Car Dealership Vent

[goofyredraider]

And sorry.....the salesperson called to notify me of mistake. I requested from him the price difference verbally and via text. Then I never heard from him again.

Six hours later a sales mgr called me back but still didnt have the answer. He finally called back again with the MSRP on more expensive car.

More than likely, your salesperson got tied up with a customer, and/ or turned the question over to his desk manager to answer. If the salesperson had an appointment, likely he couldn't get away either. Most sales people are straight commission, and well, it's the end of the month...close out which is usually insanely busy. Salespeople usually have to get price quotes by "touching the desk" (from management)...so he probably was going to be no help, anyway. My thoughts are that he turned it to a desk manager, who half listened to the question, and called when he had a free moment on a busy day.

Thoughts on the VIN error: they may have copied and pasted the wrong number (assuming it is the same model of car) from their inventory list onto their form.

It stinks that the error was made, but it happens and it sounds like they caught it right away.

I would just go in, compare your sets of paperwork, numbers, etc- match the VIN to the actual car- and enjoy your new car! If the dealership is professional, they will have the paperwork printed and waiting for you when you get there.

 

[jperrot1]

This is very interesting. We all hope for everything to work out for you. So the difference between the two MSRP's is $1100. If you want the upgraded car, what about offering something like $950? I'm not knowledgeable in profit margins on car upgrades, but my gut tells me they would make less on the sale if they sold the upgrade at 50% off. Or you could ask them to sell you the upgrade at their cost and see what they say.

In any case I hope this is all resolved fast, and in a way that you are happy.

 

[msmayor]

If the ONLY thing wrong on your paperwork is the VIN, I simply don't see why you are thinking the dealership is so bad. They didn't make a mistake on the price or any item related to $$, yet you seem to feel slighted that they won't give you a bigger discount on the better car.

By wanting them to change vehicles, you are asking for a fundamental change in the deal. MORE than just the VIN would need to change, and since you are effectively asking them to cancel the original deal they are within their rights to decide to offer different terms for the different car.

It sounds like they WANT you to keep the deal you all negotiated and agreed to. They just want to fix the VIN. You seem to want to complicate it by changing vehicles.

 

[Srbright]

Paperwork has the correct loan/finance info listed but the wrong VIN.

The VIN listed is for the more expensive car.

Then.... all you have to do is ask them for the car that has the same VIN number that matches the VIN number on the contract you both signed.

It is a contract that you have entereed into. There is no negotiation. Send them a voice mail and an email that says that you weren't given the car that is on your contract.

They will reopen the negotiation.

Stacy

 

[AuntMinnie12]

Then.... all you have to do is ask them for the car that has the same VIN number that matches the VIN number on the contract you both signed.

It is a contract that you have entereed into. There is no negotiation. Send them a voice mail and an email that says that you weren't given the car that is on your contract.

They will reopen the negotiation.

Stacy

So I'm looking at all the paperwork again. The vehicle purchase contract lists both the VIN and color of the more expensive car.

 

[turkeymama]

If the ONLY thing wrong on your paperwork is the VIN, I simply don't see why you are thinking the dealership is so bad. They didn't make a mistake on the price or any item related to $$, yet you seem to feel slighted that they won't give you a bigger discount on the better car.

By wanting them to change vehicles, you are asking for a fundamental change in the deal. MORE than just the VIN would need to change, and since you are effectively asking them to cancel the original deal they are within their rights to decide to offer different terms for the different car.

It sounds like they WANT you to keep the deal you all negotiated and agreed to. They just want to fix the VIN. You seem to want to complicate it by changing vehicles.

This ^^^^^

Mistakes like this happen all the time. The vin number must be corrected for registration, insurance, etc. it's not a big deal.

 

[bumbershoot]

Then.... all you have to do is ask them for the car that has the same VIN number that matches the VIN number on the contract you both signed.

It is a contract that you have entereed into. There is no negotiation. Send them a voice mail and an email that says that you weren't given the car that is on your contract.

They will reopen the negotiation.

Stacy

That's where DH went in his thought process too. You pretty much have paperwork saying you bought the expensive car. And that is probably why they want this taken care of now, before someone puts that in your head. Might not really be a big deal to you (seems less difficult for you than actually switching cars), but it could be a nightmare for them!

 

[khaoskat]

Bingo!
More than likely they will do something along these lines to compensate for their error, but wiping several thousand off a vehicle, no..and that's just unreasonable.
People make honest mistakes all the time - it's what makes them human. Just because it's a car dealership doesn't mean they are all swindling slime balls, seriously.

It almost sounded like they wanted to maybe pay the difference, or look at a meeting of the minds on a price between the two, not that they were looking for it for free.

But, right now, the dealership is on the line for any damage to the vehicle they are driving, because all paperwork shows they own a different vehicle than what they are driving.

If you want to verify if you got the right car (or wrong car), you can to I think the dealership website and type in the VIN and it will give you the specs on the car. Look at the VIN on the car you have vs the VIN on the paperwork..and compare.

