I went into Stockton to Malone Honda on Friday October 10th at approximately 10:45A.M.in response to an ad on the radio that states "once they make a deal they will pay off your current loan on your trade in no matter what you owe."
So I went in with my husband to look at civics and accords and to get details on the ad that they were running. Upon parking the car I was immediately helped by a salesman named Freddy I asked them about the ad and he said sure, sure we will pay off your trades no matter what. With that in mind he showed us some cars that he had in his lot.
One honda we looked at which caught our attention was a 2001 Dark Green Honda Accord EX with a moon roof and leather interior. Unfortunately we were a little hesitant because the car had 53,000 miles on it which we felt was a little high for the year. He immediately went into this long spill that this particular car was a "CERTIFIED HONDA CAR" and what that means is that it goes through a intense inspection of 151 parts of the car and Honda approves this car and warranty's the engine and transmission for a 7 year or 100,000 on the engine and is GUARANTEED never to have been in a wreck.
He said it was just returned from a deal that went bad last weekend because the father wouldn't co-sign on this car with his son and that luckily it was still there on the lot because it was originally being sold at 18,999.00 and he could easily bring this car down to about 16,000.00 which gave us hope because between the 2 cars we had which is a 98 Plymouth Breeze and a 97 GMC Savana van was approximately what we owed on our loans and consolidating into one good car was important to us.
We took a test drive with Freddy and liked the car. When we got back he wanted to give us numbers and we told him up front that the only way we would purchase this car is if the car was brought down around 16,000 and if they would pay off our 2 existing vehicles. I told him that unfortunately we only brought in the Plymouth breeze and that my husband owns a Video production company and that the Van was back at the studio with a computer and video equipment in it. He said NO PROBLEM. Just tell me approximately how many miles you have on the odometer and what year and payoff amount it has since we were only talking numbers at that time we did that and he went to see his superiors to see what he can do.
He came back saying "GOOD NEWS" if we would put down 7,000- 8,000 dollars and payments would be $450 per month and the deal is ours! My husband looked at the car information and saw that they were quoting a price for a totally different car and he went back and saw the information was incorrect and came back with the supposedly correct one. At that point my husband shook his head and said that was ridiculous and that we told him prior that we didn't want to put a large downpayment on a car so we started to pack up my 13 month baby and our things and started to leave.
Just then he told us to wait and that he would get an exact number for us and he asked us more details about our cars to trade in so we said if he had access to the internet we could get our payoff amount directly from the bank so I went and collected the exact amount we owed on both cars.
We waitied it was approx. 3:30pm
He then took in the information and came back stating we need $2500.00 down and we will take in your trades and the car will be $21,000.00 before taxes and licencing
Shocked again we said no way we would not do that. What ever happened to $16000.00 and a really low down payment. He said that my credit was very good at 6.90 but because the Plymouth Breeze was upside down that it was only worth $3500 and we owed approx $6000 that this car was the only car they could make work for us because they have all the banks and financing available and they could work the numbers in where the banks would give the value so they can pick up the cars at the current loan we had. They stated the GMC Savana van was in good shape and that we were not upside down there. I questioned him because I was surprised that they were willing to make a deal on the trade in of the van without having it there with us. They stated all they would do is payoff the amount we owed on the vehicles. He also stated he did not need to know the exact amount that if they would even over pay the bank institutions and we would receive a check on the difference. I thought that was very odd and he said they did it all the time!
We were not satisfied and got all the way in our car. Started it and Freddy came back to my husbands window and stated that he has the General Sales Manager named "ANDY" and he will do us a fantastic deal and go over the other guys heads just to come in and listen and it would be worth our time to listen one last time.
So again we got out took out our son and went back in to talk to ANDY.
Andy came out with a smile and said ok what do we need to do here to make you happy. I told him have the car down to $16,000.00 and maybe a $500 down payment he said he couldn't do that because we were upside down in our plymouth trade in. So I will match you $500 to each of your $500 that you put down the car will be $21000.00 out the door that would include taxes and licensing and throw in a FREE bumper to bumper 7 year or 100,000 mile extended warranty because of the mileage. We would have a low monthly payment of $350.00 per month
and low financing because of my good credit score fix all the scratches on Wednesday the 15th. And finally to make a deal that we couldn't refuse he would throw in 6 game tickets including dinner and all and handed my little boy a stockton to malone stuffed bear for him to stop crying. My husband stated that the only down he could make was on his credit card. Andy said look what I will do is take $750 now from the credit card and then post date a check for 1 month from today November 10th for $950.00 and he'll pick up the rest of the down on his side and that would come off the car and we would walk out of the door at $21000.00. We told him that we did not have the Van with us because we have our video equipment in it and they said to bring in by on Monday. So basically instead of making a car payment in October or November use that money that we would have paid on the old loans and put it directly into this car. He said that I was approved and the loan and deal was good to go all they needed was our signature on the dotted line.
