Yesterday I bought a used car with my wife over at Ray Laks Resale North on Transit. I dealt with a salesman that was young and obviously very inexperienced, and when he wrote up the final bill of sale, it stated 15,093 due at signing. He mistakenly included the $500 cash that I gave him over a week ago as a deposit in that amount - so we paid 14,593 in various forms of payment at signing, for a total of 15,093. Now, he is blowing up my phone telling me I owe the dealership $500 and that he could lose his job. He has admitted his mistake. I’m pissed off already since the entire experience was pretty sloppy:
-he had no clue what he was talking about when it came to the features of the car
-needed a lot of help from a few other employees when explaining other terms such as gap insurance, and many of the finance terms on the paperwork
-after paying the 14,593, while we were waiting a half hour for the final receipt, he runs out and explains that he screwed up the paperwork and had to re-print it, but we were all set and sent us on our way.
Unfortunately I think he’s right, but plan on stopping in after work to sort through the mess and see what is going on.
Am I required to pay this guy, since he screwed up? I wonder if I can get them to waive the $500 and call it part of the negotiated price.
Car is already yours. Tell them to F off. If it’s just the sales man calling you I’m sure he will just end up eating his commission. But the real question is what did you buy her?
edit, they have always been so unorganized there. We bought out white 05 civic there in 2007. They “lost” all of our paperwork after us having the car for a month. Had us come back in to re do everything. Ended up getting a few more 100 off the purchase price. Also when the title came it didn’t have a Liene on it. We had a free car and no payments for 2 months.
Well bravo to you and your wife for being patient with him as he was obviously green. I can honestly see it from both points of view so which way you go I can see a valid point. If you tell him to pound salt-I bet he will learn to pay better attention. If you give him the $500, maybe you can use that to you advantage if/when the car needs to go in for service and you can get jumped up in line a bit. I don’t know. Or, maybe he will send you a magnetic calendar until the end of time with his puss on it and it will brighten up your day every time you go to the fridge to get the Britta.
Bottom line, you negotiated a price and both agreed on it. It’s hard to tell from what you posted, do you feel you walked out $500 less than you expected and now they’re asking for that $500 because they realized it was a misake? Or did you pay what you felt was their final negotiated price and now they’re saying, “oops, it’s actually $500 more because of our mistake”?
Which one of those would probably determined how I’d handle. If it’s the former it’s just an honest mistake and you’re still getting the car for the price you negotiated I’d just pay it and maybe ask for a free oil change or something similar for wasting my time having to come back and straighten it out. If it’s the latter and you’re now being ask to pay $500 over the price you went back and forth negotiating I’d tell them tough shit, we agreed on a price and that’s the price I paid. He’s not going to lose his job over $500 either unless he’s done this before and then he probably deserves it.
The following is taken right from the bill of sale, both my wife’s signature and the manager’s signature are on this.
Asking price $23,922
Negotiated price before tax: $22,385
8.75% NYS tax of this amount is 1958.69
Price after tax 24,343.69
Plus $75 (processing fee for registration and title) and $21 for NYSI
= 24.439.69
9,000 financed through the dealer = 15.439.69
500 paid cash a week ago (have a receipt for this ) = 14,939.69 due
Yesterday we paid them 6,500 cash + 6,385 via personal check + 1,708.69 charged on her credit card (sum of 14,593.69)
=14,939.69 - 14,593.69 = $346
handwritten on the bill of sale is $154 for NYS plates
so technically the amount due on the bill of sale is $346 + $154 =$500.
Since it’s already signed I don’t see how I’m bound to pay more. However, the receipts that we have are in the amount of $500 and $14,593.69 - which matches the amount “due at signing” of $15,093.69. In addition we have the loan paperwork for 9,000, totalling 24,093.69 paid to them.
So after reading all that it really sounds like you owe them $500. The person that took your cash, check and credit card yesterday under-billed you by $500 because it looks like they took your $500 deposit off twice. You’re still getting the car for the negotiated price. Karma has a way of catching up to people so don’t be surprised if you have $500 or more in car/house repairs crop up in the next couple months if you decide to “profit” off someone’s honest mistake.
Pay the $500 and get them to throw in some oil changes and a handy…
Bottom line yes they fucked up but you agreed to pay a price. Have you ever screwed up in life and someone said to you “don’t worry about it” or has everyone in life said fuck off to you?
And @Norb O , you know what you need to do, but see if you can work in a little something to sweeten up the deal considering the hassle and overall sloppiness this sales rep caused.
