(alledged) deceptive trade practices?
Bob Lewis VW-Hyundai-Suzuki sells many of their items in finace including the "Safety Key", by giving customers a false or inflated payment quote during negotiations.
I know, I worked as a new and used car salesman for Bob Lewis Volkswagen-Hyundai-Suzuki in San Jose, CA for 2 years.
If you dare to go to Bob Lewis to purchase a vehicle beware! The company as a practice inflates the monthly payment which is quoted to you in the final negotiations.
If you are financing through BLVW (acting as your broker), in the negotiation process you will be quoted a monthly payment written on a negotiating sheet called a 4 square. This monthly payment, based upon the quoted interest rate and the length of the loan should be an exact number, however BLVW as a practice, deliberately quotes you the buyer, a payment about 5% to 10% higher than it actually is. For example, if you are financing $10,000.00 dollars at 5.9% interest for 60 months your payment should be exactly $192.86 per month. The monthly payment that you will be quoted at BLVW will be around $213.86. That payment is $21.00 dollars higher than it should be. If you calculate $21.00 dollars times 60 months it comes to $1,260.00 dollars. Why does BLVW do this? So that when you go to finance to sign your loan contract, the finance sales person can sell you $1,260.00 dollars worth of extras without raising your payment. This is how so many of the "Safety Keys" were sold at such an incredibly inflated price. Bob Lewis calls this extra money they falsely build into the inflated monthly payment a "Leg", or easy way for the finance department to sell you something you don't want or need or at the very least sell it to you for 10 times what its true value is. This is common practice at BLVW and (alledgedly) it is a DECEPTIVE AND UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICE and highly illegal.
How much did you pay for you safety key?
Bob Lewis has mark up's as high as $2,995.00 dollars over and above the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) on many of its new vehicles. And will the company offer you true wholesale value for your trade-in should you decide to purchase one of its overpriced new or used vehicles? On the average you will be quoted a value approximately 20% below Kelly Blue Book's suggested wholesale trade-in value. If you finance your vehicle through BLVW (acting as your broker), expect to pay anywhere from one to four percent over what the company is actually buying the rate for from the lender, resulting in a kick back of hundreds of dollars to Bob Lewis from your new lien holder who gets to charge you an interest rate much higher than you really qualify for.
Bob Lewis Volkswagen-Hyundai-Suzuki sold a gimmick called "The Safety Key" for many years. The product was installed on all new vehicles as a convienence system for the sales staff so that the ignition key could be left in the car for easy location. Every salesman was issued a universal Safety Key. The cheap item is easily installed by mounting a simple receiver under the dash of the vehicle which places a break in the hot wire. The gimmick is equipped with a universal key which is inserted into the receptical thus reconnecting the vehicles hot wire. The vehicle cannot be started once the Key is removed.
That is unless you have any one of the tens of thousands of Safety Keys floating around the Bay area or a paper clip or its equivalent to by-pass this cheap system!
Years ago Bob Lewis VW came up with the idea to introduce this Scam to consumers. Buyers puschasing a new vehicle were lead to believe by finance managers that this system had to be "activated" and is an expensive engine immobilizer. Over the past decade or more Bob Lewis Volkswagen sold tens of thousands of these "Saftey Keys" for an average of about $500.00 dollars. The actual cost including installation is around $30.00 dollars. The device is nothing but a mechanical connection and is not an electronic state of the art anti-theft device as it was portrayed to be. What unsuspecting consumers also did not and still do not know is that every single Safety Key is exactly the same as every other Safety Key that was sold. This means that tens of thousands of consumers who bought the "Safety Key" could use their Key to bypass the anti-theft devise on anyone else's car equipped with the "Safety Key".
This product is an absolute Rip OFF and if consumers knew that they paid 400,500 or as much as 700 or 800 dollars for this cheap break in their vehicles hot wire, which can easily be by-passed with a paper clip, they would be furious! Especially when they learn that it is not an exclusive Key but rather a univeral key that tens of thousands or consumers who purchased the Safety Key also have.
Bob Lewis VW made millions of dollars ripping OFF consumers with this product. DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES? This will be up to a Judge to decide. We need your help in bringing this Rip OFF to justice.
Legal action has been served against the employer in February. Bob Lewis stopped selling the "Safety Key" soon after they were served with notice of legal action in February. We need more consumers who now know the truth and who want justice, to file a Rip-OFF Report so that this case can be filed for certification as "Class Action".
If you yourself or anyone you know feels you have been ripped OFF by Bob Lewis VW in this Scam, please fill out a Rip-OFF Report!
Brad
San Jose, California
U.S.A.
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