We told him our son has had it and was hungry that we would go and get something to eat and think about it and be back he then said to take the car out for a test drive and come back. We left to go eat at 4:45pm Freddy gave us the car we packed our son in it went to a restaurant talked about the deal and felt like it was one we could afford.
After the restaurant we went over to Ken Garff honda on State Street and about 900 south and wanted to talk to our previous Salesman Brandon Crapo (he was very nice and accomodating but he wasn't in that night) and we talked to his partner KEITH FLOWERS (who I would definately recommend in the future to anyone looking for a HONDA) there and showed him the car and asked them if they could do a better deal or if they had a car with better mileage in stock. Keith was extremely accomodating and wanted to look at our trade ins and said unfortunately there is nothing they can do to tell us if we could do a deal because they would have to visually inspect our trade ins first. We asked him why Stockton to Malone could take our trade in with out looking at it and he said the appharently are just paying them off. But that he used to work there and "they do things there he didn't like and left it to that".
We came back in around 6:15pm and wanted to talk to Andy about finalizing the deal. Unfortunately they said he left and our salesman Freddy was there and saying he was hoping we would by the car becuase the other guys were making fun of him because he wasted all his time with us blah blah blah... We definately did not buy the car because of our sales guy.
Now the story starts gets really good you need to read on!!!
We came into the financing department and was introduced to a dark haired guy named Jason or James this guy was an absolute Jerk to begin with. We waited in his office he explained that he only worked there for 3-4 days and had a terrible attitute to begin with.
First of all the paper work and financing was all wrong it said 10.9% We told him it was suppose to be 4.9%. So he said he corrected it. Then he wanted to add taxes and licensing on top of the $21000.00 which was suppose to be the final out the door. So we told him no way my husband said if it wasn't $21000.00 then we would leave. So he said he worked the numbers in and sarcastically saying. It came to $21015.41 and he would pick up the extra $15. (which he never did) Then he said lets talk about a warranty I told them that they threw in the extended warranty in for free and he said no they did not. Andy was gone and there was nothing he could do. After all that was said and done we demanded that he contact ANDY over the phone my husband was so disappointed at the unprofessionalism and he demanded that Freddy come in to witness what Andy said. After 15min of deliberating he said fine that the warranty will be included but its a "number thing" and probably it will be added in and taken out of some where else do do this magic number on the contract to please the banks. I don't know what he was rambling about. He fixed the paperwork and said ok I belive you and Fred told him that Andy agreed to all of that had us sign the papers. What devistation wasted my precious day all day long had them look up my credit history filled out papers to an organized mess I was so tired frazzled and felt like crying! He assured us that the paper work was all in order and everything we were promised was there. They ran my husbands credit card for $750 and we wrote them a post dated check for the other $950 to be cashed on November 10th.
Finally we left there at 8:40 at night and exhausted transferred everything out of the plymouth breeze and put it into our new honda we told Freddy that we would be in on Monday and we left...
Saturday October 11th
Called 3 times to talk to Andy and he never returned our phone call. We had some questions on the deal we just signed and wanted to get our garage door opener out of the car. Got a oil filter change.
Sunday October 12th
We cleaned out our van and we washed our new car and noticed that the right back quarter panel has been filled with bondo and re-painted poorly with runs and sags in the paint it was painted up to the left passenger side to try to match. I was very troubled because our sales person said that this car was NEVER in a wreck. I took the car to a great paint company and talked to the owner of the company PATRICK EVJE of GREAT WESTERN PAINT. He showed us where the car was hit and even showed us the front hood was re-pounded out and re-painted and said the dealership should have deducted or could not see how they could sell this car as certified and we should chat to them to see if they could sell a certified Honda car with that poor bondo and paint job on it.
Monday October 13th
I went in again with my husband at 11:00pm and we brought our van in
we also inquired about the bondo and poor paint job to Freddy. As soon as he was asked about the bondo he disappeared.
After a half hour someone came up and my husband wanted to speak to Andy but he was busy so the arrogant financing guy came out we then stated that we were not happy about our car being hit or bondo and wanted to know if they could deduct from the price the damage that was there he said he couldn't do a thing and sent 3 more guys to chat with us each taking 15-20min to get back to us. I explained that we were unhappy about this and asked if someone could explain why the car was damaged.
