Need advice regarding recent vehicle purchase

I'm sorry, this is going to be long, but I'm really upset. My husband and I purchased a Ford Flex last weekend. We went into the dealer expecting to just discuss options, prices, etc. They happened to have the exact one I wanted. We told the salesman that when we called Chrysler to discuss our lease end options on our mini-van, they suggested we ask Ford if they would want to buy the van instead of turning in the lease. The reasons were that we were over our miles (by about 8000 miles, yikes!) and were interested in getting the Ford. So the guy says that they do that. He said we could actually get the Flex that day and we told him that we knew we had to get the minivan cleaned out, detailed and new front tires. He said he would inspect it and let us know what needed to be done. He goes out there and comes back in and tells us that the ding in the front door needed to be fixed and 2 chips on the windshield needed repair and his body shop could do that, the front 2 tires needed to be replaced and that he would have his porters take care of the inside. He also said that we should keep one key to our minivan so that we can take it to go get some used tires put on the front or else we'll get charged. So, my husband goes out to clean out our stuff from the car and I'm inside with the salesman and another lady that goes over all the paperwork. They gave us an amount off the price for turning in a non-Ford lease along with some other rebates and employee pricing. So, we get everything signed and we drive our new car off the lot with the understanding that we would come back and get tires put on the van and they would repair the ding and a couple of chips on the windshield (claim put into insurance for that). So, I found a place today that had the used tires (they've been very hard to find) and I go up to the Ford Dealership to get the van. Well, it's not there. It's at some bodyshop getting the ding taken care of. It was supposed to be back there by last Thurs. At this time, the salesman handed me a check for the remaining 2 payments on the minivan and I asked him the process of getting it bought. This is where I start fuming. He tells me that they aren't buying it and that he told me while my husband was out cleaning the van out that they weren't buying it and that we had to turn it back into Chrysler. Well, I never ever heard him say that and my question to him was why did he inspect the van and why was he doing all these repairs on a van that he wanted us to return to another dealership? We had explained what we wanted and our reasons and neither one of us remembers him saying we had to take it back to Chrysler. So, we're totally over our miles and will owe over $1500 for that and who knows what Chrysler would have wanted us to do or if there will be additional charges. I'm so mad b/c I feel like we were totally taken advantage of, but then I'm wondering if I'm in the wrong for following up with all the specifics or looking for that in writing at the time. Sorry that was so long. My husband has a call into the manager, but I don't think they'll do anything. It's the salesman's word against ours, but it just seems to fishy to me.

 

I would call ford directly and make a complaint against the dealership. I know you also have so many days to return a vehicle, so I would tell them that if they issue was not fixed with the mini van, as in you were told that Ford was going to buy it out, and all you needed to do was put 2 tires on the front, that you would drop the Flex off in the parking lot with the keys and take back the minivan. Also tell them that you will be purchasing another vehical make and the experience you had with Ford has turned you off completely. You can also tell them that you will be contacting he media so that other people can be aware of how they treat their Customer's. I hope you get it all figured out soon.

 

So, I'm at the body shop that they took the van to & the dings in the door weren't fixed. They were told to fix a crease in the rear quarter pannel. I told the guy the situation & he is completely baffled as to why ford would go through all this trouble of having the car fixed if it's not something they are keeping. He said he was told it was a lease turn in, but has no idea why Ford wouldn't deal w/ taking care of the turn in & make us take back to chrysler. I mean, I don't even have a plate for it to drive it around to get these tires or get it back to the dealership. This bodyshop owner was so nice & he offered to take it down the street w/ his temp plate to get the tires on & bring it back for me. He ev said he would have his porter work on the inside so I don't have to go back to the ford dealership at all. I'm just at a loss & honestly so confused as to how this all happened. I have no idea where i'll come up w/ the money for over mileage either. I'll be interested to hear what the manager says at ford.

