When my husband and I went to Reno motors to buy a second vehicle we looked at a 94' Ford Explorer. My husband wanted a truck but was happy with settling on an SUV. This Explorer was going for $5,000 so we thought we were getting a pretty good deal.
When we test drove it, everything looked good except that the gas gauge was showing that it was empty. Worried, my husband asked if we would be okay getting back to the dealership. Confidently, J.R. Told us "Yeah, yeah, you be okay". I then told him that if we bought this vehicle that they were going to give us gas money (usually dealerships will have gas in the car for you when you purchase it, kind of a reciprocity). Anyway, he told me yes that they would give us gas money.
We decided to get the Explorer and went in to start the paperwork. Not only did this process take us 4 1/2 hours to actually get the paperwork finished, because we had to re-do most of it because this guy screwed up, but my husband and I were lied to and tricked by J.R.
Before signing the paperwork, I confirmed again with J.R. That he was going to give us gas money for the truck. He assured me that he would. He proceeded to tell my husband and I that we would be getting a complimentary car alarm put on the vehicle if we bring it back on the following Monday. He said it was something that they liked to do for their customers and that we had the option to take them up on this offer. Pretty impressed, my husband and I agreed to this and made and apt. To come in on Monday to get this car alarm installed.
While signing paperwork, I read what I am about to sign and see that it says that anything that the sales person has told me cannot be used against them, blah, blah, blah. It was saying that I can not hold the company liable for anything that he has told us. This didn't sit right with me and I knew something was up, but I just wanted to get the hell out of there and get home to feed my 10 month old son who was getting fussy because we had been in there for so long.
When we are minutes away from leaving, I again remind J.R. That we need the gas money that he promised and told him to go get it so we could leave. He leaves the room, and then comes back saying that it has a full tank of gas and that his boss said he just filled it up yesterday. Thinking they were just being cheap, my husband and I told him that we were going to rip up the contract right then if they didn't give us gas money. He left the room again and came back with $10. Frustrated, my husband accepted it and we took it to the nearest gas station. Here, we find out that it was indeed full and that the gas gauge was broken. (Later I call and find out that it will cost us about $500 to get this fixed)
On Monday morning, I took the Explorer in to get our "Security System" put on our vehicle (I took it since my husband had to work). I arrive there a half hour early because they told me that this guy who installs these, as a favor to them, doesn't like to wait. He ends up being 20 minutes late and finally gets to me.
After he has put this device in my car, I ask him how it works and if he is going to give me an automatic door lock on a key chain. He looks at me confused and tells me that he didn't put a car alarm on, that he was told to put a security device for the company on and that if we missed or we were late on a payment that our vehicle wouldn't start.
Furious, I go in and flip out on J.R. Who is on the phone with a customer, who I end up hanging the phone up on. I demand to talk to his boss, still furious, and he very calmly tells me the situation. The whole time J.R. Is sounding like an uneducated, broken record saying "I never say car alarm, I never say car alarm". I knew I had no case since we signed papers agreeing to have this
"Security System" put on our vehicle and we also signed a paper stating that anything that J.R. Told us they were not liable for.
Because of the fact that my husband and I are white, and he is military, Hawaiian natives are, generally, very racist against anyone who is not native or Asian. I definitely think that we were treated differently than Reno Motors' other customers.
I read after we had left the lot that we couldn't even bring the Explorer back before three days because we initialed a paper stating that we did not have that grace period. My husband and I are now going to make sure that we pay this car off completely before January to screw this company out of any interest we will have to start paying on.
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