Va. dealership called the cops on SUV buyer who got a too-good deal
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You may want to think twice before you drive a hard bargain on your next new-auto purchase. Because a customer in Chesapeake who did that wound up in the pokey, arrested by police.
To make a long story short: The dealership screwed up and wrote him a sales contract that was $5,600 less than it should have been. When he refused to renegotiate the deal in their favor, they called the cops on him and reported the vehicle stolen.
The whole story is right here, in The Virginian Pilot:
On June 15, three Chesapeake police officers arrested [Danny] Sawyer in his front yard and took him before a magistrate judge. He was released on bond after about four hours at the Chesapeake jail, the suit said.
The head of the dealership has since apologized for the arrest, admitted it was their own dumb error, and says Sawyer can keep the deeply-discounted SUV without coughing up the $5,600.
But that hasn’t satisfied him, and no wonder, eh? He’s filed a lawsuit.
If I were the dealership I’d offer him another car, gratis, and try to make this go away.
September 28, 2012 - 5:13 PM
You can’t make up some of the stuff that happens.
Questions:
Who actually called the police? Is, he/she still employed? Will he/she be sued, also? By the dealership or by Mr Sawyer?
Inquiring minds want to know.
I assume both parties signed the paperwork before he left with the truck, right?
My wife’s family have been in the auto business since the early 1950s. When this kind of situation happens, rarely, those responsible are held accountable and the loss is eaten by the dealership. Someone screwed up royally on several levels. My guess is that whomever that was is no longer employed by the dealership. If not, s/he should not be.
Very interesting. I wonder how many customers of the dealership have ever successfully argued their case when THEY made a mistake in the contract and want it fixed after signing. Something tells me that when this happens, the dealership gives an obligatory apology, rolls their eyes, and explains to the customer in condescending fashion how said customer simply misunderstood the contract and that it is binding and there is nothing the dealership can do.
I’d like to see them get that $5,600 dollars back from Jack. I could sell tickets to that one!
I could only imagine a real estate agent selling his or her own house, preparing a purchase contract for an unrepresented buyer, goofing up in the purchaser’s favor, and then making any kind of compelling case in court. The dealership has professional sales contracts, presumably professional preparers, base contract boilerplate stacked heavily in the dealership’s favor, and far more experience with that standard base contract than virtually anybody who walks in the door. I would think a judge would have a hard time giving them a do-over. $5,600 might be a relatively inexpensive lesson-learned for the dealership on the value of diligence and education for their staff.
In any event, this should have been handled in a civil matter without anyone calling the police or making accusations of theft. The dealership should not only eat the $5,600, but now find an equitable way to pay for the crap they had inflicted on Mr. Sawyer.
I hope he gets about $10 million from them in his lawsuit. I also hope that everyone looking for a Chevy in that region remembers what scum they are for attacking one of their customers in such a manner.
Hehe, John. Actually, if I believe that the dealership made the error in good faith, I would certainly try to come to an agreeable solution with them.
Re: Comment by Jack — September 28, 2012 @ 6:13 pm
Per the Virginian-Pilot story (to which Dan provided the link) states, “whom the dealership mistakenly undercharged for an SUV and who resisted the company’s efforts to get him to sign a new, costlier contract.”
That “sign a new, costlier contract” strongly suggest that there had been an earlier binding contract, IMHO.
Wow, what a huge mistake. Not cool.
The police should be ashamed of themselves, too, for arresting someone for “stealing his own car???”
Great metaphor John. And the biggest hurt for abusing the guy is yet to come, since the bad publicity will likely cost them 100 car sales in the coming year… The dealer sounds blue ribbon stupid.
I’m not sure the dealership was required to honor the mistake in question. I know of an attorney whose secretary errorneously typed out a closing check for $100,000 more than she was supposed to. When the firm asked for the check back, the home seller said “Nope. Tough toenails. ” So the firm sued and got the money back. What’s unclear is if the contract also reflected the mistake.