 

Is it the norm for you to have to worry about any of that stuff? I thought they were supposed to take the old, charge you for what you owed even add it to what your total is on the new and off you go no more mini van worries. Sounds like your salesman had no idea what he was doing and when the boss found out what was going on, he had to change his story. Sounds very very fishy to me. I would take myself to the dealership right now and have the whole thing straightened out in person right now. If they beat around the bush in person, I would get on my cell and call Ford directly while standing in the dealership.

 

No, I don't think it's the norm to do it this way. But, we have never turned in a vehicle to another car company either. We've always turned it into wherever it needs to go, but also bought our new one through them. I thought they were doing all the work themselves and cleaning it up b/c they were buying it. Even if they weren't buying it, I think we could just turn it into them and have them do the inspection and then they would get it to Chrysler. I did go up to the dealership today and talked to the salesman and he told me that he told me while my husband was outside that he told me all of this. He did not! I was too upset to ask to speak to a manager, but my husband called and left a message for the manager. I've got the 3 kids with me, my Mom is in the hospital and DH is at work over an hour away. DH just texted me and said that the manager refuses to do anything so DH is going to contact Ford corporate and the Franchise manager. He said the manager wouldn't even let him get a word in.

 

What a jerk!!! I hope Ford or the franchise manager will help you. If not, I would call the BBB.

 

That's the plan. DH has an e-mail written to the franchise manager. If they don't help, then he'll be contacting Corporate and the BBB. He said he might even call our local news station that has the "problem solvers". The manager flat out told DH that we were lying and that the salesman told him that he said we were both specifically told that they were not buying it. DH never heard it. I never heard it. And when I went in to talk to the salesman today, he said to me that he said it when DH was out cleaning out the van. So, that is contradicting right there. The manager argued that we didn't have anything in writing that they were buying the van (our fault, I know!). But, we also didn't have anything in writing for them to fix the van and they drove it across town to a different body shop other than their own body shop and fixed some things. They also told us that we should clean out the van that day and that we should get the tires by Mon. or Tues. this week. If they weren't keeping the van, then why did it matter? We were still owners of the van and could have taken the next 2 months getting it fixed and tires, etc. I want to say "well, then you stole my van and drove it and had things fixed that I didn't sign for". I'm sorry I keep going on about this. I'm just so mad about how they are handling all of this. None of it makes sense.

 

I bet the repairs ended up being more than they expected.

It should all be in your paperwork if they were going to buy it. I HATE buying a car!!

 

I had a big problem with my KIA van once that the dealership did not handle right. I called corporate (was in tears when I did so) and the next day I got a call from the dealership saying they would take care of everything. It was amazing how quick it all worked out. I would totally skip the email and go straight to a phone call with corporate. Hopefully they will work this out, especially if they value your business.

 

OMG!!! Thats so wrong. What was the check he gave you for the remaining two payments on the van for? I hope you are able to get some answers, I agree calling the tv station problem solvers might be a good way to make them have to answer some things. I agree with pp who said I bet they found the repairs were going to be more costly. Did they ever answer you when you asked why they took a car they had no intention of buying to get fixed?

 

Yes, the check they gave me yesterday was for the final 2 payments we had on the van lease. We also had been given $1000 off the price of our new purchase for a lease turn in of a non-Ford vehicle. I asked the salesman yesterday why I wouldn't have just taken it to Chrysler to have them inspect it, tell me what needed to be done and have them fix it since it's their vehicle. He told me that people have other car companies fix other cars all the time. But, I don't get why they would invest in getting it fixed, have us clear out all of our stuff that day, make sure we got our new tires within a week, take it to another body shop not even affiliated with Ford to get some body work and windshield work done, detail it, if it wasn't something they were keeping. They manager called my husband a liar and told him that they've never had any other calls like this and it's not their fault. We assumed that what we told him we wanted to do was being done (them buying the van) b/c of all the work they were doing to it and in a a specific timeline. Because of the timeline, we thought that when we got the new tires put on this week that we would then handle the sale part of it. Everyone I've talked to from other car dealers, the body shop, Chrysler, etc. has never heard of anything like this happening and it makes no sense to anybody. Also, if it was just a lease turn in and that's what are going with, I was told that they can take care of the inspection, odometer reading and turn in to Chrysler and that we shouldn't be doing any of this stuff. My husband asked the manager why Ford wasn't doing the repairs at their facility and he said b/c the salesman was trying to get us a better deal. Grrrrrr.

