On the morning of May 18th, I called Fitzgerald Auto Mall In Clearwater Florida and spoke to a salesman by the name of Ron Candiano and told him I was interested in seeing a car they had and that we were pre-approved by a finance company American General, for a car up to five thousand dollars. He seemed very enthusiastic when I told him we were pre approved. I told him that we would be in on the 18th, in the later afternoon. I made an appointment wth him. My daughter and I went to look at this car but we found another one that we liked better, a Mazda Millenia 2002. My daughter drove it and said she liked it very much and we told the salesman we would like to go ahead and purchase the car. It was imperative for me to find a car for her because she is in college and needed transportation and here we felt very comfortable that we found a car after hours and hours of looking for a car. The finance company was handling everything for us. Mr. Candiano went inside and printed out the paperwork on this vehicle and told us to give the finance company the paperwork. We told him we will go right away to give it to them. The paperwork had a price of $6,946.64. I told Mr. Candiano that we had cash to pay the difference of what the finance company was paying out. He said that was fine. He never mentioned for us to put down a down payment or anything of the sort. We left shaking hands.instead of going all the way to the finance company, we thought we would just stop at home and call them and just read the report to them which was quicker. American General told us that they called them that night, on May 18th and asked the car dealership to fax the paperwork on the car to them, which American General received. This morning, May 19th, the finance company called me around nine-thirty am to let me know that everything was approved for the car, ready to go and now all they had to do was to get a picture of the car. They had already spoken with the dealership to let them know this, this morning, just shortly before they called me and the dealership told them this was OK. There was NO mention that this car was sold. The dealership just opened up when the finance company called them this morning. When the finance company called me at nine thirty am, they told me that we could either pick up the car and bring it to them or that they could go take a picture of the car at the dealership and that they would find out what should be done and they would let me know. This is what they told the dealership and that they would get back to them after they found out what was going to be done. When my daughter came home from school, after lunch, she called the dealership to let them know that she would just come in to pick up the car, bring it to the finance company, let them take a picture of it and then the papers could be signed and the tansfer of the money. This is when they told my daughter, the car was sold! They told her this, this afternoon. They never let the finance company know they sold the car! They sold the car after the finance company called them this morning, to tell them early this morning that everything was set to go on doing the paperwork and to take a picture of the car. This salesman knew we were pre-approved and it was a done deal and that we were going through this finance company. When the paperwork was faxed over to American General, the dealership was closing for the night, last night. There was no time to do any discussions on the vehicle and financing, but American General called them the first thing this morning. The dealership knew there was a transaction going on, but they turned around to sell this car to someone else who came in later in the morning. What did it take to do somethig so despicable... More money on the sale? If this is the way they treat customers who are dealing with them in good faith as we told them we were pre approved, they should not be in business! Would anyone of them have liked this to happen to them, to be treated like this? No, I don't think so!
0 comments