And drive $100/mo hyundais
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Have you reported the broker to the appropriate State regulatory authorities? I believe the DMV licenses brokers.
We can agree to disagree, but fair enough.
I’ll provide an analogy from my world to highlight the point. It’s imperfect, but the best I can do off the top of my head. Let’s say that I hire an external consulting firm for a $10K fee to perform a financial audit, extract tax savings, identify overpayments, etc. This firm has a good track record for finding savings and finds $50K in unexpected savings. They can’t look at that and say “Wow that’s a lot. We dramatically overperformed our $10K fee so we’ll skim $5K off the top. We still saved them $35K.”
“You see I paid this broker about $1000 to get a deal I couldn’t get on my own. He probably slid some of it under the table to dealership employees, but the deal was still the same. I’d like you to right this injustice!”
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The OP claims that State law requires disclosure if the broker is receiving compensation from the dealer. The OP seems to believe that the broker received compensation from the dealer and failed to disclose this. This would seem to be something that the licensing agency would be interested in.
I preface I know nothing about hyundais or their market. (thank god).
The $300 could have easily gone to an SM or GM to secure the vehicle, which would not be in writing, the legality of this I won’t discuss. However, the common sense side of me says, it would be for a deal that you could not have gotten on your own. (or i’m sure you would have).
I don’t think this was an ‘unexpected’ savings, the deal was already negotiated (ie when it was posted). I’m sure the broker new their numbers from the getgo.
Whether that makes it better or worse in your eyes, who knows. However, if you are only doing this on principle, then the only solution would be to get a new contract at the higher price.
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I don’t doubt for a second that money was moving around all over the place, but so long as I get my deal, I don’t care if they take my fees and spray Cristal at club all night long.
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I know the financial dispositions of the parties involved shouldn’t matter. But when we’re talking about sub $200 car deals that you couldn’t/didnt/wouldn’t negotiate on your own and you’re this wound up about how $300 (that you agreed to) was allocated, I have to end my concern here with a tremendous eye roll.
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Is it really that difficult to be honest on your broker fees? If a broker isn’t honest with their fees, what else aren’t they being honest on? There’s a million more honest brokers here, just use them lol.
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But seriously, guys, you’re arguing over a 3 trips to the gas station…
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That’s not quite accurate. Yes, it’s true that the state requires disclosure. One of the claims was that this $300.00 fee was pre-arranged from dealership to broker - that the dealership wanted to skip the paperwork and have the customer pay it from that end. First, that makes no sense. Second, dealership management refuted this.
It wasn’t moving anywhere. It went to the broker and stayed in his pocket. I would’ve dropped it if he had just copped to it. I don’t enjoy being lied to, and I imagine you don’t either.
Think bigger. It’s a matter of integrity for the broader community. $300 (or $1000 as another poster claimed above) times hundreds of deals is a ton of money.
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I don’t like being lied to, but if my outlay was the same, I wouldn’t care. I think it’s a very safe assumption there was a piece that went to dealership employees under the table, which couldn’t be disclosed for obvious reasons.
I don’t completely miss that point. I just think I lean towards I’m agreeing to a total price with the broker. If they end up making out better because they’re amazing at their job, more power to them. Would an honest accounting of that fact be preferable? Yes. But not something I’m cooking a broker over.
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If the $1,099 fee was advertised instead of $799, this thread wouldn’t exist. For OP, it’s a matter of principal and not of extra $300.
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It is all principle since there was no extra $300.
It was embarrassing when my friend (who knows little about car leasing) asked me where the $300.00 payment went. After Seth refused to refund it, I Venmo’d her the $300.00 out of pocket. She promptly returned to me and blocked me on Venmo.
So if a hypothetical, all online/remote deal with delivery to you by the broker was for $3k up front (including a broker fee with nothing broken down on the $3k) with a car that was $500m/10k per year, and the broker found $100 bill in the trunk when he/she went to pick up the car after driving it off the lot does he/she owe you that $100? Is it owed to the dealer?
What if the dealer made a $500 mistake in the buyer’s favor and only the broker knows? Can the broker keep the $500 and not disclose it? Can the broker keep half with half to the dealer? Half to the buyer? It isn’t a “broker fee” either way.
The point is that the deal as between the broker and the buyer is the deal, so any screw up by the dealer that is a plus contractually goes to the broker, right? Is that the same scenario when the dealer screws up by $500 in the red, the deal between the buyer and broker stands, and the buyer should not have to eat $500 more but the broker should, right? Does broker have a deal in writing with the dealer? Does buyer have a written deal with the broker?
These are not easy answers and the honor (or maybe lack thereof) of everyone comes into play.
Huge amount of morals spitballing and armchair lawyering going on here and while OP has very right to go public with the issues, the broker is being dragged through the process when this really is just between the two of them and nobody else.
Let me throw a hypothetical here
Broker Advertises Car for $2000 + $500 fee
Buyer says ‘Ok I’ll pay $2000 + 500’. Contract Signed.
Broker goes to Dealer, Dealer says ‘Oh BTW the Deal is $1500 now, we really need to move metal’
Now The Broker has an issue. Does he
- Tell the buyer , our deal has changed and it’s $1500 and $500 OR
- Tell the buyer, the deal is the same but it’s $1500 + Send me $500 + $500 Broker fee.
So which is correct? The contract is $2500, the Buyer spends $2500.
I’m not defending Seth, but if this was a Dealer, if you told him you would pay $2500 and sign the deal, then AS YOU WALK OUT you hear someone else get a better deal…should the dealer give you back your money?
Is the broker legit for staying on price or an ass for not giving the extra discount, or both?
unrelated, this is my favorite thing to do. 
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If the broker fee is solely from the client, Option #1. The broker has a fiduciary responsibility here.
If the broker fee is coming from the dealership, then the broker should inform the dealer “actually you can keep it at the original price. Give me the discount on the next one.”
In neither situation should the broker pocket the difference. But even then, your Option #2 is better than what happened here. At least the fee is being disclosed.
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