Issue: Finance rate change after our understanding that the deal was finalized
Sales Associate: David Simmons
Financial Associate: Floyd?
General Manager: Gary Briscoe
9/10/05: Husband (Tim) and I purchased new 2006 GMC Envoy from Tony Moore Buick GMC Trucks, Inc. Decatur, AL. Sales associate confirmed we would get 0%financing for 60 months, same deal as with our 2003 Envoy which we sold once we purchased the 2006 model.
Signed GMAC Retail Instalment (actual spelling on form) Sale Contract (Flexible Finance Plan) which specifies 0% financing for 60 months.
Contacted by Tony Moore Financial associate on 9/28/05. Said GMAC notified him that 2006 model did not qualify for 0% financing 5.9% is what it should have been. Financial associate stated he gave us 0% financing because that was the rate our sales associate quoted to him.
9/30/05 (phone): Financial associate said we need to come back and sign new contract. When asked what happens if we don't, he said we don't have a finance plan until we do.
9/30/05 (phone): Spoke with sales associate. He stated that he got verification of 0% rate from financial associate. Sales associate said we would be in lots of trouble if we didn't come back to dealership and refinance. He also informed us that the dealer is not bound to uphold 0%interest on GMAC contract if rate changes or if rate was misquotedrate stated on contract is what they will try to get for us. He stated that there are 3-4 pages of dealer discount info to sift through so mistakes are sometimes made.
9/30/05 Called dealership 2 or 3 times today to speak with Gary Briscoe, general manager, about situation. He was unavailable and though I left message to please return my call, I have not heard from him.
10/3/05 Called GMC and spoke with Sean Armstrong / 866-952-4368 x58703 regarding the issue. He said that GMC cannot be responsible individual dealerships and that finance laws vary by state. Told us we needed to speak to the general manager at the dealership. He offered to contact Mr. Briscoe when we told him we could not get a response.
10/4/05 Returned call from Sales Manager (GMC did call and request that someone call us). Sales manager said his understanding based on info from the sales associate and the finance associate was that we told them the rate was 0% (wish we would have told them it was buy-one-get-one-free month). Sales Manager asked if that was our understanding. We explained this was not the situation and proceeded to give him scenario as listed above.
Sales Manager said we had 2 options: Come back in and refinance or bring the auto back. Husband said he understood the finance contract to be with Tony Moore (that Tony Moore reserved the right to sell the contract to another agency and keep part of the interest) and that if he didn't hear something else from them, he would mail his first payment to Tony Moore.
October:
Requested and received fax copy of Buyer's Order which we signed during the application process but were not given a copy of.
Contacted our attorney regarding the situation. He felt there was a reliance issue (we relied on information from the dealership regarding interest rate in order to make the decision to sell our 2003 Envoy and purchase the 2006 Envoy). He instructed us to give the dealership his contact information so that he could discuss the situation with them.
Gave our attorney POC info to Sales Manager via phone
Mailed October payment to Tony Moore, Decatur, AL
11/23/05: Mailed November payment to Tony Moore, Decatur, AL.included POC information for our attorney since no one from the dealership had contacted us since mid-October.
12/8/05: Received Letter from Tony Moore's attorney requesting that we return the vehicle to Tony Moore and for the entire transaction to be voided. Letter stated that it was his understanding that we represented to the financial assistant that we get 0% financing??? When did the buyer get to start setting the terms?
After weighing the options with our attorney, we decided to return the automobile as any legal action would be time consuming, possibly expensive, and chance of favorable outcome low.
12/12/05: Called Mr. Briscoe to let him know we would be returning the Envoy and asked him if Saturday was ok since Husband would be out of town on business through Friday evening. He stated this was ok and that he would contact the attorney to let him know.
12/17/05: Returned the Envoy to Tony Moore dealership, retrieved our payment checks (2) and asked for a copy of our paperwork showing that it had been voided. Mr. Briscoe stated that he was unable to give us a copy of the paperwork because the person who was in charge of getting it was out until Monday. We got a handwritten statement from Mr. Briscoe stating that we returned the auto and it was in good condition.
Complaint: 0% financing was deciding factor in buying new auto Envoy only had 36K miles. We decided before looking that if we couldn't get 0% financing we would wait awhile. Asked sales associate to verify interest rate for 60 months after looking at 1 Envoy on the lot and prior to any test drive or purchase discussion. We stressed the interest rate issue several times during our interaction with the sales associate and even told him that we had checked the GM website and didn't find an option for 0% financing.
If the dealership is going to use the Buyer's Order as the final word for a sales contract then verbal disclosure to the prospective buyer should be required during the initial phase of the purchase process.in this day and age, if you are in the business of selling cars, access to important factors such as accurate interest rate, current promotions, etc. Should be almost instantaneous via the web - our credit information was!
On 10 September the day we purchased the Envoy, no one ever mentioned that 0% financing was what they would try to get us. We were told that 0% financing was what we would get. The Buyer's Agreement appears to be a license for the dealership to tell prospective customers whatever they need to tell them in order to make a sale.
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