We all make mistakes the difference in the outcome depends on whether individuals and/or businesses hold themselves accountable for their own actions.
This is our story:
In mid- November our wonderful Honda Civic was hit by a truck. Not a good start to the holiday season but as it turned out the driver of the truck was an honest pleasant person who admitted fault and waited with us for the police. Everything seemed to be settled amicably and I left the accident with admiration for the individual who hit our car. Why? - Because without prompting, without police, without any pressure he took responsibility for his mistake. This was an unfortunate incident but we met an individual who buoyed our belief in the inherent goodness in all people.
Everything seemed to go relatively smoothly with the insurance process, our little car was going to be repaired and we were happy, until ……Our insurance company directed us to have our car repaired at “Ottawa Honda”. We dropped our car off on Friday the 19th of November. On Monday, the 21st I received a call that our car had been stolen from their lot. What we learned from the police, our insurance company and reluctantly from Ottawa Honda was that an individual had walked in off the street sometime on Friday afternoon, gone into the collision centre office where the keys to all the cars are supposed to be kept in a secure area, taken our keys and wandered the Ottawa Honda lot until they found the car the keys matched and simply driven away without anyone noticing. The police asked for the video surveillance and were told by the collision centre manager, Trevor Marsh that it wasn’t working. Much later the Sales Manager of Ottawa Honda, Vik Dilawri, told us they do not have video surveillance in the collision centre only on their new cars. Oops, the water is becoming murky – I am beginning to have to double check the stories …. The truth must be here somewhere.
After a week of fruitless and frustrating dealings with the collision centre manager, Trevor Marsh we called the Sales Manager of Ottawa Honda, Vik Dilawri. He seemed like a friendly accommodating man, he said no one had told him of the theft off of his lot. He said he would look into it and get back to us. When he called back he asked that we be patient and wait and see if the police could recover our car and his dealership would do the repairs necessary. This sounded fair and we agreed ……………...
I was feeling a little uneasy about the theft so, while we waited I did my homework. I spent the last 6 weeks researching. I looked Ottawa Honda’s status and complaints with the Better business bureau and complaints Canada. I researched fair market values for used Honda civics based on year, mileage and condition on Canadian government and insurance approved websites (both wholesale and retail), investigated dealership mark-up percentages and costs on used vehicles. I learned that most pre-owned cars in Honda dealerships are previously leased cars. The dealerships use an established buy back formula. Their buy back policy for leased cars is standardized and only varies if the car has special features, if cash is put down up front, if there has been an accident etc. Using the standardized formula, it is quite simple to figure out what the cost is to a dealership when buying back a leased car, what their estimated costs might be and what their profit margin is on pre-owned vehicles. All very useful information.
The police found our car - it was a right off. We called Ottawa Honda and Vik Dilawri, again told us he would “make it right”. We made it clear that we would put in money towards a newer car but the insurance company had deemed the dealership's collision centre negligent and we expected them to be financially accountable for their negligence.
Yesterday we spoke with Vik Dilawri again, he arranged for us to meet with the Pre-Owned Senior sales representative, Rick Saunders. Vik Dilawri stated that Rick was going to get us into a car at a reduced price to compensate us for the vehicle which was stolen from their lot and subsequently destroyed. So today Dec 22, off we go to see this wonderful car. Rick, after assuring us he had a car to show us at a price that would compensate us for our loss passed us off to a salesman and disappeared from the lot.
We were shown a car, another civic, nothing fancy, no extras, no bells and whistles just a good solid reliable car – like the one we lost. We took it for a test drive, looked at it very closely (including taking down the details on the VIN) then off we went to see the salesman about the price. We were told the price of the car was 15,800 but they would sell it to us for 13,900. As I said, I had done my research and the price we were offered clearly reflected that Ottawa Honda was taking no financial responsibility for the theft of our car from their premises. I was furious, the senior sales representative Rick Saunders had apparently, gone off to the dentist and left this poor sales guy to face us. I was angry and I told him so – not with him but with Vik Dilawri and Rick Saunders.
We came STRAIGHT home - I wanted to verify that my feeling the price we were offered reflected that Ottawa Honda was taking no financial responsibility for the theft of our car so I immediately went to the Ottawa Honda pre-owned vehicle website and identified the car through the VIN. This morning the same car on their website was being offered to the public for 13,988. The website clearly states that Vehicle information is entered by the dealer himself and changed in real time on a daily basis. The salesman had presented numbers given to him by the dealer, Rick Saunders. The cost of the car presented to us was inflated by several thousand dollars then they deducted money from the inflated price………… Do you see where I am going with this ………Oh, by the way did I mention I have a brain tumour – access to the hospital and my doctors is imperative.in the last four days I have had two emergencies that normally I would have gone to the hospital for - but we don’t have a car. It has been six weeks since our car was stolen from Ottawa Honda and our rental car time has long gone … we are still waiting for Ottawa Honda and Vik Dilawri to “make it right”.
It has been a long journey from meeting an individual who buoyed our belief in the inherent goodness in all people to the ugliness we found in Ottawa Honda.
Economical Insurance has investigated Ottawa Honda's collision centre negligent and is taking legal action to recover their costs.
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