I'm going to tell you a story of mistakes, lies, and deceit.
One lovely evening in April, I believe it was the 9th or 10th. My fiance came to me and said that the truck he had been paying on for the last four years, the same truck he thought was going to be paid off and belong to him in another year. We believed the loan was just about satisfied. The only problem was that there was one last payment due, by the end of April, of $11,000. I said, " What?!? I thought you had a five year loan." He replied, "yeah, so did I. But I guess I was wrong. GMAC needs $11,000 by the end of the month or they will re-po the truck." "So, " I said "what are we going to do? We don't have $11,000." He told me we have a couple of options:
Take out a personal loan for $11,000 or trade it in on another vehicle, thereby paying off the $11,000.
First he tried the personal loan, but was turned down. He called GMAC to see if he could refinance with them. The woman he spoke with there, Miss Anthony, told him he would have to take it to a dealership and refinance it as a used vehicle which would make the interest rate on the loan much higher. So that Saturday, April 19th, we went shopping for a new vehicle. We looked at many pick-up trucks, but found them to be way to expensive. So we decided to look at cars.
I love Saturns, I've owned three and they were all great cars so I suggested that we go to Saturn of Reading. Tom wanted to look at a Sky. The salesman was very nice. He is young in about his twenties and his name is Lorenzo. He showed us the Sky and then told us the price - $32,000. Well, that was just as much as the trucks we looked at, so we know it was too much. We said thanks and were walking away... Then suddenly Lorenzo suggested that we should look at the Pontiac Soltice. He said it was basically the same car, but it's less expensive. So we took a look. It's pretty cute I thought. So Tom took it for a test drive.
When Tom returned back with Lorenzo, it was my turn. Lorenzo continued to be very friendly and accomodating. At one point he even said, " we give you three days to change your mind, so you can bring it back if you want to." That made us feel very comfortable with the company, the car, and the salesman. We said we'd think about it and let him know.
Tom and I talked about it for a couple of days and I said, " Why don't you get a used vehicle?" and he replied, " A used one wouldn't cover the remaining cost on the truck. "That made sense to me. So I said, " whatever you want to do, it's you truck and a reposession would go on your record." Tom decided to call Lorenzo the next day and said, " Go ahead and work un the numbers." It took a couple of days but they finally agreed on a monthly payment that tome felt he could just brely afford.
At that point the whole deal was turned over to Brian Ingham. He works in the financing department for A.W. Golden. He ran the numbers by the bank, but was told Tom's credit wasn't good enough for tat amount of money. Tom asked if it would work to add me on the loan as a co-signer. Brian said, " No, that wouldn't help, but that they could run the whole thing under my name and see if they would give me the loan. Tom asked if I were willing to do that. I really wasn't comfortable so I said, " let me think about it over night."
By now it was April 28th, and if something wasn't done by the 30th, the truck would be repossed. I really didn't want that for Tom. So the next day I agreed, even though I didn't think it would go through, because I just bought a house that takes up 70% of my income, but I said, "Go ahead."
I wanted to protect Tom's credit so it wouldn't get any worse by having a repo on it. I did at one point ask him what if he just gave it beck to GMAC? He said it would be like a repo and still go against his credit. I saw no other alternative, so I said I'd take the loa if thy'd give it to me. Tom said he would make all of the payments. To my utter shock, it went through. I was approved for the loan.
We went on Wednesday April 30th to pick up the car. When Brian was finally ready tosee us, we went into his office. He asked me for my license and insurance card. Then he left to go make copies of them. For a couple of minutes Tom and I were alone in Brian's office, and I said to Tom, "before I sign I'm going to ask and make sure the truck is bing paid off." Tom said, " Yes, it is. They told me they were going to give me $10,000 as a trade in and then take $1,000 of the $2000 rebate and put it on the truck so that it's covered." I said, "I'm still asking."
