In September, my wife and I decided to get out of a lease we were in and purchase a used vehicle. My wife is in radio sales and one of her customers was Graff Chevrelot. At the time, I was pouring concrete for a living, and had very little time to attend to other matters of business.
Graff ended up telling my wife that there would not be a problem getting us into our target vehicle, as they "work with many banks". So that night when I got home she asked if I would be willing to go there with her early Saturday morning to look at some cars. I agreed, and away we went.
We arrived at Graff and was met by a sales representitive named Jason, and we began the paper work. We let the man know that we were looking for payments around 200 - 250 a month, and were in the market for something 2 or 3 years old. I did not know my credit score, and like a fool trusted these people.
After we filled out the financial paperwork, so he could run it through their "many banks" and find the best possible financing for us, we waited for half an hour roughly. Jason came back and had a grim look on his face.
He stated that my credit was not good at all, and unfortunatly the only avenue we had to go down was leasing a new vehicle. We had asked him if he thought we should try something else, and he stated that we wouldn't get a loan at all because of my low score.
My wife and I talked it over, and we only had a week before we had to have the other vehicle turned in. So we made the choice to take the lease from Graff given that we had no other options, and since all the banks they worked with turned us down, we had no chance.
2 weeks later I sold my truck and went to a dealer in town other than Graff, and asked what they had for used vehicles. He quickly pointed at a 2002 Impala which was just about what I wanted. I filled out the paperwork, and I was told I could get something newer if I wanted. My credit wasn't that good I told him, and he said it was good enough to get most any car on the lot with the exception of those 30,000 jobs.
I was baffled, and told him about the Cobalt we had just got stuck with, and he told me that I was tricked. So I called Graff and let them know what happened. And then remembered that the salesman at Graff after we signed the paperwork pushed himself back in his chair and said "I got one" to another sales associate. I told the manager of the dealership and got stiff armed.
This dealership enduced us into signing a legal document using false statements. They only sent us to one bank, and that was GMAC Financeing for the sole purpose of getting us into a lease. (Preditory lending)
I asked them to get me out of the lease, and into a purchased vehicle. They ran my credit through so many different lending places, it dropped my credit score rougly 40 points.
I can't afford a lawyer, and these guys got off scott free knowing that. I would not send my worst enemy to Graff Chevrelot.
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