This happened 2 years ago, but after reading some others, I felt others should be aware of this too.
Having had used cars since I was 16, I decided I wanted a new car and wanted to do it on my own, w/out a co-signer or anything. I had seen an ad in the paper about Bill Heard will pay off your trade, regardless of how much you owe. I called and made an appointment and spend half a Saturday there.
I met w/Shawn and told him I wanted a 4 door Cavalier. I didn't want all the bells and whistles, didn't care if it was automatic or standard, all I wanted was it to have 4 doors. He showed me several 2 door models and said they only had 3 of the 4 door models left. I took one for a test drive and of course, fell in love with it. I asked about the ad that said they would pay off all trades and he said yes. At the time I had a 1996 Chevrolet truck, extended cab. Then they told me they would pay it off (3500 was still owed) but they were only going to give me 1500 for it. They would roll over the other 2000 into my loan. Stupid me said ok.
They pull my credit and take my truck for a test drive and rush me into the finance managers office. He said they would still need $1000 down, and that I could post date a check since I couldn't pay it all right then. I made it quite clear to them that I could NOT put any more then the $1000 down. Not thinking it's a Saturday and banks are closed so everything couldn't be finalized, I started signing papers. They said they'd call me Monday as soon as they heard from the banks.
I get my car... They take my picture next to it and I leave to go pick up my daugher who loves it and we go home. Monday comes and goes, I hear nothing. On Tuesday I call and they said w/my credit I had to go through "special financing" and it would be another day or two, but they are POSITIVE they can get it done w/just the 1000 down.
On Wednesday I get a call saying "We're sorry but we are going to need another 1000 to get this deal done." I told them I couldn't do it and would bring the car back. They then told me if the car was back by end of business that day, they would file on me for Auto Theft. What they didn't know is my mom works in the Auto Theft Dept. For the Sheriff's Dept here. I talked to her and she told me not to worry and all the steps they had to go through to do it.
I took off work the next day to take the car back. I get there and there's the finance manager wanting to wheel and deal again. Once I knew the previous night that I wouldn't be spending the money on the car, I called and made the 2 payments that were do on my truck. I told him sorry, this is how it is. I asked for my post-dated check back and the 300 refund that they had already deposited and had already cleared my bank. They started on about I had to prove it had cleared my bank then give them 10 days. Blah blah blah. I called my bank and had them fax over they cancelled check and told them I was not leaving w/out my 300 back that they had.
While I was waiting for this, I was reading over the information I had signed on Saturday. I saw that they did NOT roll over only 2000 from my truck into the loan. But the entire 3500 I still owed. So they were giving me NOTHING for this truck. I got highly ticked off at this, and when I called him on it, he said it was a typo. I said "Yea... A typo you were hoping I missed". He started in on once that is fixed w/my original 1000 they should be able to get the deal done. I snatched my check (that he was holding for me) out of his hand and asked for my truck keys. He tried everything he could to stall me, but as my voice started raising, my keys were found awfully quick. The finance manager walks me out to my car, then precedes to ask if I wanted to go out one night since now that I'm not a customer, it's not unethical. I took in a deep breath and just left. My daughter was upset we didn't get to keep the car, but life goes on!
And by the way... That picture they took of me w/my car before I left w/it... I got a calander w/it on every month of the year and on every anniversary they send it to me. Pretty nice of em Huh?
Christine
Cypress, Texas
U.S.A.
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