I was looking for a very specific 2008 Chrysler Sebring Convertible Limited with a CLOTH top (and not a hard top convertible). In looking over inventories of dealerships with such a type of car, this was 1 of only 2 dealerships that had the car I was looking for. The one problem with this particular car they had was that the wheels were shiny chrome, so when I called to inquire about changing the wheels on the last day (Saturday) of the June sales month, they said that I should come up and they would agree to swap the 18" inch chrome wheels for OEM 18" aluminum wheels. So far so good.
That night I went right up, I bought the car, but I insisted that they give me a work order to have 18" aluminum wheels swapped onto the car in place of the chrome ones and they gave me the work order with that specification. I told them I had studied this car intensely so I knew everything about it. So far, so good again, although it seemed to simple.
I came back to the dealership that following Monday with the work order and the sales manager gave me some static so I found a sales manager who said that "everything will be taken care of". At no time did they tell me which car was the swapper, how big the wheels were, etc. In fact, I spent the approximately 2 hours waiting for the swap to be done simply talking to the sales representative.
In 2 hours, the sales rep came in and said, "here is the car with the tires and rims YOU wanted'. I was suspicious, but drove away. Three days later, a friend pointed out that the car now had on it, 17" non-OEM rims and tires. I called the dealership and a sales manager was very nasty and told me I okayed the car and the tires but I could have the chrome ones back. I asked him if he had lost his mind to think that just because I was 63 years old, that I would agree to inferior non-stock tires and that something is very fishy. He hung up on me.
I wrote a letter of complaint to the owner of the dealership and said, 1) you have commited alleged fraud, 2) you used deceptive sales tactics and that A) give me the wheels or B) rescind the deal.
After a week, the Vice President of Sales called who seemed to be one of the semi-honest ones there. He told me the managers told him they showed me the car and tires and I said fine - substitute this tires. I told him that if I went to the Attorney Generals office and he said that a man of my background and intellect agreed to have non-OEM equipment put on the car, they would laugh the dealership out of the courtroom. The VP went on to tell me that he would never have made a deal like this. (I still do not know why the swap was so difficult and subject to trickery -the chrome rims were $700 more than the aluminum. They could have ordered 4 stock rims and put my tires on them and sold the chrome ones and made a profit). I said fine, negate the deal. He called me back after looking at the work order and the swap was agreed to and consumated the next day.
In conclusion, I know that dealerships agree to all sorts of outlandish deals (this one has a very bad reputation with the local BBB for level or complaints and lack of answering back), but to try to pull this whopper over my eyes was very serious indeed.
Everyone should really think twice about going to this dealership - there are plenty of honest ones around - ask the BBB. I wish that I had before I got into this mess.
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