We were screwed over by Antwerpen, and took them to court and won. Here is the condensed version, to put the whole thing here would take pages.
We bought a used Passat from Antwerpen Chevrolet, in Randallstown. We loved the car, and were happy with the price. However, what we didn't know, was that Antwerpen never had the right (title) to sell the car.
The car was stolen from it's owner, and had a large tax lien on it. It was then sold to an auction, where Antwerpen bought it, and sold it to us the next day. The car hadn't been driven in so long they had to charge the battery so we could take a test drive. We bought the car that day (of course we did - after the whole "I wanna sell you this car TODAY" pressure sales)
I will skip over a few MONTHS of hassle with them, as we tried to get the title and plates in our name. (needless to say, they couldn't do this - because they NEVER had the title to the car) Lies after lies after lies about how the DMV was slow, how the computers were down that day, how the right person wasn't it. This went on for over 3 months. (Remember - you only get a 30 day temp tag) We even got pulled over by cops and were about to be arrested - THEY REPORTED THE LICENSE PLATE ANTWERPEN GAVE US TO PUT ON THE CAR AFTER OUR TEMP TAG EXPIRED AS STOLEN!!! - until we convinced the police to call the dealer to straighten it out.
So they replace our illegal dealer tag WITH ANOTHER ILLEGAL DEALER TAG to drive around on. Finally, we got a call from them saying "You need to bring that car in right away, it's illegal for you to be driving it. We'll get you in another car right away."
Okay so we brought it in and had a loner while they found us a "comparable" car. They found us another passat with MORE MILEAGAE on it and passed it off as an equal car. Well, THIS car was in the shop for various problems FOR THE FIRST THREE WEEKS.
AFter the third problem, we were done. We called and said "Look, you've screwed us over, just give us our money back and take your clunker back." Not only did they not do this, but the "vice president" of something or other SCREAMED AT US. Yes, SCREAMED, that we had to take the car. This is how you treat a customer that you fraudently sold a car too?
Well skipping over hours upon hours of dealing with disgusting executives at Antwerpen (the owner and owner's son wouldn't deal with us at all - especially once we got a lawyer involved). But get a lawyer we did, sued them for fraud and won. Of course, they wanted to settle, FOR ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. (we were suing for $25K) What a joke - that didn't even pay our lawyer fees.
Well, the judge tore them a new one in court. I quote the judge "You should have given them the Taj Mahal of cars, and you just lied and defrauded them AGAIN."
So, we won the case, they appealed, and then we won the appeal. After it seemed like they had finally given up screwing us, they called our lawyer and offered a settlement! A settlement? Yep, these a-holes said they were going to appeal it AGAIN unless we agreed to settle. And if we hadn't agreed to settle, we would have ended up spending more on greedy lawyers than we won in the case. So we finally settled, and it was over.
But, the important lesson is, don't let them screw you over, when you know you're in the right. It's amazing how fast people stop ignoring you when a lawyer is involved.
And THIS is the type of company Antwerpen is. Screw you over, screw you over some more, and just when you think you've finally gotten what you deserved in the first place, they'll screw you one more time.
I would highly recommend you NEVER BUYING ANYTHING FROM ANTWERPEN. They lied to our faces, and then LIED IN COURT UNDER OATH. This is not exaggeration. They bald-faced lied in court about things they promised us, and paid the price. This is what you can expect as a customer at any of their dealerships.
This is not JUST an angry customer. This is an angry customer who wouldn't take the screwing and won. Our case is public knowledge, and the transcripts can easily be found.
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