Been leasing for a while and really enjoying the forum.
I am on the hunt for a Highlander.
I did an Edmounds price request- I usually engage the lowest price of the four certs and see if I can work out a deal. I mostly ignore the calls. I picked up the first one and I had told the caller something along the lines that I was engaging in the lowest offer to see if I can work out a lease deal. She said she will send me an email with a lease quote.
She sent me a link. I will attach some screen shots.
The pricing was very good- not unbelievable given the provided cap cost and the published MF and RVs, and this not including tax.
I called back and said I would like to speak to someone to confirm and I spoke to the original woman, who is from internet sales, and she said just bring it in and that would be the price.
I made my way over there- I knew it was going to be in trouble when I get some salesman trying to tell me that he wants to take me for a drive first and get me a coffee. I told him I am here to sign the deal that I was shown online and be on my way. He says he will get the floor manager or something- I told him I spoke earlier in the day with Mrs. (Internet manager) and she had sent pricing pricing.
A few minutes later they come back with a work sheet that is $200 more I month with $2k less of discounts.
When I asked about the glaring discrepancy I was informed that all I had were 3rd party numbers, not to be relied upon and they have no idea about them.
I was headed to a door and someone else presumably from management tried to stop me and gave me some variation of “hey lets work out a deal”…
I guess the website that quote is from isn’t official dealer however they could be using a 3rd party software to send out quotes.
Did you every see the sales person that you discussed everything online?
If she sent you the quotes they should be accurate. Its messed up to do the bait and switch. Personally I would feel to bad to even try such a thing.
On the otherside… If the quote was auto generated by Edmunds.com I know their pain. We had to request Edmunds to shut off the special lease calculator because it auto generate lease offers that we $80-100 off from real numbers. They even sent out an apology letter for their error.
the true mistake that was made was not getting something concrete in writing from them on a sales sheet, just to “print something out” and “bring it to dealer” is not sufficient. I’m not surprised and it’s possible that they would have played the same game even with a sales sheet. What really happened here is that their team was instructed to get you in the door which is what they did to then try to get you to pay more.
You don’t really have any recourse other than badmouthing them on review sites as previously mentioned.
Not that I think anything will come of it, but I’d contact whomever sent me the quote and say I want the deal, I want to give a deposit, send me the paperwork. If they say you have to go to the dealer, then ask who your contact at the dealer is and you’d like to speak to that person on the phone directly so “please have him/her call me to confirm the price.” In other words, I’d keep pushing the matter with the person responsible for the quote.
Minimum 800 credit score for that deal seems strange. Toyota top credit tier doesn’t have to be anywhere near 800. My guess is that put that in there so they don’t have to honor the posted deal.
