(Solved) Dealer Deposit Refund on Botched Order

[dcmdon]

Although I HATE the old-fashioned 1970s sales tactics and their refusal to make "deals" or deal with the affiliate discounts, one of the things that stuck out as a positive was that they sat with you in the vehicle and made really sure you drove off knowing what every knob, every control and setting was for - and they paired your phone and did whatever else needed to connect things before you left - they'd even stay after closing for that. And - they filled the tank full.
The vehicle was spotless, you had your phone connected, the radio set how you wanted it, and knew what things were - and left with a full tank.
Now, if they'd let sales people make deals and work with discounts - I might go back............
but then Motor Inn staff was SOOOO nice......(and my wife left with a full tank in her 2021 Grand Cherokee thanks to Motor Inn. Nice as it was a 4 hour drive)

As far as plate mounts - I bet a forum member would send one out cheap or free. Look at all the front bumpers that were replaced and the plate mount for the plastic bumper gets tossed on a shelf.

Going back to Saab's response to the Lexus challenge in the early 90s. They also forced us to up our game when it came to deliveries.

Prior to Lexus coming into the market it was entirely dependent on the dealership or salesman. After 1993 or so, we had a checklist of the things that we needed to review with the customer.

We had to sign it and ask the customer to sign something that said "The delivering dealer made every effort to show the car to me and demonstrate features".

I dont' remember the exact language, but it did a good job of walking the fine line of making sure customers understood the car and holding the customer hostage until you got done with the list.

Some customers, especially repeat customers who had owned essentially the same car (the Saab 900 was eeesntially unchanged for 15 years) and had an established relationship with the dealer just wanted to sign the papers and be handed the keys.

Other customers, especially those coming from American or Japanese cars would definitely benefit from a proper "delivery". Either way it was up to the customer. But Lexus forced Saab to standardize on a documented protocol.

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[Jocww]

So this is in fact a backwards endorsement of Gupton.

The least happy customer I've found on this site and all he has to complain about is getting "screwed" out of a front license plate bracket. Ha.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/143792949918

You raise some really great points though.

1) why not have a bunch in stock to cover for when you forget to order one.

2) 1/4 tank with a new vehicle. Its ridiculous. When I was working as a finance guy at a Saab dealer in the early 90s we were doing battle with the onslaught of new Jap luxury brands Lexus and Infinity.

Lexus was leading the way with doing all the little things that make people excited about their new car. It was a seismic shift in the auto industry. One of the things they found was that getting a new car with a full tank brought joy to the new owners and that these owners tended to tell people that their new car came with a full tank of gas.

So Saab started telling us to deliver cars with a full tank. And amazingly, people noticed and said something to us about it.

I'm surprised to hear about your X5. I would think that BMW would be pushing dealers to deliver with a full tank.

This is one of the differences in ownership experience that I would expect in moving from a European car to a Jeep.

1- LoL yes it is an endorsement for now. I give credit where credit is due both good and bad. (its a double edge sword right... you can have a lot of great reviews but if you get a few bad ones those are the ones people notice good bad indifferent thats how life is.) Are they the cheapest, yes that's what i saw in my searching. Is there communication great... its not great but I have also had worse. Regarding after the down payment. He did answer my question about being a Kaiser employee instead of a tread lightly. I did have to pester him for my VON and VIN.

2-Oh it was BS and I get it was when gas prices were high, but still if Im dropping this much money I EXPECT certain things. Service at BMW and MINI have been top notch

 

[Trickster]

The US and the entire western world is becoming COMPLETELY corporatized. What do you think this whole asinine Covid thing was about?

What?
Please expand on your opinion.

 

[sharpsicle]

The US and the entire western world is becoming COMPLETELY corporatized. What do you think this whole asinine Covid thing was about?

What?
Please expand on your opinion.

No, seriously, please don't.

Don't ask him to explain it further, and for the love of god please don't take him up on the offer.

Just leave it alone...

 

[VolatileA]

Yes, but I live in Ca and its mandatory. There isnt a box to check online... And Gupton is saying since I didnt check the box then its my fault. Well how can I check a box that isnt given to me to check, and I wouldnt know it existed unless I could see it/worked. Thats the pain about ordering online. Dont get me wrong if this is the biggest thing to go wrong then I am gonna buy my next jeep/possibly cummins from them. But at the same time Im buying a pretty much fully loaded JTRD. Why wouldnt you just order a few more on the next jeeps whether the owner wanted it or not, and keep a cache for when somebody else from CA or other state needs it and doesnt know to ask for one. This way they still look like a good guy instead of souring an otherwise good experience? Ive walked away from truck purchases from lesser things. I was picking up my X5 and they were going to only give me a 1/4 tank. I told them straight up fill this bitch up or Im walking out this door and I will post it to every single place possible. The owner squawked and gawked and when he saw me getting on my Ducati he changed his story real quick.

