I was co-signing for a vehicle for one of my employees. We were the first people on the car lot, we found a car and started to negotiate. After they ran my employee's credit, it was determined that she wouldn't qualify on her own and they said she needed a co-signer. I applied next. Apparently, while it took at least 30-45 minutes to get a final answer, someone came in and offered cash on the vehicle we were applying for. They did not tell us anything about this car being sold until after they took my application. All of a sudden, we found ourselves applying for a car that was no longer available. I was very upset and told them they needed to give us an equally good deal on another vehicle. They came back with a 2 thousand markdown on another vehicle, but then, mysteriously, my excellent credit (according to the salesman) wasn't enough to co-sign for any vehicle. I think they were trying to make me believe they were giving us a comparable deal, but really didn't want to sell the car for such a discount.
I don't believe this action was illegal.
I do believe, however, that this type of poor customer service is unethical. They never gave us the opportunity to pay cash for this car, which we would've been able to do. Nor did they tell us they were negotiating with someone else. I was aware that someone else was looking at the car, but I was assured by the salesman that were were first in their system and therefore, first in line for the vehicle. Then, they came back at the end and said we didn't qualify. I believe that was there way of deflecting the damage they did by selling the car out from under us by telling us we didn't qualify.
They claim that they are a 5 star dealer and when I told them that I was going to complain they said it didn't matter because they were going to be sold in 3 days time anyway. Hey new owners! I hope you aren't as sneaky as the current owners. No wonder they are selling.
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