Dealership Fiasco

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ashman155

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Edmonton,Alberta
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2018
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We got a call from the dealership about our in house financing. They where getting out of in house financing and they wanted us to move to a bank or keep paying them, until the lease is paid for and pay them out. We thought about it, decided to go through the bank that they looked for and was accepted. As it was a used vehicle now we bought brand new from them, they wanted pictures plus mileage of said vehicle. This is a 2018 very low mileage say 54 k. so we comply to get bank approval. We get a call to set up a time to meet, get a call from them to let us know about the appointment that was set up. They took all info over the phone got approved by the bank, wife had to take time off work, me retired so we go to the dealership and you walk in there and it felt like ****** city. So we wait and wait, finally someone comes to us asked us some questions, then took off. In the meantime missus goes to the washroom and it is in terrible shape, men's no better.
We wait and wait finally someone comes back the person tells us they can't find the paperwork and we need it again, the person we needed to see that we had arranged to meet wasn't there. we said stick it we are leaving, you wasted our time and you couldn't even bother to tell us there was an issue with this person we are to see. You figure they would have the decency to let us know. Nope. This person who did see us was running after us to come back we told them nope we are done here.
so the wife calls the dealership talks to the person who set all this up and wants to talk to the general manager, well we can't give you that info. Missus says I don't care I want to talk to somebody high up. about twenty minutes later she gets a call from the GM and he's from corporate offices and he says hes there to clean up the mess at the dealership, the wife lays into him in what took place, the washroom, the whole nine yards. tells him what kind of scam are they pulling off. Then he tells us that the truck had to go into the shop for about two hours for inspection before we flip it to the bank. The missus said no damn way we basically told them to blow smoke we will honor our contract with you and we will pay you out when its due. Basically what a gong show and we had dealt with dealership for many years and this is how you treat your customers with disdain. I guess they had a high turnover in sales staff, basically the whole kit and kaboodle. We kind of figured this place was going under just the way things where going last time we where there.which was last year. Everyone talks about customer service and they can't provide it properly.
 

ppine

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Nevada
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This is becoming more common. It happens when I try to buy tires or get service work done. Local dealer is pretty good fortunately, they just cost a lot. They had no vehicles so I went out of state.
 

CAGEYAR

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Stockton, NJ
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There is no viable automobile dealership that "is getting out of in-house financing" unless they are in deep financial turmoil. Finance and insurance is one of the key profit centers of a dealership. Clearly, this dealer may have lost its sources of finance either due to improper lending practices, misappropriation of loan payoffs, or they are out of trust with the manufacturer's lending arm, Stellantis Financial Services. That means they sold new vehicles that were financed with Stellantis and didn't send them their payoff on the vehicle when it was sold. Or all of the above. Either way, this dealership is on thin ice.
You are not safe either. If you are sending payments on your vehicle to this dealership, make sure your payments being applied to your loan and not being used for some other purpose.
Do you write checks to the dealer or a lending institution? Find out and make sure your payments are properly applied to your loan balance. Another option is to trade the vehicle in for another low mileage truck at another dealership. That transaction will payoff your loan and you'll be done with the shaky dealer. Truck values are strong-you might do OK or lose very little by trading in-it may be worth it to done with this store.
 

gofishn

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We got a call from the dealership about our in house financing. They where getting out of in house financing and they wanted us to move to a bank or keep paying them, until the lease is paid for and pay them out. We thought about it, decided to go through the bank that they looked for and was accepted. As it was a used vehicle now we bought brand new from them, they wanted pictures plus mileage of said vehicle. This is a 2018 very low mileage say 54 k. so we comply to get bank approval. We get a call to set up a time to meet, get a call from them to let us know about the appointment that was set up. They took all info over the phone got approved by the bank, wife had to take time off work, me retired so we go to the dealership and you walk in there and it felt like ****** city. So we wait and wait, finally someone comes to us asked us some questions, then took off. In the meantime missus goes to the washroom and it is in terrible shape, men's no better.
We wait and wait finally someone comes back the person tells us they can't find the paperwork and we need it again, the person we needed to see that we had arranged to meet wasn't there. we said stick it we are leaving, you wasted our time and you couldn't even bother to tell us there was an issue with this person we are to see. You figure they would have the decency to let us know. Nope. This person who did see us was running after us to come back we told them nope we are done here.
so the wife calls the dealership talks to the person who set all this up and wants to talk to the general manager, well we can't give you that info. Missus says I don't care I want to talk to somebody high up. about twenty minutes later she gets a call from the GM and he's from corporate offices and he says hes there to clean up the mess at the dealership, the wife lays into him in what took place, the washroom, the whole nine yards. tells him what kind of scam are they pulling off. Then he tells us that the truck had to go into the shop for about two hours for inspection before we flip it to the bank. The missus said no damn way we basically told them to blow smoke we will honor our contract with you and we will pay you out when its due. Basically what a gong show and we had dealt with dealership for many years and this is how you treat your customers with disdain. I guess they had a high turnover in sales staff, basically the whole kit and kaboodle. We kind of figured this place was going under just the way things where going last time we where there.which was last year. Everyone talks about customer service and they can't provide it properly.
keep documentation of every payment made.

Once you have fulfilled the terms of your lease and it si finally completed, get a new loan, elsewhere, for the trucks residual amount of payoff,whatever ya want to call it.

Forget about being right.
Forget about whats happened adn why to the dealership. Worry abot one thing and one thing only, protect yourself.
 