 

I held it together when I was confronting the salesman which I was shocked about b/c I cry about everything and hate confrontation. I stood up while he was sitting at his desk with this "oh sh#t" look on his face and looked around the room a few times. But, I lost it and was a blubbering mess with I was at the body shop and the things I thought were being repaired weren't. That guy was so incredibly nice and felt so bad for me. I just hope he isn't part of what scheme is going on here. My Mom seems to think they said whatever they could to get us to buy the car that day and are not trying to cover their butts. My husband is in management, but in healthcare and he cannot believe the way they are handling this customer service. When he gets complaints he never calls someone a liar. He listens, says he will investigate and comes back to them and handles it. These people just don't care at all. My husband usually doesn't get this upset, but he's ready to keep fighting this all the way until it is resolved in a way that we feel is appropriate.

 

This is crazy! I can't believe how they are handling this!! I'm so sorry you are dealing with all of this crap!

Have you or do you plan on returning the new car? I would not give this dealership my money.

Keep us posted and I really think that calling the tv station is a great idea!!

 

My husband asked the manager what the return policy is and he told him there isn't one. My husband said he knows other companies have a return policy or window and the manager said "nope, this is a contract between you and the bank and you can't return it". So, I'm investigating that part of it.

 

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this! How screwy! I really hope you get some good and fair resolution.

 

I would check the return policy in your state. Whenever we have signed loan papers, our bank has allowed us to cancel a loan within a certain period. This held true for our mortgage refinance and the car refinance. You need to call the bank and ask about that.

 

A bit of an update: We wrote an email/letter to one of the owners of the dealership. At the end, we said that we expected a response within 2 business days or we would be contacting Ford Motor Company at corporate as well as the BBB. Well, he never responded. So, today DH called Ford corporate and this was there response..."All we can do is write a complaint letter to the owner of the dealership". When my husband explained that we had already done that and we were following up on what Corporate's website states (contact salesman, then sales manager, owner and then corporate). They said "We wish we could do more for you, but each dealership is independently owned and operated". Grrrrrr. So, DH filed a complaint with the BBB. He has been trying to contact the owner of the dealership all day, but isn't getting through to him. I'm going to see if there is something I file with the State of MI as well and we'll be contacting our local media if this isn't resolved by early next week.

Oh, and we went to the independent body shop that our van was at and picked it up and took it right over to Chrysler. They told us we didn't need new tires and luckily I hadn't bought those yet. There were 2 other things that needed to be fixed. The bodyshop never asked for payment for the repairs they made and I never signed anything saying Ford should do those repairs. When DH was turning the van in, he was telling the lease turn in guy about all the drama. He told DH that the lady in front of him had a very similar story and that the same dealership told her they were buying out her lease 6 months in advance. 5 months later she got a nasty letter from Chrysler saying she owed $1000's due to late payments and such. She went over to the Ford dealership and confronted them (they still had her van there!!) and they said "we don't remember that conversation. Do you have something in writing?". I told DH to call up to Chrysler and ask them to call her and give her our info so that we could possible coroborate. Lastly, I went online and did a yahoo search for reviews of this dealership. There are 10 reviews and 9 of them are horrible and talk about how they are dishonest, don't remember conversations, don't put things in writing, etc. and that the manager just doesn't care and you can't get anywhere. My husband also told me that when he originally called our salesman to discuss all of this, the salesman said "we can't buy it, they wanted to much for it". Well, we purchased our new car on a Saturday at like 4:00, so I'm sure he didn't find out until the following week how much the van was going to cost to buy it. So, he just told us what we wanted to hear so that we would make the purchase that day. So, we'll see how this all plays out. It's so frustrating and we just don't have a couple thousand dollars laying around to pay off all the things with this lease. That's why we were so interested and excited that they were willing to buy it.

 

the dealership wouldn't be owned by a family/company called Rosado would they?

 

No, it's the Spitler family.