I’m not sure about your state, but here in North Carolina, dealers are “policed” by a law enforcement arm of the DMV–License and Theft agents. I’m sure there is similar there. I would most definitely contact them if the dealer gives you any pushback, they will crawl inside that dealer’s ass and make life very uncomfortable for them.
At turn in
Small claims court (in my neck of the woods) doesn’t allow claims of bad faith/time/emotional distress etc. Only the primary loss can be settled
Hi all just an update. Was at work so unfortunately I was not able to do much. I decided to directly contact the rep I spoke to during that day and proceeded to ask some particular questions… like if she remembered me coming in for an inspection and if she remembers me driving up to the dealership… After also giving my name and the model of the car she said that she in fact does remember me driving up. She even said, in her own words, that I dropped off a car in “pristine” condition. So I explained to her the whole situation and she too found the bill to be excessive. As I suspected though, she explained that she was in the sales department and not directly involved with the inspection. Whether that’s true or not…I don’t know… but she told me she would notify the department manager that handles the inspection as well as her own manager. She told me she would be in contact with me to figure out what’s going on. She also assured me that if it came to it, they would be able to pull up security footage of when my car came in. What I’m worried about now though is that they’re gonna try to come up with some lie like the camera footage was deleted or my wheels were heavily worn out. So I will be contacting GM financial again tomorrow to let them be aware what’s going on and to stop any payments from going through.
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Definitely contact the dealership GM directly first and explain the situation. You want to go straight to the top and cut out any middlemen in this scenario. Personally, I’d show up at the dealership and make them call GM Financial. This is their fuckup and they need to ensure it is fixed for you
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Not sure what state you’re in but if you’re in a one-party consent state (most are) I hope you recorded the phone call. Always be one step ahead of the game…don’t be the victim with no proof.
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And you might be right. Learn something new everyday.
Or, more likely, they were stolen.
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I’m wondering if something else happened and things just got crossed up with the dealer/inspector/GMF. I’d be curious as to the whereabouts of the car right now too. The Volt I grounded on 9/12 was subsequently sold at auction 23 days after the grounding. If the service records of this Camaro are to be believed, it was still on dealership property being serviced 23 days after it was grounded? I don’t think that most dealers would have a problem buying an off-lease Camaro SS in good shape with decent mileage and flipping it for a profit, especially with the current used car market. Maybe the dealer was dragging their feet or trying to haggle with GM somehow about that process? It’s possible that the dealer themselves may have even removed the wheels to prevent theft or swap them, and that’s how the inspector found it. Hopefully the dealer is forthcoming about what happened, because this would be a pretty harebrained scheme to try and pull off if fraud was the intent.
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I guess it’s possible this whole thing is just a “comedy of errors” (I guess that’s the term). No nefarious intentions by anyone but just a mistake that snowballs into another and into another and so on. Please let us know what the dealer says. That seems to be step one in seeing what happened here. I think we sometimes jump to the conclusion of “someone’s trying to screw me!” when sometimes it’s just a mistake or incompetence but no malicious intent.
When the GM drives up notice that the wheels on his ride look just like the ones stolen off your car.
Hmmm !
Check out the used cars on the lot. Does one of the used cars have wheels that look like yours ?
I would consider filing a police report claiming theft by the dealership. You have the photos and inspection to prove ot. That will get their attention!
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For exactly this reason. I usually keep insurance on the car until I get a free and clear letter from the Finance Co…
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What reason? Once the vehicle is turned into the dealership you are no longer responsible for it. Why would you keep insurance and file a claim just so you can have your insurance premiums go up?
Another update. So after speaking to the sales rep, I was told the manager for inspections was “on vacation” and wouldn’t be in the dealership until Monday…sounded very shady…and this obviously made me more frustrated…Soo the next day I decided to do what some of you suggested. I drove back to the dealership unannounced, explained my situation to the front desk, and asked to speak directly to the GM. Instead I get the manager for used car sales who, as it turns out, is also the manager for vehicle inspections… probably the same person who was “on vacation”. Now Texas is a one party consent state so from here on out I was recording everything. I told the manager about the excessive wear bill and he too remembered me coming in with a vehicle in good condition…with all wheels…He even remembered the color of my car without me mentioning it. At this point I’m retelling the same story but louder…partly because I wanted the recording to pick it up…but also I wanted every customer in that dealership to hear what was going on… and maybe this helped because in a fluster…during our conversation he actually admits that the wheels were stolen. He said the day I dropped off my vehicle, their dealership “got hit that night”. He said 3 of their cars had their wheels stolen. So I ask him…why am I being charged for for the wheels your dealership lost. From here he agrees to look more into the situation. He ends up taking a while and after maybe 2 hours of waiting I decided to call GM financial while I was at the dealership. I told them exactly what was going on and the lady I was speaking to over the phone joked about how I was so calm because if it were her she would’ve been yelling. Anyway during that call the manager finally comes back and I decide to keep GM financial on the phone so they could overhear my conversation with the manager. He basically retells the story about how the wheels were stolen and adds that the inspection crew coincidentally came the following morning and found the vehicle without wheels. So that is what they took pictures of and sent to the bank. After all that hassle the manager explains to me that they would file a claim and be in talks with GM financial to clear me of the charge. So I decide to take away with what I have, which includes video recording of all the manager said. GM financial eventually does give me a call and basically verifies the situation. From there they ask me to wait a couple days for them to process everything out and tell me that I should be cleared from those charges. So thats where I’m at now…just waiting for them to clear all the excessive charges.
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One thing to point out though…now that I’m able to think more on it…I dropped the vehicle off on September 28th… the manager says they got hit that night…He also says the inspection crew came the following morning… BUT on file they have the inspection on October 1st… which to me means the inspection crew did not come the following morning…and the dealership had the vehicle for a few days before they came… I don’t know what you guys think… maybe it is just a comedy of errors like valek.jw mentions…but all the details the managers givs don’t seem to add up 
You can even call on June 15th and tell them you grounded it 5/31, and they’ll prorate a refund. 
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It’s like a mail-in rebate…not everyone sends it in. They conveniently “forgot” in the hopes that some people won’t notice or won’t fight it.
So to sum it all up either this dealership is VERY shady or they’re VERY incompetent. Either way…people should stay far away.
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I don’t know if the exact day of the “hit” is that important. I know days run together for me…lol. Bottom line they admitted it happened on their watch and it’s being taken care of.
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