Let me Tell You About the Unscrupulous Sales Practices of Stockton to Malone that I Personally Experienced (with proof).
I want you to avoid being ripped off too.
On the week of September 18th I mistakenly walked into the Stockton to Malone dealership in Sandy UT, knowing that many car dealers have a bad reputation, but hoping that this time would be different.
Prior to my visit I had had done my research. I had researched the invoice price of the vehicle I wanted, which was a Honda Odyssey 2007. I showed the salesman that I knew what the invoice price was, and in view of that we negotiated a price for the vehicle that was about $500 above the invoice price. You should also understand that Larry H. Miller is a very large group of dealers with huge buying power, and almost certainly they buy for substantially below the invoice price, as many large dealerships do.
So a price (around $500 above invoice) was agreed for the vehicle, but then I decided to go up to the next model an EX-L, on the basis of a verbal agreement that the price of the vehicle would be around the same amount above invoice. I stupidly trusted the financial department to fulfill that.
The Edmunds.com price on the same vehicle shows the MSRP as $31,095:
The vehicle was prepared and delivered to us (myself and my wife), but we were not asked to sign any contract, which I thought was odd. According to research sites that report on leasing tactics, that is a tactic to get you comfortable with the car before you sign the papers, by which time you are emotionally attached to the vehicle and hardly inclined to look over the documents with a fine toothcomb when you come to sign later on.
We returned the following day to sign the lease and a long series of documents were presented for us to sign. The VERY LAST document was the actual lease (by that time we were in the 'mode' of signing, and everyone had been so friendly that they had gained our trust just like confidence tricksters do).
Leasing documents are very confusing, and when the financial person walked me through it, he did not explain that the actual price of the vehicle is referred to as the 'cap cost'. Nor was any interest rate or money factor disclosed at any time (it turned out to be 10% interest).
It was only when I returned home and analyzed the main lease document that I realized that I had been deceived. I couldn't find the agreed upon price anywhere on the lease document. I did some research and it was at that point that I discovered that 'cap cost' is the actual price of the car. Look at the leasing document below to see this for yourself. Remember, the price I negotiated was $29,000, but I was charged $31,242, so there was a difference of $2242!
Something else that was not explained to me. The difference between the cost of the car and the overall gross cap cost was $770, and I still don't know what those charges were for (title and registration were listed separately, so it was not those).
So the final price of my car was actually $32,012.45, not $29,000!
I immediately returned that evening to confront the financial guy, Tish, that dealt with us, and he said that the cap cost was NOT the cost of the car. When I told him that I had phoned Honda and that they had told me that it WAS the cost of the car, he went quiet and said that he would have the sales manager call me the next day (it was very late by that time).
Needless to say, no one called me, so I went down to the dealer and I calmly explained the situation, giving them the benefit of the doubt that a 'mistake' had been made. I told the sales manager (I think his name was Jim) that I was extremely unhappy about being overcharged. My comment to him was, "that's a big difference! $2300 is a heck of a lot of money!"
The sarcastic reply I received was:
"and we appreciate you doing that for us")
Does that sound like a service oriented salesman to you?
Is that really how the Larry H Miller group wants to treat their customers?
Now that I had confirmed that they had 'appreciated' the extra $2300 that I had unwittingly paid them, I asked where that $2300 had come from, how had it 'sneaked' into the lease? They could give me no real reason for it. I pushed them for a response, and I restated the substantial difference between the invoice price and the price they charged me, and this is what the same sales manager said: 'It's none of your business."
Is it really none of my business how my hard earned money is spent? That's funny because, I always thought that I had a right to choose how my money is spent!
Do you think I would have agreed that they could take an extra couple of thousand from me without asking?
Sadly, I now understand that the unscrupulous practice of changing the price on the contract is commonplace among unscrupulous dealers.
Read the text on www.carinfo.com which describes one of the ways some car dealers deceive customers in order to boost their profits substantially and unscrupulously.
This is exactly what happened to me!
You should know that in spite of three visits to the dealership in which I calmly gave them opportunity to redeem themselves AND my numerous phone calls, all of which were unanswered, 'Stockton to Malone' and by extension the Larry H Miller group of car dealerships are now classified as the number one worst car dealership that I have ever experienced.
As you can see from the evidence on this page, they treated me very poorly and did not make any effort to have any type of customer service.
It's one thing to deceive customers, but surely anyone with half a brain would
back down when they realize they've been caught ed.
Just imagine if someone from the dealership had contacted me and said:
"we really value your business, and we want you to be happy. Since we promised you that price and you've already shown us that a number of other local dealers have offered you that price, we'll happily match that price for you. We know that over the next three years you'll want to tell everyone about how we went out of our way to make sure you were completely satisfied."
As a business person and entrepreneur, if I owned the dealership it would be far more important to me to make sure a customer is happy even if it meant losing money on one deal, rather than have that unhappy customer tell thousands of people over the next few years. Very sad, and very short sighted that it had to come to this.
PLEASE. Do Not Allow 'Stockton to Malone' to
Overcharge You on Your Next Vehicle Purchase!
If you have been victim to a similar situation with Stockton to Malone,
please submit your complaint too.
You can read (and hear) the entire account at (ROR REDACTED LINK FOR SECURITY PURPOSES)
Andrew
Sandy, Utah
U.S.A.
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