I am supposing the same as if the bank mistakenly adds a couple of zeroes to your account balance. It doesn’t mean they have to honor it.
#12 So you’re saying you don’t think a business has to honor a signed contract, suzie? Of course we’re aware that you think the customer ALWAYS has to honor the contract, even if he realizes he made a mistake and is getting royally screwed.
Yep, that’s our troll.
I have to say I’m rather surprised Big Momma hasn’t weighed in here. If there’s one thing you can count on with this blog, it’s BM wagging a finger at reports of consumers getting ripped off, and arguing to the death that it’s their own damn fault for being so dumb.
Now that a business has ended up on the short end of the stick . . . utter silence. Hmmmm.
“I’m not sure the dealership was required to honor the mistake in question. I know of an attorney whose secretary errorneously typed out a closing check for $100,000 more than she was supposed to. When the firm asked for the check back, the home seller said “Nope. Tough toenails. ” So the firm sued and got the money back. What’s unclear is if the contract also reflected the mistake.”
Suze, well, there you go, sticking up for the right of a person to hire a trial lawyer and sue. See folks, we are making progress!
It sounds to me like in the case above, the contract and the check amount (overpayment) differed. In that case the overpayment is absolutely recoverable.
In the case of the SUV, the payment and the contract amount matched. I doubt the dealership could recover, but that’s entirely beside the point. If they could, it was a matter for civil court. Instead, they called the cops and said the guy had stolen the thing. That was a lie and they knew it, and if they had told the truth, the cops would have told them to take it up in civil court.
In Virginia, in almost all cases where an oral agreement is subsequently put into writing, the written agreement supersedes the oral one. The burden of proof would lie with the dealership to establish that Sawyer had verbally agreed to the higher price. It should’ve been a civil matter all along.
That this went through the unnecessary criminal justice route makes me inclined to believe that this was a CYA job by the folks at the dealership. They knew that when management caught wind of what happened, heads were going to roll, so they made the customer out to be the bad guy. Instead of sucking it up and accepting responsibility, they’re now going to lose their job(s) and cost the company even more (a lot more) money because of a bad strategy.
I feel for the guy; I do. I’m just not sure if I have $2.2 million worth of feelings for him. He should get himself (and his lawyer) a brand-spanking-new shiny vehicle out of this and walk away.
He might want to find another dealership to honor his warranties, though. I’m just sayin’.
Comment by J.M.White — September 29, 2012 @ 2:18 am
In Virginia, in almost all cases where an oral agreement is subsequently put into writing, the written agreement supersedes the oral one.
—————-
Yup.
However, Did I miss something. Was the initial erogenous priced agreement oral or signed written?
Suzie, the big difference in the case you cite is that the clerical error on the check in question was probably cut in the first place because of a contract that was correct. If the contract specified $10,000, then the check was cut for $100,000, there’s a very strong case for the clerical error and the extra $90,000 should be returned. The dealership mistake was the contract itself, that their professionals negotiated, drafted, and signed. Very different circumstances.
Dave Hicks, while you are right that oral is usually superceded by the written, it doesn’t have to be; oral contracts are enforceable in Virginia. If there is written memoranda to support an oral contract, it is usually enforced.
Dave Gresham:
‘And the biggest hurt for abusing the guy is yet to come, since the bad publicity will likely cost them 100 car sales in the coming year”
That will be the cosliest $5,600 they ever tried to save. Oh well, they can’t get the toothpaste back in the tube now.
Re: Comment by John Wilburn — September 29, 2012 @ 5:35 pm
Again, yup.
However, my question is, “Was there an earlier agreement; and, if so, what form did the earlier contract have?”.
As I said, the “sign a new, costlier contract” wording in the the Virginian-Pilot story strongly suggest that there had been an earlier contract — unless I have missed something.
J.M. White:
“That this went through the unnecessary criminal justice route makes me inclined to believe that this was a CYA job by the folks at the dealership.”