 

[Jedimom]

So I'm looking at all the paperwork again. The vehicle purchase contract lists both the VIN and color of the more expensive car.

Are you sure you were GIVEN the right car? Right now, with what you've said so far I tend to agree with the previous poster:

Then.... all you have to do is ask them for the car that has the same VIN number that matches the VIN number on the contract you both signed.

It is a contract that you have entereed into. There is no negotiation. Send them a voice mail and an email that says that you weren't given the car that is on your contract.

They will reopen the negotiation.

Stacy

Except I wouldn't even negotiate -- just outright demand the car that's in the contract.

A similar thing happened to my sister. They bought a camper, got it home, cleaned it up inside and out, had my dad come over and spend an afternoon welding something or other on it. Then three days later the RV center calls and says "sorry, we sold you the less expensive model but physically gave you the more expensive one." Models were so similar she hadn't any way of knowing she had the more expensive one. She wouldn't budge, and she ended up keeping more expensive one. The RV center had to fix the VIN issues with the State of WI (which was a nightmare for both them and my sister). Eventually they got into a lot of trouble for it (and other similar issues) and closed their doors permanently.

Another thought: what VIN did you give your insurance company? Did you take it off the car itself or the paperwork?

I dunno.....the whole thing sounds fishy. No good, legitimate, well run business would be so sloppy with their paperwork as to never have listed the VIN# on the intial contract. That's rule #1 in contract writing.

 

[goofyredraider]

Are you sure you were GIVEN the right car? Right now, with what you've said so far I tend to agree with the previous poster:

Except I wouldn't even negotiate -- just outright demand the car that's in the contract.

A similar thing happened to my sister. They bought a camper, got it home, cleaned it up inside and out, had my dad come over and spend an afternoon welding something or other on it. Then three days later the RV center calls and says "sorry, we sold you the less expensive model but physically gave you the more expensive one." Models were so similar she hadn't any way of knowing she had the more expensive one. She wouldn't budge, and she ended up keeping more expensive one. The RV center had to fix the VIN issues with the State of WI (which was a nightmare for both them and my sister). Eventually they got into a lot of trouble for it (and other similar issues) and closed their doors permanently.

Another thought: what VIN did you give your insurance company? Did you take it off the car itself or the paperwork?

I dunno.....the whole thing sounds fishy. No good, legitimate, well run business would be so sloppy with their paperwork as to never have listed the VIN# on the intial contract. That's rule #1 in contract writing.

If it is the car they test drove, agreed price on, and thought they were purchasing (just assuming based on what op said), then yes. OP said the finance #s were right for what car they thought they were purchasing which is what they left with. Also, it's likely the title etc hasn't moved from accounting and won't for several days, so rectifying it isn't difficult.

Likely, the employee who made the error will be written up as is, and if the issue isn't resolved positively, the difference in vehicle will be deducted from their pay (It does happen) or they'll possibly be terminated, but hey, you'll get an upgrade because of what was potentially an honest human error they attempted to fix within 30 minutes of realizing it.

Whatever the resolution, I hope it is a positive and ethical one. Good luck.

 

[jpcamaro70]

This is not a scam. The dealership biller pulled up the wrong stock number and that automatically populated the vin, color etc.

Like any other business, car dealers do make mistakes. It doesn't mean they should be charged thousands for this mistake as some are suggesting. Just go sign the corrected contract, you have the car you want at the price you agreed on, asked for a couple free oil changes for your convenience.

BTW- someone mentioned 3 day right to cancel. NO, there is no right to rescission. Except ca and you pay extra for that right.

 

[Bob NC]

How would you feel if you meant to write them a check for $10,000 but you mistakenly made it out for $12,000 and didn't realize it until after you got home?

Would you expect to call them and have them say "Hey, tough crap for your mistake, we made an extra $2000, wooo hoooo"?

You negotiated a certain car at a certain price. There was a clerical error.

It's a pain but mistakes do happen.

Edited to add: 2 years ago when I bought my daughter a new car the guy doing the paperwork was new in the position and he made a few mistakes that were discovered a couple days later.

When he called to tell me about it he offered to bring the corrected paperwork to me, or, mail it to me to sign and return.

 

[jpcamaro70]

After much debate, we had to purchase a new car. My DH signed the paperwork yesterday and I had to go in today.

About 30 minutes later, the dealership called me and said they made a mistake on the paperwork and we had to come in again. They put the wrong VIN number on the paperwork (for a slightly more expensive model)....but we have the less expensive model in our possession.

So I asked what the price difference was, so perhaps we could just strike a deal and pay the difference....and not redo the paperwork. It took them 6 hours to get back to me even with the price difference. Then they said full MSRP on the difference...which I found really strange.! They won't budge.

I'm just frustrated as now we have to take time out of our day tomorrow to correct this.......and it was their fault!

I feel like dropping off the car, getting our traded-in car and leaving!!!

Thanks for letting me vent!

Your trade is likely gone already.

