Posted on 07/31/2006 5:12:40 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
Car dealers are often the butt of jokes. But one local truck buyer is not laughing about the deal that he got -- and lost. Consumer advocates say this case raises lots of questions about how a well-known auto dealer does business.
Earl Kieselhorst thought he owned a 2003 Chevy Silverado -- a truck that he bought from Bill Heard Chevrolet in Antioch.
Kieselhorst says he "paid cash for it. Made the deal. Sales manager signed off on it. Signed all the paperwork. And drove off."
He traded in his car and gave the dealer a check for $8,100.
"I have the keys," Kieselhorst tells NewsChannel 5 investigative reporter Jennifer Kraus.
But he doesn't have his truck.
Bill Heard does.
"I can't see any reason why this wouldn't be my car," he adds.
Just one day after he bought the truck, a salesman from Bill Heard called to say the dealership was having second thoughts about the deal.
He told Kieselhorst that if he wanted to keep his truck, he needed to fork over another $10,000 -- something he refused to do. After all, he says, they had a signed deal.
But the next morning, when Kieselhorst woke up, his truck was gone.
"And I was like I can't believe it," he recalls.
The dealership had come and taken it in the middle of the night.
"I've got a contract. This is a legal contract. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say."
Metro police investigated and wanted to file charges against Bill Heard for stealing the truck.
Detective Ray Paris got a statement from Bill Heard, blaming a rookie salesman for what happened and calling it a mistake. (Read the statement given to police by Bill Heard.)
"They inadvertently sold the vehicle at a lower cost than what they should have," Paris says.
Kathleen Calligan says the Better Business Bureau has received literally hundreds and hundreds of similar complaints about the Bill Heard dealership -- more complaints by far than any other auto dealer in all of Middle Tennessee.
"Not only is this an unbelievable volume of complaints, most of them are unresolved," she adds.
Calligan says that, in this day and age, dealers know exactly how much a vehicle is worth.
And if a dealership truly does make a mistake, she says they'll take the loss -- rather than call the customer and demand he make up the difference.
"There is absolutely no reason for a sale not to be final when the customer walks out of the dealership," Calligan adds.
Yet even after Bill Heard had taken back the truck, the salesman called Kieselhorst again.
"He calls me back and offers to sell it to me for $11,000 more than I paid for it," Kieselhorst recalls.
Kieselhorst said no way.
And even though he still believes he is the rightful owner of the truck, when we went looking for it at Bill Heard, we found a customer checking it out. It was for sale, the customer and a saleswoman told us.
"The whole thing has just gotten more and more ridiculous," Kieselhorst says.
And now the self-proclaimed largest Chevrolet dealership in the world is accusing Kieselhorst of "trying to pull a fast one" on them.
"This is the way this company does business," Calligan says. "They really thought they would be able to pull a fast one on their customer."
After we tried to get their side for days, Bill Heard faxed us a statement just before air time, saying that Kieselhorst "should have known" that the deal he got was too good to be true.
The company says:
"It is not reasonable or fair to expect for Bill Heard Chevrolet ... to be bound by a sale where a clear and material mistake was made, and the customer was aware that it was a mistake."
(Read Bill Heard's statement provided to NewsChannel 5.)
Kieselhort says he just thought Bill Heard was giving him the type of good deal they advertise.
As for the police investigation, the DA says this is a civil case, not a criminal case. He says Kieselhorst is free to take the dealer to court -- something he's now seriously considering.
Oughta be good for at least 100 replies.
Soooo. Whaddya YOU think? Should the dealer have taken back the truck? Is this a criminal case? Civil case?
Criminal! They both signed the deal. If the dealer is doing this many times, they should be put out of business.
Criminal case. The dealership no longer owned the truck. They stole it.
Once the deal was signed... the dealer loses. period.
I made a mistake and didn't like the deal they offered me because it was TOOO much so I go up to the dealership and just take the vehicle I want. Fair is fair. If a bill of sale don't mean nuthin' why pay them anything.
the bad pub alone is gonna kill this clown as it should..sue the hell out of him..if he has signed papers and they took the truck.. is that not grand theft auto?
Ah, you hear about this sort of thing all the time with Toyota, Nissan and Mazda dealers!
(What my Buy America Even If It's Wrong friend would say; otherwise he's
a really great guy)
They sure do squeal like a pig when the tables are turned on them.
If it's as big a dealership as they say, they've already lost at least $10,000 in bad publicity/public relations.
If they want to stay in business they had better play nice with the guy, otherwise they're doomed.
The sale was NOT completed. The buyer gave a posted dated check. The buyer actually had this truck out on spec pending the final closing.
Kathleen Calligan says the Better Business Bureau has received literally hundreds and hundreds of similar complaints about the Bill Heard dealership -- more complaints by far than any other auto dealer in all of Middle Tennessee.
Yeah, but after reading the attachments, I'm not so sure the deal was done. Especially with a post dated check added into the mix.
Biggest screwing I ever got was at a Toyota dealership. It was my fault, I was young and stupid, but I've never bought, or seriously considered buying another Toyota.
I can't find that in the article. Where did you come up with it?
On perhaps a different note, a couple of years ago a Fresno County Sheriff's Sergeant sued a local Ford dealer, and Ford Motor Company over a lemon car. The dealer settled for 100,000 dollars and the Sgt. got a judgment against the Ford Motor Company for 10 Million dollars. Ford appealed the verdict, and it is probably still pending. I would hope that the buyer and his attorney in this case can get records of past dealings and sales, and prove that this is a consistent pattern by the dealer. If so, it should prove successful against the dealer in a lawsuit. We'll see.
if the dealer accepted it, too bad for him.
A deal is a deal.
"I'm a faithful follower of Brother John Birch
And I belong to the Antioch Baptist Church.
And I aint even got a garage, you can call home and ask my wife!"
Same Antioch??
As long as the deal wasn't grossly unreasonable (like selling him the car for $1), I don't see how the sale wouldn't be enforceable. I don't see how a trade-in plus $8,100 cash would seem blatantly unreasonable for a used Chevy.
They are actually illegal in most states.
When I was in the check-cashing business, the law was, you accept a check (no matter what's written on it), too bad for you.
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