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.
I had a wonderful experience. I work in dealer finance for a bank, so I knew what I was doing.
The salesman - on the other hand - knew nothing at all. He was a newbie. Never ever had sold a car before. It made no difference to me since I knew what I wanted. After a few minutes of negotiation, I was dealing with the sales manager as he walked the newbie through the steps.
But if you even show the slightest fear or doubt in the sales process, they circle you like sharks.
That's what I'm thinking, especially with the Better Business Bureau getting involved. They have done irreparable damage to themselves on a PR level.
But that does not supercede the signed and executed contract.
Sorry I missed that. But that same papragraph referenced the sales' manager or some such's acceptance of the deal. Also there are many reasons for a postdated check (paydates and such). The dealership's use of the term implied acceptance of said item as a condition of the sale (in other words they knew about it). Now it may well be that it was meant to be a downpayment (It sounds like that too me).
But the buyer: Still pursuing this, also indicates to me a sense that he felt he was wronged and is not just some guy out for a freebie.
One thing I'd like to know is how long Heard has been in business. Generally speaking long-established businesses don't all of a sudden resort to cheating (absent a change in management or ownership).
I don't know how many items I "inadvertently" bought at a higher cost than I should have and was never given "Oops..." as a viable escape.
I see the key in the wording, they sold the vehicle at a "lower cost" instead of a "lower price". The "cost" means the dealer didn't make a profit on it.
Toyota didn't screw you, the dealer/salesman did. To hold it against the manufacturer is insane. All Toyota did was make the car and sell it to the dealer.
You're missing out on some damn fine cars.
From what I understand the buyer owed $14.7K on a $14K car. So basically there was no trade in. There was no mention of a note, and the only other consideration was a post dated check for $8100.00.
So did this clown really think he was gonna get away with buying a $22K truck for just $8100?
As bad as this is, it looks like the dealer was thinking they were selling a $3000 truck, and getting some fool to pay $8100 for it.
Like I said, both parties were loooking for overkill, but neither one won.
This was all over the radio in Texarkana, Tx this morning.
Not likely, this Antioch is in Tennessee.
I could be wrong.
That actually sounds like the one thing that fits the facts. That would be just if they both walked away a little stung from the whole affair.
"The buyer gave a posted dated check."
Seems to me this is irrelevant since if the seller accepted the check, he accepted deferred payment.
Hey, It's all about the music with me....
;-)
I'll take your word for it. The one I had was cr@p. Worn out at 82,000 miles, with proper maintenance. I've never had a Chevy I couldn't get at least 150 K out of, and actually, have only completely worn one out. That's pickups of course. Can't speak to the cars.
From the second link..
it states that a post-dated check is non-negotiable, but I always thought it is a negotiable instrument per UCC.
I could be wrong of course. I ain't no lawyer.
I'm under the impression that a PDC is fully negotiable immediately. No matter what date you put on it, it is able to clear when it's sent for deposit.
In the 70s, Toyota was pretty bad, but they are about the best that you can buy now. Chevy trucks are a lot better than the cars even though the cars have improved a lot.
My ex had well over 200,000 on her Camry, passed it on to our daughter who drove it a few years and then when Nana needed a car, she got it and she's still driving it. Hardly spent a dime on it other than routine maintenance.
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