Help needed. Please read.

[BLACKM3_COUPE]

I am absolutely livid right now. So my dealer brought a black coupe in for me back as agreed upon using my current car as a trade. I told them I could put a deposit on the car if they want and gave them my credit card. They never did charge me the deposit (this was back over 1 month ago) and on the agreement (quote) that I signed the portion that states [B]customer deposit[B] is 0. I ended up selling my car before the M3 arrived and let my dealer know that. At the same time I called around just to see what other dealers were offering on their M's with no trade involved. A near by dealer offered my a really good price and when I told my dealer what they offered they said they would not match it. They also said that if I back out of the agreement they will keep my deposit which they never took from over a month ago. So I look this morning and they charged my card for the deposit from over a month ago! The parameters of the agreement have obviously changed as I sold my car and nowhere do they have anything stating in writing that I left a deposit (that I signed) other than word of mouth. The funny thing is they said they would do the same discount as the trade that we agreed upon earlier but when I asked them how much they would take off now it was 1K more than with the trade! How is that the same deal? I am absolutely incensed and don't know where to start. I know I am going in there tomorrow morning and losing it but I am at a loss of words right now.

What do you think I should do?

[nusevad]

lawsuit.

[Ronin13]

Sounds like the dealer was counting on making part of their profit on this deal from the trade. The key is if your state's laws allows non-refundable deposits.

[Blake]

you should call your CC company and say you didn't authorize the charge...which you didn't. they should refund your money right away. the rest will work itself out later. you have a strong case so i doubt the dealership will pursue it much more from there.

[BLACKM3_COUPE]

Originally Posted by blakepilot

you should call your CC company and say you didn't authorize the charge...which you didn't. they should refund your money right away. the rest will work itself out later. you have a strong case so i doubt the dealership will pursue it much more from there.

That is what I figured but I didn't want it to get to that point. Sad thing is I have bought other vehicles from them. The quote I have says customer deposit 0 so I think I have that going for me.

[M3Drivincraze]

Originally Posted by blakepilot

you should call your CC company and say you didn't authorize the charge...which you didn't. they should refund your money right away. the rest will work itself out later. you have a strong case so i doubt the dealership will pursue it much more from there.

+1 - what dealership is it. I'm sure a little bad publicity is worth it too!

[Blake]

Originally Posted by BLACKM3_COUPE

That is what I figured but I didn't want it to get to that point. Sad thing is I have bought other vehicles from them. The quote I have says customer deposit 0 so I think I have that going for me.

it's on paper so fuck em. i'm lucky to have a really honest dealership on my side and friends that i've made that work at mine, but unfortunately that isn't the case all the time. i wouldn't sweat it too much, if they don't value your repeat business (which is key in the any industry) then don't deal with them. there are plenty of bmw dealerships around that would really love your business and be honored to have your repeat business. you don't have to take shit from anyone, it's your money after all. so just call your CC company, dispute the charge, and find more honest dealer. there are several members of this forum that will get you a good deal even if it has to be shipped. check out this forum, several CA's from dealerships all over the country monitor that forum and you can shop deals.

[ersin]

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to keep a deposit if the deal doesn't go through. But there are exceptions. Go talk to a lawyer.

[CMOS]

No need to go with a lawyer at this point. You have written doc of "no deposit." Just contest the charge with the credit card co, and send a letter to Cust Relat at BMW NA. They'll back down.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by BLACKM3_COUPE

That is what I figured but I didn't want it to get to that point. Sad thing is I have bought other vehicles from them. The quote I have says customer deposit 0 so I think I have that going for me.

Yes just call the CC company and have it reversed. The dealership will not come after you if what you say about the quote is true. If they do just call a lawyer and a phonecall to the dealership should straighten it.

That said, keep in mind it costs a dealership some money to bring in a car from another dealership. IMHO, when doing a deal like this you should make darn sure you want the vehicle because they are obviously going to be pissed if you don't take it, and may do whatever they think they can get away with to recoop their money for the transport. Also, its pretty common knowledge that dealerships always make more money off a deal with a tradein than one without. So if you take that away, that eats into the margins also. Plus you tried to renegotiate a deal that was already made (albeit not closed). Bottom line is that in a situation like this with all these things going against you, you are setting yourself up to get treated poorly. Not that it gives them any right to take money you did not agree to on paper, but IMHO the headaches you are experiencing here were preventable.

[MJC///M3]

call the CC company dude. If you paid with AMEX, they are amazing with customer service and really help you out in situations like this. Just call up your CC and have the charge redacted.

[TLud]

Yeah, this should be failrly straightforward to resolve without the involvement of counsel.

To the OP, next time do all your negotiating and deal searching up front, not after you've already reached an agreement in writing with a dealer. I don't understand why half the people on this forum expect dealers to honor a deal they've agreed on, but still think they can unilaterally re-negotiate a better deal themselves. I've seen this countless times on the forum. You negotiated a deal with this dealer, which your dealer relied on in obtaining the car you want for you. You then try to negotiate new terms and get pissed when your dealer does the same thing? C'mon, it's a two way street.

Agreed, that it was stupid for the dealer to charge you for a deposit after the fact that they didn't charge in the first place, but look at the other side of the story before you overreact.

[TLud]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Yes just call the CC company and have it reversed. The dealership will not come after you if what you say about the quote is true. If they do just call a lawyer and a phonecall to the dealership should straighten it.

That said, keep in mind it costs a dealership some money to bring in a car from another dealership. IMHO, when doing a deal like this you should make darn sure you want the vehicle because they are obviously going to be pissed if you don't take it, and may do whatever they think they can get away with to recoop their money for the transport. Also, its pretty common knowledge that dealerships always make more money off a deal with a tradein than one without. So if you take that away, that eats into the margins also. Plus you tried to renegotiate a deal that was already made (albeit not closed). Bottom line is that in a situation like this with all these things going against you, you are setting yourself up to get treated poorly. Not that it gives them any right to take money you did not agree to on paper, but IMHO the headaches you are experiencing here were preventable.

+1 Well said.