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.
LOL. Glad you made it out alive.
Exactly.
The post-dating is irrelevant. If properly written and endorsed it's a negotiable instrument, even if the number amounts and the wording amount differ, as the words control over numbers.
I absolutely LOVE dealers like that. Of course I am an honest car salesman....and no that's no BS. I'll get you the very best price possible. I don't even have to deal with a sales manager. I write my own deals. That's why I move 40-50 units a month and send them all over the country! If a Freeper needs something, Freep mail me. I know shameless self promotion here is wrong but I am different. 90% plus of my business is repeat customers.
So you can see very well why I love stories about thieving dealers!!
Other clues of a dishonest dealership are additional charges for scotchguarding the seats, adding those little rubber door trim things, and etching the VIN # on the windows. If I see that, I leave immediately. There are honest car dealerships out there. Why do business with a crook?
I've heard several stories like this about Bill Heard before. It doesn't surprise me one bit.
BTW Bill Heard has something like 10 or more big Chevy lots thorughout Middle Tennessee and North Alabama. I have never bought a vehicle from them.
BTW, as to the thread topic, whether the dealer thought he was ripped off or not, taking the car out of someones driveway when you don't have a lien on it is pretty dangerous. It sounds like it's already cost him a bundle with the negative publicity, and he should have pursued legal options. He's a big target, and criminal charges of auto theft sound likely. Civil suits, keep it on the front page, more lost business. I sure wouldn't want to be the rookie salesman that made that sale.
May the "Blue Genie" tinkle on their tires.
I've been in the car business, in one way or another since 1977 and the old saying is that the sales department sells the first car and service sells the rest of them (to that customer). Service truly makes or breaks the dealership.
In my time, I've run across some really terrific dealers that care about their reputation and are scrupulously honest and don't put up with any nonsense. Some will push the envelope all the way to the edge. Only a few are really crooked and don't care what they have to do to make a buck.
If this dealer is in a large metro area, he probably doesn't care because there are always enough new customers that the ones who are pissed don't matter much. What's really bad about that is that they also attract the same type of salesman and the good ones avoid them like the plague, so you really get screwed.
I paid a utility bill and forgot to sign the check and the bank processed it.
Buzzzzz... Wrong answer. The deal is final when both parties sign the contract of sale. The dealership stole this truck and should be prosecuted like anyone else that steals trucks.
They have 12 or 13 dealerships in Vegas, Phoenix, Houston, Tennessee and Georgia. The corporation accounts for almost 15% of Chevrolet's annual sales, and they all seem to operate in about the same manner as described.
A few years ago there was a big blowup with Bill Heard over false newspaper advertising in Georgia. The state compliance officer that was bringing the charges against them retired soon after one of the Heard representatives attended a fund raiser for our current governor. All the charges were settled out of court. The compliance officer took a new position doing the same job for the State of Tennessee. I wonder if he is still there.<
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