.
(I wonder if it's just the same car with the odometer rolled back...you guys got me paranoid now :sick:)
A sold or hold sign should of been placed in the car, and if it was a dealer trade, the salesperson would of most likely handled the check in. If it was an order car, many Maroney's have the customers name on it. (At least VW and AUDI do) If anything, the organization is awful at that store, or like everyone else says, someone paid more than you did!
I have myself flubbed an order and I was so scared because I paid 900 transportation to get a papaya orange TT roadster from Florida, or so I thought....It arrived as a coupe. I called the customer and I thought he was going to totally go off on me and I just said "Look I screwed up I am so sorry, and I totally understand if you want to back out" He said "Well, you were honest and you worked really hard to find the car you thought was a roadster, so I am still in" I got really lucky, cause if I told a BS story he would of been out. It just goes to show Honesty on both sides is always the best policy.
If you're really paranoid, ask to see the car with the 180 miles they were going to offer you, first.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
To be fair even the best run operations do have the occasional error, so I wouldn't exactly say that the dealer is trying something fishy.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
That's exactly what I'd do too. I'd tell the sales person, that this is either a "shady trick" or a mistake that shows their incompetence. Either way, I'd ask them what they're going to do for me to make the deal right.
The dealer uses a board to record delivered cars on their lot. The board is market sold by the salesman because he wants his commission. ????
The dealer uses a computer to record delivered cars on their lot. The salesman records the car as sold because he wants his commission. ????
Now how did the "mistake" happen? Friends had their new Intrigue they were buying sold out from under them by the Olds dealer. They obviously found someone willing to pay more for it when they were brand new and hard-to-get!!!
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
What should I do about this? I politely wrote back to ask where he obtained this info, but he has not replied. I am totally creeped out as a single girl and I feel this is completely in violation of my privacy, especially since I didn't even manage to get the actual quote out of the exchange.
Any suggestions?
My embarrassing dealer trade story: Sent a driver to pick up a car at a location about 2 hours away. He left at 10, I set up the delivery for 6 that night (figured 4 hours transit, hour at dealer, time for service inspection and cleanup).
Customer arrives at 6, no car. Driver shows up, turns out he stopped at his family members for dinner and to chit chat. He also left the MSO and check at their house.
Absolutely...happens all the time. Happened to me. Can I or anybody prove it? No...which is why it is highly advantageous for the dealership to have so many of these so called "errors".
Salesmanager tells salesperson, " A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush...sell that sucka". As socala4 has stated many times...the highly competitive nature of the business lends itself to these type of practices.
Sounds like bigveedubgirl is lucky enough to work at a reputable dealer and is honest in not trying to put a "spin" on this dealerships so called "error"...very unusual, but refreshing.
If the guy's creepy enough to pull all that personal info. Imagine what he's gonna do when he's fired because she turned him in to the owner.
I would ignore him entirely and hope he goes away. If he continues, talk to the police and the owner.
I personally call the owner. If they don't want to talk, there's always the local TV stations Turn to 2 or Help with Problems story guys! They love dirt.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Chances are pretty high that if the dealership pulled the poster's credit report without consent that it's a common practice of the dealership.
Be wary of giving a dealer personal information, such as your driver's license. Under the guise of getting your license information as a matter of routine related to the test drive, the dealer may very well be running a credit check on you, most likely during your test drive.
The problem with having inquiries on your credit report is when you have a number of inquiries without a corresponding loan to match, which is interpreted as a sign that you may have poor credit, i.e. creditors have been doing their background research, but not offering you credit, a sign that you may be a risk. So it does effectively lower your FICO score. According to Experian fka TRW:
Careful study has shown that inquiries are an indicator of credit risk. Recent inquiries indicate a person may have outstanding accounts that are not yet part of the credit report. The more inquiries that appear on a borrower's credit file, the more likely a borrower may not be able to pay his or her bills as agreed.
On the other hand, in the age of the internet, the dealership may have used public records available to anyone to learn more about you. If you have left a paper trail, you may be surprised how much public information may be available about you just via a few well targeted online searches. If you are concerned about your privacy, you might want to do a bit of checking about yourself to see what turns up.
On one hand, I want to call the manager, go in with my guns blazing, standing up for my rights. . .but on the other hand I also don't want to be paranoid about some enraged freak chasing me down.
I have been learning a lot about credit scores and inquiries, and I'm fairly certain that any inquiry without your SSN is a "private" one that won't affect the score, in the same way you get pre-screened credit card offers. But I plan to apply for a Capital One loan this month anyway, and multiple credit checks that occur in a short time frame only count as one pull.
I didn't realize I would have to use a fake name to buy a car in this day and age. I would have thought twice about showing anyone my driver's license, but I didn't even get that far. I would say I was expecting some shady interactions, but this seems over the top.
The only thing I gave him when we sat down at his computer was my name. He immediately confirmed my home address and and telelphone # back to me. He said he used an online people database in order for them to be able to select a person and their info instead of manually having to enter all of that. He didn't make menion of a work # or cell phone # for me, so I don't know whether his program provided any of that or not.
That evening, he never asked me for my license #, social sec#, etc...just my name. I do not think they ran my credit until I consented at the point that I actually bought a car from them 3 days later. However, I did wonder if their program gave them any additional info such as property value (of the residence at the address they pulled for me) in order to help them "pre qualify" the buyer.
Unless your name is John Smith, there's not much you can do to protect yourself from someone getting your personal info. this way.
This reminds of a discussion either in this or another smart shopper thread where some salespeople could not fathom as to why people requesting quotes would give only initials. This is a perfect example of why.
To the original poster: I would not worry too much about it. As others have suggested, given a full name, one can Google it and come up with all sorts of info. Nevertheless, next time, supply only initials or "John Doe".
Then take his name and info and do some googling yourself. Check local newspaper search engines for stories about dealer and his info there. Once you locate an address, look up the property records at the real estate records office for your county and the treasurer's office. Check the civil court records and info on the country info records as well. Then you can always email him the info.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Had the same thing happen to me once but instead he had my dads information. And since my dad passed away a few years earlier I would say it was a bit dated.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Doesn't work for everyone. I have tried it on my name and among numerous entries for many other people (a missing police officer, a college student, a HR manager and a yatcher to name a few) only three hits were for me. Of those three two were duplicates and out of date and one was my contact where I work (posted on my companies website).
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Guess you find out just how unimportant you really are when this happens!!!
Of course, his response was that he was tired of getting that line, and told me exactly where to stick my email server.
What if that was his real name? I have come across many a person whos real name sounded fake.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
You can google a phone number which will give you name and address. You can then take that info to the local municipality's web site and at least in my town give you photos of my house, a floor plan, when I added any addtions, how much I paid for it, how much my mortgage was, what it's worth today, et al.
Googling names isn't that great unless it's a pretty unique name.
Man, her parents must not have liked her too much. I suppose her brother was named "Noel".
Unless she decided to legally change her name to that.
You'd think the last name you'd want to use to not get screwed would be... well, you know
I always thought that her parents hated her...
One advantage with a name like that... you learn to be outgoing and a conversationalist....
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She ever take your lunch money?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
And in the "I would change my name if I were you" category, I once worked with a lady whose last name was Hitler.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
I knew a Mary Christmas in grade school.
My sister has a client by the name of "Dick Paine". I'm not making it up!!
Harry Colon.
and the harry was his name not short for harold
Bleh... just getting frustrated/anxious I guess.
2018 430i Gran Coupe