Redoing a contract. Errors in favor of both parties

Ask the Hackrs
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1

Heres the situation

Out of state deal. Signed off at the end of November (leasehackr calculator was $10 less a month but happy with the deal).

Tried calling the finance service for the past 2 weeks to set up automatic monthly payments. Nothing was coming up in their system. Told it could take a little more time. Spoke to customer service last week, again no one can locate the account. Was told to call the dealership.

Spoke to the finance department of the dealership. Told them the situation and was told the file is still open, but she was not sure why. Get a voice mail later in the day saying they need to redo the contract, no other information is given. Tried calling back that person, unable to get a hold of them. Tried twice today, again no luck.

Got a contract in the mail late today, with no instructions but a few highlights as to where to sign. As well as a star and circle around the milage. Seems they made a 5k error in milage in our favor.

I have no problem resigning the contract with the amendment cause thats the original deal agreed on. But I do have some questions/concerns that I want to address but cant since I cant get a hold of anyone.

  1. Does this new contract affect any other terms? Does it take effect the day I sign it?
  2. And in reviewing the contract it seems they made an error in calculating the state tax. That error accounts for the $10 monthly difference (Leasehackr calculator is always on point). Had they not just sent out the contract, I would have liked to discuss this with them.
  3. I still haven’t received my plates. When do I get them, only if I sign off on the contract, and why hasn’t anyone called me sooner, its close to a month, payment is due and plates will expire.
  4. payment is due this week, what happens with that? I cant pay it cause there’s no record of the car. Is the dealership or am I on the hook for this ?
  5. If I do not get my plates, do I need to garage the car?

I have read on this forum other issues with redoing the contracts. I understand what I agreed on. What will be different from what I read is, will they adjust the taxes in my favor? It wouldn’t be the first time they made an error on the taxes. If not, I really have no choice but to sign off or risk losing the car, which I do not want to do.

What I think would be a reasonable conclusion is the dealership eat this months payment, which would equal out to the $10 a month difference in the contract. I would sin off on the redone contract in hand, with assurance my plates will be overnighted. I think both sided would be happy with that. If I could get a hold of someone.

Is that a reasonable/manageable request?

2

It should be retroactive to when you took delivery

$10 monthly in your favor or theirs?

You won’t receive your plates until the contract is funded. They won’t finalize the tag work until then. If your temp tags expired they can send new ones.

The dealer may collect your second payment and send on your behalf. There is also a grace period.

They should get you on the phone and explain all of this. If you get VM again, just say “I’m not unreasonable but I’m not signing until you return my call and walk me through this. If you aren’t able or willing, you have my address to send a truck and pickup your car.”

3

all of this is correct. seconded.

4

When people post here about an unresponsive dealer/salesperson, we generally tell them to move on. There are plenty more fish in the sea. When it becomes a 1:1 negotiation, all bets are off. The other party could be very accommodating… or not at all. There is no way for the internet to predict where in the spectrum your particular experience will fall.

Seems like this answers your question on the probability of speaking to someone/anyone with authority, let alone renegotiating anything

5

$10 would be in my favor.
When I was filing all the numbers in the calculator I was getting it $10 dollars cheaper then what they were quoting. It seems they messed up on the sales tax.

6

I’m sure at some point I will get a hold of someone. What I am concerned about is the payment approaching soon. With the holidays coming up, and the experience so far, I can imagine this could be an issue even with the grace period.

I left a message for the Vice President of the dealership. Haven’t heard back. I understand end of the month, Xmas this Friday, people are busy.

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable about wanting to speak to someone for some clairity. To confirm when I’ll see my plates when the contract is finalized. Also to see about the error in my favor as well.

I did speak to the bank itself so they do have a note on record that I called and was concerned about payment.

I

7

@jeisensc is spot on. If you don’t square things away with the dealer, on the phone, anything here will be pure speculation. They hold your answers, and I can assure you, someone will call if you tell them to just pick up the car. They don’t want it back.

8

It was not funded, so there is no payment due.

So new payment will be $10 cheaper? I’m confused because then you said them eating first payment would counter the $10 difference, which would mean your payment is now $10 more. ??

9

According to the leasehackr calculator the payment should be $10 less a month. I mentioned it during negotiations but got no where with it. I was happy with the deal so I didn’t make it a bigger issue.

After examining the contract more thoroughly, the sales tax was miscalculated, thats where the $10 was off by.

I was thinking if they give me a hard time with adjusting the sales tax correctly, maybe they can waive this months payment. I read in previous contract amendments, on this forum, that the dealership paid for the month while trying to get the contract signed. Not sure how accurate that is.

So by them paying this months payment, that would offset the $10. Figure that may be easiest. Then having to continue to restructure contracts.

10

On the contract they adjusted the date by 3 weeks.

They changed the date to the date I called and left a message.

So the lease was originally on 11/28. The contract now is amended to read 12/18.

This is a mess.

11

Which means their RDRs to the manufacturer don’f line up anymore. Did your finance manager get fired between then and now?

12

Unless it’s a BMW?

13

Why would anyone be fired for that? I am sure the manufacturers don’t encourage it but end of month deals probably get unwound or rewritten all the time. There must be a mechanism for those good faith errors to resubmit a corrected RDR.

14

Not because of that, but if this deal is so scattered it makes me wonder if the person who did it isn’t there anymore.

We haven’t even discussed the residual/mileage discrepancy.

15

I admire your optimism. Best of luck

16

The person who did the contract I never got a hold of. Spoke to someone above her. That person, sounded frustrated in a way that tells me this isnt the first time.

Changing the date of the contract seems very suspect. Payment, other paperwork that needed signatures is from 11/28. Also there’s 600 miles on the car. What happens to that?

I would assume the contract would get amended but with the original date.

Is changing the date even legal?

17

So where does go.

Being they made the error am I obligated to redo this contract with the December rates ? Or risk losing the car.

I do not want to lose the car but I’m not going to pay more for it.

The person I spoke to is having someone else from finance call me. So I have no idea on how they wanna resolve.

I’m just trying to get as much information as possible before I sign off on anything.

So thank you for those who have responded.

18

So let’s fix this deal since you and the dealership want to. What brand is this?

IANAL and if I was, I wouldn’t be in NJ.

Generally: post-dating a contract is problematic, but when you sign to lease/finance a new car, there is paperwork that covers recontracting to the original date due to errors. For me I’ve seen this implemented differently in different states

If the programs changed (not in your favor) and it was returned by the captive as non-cashable due to tax error, they should be able to just revise and resend it.

If they made you redo the lease with today’s date, I’d want a new odometer statement that shows your actual mileage today. If they post-date and keep the same programs, I wouldn’t sweat that.

Can you clarify this? Did you (for instance) ask for 36/10k and the contact is 36/15k? Or the car had 15 miles when you left and the start mileage is now 5015?

If it’s the former, that’s your payment difference. If they goofed the residual and the contact was returned, and bumped the mileage, that could be $10-15/mo on payment. If so, and you only need 10k/year, have them recontract with the right mileage and residual.

With the caveat don’t overplay your hand, you have the power here. They don’t want this car back. If it comes down to it and they won’t honor the original deal, they can come get your car and unwind the deal. You don’t want that, so I’d work with them to straighten it out.

You are probably talking to the finance director, who for whatever reason is cleaning up this mess. It might help to say “look I know you are stepping in here to resolve this, I am ok resigning at my original terms, but let’s start over and walk me through this like I just stepped into your office.”

It’s going to cost them more than $360 to pickup your car, and like you said one possible solution is they make your second payment. I don’t think they are trying to screw you over this, but you are not responsible for their mistakes either.

What else would help you right now?