The real question is, was it a Scrambler or Superleggera :P

 

[Trickster]

No, seriously, please don't.

Don't ask him to explain it further, and for the love of god please don't take him up on the offer.

Just leave it alone...

Lol, no I have to know.
Still 2 hours until the NASCAR race….I have time.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The real question is, was it a Scrambler or Superleggera :P

Did you mean SC/Rambler - A or B scheme?

Oh, you meant JEEP Scrambler..........

 

[VolatileA]

Did you mean SC/Rambler - A or B scheme?

Oh, you meant JEEP Scrambler..........

Was referring to his last sentence lolol.

Now we know we just have to show up on a Ducati to get a full tank of gas.

Chess not checkers.

 

[Jocww]

The real question is, was it a Scrambler or Superleggera :P

2012 848 EVO in pearl white with red wheels with carbon bits and exhaust.

 

[am1978]

Updated original post.

But not the title?

 

[maligator]

What's the point of a "deposit" or "earnest money" - it keeps tire kickers and game players at bay for the most part. Anyone can walk in and say I want to order a car and take a lot of time, place the order and never be seen or heard from again. What if everyone did that?
It started out in the beginning that NO deposits were ever refundable. That was the whole point.
Look at it from a business owner perspective - when we had people call us or come in and say "I want xxxxx" and we'd say "we can get that" - we insisted on a deposit (unless we knew the person and they were a regular)
We did get burned a couple of times because we had an employee who just loved people and knew all people were honest and no one would ever ask us to order something and then not show up.
You may hate business owners, may especially hate dealerships, but not all are crap, some are privately owned or family owned and rely on people being serious. A small dealership getting screwed by people ordering things and then changing their mind and walking away - that would hurt.
On the other hand, in most large purchases, you do have 72 hours to "change your mind" anyway...... so it's not like customers have no protection.

yeah, but if someone ordered something and it something got messed up along the way I'd Imagine that you would have worked with them instead of just keeping the deposit. Maybe I missed part of this story lol. I get that having a deposit makes sense and why it's required. I guess I would only expect the deposit to be refunded if they broke their end of the deal. Timeline/build specs/pricing if that makes sense.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

. I guess I would only expect the deposit to be refunded if they broke their end of the deal. Timeline/build specs/pricing if that makes sense.

Timeline assuming the dealership sat on the order - otherwise, in these times, well.......
But if the dealership messed up on the specs of suddenly says "sorry, that price has changed" after the handshake, then they owe the deposit back - IMO, not as an attorney - because they broke their side of any agreement, written or implied.

As far as the equipment - if the price included for example leather seats and it came without - the dealer owes them leather seats. If the price didn't include the leather seats - then the dealership should at least say "we missed that part, we can get you leather but it will add xx dollars".

And of course, there's always stuff we don't REALLY know since we have but one side of things. We should hopefully be able to trust it's accurate - but it's from one point of view.

 

[JT4X4]

Hopefully it is being rectified. Salesman and GSM talked and apparently there was a lot of miscommunication. They said I would be getting my deposit back. No apology from the GSM or anything, but salesman was apologetic. My bad for posting salesman's name. He didn't deserve the publicity.

I sent that dealer an email yesterday...
letting them know it was a big mistake
keeping someones deposit on a order
that was not correct.
I informed them the story was all over
the Jeep forums and pissing off the
Jeep community will cost them $1000 x
more than the $500. they took.

 

[TwelveGaugeSage]

What?
Please expand on your opinion.

I guess that's one way to get this thread deleted... lol.

 

[am1978]

Timeline assuming the dealership sat on the order - otherwise, in these times, well.......
But if the dealership messed up on the specs of suddenly says "sorry, that price has changed" after the handshake, then they owe the deposit back - IMO, not as an attorney - because they broke their side of any agreement, written or implied.

As far as the equipment - if the price included for example leather seats and it came without - the dealer owes them leather seats. If the price didn't include the leather seats - then the dealership should at least say "we missed that part, we can get you leather but it will add xx dollars".

And of course, there's always stuff we don't REALLY know since we have but one side of things. We should hopefully be able to trust it's accurate - but it's from one point of view.

He never got a factory order build sheet. No way to verify the actual order. He’s running this gripe in two threads at this point and owned up to never getting an order sheet. He posted the web printout that ‘you’ build on Jeep.com. No order sheet, so he doesn’t even know what was sent to the factory from the dealer.

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