 

[msmayor]

So I'm looking at all the paperwork again. The vehicle purchase contract lists both the VIN and color of the more expensive car.

Then in my humble opinion you are just as responsible for the error because if you read the paperwork before signing it, YOU should have seen the mistake and called it to their attention.

 

[clh2]

When DD was home for spring break - we went through something similar with the VIN. The dealership did not mention that it would be helpful if they brought the new car, but they took DH's car. The license plates were issued with the same problem and needed to be re-issued.

So - not only did DD and DH need to go back and re-do all the paperwork, I had to go back the next day and drop off the wrong license plate.

Was it inconvenient...heck yes. Do mistakes happen - yes they do. The dealership felt really bad about all the problems. The dealer also offered to send all paperwork down to DD at college, which we refused. Since the car was going out-of-state, we wanted to doubly make sure that everything was proper before DD returned to college.

Mistakes happen. How the dealership fixed them is the key. I wouldn't hesitate to purchase my next car from this dealer.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Soooo. . .I started reading up on this, because I was curious.

There is NO right of rescission on car loans. Once you sign, you're done.

Except. . .now here's the fun thing I found out that I didn't know about: the dealership gets 10 days to cancel the loan. If that happens, they have to return your trade-in or your down payment in full. You return the car. Soooo. . .if they know they got the information wrong, they can't let the loan go through. So in this case, you both made a mistake, but if you don't sign, I suppose they have to drop the loan, get the car back and you get your trade-in back. If they've already moved it off the lot, sounds like that's their problem. And from their end, this is a nightmare if they let it go more than a couple of days for other audit reasons.

There's no way I'd waste my day going in to fix their error. I'd ask them to mail me the documents with a pre-paid return envelope (carrier of their choice - I'd be nice enough to take it to the local drop box), and I'd sign the documents for them and drop them into the box.

 

[DaisyDew]

This is not a scam. The dealership biller pulled up the wrong stock number and that automatically populated the vin, color etc.

Like any other business, car dealers do make mistakes. It doesn't mean they should be charged thousands for this mistake as some are suggesting. Just go sign the corrected contract, you have the car you want at the price you agreed on, asked for a couple free oil changes for your convenience.

BTW- someone mentioned 3 day right to cancel. NO, there is no right to rescission. Except ca and you pay extra for that right.

Wrong.

 

[ICF]

OK -- If I'm reading this right...

You went in to buy car A which is blue LT Model -- with VIN # 1234 for $20,000

Your paperwork showed car B - which was a black LTZ with VIN #2234 for $20,000

The car you took home was Car A, the car you agreed to buy and set the $20K price on.

IMO --

I suppose you have a right to go in an demand the car on the contract from them at the price stated. That probably wont go well -- and will damage any future relationship you may have with that dealer, but you can give it a try. Maybe they will meet you in the middle or something..but don't expect them to want to work with you again.

Or -- you can realize it's likely a simple clerical error, ask for a free oil change from them or something similar and just have the paperwork redone. You were charged the right price and the error with the VIN # likely caused the forms to show the wrong color/model.

 

[ssawka]

Personally, I would go in and redo the paperwork, but I would go over the contract line by line and make sure that the only change was to the VIN. Personally, I would not pay more for their mistake. You and the dealership agreed on the price and you took possession of the vehicle. In my eyes, it's a done deal. If they need to correct paperwork thats fine, but they should still honor the agreed upon price. If they will not, I would walk away from the deal.

Yes, it is very possible that this was an honest mistake, however I have caught car salesmen making "mistakes" that nobody with any schooling (elementary) would make. Once, we went to buy a new car and I told salesman I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a trade in, so I asked him to give me the price with and without the trade in. The salesman came back with a contract drawn up with the trade in. The contract clearly said that the dealership was going to give me $1000 for my trade in. I told the salesman that I didn't want to do the trade in because CarMax had offered me more. Well, he went back to the sales manager and drew up a new contract without the trade in and it was only $800 less than the first contract. Really, you make a mistake when subtracting $1000?

 

[AuntMinnie12]

OK -- If I'm reading this right...

You went in to buy car A which is blue LT Model -- with VIN # 1234 for $20,000

Your paperwork showed car B - which was a black LTZ with VIN #2234 for $20,000

IMO --

I suppose you have a right to go in an demand the car on the contract from them at the price stated. That probably wont go well -- and will damage any future relationship you may have with that dealer, but you can give it a try. Maybe they will meet you in the middle or something..but don't expect them to want to work with you again.

Or -- you can realize it's likely a simple clerical error, ask for a free oil change from them or something similar and just have the paperwork redone. You were charged the right price and the error with the VIN # likely caused the forms to show the wrong color/model.

Same model but the "black" car had a couple more options.....and I'm wiling to pay for them. Just not MSRP.

DH signed the contract that has black car VIN and color. I didn't need to sign that. What I needed to sign only listed the black car VIN , not color or description, and I honestly have never checked the VIN before. Guess I will now, but won't be buying a car for quite a while.