He has a son who has some developmental delays. He is legally an adult and he does not have a guardian and he is employed I believe. The son wanted to buy a new car. He went with Dad to the dealership. They negotiated a deal for 8% under MSRP. The car’s MSRP is in the 30s. They got no paperwork on the deal and did not even take a photo of the final deal (I realize this was a mistake and so does the Dad now).
The son went back by himself two days later to sign the paperwork and came home with the car (another mistake obviously). Dad looked at the paperwork and realized they had added $10K to the price of the car. Well above what the MSRP was even if they take the extended warranty and whatever other extras. The extended warranty was listed separately on the invoice.
The selling price of the car was listed as 10K above MSRP and then he was charged for the extended warranty (which he had no problem keeping). The car was picked up this week. Does he have any recourse?
I realize mistakes were made that I would not make, so please no lecturing on all the things they did wrong. Is there anything they can do at this point
Add contacting local news stations to this. Pretty sure at least one would like to run a “Car dealership takes advantage of man with developmental delays” story, and I think in that case there is such thing as bad publicity…
Thank you. I have never met the son. I think he is with it enough that he will not be comfortable with that but I will suggest that maybe it can be done in a tasteful way. Also, telling the GSM that is your next step (assuming they want to proceed) may spark something as well although I doubt it
Have the dad politely call the GM and explain: I came with my son, who has developmental delays, on X day and we agreed to Y price with Z person. My son came back in on XX day, and came home with YY price. Ask for an explanation and see what they will do to rectify the situation.
If he tells you to pound sand, then tell him you will be contacting local news, the regional rep for the brand, posting google et al reviews, and contacting the AG
I would speak to the GSM about what happened but if that doesn’t get them anywhere I would make it clear that they will nuke the survey from the manufacturer and cancel the warranty, which could possibly outweigh the benefit of welching on the deal that was in place verbally.
I’m saying that a nuked survey plus a cancelled warranty might cause more damage to the dealer for the month than the benefit of pulling whatever it was that they did here. If the dealership was in line for a sizeable bonus and a bad survey kills that then it would be worth making this right.
Any really shady dealer that would pull this (assuming this story has its facts correct) is also smart enough to avoid the survey going to the customer.
If this is actually relevant, why did Dad not attend the contract signing (the very important part of the purchasing process)?? I’m at a bit of a loss here.
I would recommend following @Bumboola’s advice for an immediate step #1.
There are several things that could’ve happened here. What is to say that the son didn’t work an entirely new deal, with a different salesman, etc.?
I would physically stop in. Be sure to speak with the salesman from the initial visit and get a SM or GM involved.
If it is nothing more than he said/she said, I don’t see much of a leg to stand on here. So many mistakes were made (obviously).
What is this mystery car that was negotiated to “8% off of MSRP”, yet supposedly bought for over sticker? I also don’t see how someone negotiated thousands off and then walked out with absolutely nothing - doesn’t even sound like the same person.
