On Jan. 9, I drove to Fritz Autos in Fishers. I had seen a late model Jaguar and thought my wife would like it. The sales person, Earl Carter, showed me the car. I sat in the drivers seat. The car was very clean, however very noticeable were to problems, the cupholder in the center was brokenwould not shut and the sunroof appeared to have some malfunctionthe cloth cover did not cover the window and did not appear to be attached to anything. I mentioned these 2 items to Carter. He stated that they (the dealer) would look at those and take care of them, if that is what was needed to sell the car. I informed him that I would get my wife to come by and take it for a drive.
I called her, explained that I stopped by and spoke with Carter and for her to go and drive it. She did so with our five year old son, Luc. Phyllis, my wife, was so excited to get it, she called me, told me she like it and for me to call Carter and deal on it. Phyllis also stated that she informed Carter of the two visible defects at this timethe sunroof and the cupholder. Carter informed her the same thing as he reassured me.
Carter called me and told me again what the asking price was$9900. I had researched the car on the internet and found cars in this shape to be worth $7900$8500 (Kelly Blue Book). Through two phone calls we negotiated the price to be $8500. This call was recorded by my office. At no time was there any type of discussion concerning discounting the car because of these two defects we mentioned. The car was negotiated because of what the value of the care really was without the gross mark-up by Fritz.
I called Phyllis and informed her to come to my office, get the check for the car and go get it. She did so. She was so excited about getting the car that Carter had no time to wash the car for purchase presentation. He mentioned that all we had to do was come back in at a later date to get these items looked at and taken care of. Phyllis gave them the check and signed all papers that gave her. It included the purchase agreement, the warranty, the odometer statement and a thing they called We Owe. The car came with a limited warranty for 30 days but did not cover the sunroof and the cupholder. For the last 10 years, I've always signed all paperwork when we purchased cars.
Time passed and about the middle of Feb. Phyllis told me to drive the car in and take it over to Fritz to get them to look at it and make the appointment to fix it. I called Carter at the dealer, informed him that I would like to bring the car by so that they can look at it and get it fix. I had mentioned a few other items that needed repair back left ashtray was broken, cupholder, sunroof, transmission slipping, headlamp out in front, and backlight in the dashboard not working. He said that he would have to talk to his manager, John May, and call me back. After a short period, he did. He stated that he had talked to his manager and that the person (dealer) that had sold them the car just happened to be at their office at that moment. Carter stated that the dealer said that he was aware of a few recalls on the car. So he stated his manager suggested that we take the car to the Jaguar Dealer, see if the recalls could be fixed, see if they would cover any other of these defects we've brought to their attention, and that after such, we would go from there. This phone call was recorded by my office. My understanding from this statement lead me to believe that if the recalls would not fix the items, Fritz would then take care of, either at the Jaguar dealership or back on their premise. This believe was also predicated on the recent phone conversations we had with Carter along with our initial discovery of the 2 items broken.
I took it to Tom Wood and after checking the car, they stated that the vehicle was at their dealership for quotes on these many items from the previous owner in Dec. 2005. They also stated that the sunroof and the cupholder were blatant obviously broken. After looking into the recalls, there were only one that they stated that it should cover the issue with the transmission slipping. For the other items, they provided me a quote. I then called Cart at Fritz, explained all of this to him. He requested that I get the quote from Tom Wood, fax it over to him and he would take it to his manager. I did so. After a short while, Carter called me and stated that they can't fix those itemsthey were mostly cosmetic. I informed him that a few items were recently noticed but the sunroof and the cupholder were promised to be fixed to both myself and my wife at different occasions in person by Carter. Carter apologized and said that there was nothing he could do. I asked to speak to a manager and John May came to the phone. After explaining all of the details, May said that he couldn't and wouldn't do anything to repair these items. He stated that he was not aware of any defect with the sunroof despite the assurance I have been given by Carter that he had previously discussed these with May, his manager. These calls were also recorded by my office. My office has a policy to record all calls for training purposes.
Frustrated, I called Tom Wood back, informed them that Fritz was not cooperating. I instructed them to fix the headlamp, cupholder and the recall item. Told them to not repair any other items and that I would take this up with the owner of Fritz, Fritz Kreutzinger. The recall item was a must, the headlamp was a must and the cupholder was a hindrance to the center of the car. Total cost that day was $469.36 (Headlamp was $175.82)
I called and left a message for Kreutzinger to return my call. When he never called after a few days I called back and asked for him. They said he was out of town but would be back the following week. A week later I left another voice mail for Kreutzinger. The receptionist stated that he was around that week after having come back from his trip. He did not return my call. On March 9, the sales manager, May called me. He explained that he was calling on behalf of Kreutzinger. I explained all the details again to him and after a slight heated argument, he stated that the only thing that he could do was have the items fix at his place and charge me for the cost of the labor and the cost for the parts. I explained to him that I understood that they additional items were my responsibility to fix since we did not point them out to them prior, it since we had pointed out the sunroof and the cupholder, it was their responsibility to repaid it. May repeatedly stated that he was unaware of the sunroof until after I had went to Tom Wood, even though Carter stated that he had indeed talked to May about the problems before hand, then he changed his story to say that he was not aware of the problems with the sunroof until after we purchased it in Jan. He said that since Phyllis had signed the We Owe form that they would have listed these two fixes, and since nothing was on this form, they were not responsible for fixing anything. May went further to call us a liar by saying that Carter had informed him and claims that we never brought up the sunroof or cupholder at any point. The recorded calls between Carter, May and myself show otherwise.
After listening to the recorded calls, I called May back on March 10. I played back two of the ten recordings I had to show that Carter had stated to me on the phone to bring the car to them to look at, then changed to taking the car to the Jaguar dealer to get the recall items corrected. And then we would go from there on the items that didn't fall under the recall. The additional phone call to Carter explained the charges to be fixed by the quote from Tom Wood. He stated that I would need to fax it over to him so that he could take it to his manager. I did so, so when he called me back stating that they were not going to do anything because of the items being mainly cosmetic, shot to the heart of them backing out of the verbal agreement and Carter leading me on in getting the items looked at, to be brought in. May again stated that he would not do anything except fix the items as cost and pass that cost to me. The sunroof estimate from Tom Wood is $1300. It leaks. When told this, May explained that many car sunroofs leak. He informed me that his job was to deal with me. When I asked for Fritz attorney so that my Attorney could contact them, May refused to give me that number stating that he would pass along the request to Kreutzinger. I asked if he could place me into Kreutzinger voice mail yet again so that I could inform him of my dissatisfaction, displeasure and distrust of his dealership. He did so by way of stating that Fritz probably would never call me. I left him the message.
The only thing we want is to have the two items that were verbally promised to us to get us to purchase the car to be fixed at their expense. These 2 items were discussed at purchase, then repeatedly on taped phone conversations with the salesperson who sold us the car and the sales manager. We were instructed by the dealership and by the sales person on what and how to do so in order to get the items repaired. Only at the last moment when the cost was over $1300, did they object. To claim that they did not know the sunroof and cupholder was broken is in direct conflict with what they informed me by way of having the auto dealer that sold them the car, there knowing off of the top of his head, that the car had issues and recalls. It is beyond belief that the dealership claims they did not know about them, Tom Wood even stated that these items were obvious. The other items to be repaired are our responsibility. The cost of the sunroof is $1300 and the cupholder was $175.82. If they want to fix the sunroof at their facility at Fritz, great. The cost would be much lower.
Terry
Fishers, Indiana
Canada
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