I purchased a vehicle from the Orlando Used Car Superstore on February. At the time, my salesman Joe explained that I would receive a $100 check for every person I referred to the dealership who purchased a car. He said all I needed to do was make sure the person I referred gave my name. This was verified by my financing officer, Jeff.
On July 27 a friend purchased a vehicle at the dealership per my referral. She called me after the sale to let me know the sale was complete and that she had given my name as the person who had referred her. I called the dealership immediately after that call and spoke to Josh, a financing officer for the dealership. He said that he was finalizing my friend's paperwork, and that he had my payment information on his desk and that it would be sent off by the end of the day.
I assumed from this that all I had to do was wait for reasonable processing time to receive my payment. I allowed the two week waiting period I had gone through during my own purchase, which is a sort of grace period to make sure that there are no last minute financial factors that can negate the sale. I then allowed another 2-3 weeks for processing time, and then another week or so for mailing time. All in all, I allowed at least 6 weeks for the processing of my check, which I considered quite reasonable, especially since I had received verbal confirmation that it was being processed.
I contacted Rick at the dealership on Tuesday, October 5. I explained the situation and he stated that he would research this for me and call me back the next day. He never called me back, so I again called the dealership on Friday, October 8. I was informed by Rick that there was no record of a payment due me because the referral information was never input into the system when Cesar, my friend's salesman, was entering the information pertaining to the deal. Rick also claimed that my salesperson, Joe, was supposed to give me a "We Owe" slip when I purchased my car, which was never before mentioned to me. I was also informed that since I didn't call a couple of weeks after the fact, I was no longer able to claim that money.
My main complaints regarding this:
1) Both my friend and myself were following exactly the instructions given to us in order for me to claim the referral incentive. No mention was ever made of a We Owe slip, and the dealership was negligent in entering the referral information when my friend provided it. Their negligence should not be grounds for their not making good on a promise made previously.
2) Rick claimed that his finance director explained that since I didn't call until two months after the fact, I was no longer able to get my money. The fact that I called IMMEDIATELY after the sale went through and CONFIRMED my payment doesn't seem to matter. I find this to be wrong and unethical on many levels.
3) I was told by Rick that referrals would only "eat into their profits", which I found to be extremely offensive considering they wouldn't have had any profits to begin with had I not referred Ms. Kline.
4) I was told by Josh that my payment information was on his desk, which was an outright lie.
0 comments