This man has scamming down to a legal art! I wish I could get it all in one report, but here are the basics:
He buys used trucks, most of them have very high miles. He sends them to the detail shop (and they do a WONDERFUL job of making these POS's look amazing), then puts them on the lot for 'lease to own'
Unless there is something very noticeably wrong with them, that's where they sit until you come to buy it. When you spend your hard earned money driving or flying to Gulfport and decide on a truck, then and only then, do they put it in the shop. So you are stuck in Gulfport for as long as it takes to get your truck roadworthy. Don't count on him putting you up in a hotel either. If you bitch enough, however, he might let you stay at one of the rathole motels right by the place, but he won't drive you to it (SOME of the salesmen, however, will, but they aren't required to).
Now on to the shop. The shop is run by a guy in the construction business (Richard Dedeaux Construction) He's a great contractor, but the guy doesn't know jack about mechanics. Your truck may only need 3 thing replaced, seems quick and easy, so he'll tell you, "your truck will be ready tomorrow" but since he has no knowledge of mechanics, he really has no clue if those 3 things are going to take an hour, or 3 days. Not to mention they keep almost no parts on hand so while these monkeys are running around trying to find the parts to your truck (most of the time the junk yard is their first call by the way) You are STUCK in Gulfport on your own dime.
Parts: You will probably see some HDA or Heavy Duty Truck Parts advertising while you are there. This is a wholesale distributing company they get cheap parts from. The parts manager (Eric Schmieder) does his job by finding the cheapest parts he can find for his boss. Most of the crap is made in China, and none of it is quality. They get the truck on the road for as cheap as possible. Once you leave in it, they offer a 50/50 deal on parts and labor. This is where Eric jacks up the price of the parts by 50%. They don't really care about putting quality stuff on the truck, because they make mega money when it breaks and then you have to bring it back in and pay for "half" of the maintnance and parts. Most of the time when you buy the truck, they only fix what they absolutely HAVE to, and wait for you to bring it back on the 50/50 deal so they don't have to come out of pocket for anything.
One time I was there a driver told me he brought his truck in at least once a month because it was blowing oil out of everywhere. He'd bring it in, they'd work on it for a few days while they did a cheap patch (YOU STILL HAVE TO MAKE YOUR WEEKLY PAYMENTS WHILE THE TRUCK IS IN THEIR SHOP BY THE WAY) and sent him back on the road. He did this for about 4 or 5 months until he got fed up and backed out of the deal. You don't get any of your down payment back by the way. They didn't fix the truck, simply washed it, put it back out for lease, then then next sucker that drove off in it brought it back a week later and paid 50% of replacing the engine because he blew a head gasket. It was either that, or get screwed out of the $10,000 he paid a week earlier to get in the truck. Do you see where these guys are con artists?!
Louie Normand gets rich by screwing over the American worker. Everytime I go in there I see new faces. I've heard employees complain about being screwed over on their pay, making jokes about if you call in sick youre fired, and act absolutely terrified when Louie walks through the buillding. Don't support this tyrant.
Now here's my story:
Flew down on a Friday, paid $9,500 down (after the $500 application fee and about a grand worth of other random fees). Truck went into the shop Saturday, mechanics worked half a day then called it quits. They are closed on Sundays, and Monday was a holiday, so I spent the weekend in a cheap nasty hotel and dined on Denny's and McDonalds because it was the only thing within walking distance. They finished my truck the first time on Tuesday. Took it for a test drive, and sent it back to the shop. The damn thing shook like a freaking dildo. They decided it was the tires, so they changed them again (they only use recapped tires by the way). It took they guy about 6 hours to change all 8 back tires, and by that time most of the mechanics had left for the day. Took the truck for a second test drive and it still shook. Waited another night in a nasty hotel. They fired my mechanic on Wednesday, and my truck sat there til the following Monday. When I raised hell about it, and demanded my down payment back I was told that if I didn't calm down they would have me arrested. My down payment refund was out of the question. So there I was, stuck, screwed, and pissed. My only option was to sit there and take it up the a*s.
Don't give these people your money. Don't give them the time of day. It took me almost a year to save up that down payment. I busted my ass and sacrificed a lot for it, just to be screwed over by a man that gives his teenage kids $100,000 Mercedes Benz and owns a $1,000, 000 Prevost bus. I'd hate to have to stand in his shoes on judgement day, and that's about the only thing that helps me sleep at night knowing my hard earned money is allowing him to keep screwing people over like he did me!
0 comments