My husband and I recently purchased a vehicle through Payless Car Sales. It wasn't the car I really wanted but we chose this company because they offered to help rebuild our credit. After taking two days to decide they pressured us into making a down payment as we were on our way out of town... Giving us the line "Somebody else is on their way to run numbers on that van now". So we stopped and paid the 1500 they required on the advertised price of 5999 on a slightly dinged up 2000 honda Odyssey.
Anyway we stopped and paid the money for them to hold it until we got back the next day. Getting a hand written reciept that just stated the amount of cash given, no car or what it was for or if it was refundable.
The next day we came to the car lot to sign the paper work and be on our way. What we were told would only take about 20 minutes since the financing had been already approved the first time we went to see the car. All they needed now was our signatures.
Well what was supposed to be a joint venture with both mine and my husbands name on it turned out to be just in his name. Since the finance office was very small I waited in an office with my two children while he completed the paperwork. Three hours later we were told that we needed to put another 270 onto the down payment to recieve the financing. I, at this point, was very nervous. After being told we were just there to sign off I now find out that financing hadn't yet been obtained.
At this point, with so many hours invested, and tired and cranky children we just paid the money... And waited another HOUR! Finally driving away with the van I was very excited and it didn't dawn on me til several days later to ask what our payments were. My jaw droppped when my husband said 476 per month for 2 years. I immediately went for the paper work in the car and found that they had added much to the original price we had agreed on.
The price of the van had jumped from 5999 to 8449. On top of that was the 3000 sales tax, and 289.50 documentary fee (no one can explain to me what that is.) and 39 for title. Then they smooth talked my very trusting naive husband into purchasing a warranty for the vehicle, which expires in 24 months or 24k miles or once the vehicle reaches 175k. The odo read 172k when we bought the van. So we paid 1980 for a warranty that lasted 3k miles.
We explained my husbands job situation to the salesman walter, finance officer and office manager steve. My husband works out of town 3 months and then is home a month. He was currently between jobs when we signed the paperwork (hence he was HOME). They all assured us that was not a problem with the money he made. So when after 50 days I still had not received a permanent tag for my vehicle I called the dealership inquiring as to where my tag was.By SC state law I was now driving around illegally with my children all in the car. I also had plans to visit my husband in VA so that we could share our daughters first birthday together.
The dealership informed me that they were still waiting on some paper work and that they were going to bend over backwards to get my tag that day. I called again and they said they were now waiting on info from my husbands employer and that it would be the next day before they could request my tag. The office mgr then offered to redo my paper work using my mothers out of state address so that they could request a new 30 day tag that i could travel on. This is COMPLETELY illegal.
I began doing research and found a very helpful gentleman named joey at www.theautomotiveadvisor.com. Who advised me that the reason they could not get a tag was because they still had not received the funding for the loan. Even though we had already made one payment to the credit company. So I called the dealership again armed with this new knowledge and requested to deliver the car to them the next day in return for the return of my down payment money. The manager got extremely nasty with me stating that it would go against my credit as a repo and that we wouldn't get any money back.
I was still very courteous and told him all i wanted was my money back so that i could find a dealership who was willing to put a tag on my vehicle and not expect me to ride around with my children in an illegal vehicle. If he was not willing to do this I would report him to the BBB and the South Carolina Dealers Association for the offer of redoing my paper work. HE told me "do what you gotta do" and said I could call back to speak with the owner tomorrow.
And that's where I am now! Oh BTW I posted this under my husbands account.
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