Daw14

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Never let a business dictate where you get financing from ,it is your loan/lease ,and your credit rating. Go to your own bank or credit union and refinance with them . I would not give that dealer another minute of my time or energy, it’s a lost cause and won’t make any difference.
 

Travelin Ram

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Never let a business dictate where you get financing from ,it is your loan/lease ,and your credit rating. Go to your own bank or credit union and refinance with them . I would not give that dealer another minute of my time or energy, it’s a lost cause and won’t make any difference.
+1. I would consider refinance at a place of my own choice and with the best rate obtainable to get away from that dealer relationship. If they go under some other entity will end up owning the paper on your truck and it sounds like the dealer is in financial straights. That’s when money gets misappropriated.

Make sure you keep good records because someday you may need to provide it all to a bankruptcy successor or court.
 

Dean2

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Never let a business dictate where you get financing from ,it is your loan/lease ,and your credit rating. Go to your own bank or credit union and refinance with them . I would not give that dealer another minute of my time or energy, it’s a lost cause and won’t make any difference.
This is dead on correct and the only sure way to protect yourself from your Dealership's insolvency. I would also be negotiating the payout to the Dealer for a discount to pay them out early. If they are as hard up for cash as it sounds, you can save some money.
 

Random_Walk

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There is no viable automobile dealership that "is getting out of in-house financing" unless they are in deep financial turmoil. Finance and insurance is one of the key profit centers of a dealership.


This, right here. Parts and Service is the biggest profit center of a dealership, but F&I is a very close #2.

As in, close enough that you never want to lose it. Too many kickbacks ("incentives") for certain lenders and (if applicable) 3rd-party 'warranty' packages, upsells of every conceivable description...

The only way a dealership is "getting out of in-house financing" is because they're in deep financial doo-doo overall, or because they mishandled payments enough for the 3rd-party lenders to stop doing business with them. Or... they could be lying through their teeth, and are angling for an even bigger incentive to have you refi at a (in this economy) way higher interest rate. Is the dealership a locally-owned franchise, or is it with one of the big boy conglomerates (e.g. Larry Miller+Asbury, Autonation, Lithia, etc)? If it's with a conglomerate, then they're lying to you. If it's a one-man-band local lot, they may be going under and wasn't able to sell to a conglomerate.

(source: Until recently, I worked in that ring of prostitution known as the auto industry, as a DMS software engineer. Mind that I'm still guessing a lot here, but at least it's a SWAG based on some experience among those thieves. HTH. :) )

Never let a business dictate where you get financing from ,it is your loan/lease ,and your credit rating. Go to your own bank or credit union and refinance with them . I would not give that dealer another minute of my time or energy, it’s a lost cause and won’t make any difference.

Not enough people quoted this, even if everyone did.

You're under no obligation to do the dealership any favors, they still have to honor their end of the contract (as long as you honor your end), and you can literally tell 'em to f$@k off with that refinancing BS. The worst they can do is sell your contract to another financial institution, who in turn has to honor the same exact terms of that contract. You don't have to do anything at all if you don't feel like it.

Make sure you keep good records because someday you may need to provide it all to a bankruptcy successor or court.

This is a possibility if the dealer is going under. See above for all the other possibilities. There is no shortage of ****** in the auto industry, and I wouldn't put it past an F&I department to cook up some BS story to juice an incentive or two from a refi with a bank of their choice.
 

Ratman6161

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+1. I would consider refinance at a place of my own choice and with the best rate obtainable to get away from that dealer relationship. If they go under some other entity will end up owning the paper on your truck and it sounds like the dealer is in financial straights. That’s when money gets misappropriated.

Make sure you keep good records because someday you may need to provide it all to a bankruptcy successor or court.
The idea of trading in to a different dealer might be a better option than a re-finance. The reason being that being older and used may result in a higher interest rate where 22 and newer could qualify for a lower rate. There are currently $2k in incentives for 22 hold overs and dealers are discounting them too. Prices seem to be way up on 23 models though. Have to do the math...
 

jimboschnitz

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I'm not sure why you're even involved in refinancing this lease. If the dealer is getting out of inhouse financing as all the above have mentioned, yes they are in financial trouble. However, under normal circumstances it would be the dealerships responsibility to "sell that lease" to the bank under a prearranged price. You would receive a notice in the mail that the bank had taken over the financing and give you new payment instructions. You should not have to jump through hoops to get the bank to take over the liability. If the bank after looking at the vehicle decides the lease contract doesn't support the value, who do you think they are going to want the difference from? You should be prepared to consult an attorney if the bank tells you that you need to pay them more money. You and the dealer signed a legal contract and if the bank doesn't want to honor it as is that would be grounds for a breach of contract suit.
 

chopperman1

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I'm not sure why you're even involved in refinancing this lease. If the dealer is getting out of inhouse financing as all the above have mentioned, yes they are in financial trouble. However, under normal circumstances it would be the dealerships responsibility to "sell that lease" to the bank under a prearranged price. You would receive a notice in the mail that the bank had taken over the financing and give you new payment instructions. You should not have to jump through hoops to get the bank to take over the liability. If the bank after looking at the vehicle decides the lease contract doesn't support the value, who do you think they are going to want the difference from? You should be prepared to consult an attorney if the bank tells you that you need to pay them more money. You and the dealer signed a legal contract and if the bank doesn't want to honor it as is that would be grounds for a breach of contract suit.

^^^ THIS!!!! The dealer is looking for you to do it to save them money. The lease is most likely at a super low interest rate, they also most likely cannot sell the lease because of that low interest rate it's at. Rates have gone up HUGE over the past year and they are upside down on it.
 
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