I could not believe his attitude so we called Patrick Evje from Great Western Paint and Julian for a second opinion. After they arrived Used Car manager came out and said you drove the car you looked at it and you signed the papers. A deal is a deal and there is nothing they can do about it now. Its too late.
I suggested that I would not like the deal and would be happy to take back my cars he went on to say that the Plymouth Breeze is gone to the wholesalers and that there was no way to get it back now. So I suggested that we look at another car because I was uneasy that they would be that secretive and avoiding this question we had about the damage on the car.
All the managers clearly didn't care and let us wait. It got so bad that no one even acknowledged our presence.
Then Freddy came back and wanted the keys to our Van my husband refused to give him the keys until Andy could talk to him and address this problem professionally.
The used car manager came in and said you signed a contract that car is yours we don't have your other car on the lot too bad. If we don't hand over the van they will wait for 3 weeks and report it stolen. I could not believe they would say all this just because we were inquiring about the damage they went from pretending to be nice to out right rude. They ignored us until 4:30pm Andy finally saw us.
I told Andy that I was not happy with the service and Patrick and Julian came in talked to him about the car Andy didn't even go look at it and said "what can I do to make you happy" He acknowledged the damage and said I can take $500.00 off for you does that make you happy. Yes we were happy and finally got to talk to Andy. Then we proceeded to review the paper work and showed him that it did not go out as $21000.00 and there was no extended bumper to bumper warranty and he apologized and said he would re-write the paper work so that everything would come out ok.
He gave the paper work to a very nice financing guy named Mike Bartz. He was in the middle of doing some other paper work and was clearly thrown into writing up our current contract.
He wrote up the contract the current one we have today. Gave us copies showed us we got financing with America First Credit Union etc.
Signed everything and set a time to get our car scratches fixed on Wednesday.
We went out talked to Freddy we purchased another key and remote to the paperwork. My husband had to leave while I was signing papers to go back to work and since the Honda was going to be in on Wednesday that is the day we would drop off the van so we could use something to go back and forth to work in since it was going to be a all day job. Fred told us everything was fine and we came back on Wednesday.
Wednesday 15th 2003
We dropped the car off for everything to work on. We arrived at 5:45 after they called to let us know it was finished. We dropped off the van in the service center and had a note for us to check with financing before we leave. I went and talked to Mike Bartz he didn't what I was talking about or didn't know a thing. They said to go to the front desk to check out. Gave us our key we took any last minute stuff out of the Van and left.
Everything was fine until a week later when they called us saying there was a problem with the financing and they need us to come back in. I could not believe what they were doing? Now what all of a sudden there is a problem with our trade ins and financing did wrong.
I asked who that was and the person did not want to identify who he was finally Andy called me and said there was problems to come back in. I do not trust what they were saying especially after looking on the internet and finding that stockton to malone honda has been charged with forging a car buyers signature.
Http://www.sltrib.com/apr/0430business/52516.Asp
And everthing at www.badbusinessreport.com
We could not take the chance of getting ripped off and so we went to seek an attorney who has filed suit with Karl Malone Toyota.
Now Kami Luke from stockton to malone is calling harassing us. What did we do wrong? They took care of everything and now trying to somehow rip us off!!!
How can they do such a thing.
They took our down payments. Credit card for $750 have our trade ins and cashed the other half of our downpayment 3 days earlier. We even sent them a letter and had to cancel a check for $50 because no one received a letter. So we sent them another letter to hear back from them certified on November 10th still have not received our plates and on top of all this...
Most important part
A towing vehicle came to my husbands work today sent out some people to take our car. When my husband went in and called the South Salt Lake City Police while he was on the cell phone with them he jumped in the car started it had no idea who these people were. The man jumped in on the passenger side grabbed the keys and while my husband was trying to get the keys out of the ignition the man punched him on the upper right cheek in front of many witnesses.
So now we have absolutely nothing. We have been totally ripped off from the beginning. Our down payment is taken, They have our cars and they came to take a car that legally belongs to us. What good is justice or paper work. Now we have nothing but a huge court battle to prepare for.
Do not do any business with this crooked company i know that justice will prevail and that the so called small guy will get some justice..
The problem here is that we looked on the internet and found out so many complaints from people that has had a terrible experience with them. I am hoping to get a class action lawsuit against them I believe what they are doing is illegal and fraudulent.
Laura
Ogden, Utah
U.S.A.
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