Ordered and LE from a shady dealer?

[frriveramd]

I might be paranoid by now, but am having suspicions about the dealer I ordered my LE trying to pull one of against me. So, the story is that I agreed with my salesman to buy the LE for MSRP. He provided me with the order confirmation and stated on emails that agreed price was MSRP.

I have been trying for over 2 weeks now to pay off my car. They are saying I can't pay for it because the car has not arrived.

I have asked them for an out the door price for it so I can request a cashier check, after having requested a loan, from my bank to pay for it and they are saying that they can't give me an out the door price because they need the invoice for the car from Ford to be able to give the mentioned price.

I have asked for them to provide in a letter head from the dealership with the agreed price along with VIN is so my bank will write the cashier's check (policy from my bank to provide loan funds) and they are saying that they can not do it until they get the car because they need to verify that VIN matches the one I was given by Ford.

So, my concern is that they will ask for more money than what we had agreed upon. I had asked for a loan, which was approved, and is pending funding due to dealer not wanting to provide requested documents. I will be going to the dealer on Saturday to try to solve this issue.

Can anyone provide some advice or insight as to what my options are?

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[frriveramd]

Yes, I gave a $5,000 refundable deposit (also in writing through emails).

I will be very mad if they try to pull that off since I had an order from another dealer that asked $5,000 above MSRP and decided to go with this other dealer after they agreed on MSRP.

 

[SVTFreak]

If they ordered it retail under your name (check with Fordservice maybe?) and you have emails stating the price, then you have a leg to stand on to escalate it up for customer service ladder if they try to change the deal

 

[e30og]

Get rachel from customer service to check

Also they agreed to msrp so why are you paying for a car you never received? What if it gets wrecked in transit...always wait until it's delivered to sign. They aren't obligated to accept payment until it's delivered as far as I know.

What the dealer may be worried about is the fact that if they accept full payment, they are that much more liable for the car since its yours already. I say chill out...stop inventing problems that haven't happened yet

 

[JoeDogInKC]

It doesn't sound like there's anything fishy going on to me. There have been a few stories of cars getting mixed up and sent to the wrong dealers. They could get in an LE that was intended for another dealer. If it has the same options and you don't want to wait for them to locate where yours went and attempt to swap them, you may be likely to take the one they got. If you have payment in place on a VIN you didn't get, it could cause some issues for both you and them.

You could try a different approach and ask the dealership for the DORA or VOC which will show the MSRP pricing on it, give that to the bank and get your cashiers check. If they do happen to get the wrong car/VIN, get the check canceled and a new one issued with the updated VIN/invoice.

 

[JoeDogInKC]

Get rachel from customer service to check

Also they agreed to msrp so why are you paying for a car you never received? What if it gets wrecked in transit...always wait until it's delivered to sign. They aren't obligated to accept payment until it's delivered as far as I know.

What the dealer may be worried about is the fact that if they accept full payment, they are that much more liable for the car since its yours already. I say chill out...stop inventing problems that haven't happened yet

Pretty much this. But, the dealership doesn't even "own" the car until it has been delivered to their lot and has been signed for. Before that, Ford Corp owns it. Here in KC, we have a Ford plant for the F-150's in Claycomo. When cars are delivered by rail, they are trucked to this plant for storage until a full transport truck can be filled to deliver to dealerships. They used to allow dealerships to come down and pick up customer cars, bypassing the truck delivery, but accidents have happened from that lot to the dealership. That created quite an unusual ownership/legality issue between Ford and the dealerships in question. For that reason, they quit allowing this to happen and all cars must sit until a truck is completely full before delivery to dealerships can happen. Only after it has been delivered and signed for does the dealership own the car and can then transfer ownership to a customer.

 

[Madlock]

You very likely have little to worry about. There's lots of reasons why a dealer won't accept "in full" payments in advance. You can write as big a check as you like - they just won't call the deal done.

First, they want to have a whack at you in the F&I office which is where they often make more than on the cars themselves. Then there's issues of registration and taxation, none of which usually can occur before the car arrives and each of which has a cost that ends up in the deal sheet.

Hell, in some states, accepting payment can create a contract that obligates them to perform - when too much remains outside their control. What if the car arrives damaged? You can't necessarily just order another - and another may not be available to them without a huge additional cost.

Plus to arrive at the final costs, they usually need to plug everything into the deal sheet software which they're not prepared to do until the entire process has been gone through. From the dealer point of view, they've plenty of good reasons.

I think your enthusiasm is something the process isn't equipped to accommodate.

 

[cbrookre]

Like others have said, the evidence that you have shown is not close to sufficient to demonstrate that you have anything to worry about.

Advice? If I were you I would calm down, you are much more likely to lose the car due to paranoia driven behavior than a shady dealer. Be their partner not an annoyance, and remember that they cannot sell you a car that they do not yet own.

Best Regards

Chris

 

[RADARB8]

Not sure of the validity to my statement, but when I was talking to my dealer about ordering, they said they couldn't finalize anything with the bank regarding financing until they actually had the vehicle and invoice in hand. They could pre-approve me, but that's as far as they could go.

 

[RisingForce]

As few mentioned above, its hard to finalize a deal without the vehicle at the dealership.
The dealer can not just cut a check and pay off your vehicle, when your new vehicle isnt in. All paperwork needs to match and be done at time of delivery.
Also the bank wants the title ( or at least lean on title based on the state), which dealer cant do right now without the vehicle in stock.

Just give it some time and you will be just fine.

 

[frriveramd]

Thank you all for your input. My concern has been due to the fact that salesman will not answer phone calls at all. He has gone under the radar. Not to mention that the bank is pressuring me to get the information so as to fund loan.

 

[FiveLiterDreamer]

From a sales persons perspecitve he may think you are badgering him. He can't really do anything until the vehicle is at his dealership. To him the car doesn't exist until it's checked into his computer system. I know that people are very excited about this car and maybe the sales person isn't doing the greatest job of managing your expectations but these things do take time. Also why does the loan need to be funded before you take delivery of the car? In my experience banks understand this if they regularly do auto loans ask the bank and your sales person to communicate with each other to get the paper work that both parties need.

 

[frriveramd]

FiveLiterDream, understand your point but, the issue as well is that salesman is not answering my banks calls. Thus, reason as to why the keep calling me.

As a customer, all I want is for the salesman to, at least, call me back and say, hey got your message, we are working on it, or hey, unfortunately we are going to have to wait. He told my bank multiple times, as per my bank, that he was going to have requested documents ready, but yet, that has not been the story.

 

[SVTFreak]

While I am a cheerleader for my salesman and dealership, I admit that getting in touch with them at times can be a pain.

 

[frriveramd]

Well, just got a text message from salesman that he should have documents ready shortly...

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