The following account was sent to me by Mark detailing his experience while at a car dealership:

"My wife and I were looking for a mini-van in the summer of '99. We had a '97 Ford Taurus LX DOHC, loaded, to trade.

"We owed $12,000 on the car. A local Ford, Mercury, Olds, Pontiac, Buick, GMC dealer was having a big tent event. They had all their cars in a field under a huge circus tent.

"Well, I was a sucker and stopped by to see what they had. The salesman was young and seemed new at the job. I told him what I had (I wasn't in the Taurus), what my payoff was and that I had bought the Ford from his dealership in '97.

"I told him that I wanted to be around $20,000, and asked him if he thought it might work on an Oldsmobile Silhouette with a MSRP of $28,000. He took me to a table, got some info, and told me they couldn't commit until they saw the Taurus, which I told him was fine because I just wanted to know if we could come close.

"My sister had our Taurus and was an hour and half away. I explained this to the salesman. He said no problem, they didn't close until 11pm, it was currently 6pm.

"He came back to the table and told me that they would trade for $12,000! I was shocked! I said, 'You mean you will take my Taurus, pay it off and I will write you a check for $12,000! He said 'Yes' and I asked him the exact same question three more times!

"I told him he had a deal and I would be back later with the Taurus. He insisted that I take the van to get the Taurus. I did, and on the way I stopped by to get my wife. We returned to the dealer around 9:00pm.

"The salesman changed the tags, showed us the features of the van, etc. He finally came around and said that the Finance Manager was free now.

"So we drove the short distance to the Finance Managers office, in our new van. We sat down with him and started filling out paperwork, etc. By then it was a little after 10pm. So we started signing and I noticed that there was nothing about the payoff of the Taurus, so I stopped and asked.

"He said, 'You have to take care of that.' I was shocked and told him that wasn't the deal. They had to call the salesman back up, and I told the salesman to his face in front of everyone what he said about the deal. He said I was right, but he just 'messed up!'

"By then it was 10:30pm and the 'bosses' had already left! The salesman and the Finance Manager said they weren't able to help us, so the deal fell through around 10:45pm!! We drove the van back to the tent, they closed the doors and locked them when we drove off the lot towards the tent.

"When we got to the tent they had turned off the light and the salesman had lost the keys to our Taurus and the Taurus was nowhere to be found!

"He wanted me to take the van and come back in the morning. I told him that he had lied about the deal and I wasn't leaving without my car. He looked around more and found the keys then and went off to the get the car.

"He came back, changed the tags and got in his car and left. We locked the keys in the van and also left.

"I wrote a letter to the sales manager and owner twice. I didn't hear from them so I wrote the BBB. Then a few weeks later they called with an apology and said the salesman was new.

"I'll never buy a car from them again after that run around!"

Mark

OK, so what happened here?

First, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Now, in all fairness to Mark, he did repeatedly ask the salesman to clarify the deal. The guy told him $12,000 plus his trade, and they would pay it off! What a deal!! They take the $12,000 and pay off the trade and in essence they trade even up...because don't forget, the payoff is $12,000!!

The salesman may or may not have really known what he was doing. It's possible the Sales Manager was "pulling his strings!" Most young salespeople are taught to use their "newness" as long as possible! They're taught to tell customers they are new and don't really know what they're doing yet! In this case we'll never know! But I suspect the Sales Manager was the main culprit behind this debacle!

The Sales Manager knew Mark couldn't make a deal right then without his trade being present, and he didn't want to turn Mark loose for fear that he would never come back.

So they "Low Balled" him by quoting a price so ridiculously low that Mark had to bite, and if he stopped at another dealer to beat the price the Sales Manager knew no one could even come close to beating this deal! This entire scenario is designed specifically to get Mark back into the dealership one more time so they can close the deal with him!

This is also why they wanted him to take the van to get his wife and the trade. This ensured that Mark would indeed be back! This is a very common tactic!

They knew that they lied through their teeth to Mark, and that they clearly had to "bump" him when he returned! I mean they had to do some very serious "bumping" to make a deal out of this mess! These guys really went off the deep end on this deal!

Then, when Mark returned, the sales Manager didn't have the courage to face him and explain that they probably needed another $12,000 or more, so what does he do? He dumps it on the Finance Manager, and this young salesman, hoping that they could just slip the whole thing past Mark without him realizing he's getting royally screwed!!

Now, the deal comes apart at 10:30PM due to Marks astuteness. They didn't close until 11:00PM. Yet, all of the "Bosses" have already gone home? I don't think so! The Sales Manager was hiding in the broom closet praying that he didn't have to face Mark!

Then to rub salt into the wound they hid Mark's keys and his car and told him to take the van home! Again, they wanted to get one more shot at Mark, preferably after he calmed down and got over the shock of what they tried to do to him! Another very common tactic Sales Managers like to use!

The Sales Manager must have a phone in that broom closet he was hiding in (I suspect he spends a lot of time in there), and the minute Mark walked out of the Finance Office they called him and he said "OK, let's not let him have his car back tonight!

"Put him in the van for the night and when he comes back tomorrow he'll take the van, because his neighbors will have seen it in his driveway, and his wife and kids will pound on him to keep it! Don't worry about anything! " We'll get him!!!"

It wasn't until after Mark and his wife left that our "weasel" Sales Manager came out of the broom closet and felt safe enough to slither home!

This is the kind of crazy stuff car dealers put customers through to get a car sold and down the road! Is it any wonder that so many dealers have such high turn over within their own sales ranks? And is it any wonder that car dealers have the reputation that they do? These are the people that make this web site necessary!

Thanks for the story Mark! Better luck next time!