Brian cam back in and sat down with papers and started going through the papers to have us sign. I said, " Now, befoe I sign anything, the truck is being paid off right? We won't owe anything on the truck, right?" Brian said "Yup." Tom sid, " Yeah, I told her that, but she just wanted to make sure."
Then Brian started handing us the papers giving us a quick run down on what each paper was. It was already well after 8:00pm and he was supposed to be done at 8:00 so I just signed, not fully reading just taking his word on what he was explaining about each paper. I was starting to feel bad for keeping him so late (he has two little children). We took the car home and left the truck there.
The first thing we noticd about the car was thatit was dirty, it hadn't been washed. There was sticky stuff on the window where the price sticker had been. Ll the plastic was still on the radios and door handles. The car did not appear to be prepped at all. Tom took it to work the next day and that was all. That evening he decided to wash it. Then we see that there are water marks all over the paint that wouldn't wash off. It was in really bad condition for a brand new car.
Thursday, Tom got another call from GMAC confirming that he turned the truck in and doesn't owe $11,000, only the excess mileage. Tom said, " yup, it's being paid you'll get the $11,000." They said, "No, the $11,000 dollars does not need to be paid since you turned it in, just the mileage." He said, " O.K. Just send me the bill." Well, the next day was Saturday, the thirds day since we bought the car. I said, " Lorenzo said we had three days to bring it back. Let's do that.
So that day we took the car back and told Brian we wanted to cancel the deal. He said we couldn't do that its's already been titled. "All the paperwork has been processed? I said, Well, Lorenzo said we had three days to change our minds and you also had said the truck was being paid off." He said, "No I didn't, there was nothing to pay off, it was just a turn in." I said, "You said it was being paid off!"Brain replied, " I would not have said that." I said, "YES YOU DID! Because if that answer would have been anything other than yes, I would not have signed anything!
Brian kept denying it, so I asked for his supervisor, he said that was Chris and he's not here today." So I asked him who Chris reported to and he said, " the owner Albert Golden." I asked if he was available, Brian said he didn't have an office in that building and he didn't have his number, but he gave us a vague idea of where to go. Not specifying even though we told him we were not familiar with that area.
Well, we found it regardless. Then we went in and asked for Mr. Golden. The gentleman we spoke with said he didn't see Mr. Golden's Corvette in the lot today, but he called to see if he was there. Of course he wasn't, but the nice gentleman gave us his number and extension. Monday I called stating a message that if I didn't hear back from him that day, I would be forced to call the senators office to see how he could help me. Well later, I was thinking and realized that I wasn't even sure if Mr. Golden was in his office and got my message.
The next day I called and asked if he was there before I left a voicemail. I was told he had been there, but was out to lunch and that he would probably be back between 1:00pm and 2:00pm. I waited until 2:30pm, then I called again and left another message.
A couple days later I received a call from Brian. Apparently, Mr. Golden had given him an offer for us. They would take the car back, but we would have to pay $1300 for a rental fee, plus we were told we had to pay to have the loan un-done and that we had to pay to have the car reconditioned. I said, "What do you mean re-conditon the car? You never conditioned it in the first place! The car was filthy and still had all the plastic protectors in different places. We had to wash it when we got it home and after we did that was when we found the water marks that wouldn't wash off!
I spoke with Brian a few more times and again requested to speak with Mr, Golden, but Brian said that Mr. Golden is not available to comment on this situation. I persisted and Brian finally gave me the phone number for Kate Goodman (She is Mr. Golden's daughter) I called her, but she refused to speak with me also. All I wanted was for them to take the car back and for them to pay to havetheloan "un-done." I am willing to pay for the miles we drove the car at a rate of $0.20 a mile.
The only reason I would expect this and am requesting this is that Mr.ingham had been honest with me up front, that there was nothing to pay off for the truck, I NEVER would have purchased the car. The sole reason i purchased the car was to use the trade in value of the truck to pay the $11,000.00. Haad Mr Ingham told me there was nothing to pay, I would not have purchased the 2008 Pontiac Solstice.
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