The more I think about it, the more I think you might be right. For the salesperson or whomever it was that screwed up, it might have seemed easier to hide as a less conspicuous player in a big mess, than a big part of a small mess. A dirty, but desperate strategy for sure.
Hmmm, I see that suzie can’t explain why she thinks a business should be able to back out of a signed contract
Suzie:
“I know of an attorney whose secretary errorneously typed out a closing check for $100,000 more than she was supposed to. When the firm asked for the check back, the home seller said “Nope. Tough toenails.”
HOME SELLER? I didn’t catch that earlier…. LOL. Yeah, the seller and buyer and lawyer all signed a HUD-1 with the right amount. That check wasn’t cut until after recording. There’s no winning that one for the recpient of the check. Frankly, I can’t believe he/she even tried.
Do you really think in that case the home seller had a leg to stand on?
I once had a paralegal accidentally write a commission check for $500 less than the amount she should have (thought the company was holding a $1,000 deposit when it was actually $500). When I politely called to let her know, would she have been right to say “tough toenails”. Do you think that if I had depoited it, that I would no longer be able to claim the mistake and ask for the $500 additional to make it right?
I think you enjoy human suffering for acts that you feel are beneath your intellect to make, regardless of who is right.
I missed this one, but the dealership certainly bears the majority of fault here. But, I can’t let the buyer off completely, because a $5,600 difference in sticker prices means that basically rather than simply getting one in a different color, it was a whole different trim level. The dealership should have been more careful to recognize that immediately and make it clear that it wasn’t simply a color exchange, but a massive upgrade in features, and price.
But, the dealership failed in that regard, and that should have settled it. But the buyer ignoring the requests didn’t help matters, he probably should have contacted management or ownership before it got turned into a police/legal matter. Blame all around for a car-buying experience that was completely botched by everyone involved.
I had a frustrating situation with a mega dealership in Christiansburg (won’t name them, I’m sure people know who they are). Saw a rather nice Ford Ranger 4×4 I liked, and wanted to trade for. My old 88 Ranger RWD wasn’t worth much, but they offered $700 for the trade, which was a bit over KBB value, so I took it…because the price on the newer Ranger was also below KBB and a good deal. But, I erred in not having financing arranged beforehand (I hadn’t actually planned on buying that day)…a mistake I have not repeated. They claimed the banks were closed and they couldn’t get the loan approved until the following morning (funny, Berglund in Salem got it done after 9pm for my recent purchase, though, I had a pre-approved loan from USAA).
When I got a call from them the next day, they asked if I knew the serial number of my old truck’s stereo. I asked why, and they said ‘someone broke in and stole it, probably from the trailer park nearby’. It wasn’t simply that though. The driver’s side door was destroyed, glass was busted out, and the dash was hacked apart, making the truck inoperable (the radio simply slid out of the dash, no tools needed…it never fit right). Then, the kicker: the loan terms were dramatically different, with a substantially higher interest rate and a payment $100 more than they quoted. I was stuck though, my old truck was so badly damaged I couldn’t drive it (a fact that has always led me to suspect the dealer was really behind it). I haven’t bought from them again, and dissuade everyone I know from going there. I refinanced that loan through my credit union a couple months later, and surprise, surprise…got terms better than the dealer had originally quoted. They are shady as f…
In my recent experience with Berglund, they actually made a mistake too. My pre-approved loan was for a 5-year term. They said their preferred lender could match the term and do a little better on the interest rate…but they mistakenly entered 6 years rather than 5. Net result, less interest and a lower payment (close to $50 a month). It won’t ultimately matter much because I’ll have it paid off in under 4 years, but when I pointed it out, the guy looked and said ‘Oh, well looks like you just got a better deal then!’ And that’s why I’ll go back to Berglund, they didn’t try to weasel out of their mistake or stiff me on the sale.
#25 Typical suzie. Had to run and hide after saying she wasn’t certain the dealer had to honor a signed contract.