I have recently been in the process of buying a car. I had went to three different dealerships and gotten approved at two different places but for a car that I was not interested in. I then went to Bill Heard Chevrolet to see what they could offer me. I called ahead of time and explained the situation and what type of vehicle I was looking for. They told me to come on in and that they had their own bank if worst came to worst.
I then proceded to go down there "that same night" the 12th of January to see what we could do. I had them do the credit check and then proceded to pick out a car that I would qualify according to them at this point it was about 10:30 in the evening. I told them I wanted this to be over with and did not want to recieve a call in the next couple of days that my financing was not approved.
I then spent about another 30 minutes waiting on them to get the final numbers together and went into the finance office. I told the finance guy that I did not want to sign anything unless everything was ok with the loan as I did not want to buy a car and then have to bring it back two or three days later. He assured me that everything was fine with the loan and that would not happen but to make sure that I did not quit my job for the next 24 hours.
I just laughed because I wasnt going to quit my job. I signed paperwork for financing and one was a contract of the details of the transaction. I also signed paperwork stating that I would not quit my job for 24 hours as that would cause me to not recieve financing. I then asked before I left if that was everything and the guy said yes. I then bought insurance while I was at the dealership online to provide proof of insurance for the vehicle.
Well I never recieved a call so I was thinking everything was ok. I called back about 5 days later to check on everything and see if my car was paid off. The finance guy said that no the car had not been paid off yet and he may have a couple of questions in a couple of days. That threw up a red flag for me and I asked him if everything was ok and he said everything was fine, "If I dont call you in two days then everything is fine and the check will be sent to pay off the trade-in". This would have been the 16th of January
Well here it is the 30th of January. I called my lienholder today that had the lien on my trade-in. The payment is due on the 1st I asked them if it had been paid off yet and they said no. I had already called them the day after I had bought the new car and told them the situation and that they should be recieving a payoff from the dealership.
Now here it is today and I do not know what to think really. I immediatly called BHC and asked to speak to someone in used car financing and got put on hold for about 5 minutes. They continued to page and I finally left a message for someone to return my call. I never recieved a call so I called back about an hour later and I got the same response, I left a message again. I waited for another 30 minutes and then told the receptionist that I needed to speak to someone about a trade that had not been paid off.
I got through to someone and they transferred me over to the guy who handled the transaction in financing. I left a message with him and never got a call back. I called back in 30 more minutes and finally got him on the phone. He pulled up my info on the computer and then started asking questions that I thought were quite strange.
One of the first questions he asked me was if I was still driving the car, and he sounded a little bewildered. I answered yes, I bought the car so I am still driving it. He then asked me if I had paid cash or financed it. "another strange question" I said well you did the paperwork I have it financed and just chuckled. He then asked if I had come in last week and I said no. I asked if there was an issue and he said no his computer just wasnt working correctly and he would have to call me back in about 10 minutes.
Well I waited at this time it was close to 5 pm. I went on with work and still did not recieve a call so I called back at 6:30 when I got off of work. He said well here is the deal. Did you think it was kind of strange with the questions that I was asking you earlier and I said well yes I thought that it was quite odd that you would ask me that. He then proceded to to tell me that I would need to bring the car back and pick up my car. I said what are you talking about and he said that the bank would not approve it.
I asked him if they were ever going to call and tell me this and he didnt say anything. I told him that I would contact a lawyer and he just laughed and said well you signed a spot delivery paper when I was signing paperwork. He told me to bring it back by 9pm tomorrow or it would be repoed. I guess that I am going up there tomorrow to see what happend in the three weeks that I have had the car with no notice that there was an issue. I did not realize how much this happened with the dealership until I went to usacomplaints.com or usacomplaints.com.
It is stressful to deal with and want as many people that I can to know how the dealership works. I have contacted 4 news channels to see if they will do a story on this company and contacted 2 newspapers in the area as well as file a better business report and a report to the Tennesse Department of Consumer Affairs. I'm just tying to get the word out! I hope this helps other people. I should have checked here sooner.
Chris
Nashville, Tennessee
U.S.A.
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