An example of why the economy is in the terlit

This is going to be another multi-part posting, but unlike the others, I have no idea how this will end. What I do know is that what I am about to tell you is a perfect example of WHY we (as a country) are in the economic mess we are in right now.

(I apologize in advance this is going to be a very long post. If you want to skip the blow-by-blow, go to ****)

On Saturday my husband and I, along with our son, went to a local Ford dealership because we are looking for a new car. We were debating between the Ford Edge and the Honda CRV. We decided on the Edge because we liked the features better, my husband liked the ratings better and for me – I liked the idea of buying an American car, and doing my part to help the economy.

We are greeted by a friendly sales associate I will call Brad. We tell Brad immediately we are looking for a basic model, nothing fancy. He gets it. We tell him what we want the bottom line to be (x), what our down-payment (y) will be and what we would ideally like our monthly payment (z) to be. He understands us and throughout the whole process does not push us in the slightest.

After all is said and done I am convinced that the ONLY person at this dealership who does get it is Brad, the very green car salesman.

We test drive a fancied-up version of the Edge since they don’t have the basic model on the lot. We like what we see and feel, even if we only were given about 2 miles of driving. We are sent to the back room where they tell us they are processing our credit. The back room has a play area for our son, so we are happy to sit. After all, we are not buying a car today. We are just finding out what they have to offer…

He comes back with a document that says they have a car that meets our needs. I assume in my mind this car is at one of the other Northern Virginia dealerships in the area, or perhaps Maryland. He shows me a price. I tell him no dice. He asks what we want. Hubby and I discuss and write down the price we want. The figure we give at this point is actually $2000 more than what our original bottom line was (x), but we figured with the proper financing, it could still work.

We are now approaching the 3.5 hour mark in this dealership and our son who has been the model of good behavior is beginning to get fussy. This is where everything begins to fall apart.

Sales manager, who I am affectionately calling Jerk Wad, comes back and talks to us. Tells us we have to sign a legally binding document to say we want the car so he can buy it “from the Carolinas” and doesn’t want to be left holding the ball if we bail. He also says we have to leave our car there as collateral since he is under the mistaken impression we are trading in – we had it appraised for laughs, but told Brad from the get-go we were not trading in.

Ok, we are not signing over a deposit of several thousand dollars (y) for a car we have never seen much less driven. When I tell him this, and state that we would want to drive the car on the highway since we didn’t get to do that on our test drive, he gets defensive and says why didn’t I ask to do that on the drive, and if we want to do it now, we can. We can just leave our son with them at the dealership!!
HELLO??!?!?!!?

He can tell we are agitated and gives us our space, as does Brad. We decide to walk.

We call Brad back, tell him we are walking because we are not ready to sign away thousands of dollars for a sight unseen car, and he understands. We are getting ready to leave and now the General Manager comes to see us and asks what he can do to close the deal.

At this point we still like the car, like Brad, and figure if the price is right, why not. So we explain we are not signing a legal document unless we first drive car and like it. Besides, we still have not discussed price and financing. They have had our credit information for nearly four hours now, and we have no idea why they are stonewalling.

Frank tells us it’s his job as GM to make sure every customer is a happy customer, etc. He explains that this document is only a buyer request, meaning that if the car arrives and it’s what we believe it to be, and the price is right we will buy. He “gives us his word” that we are not obligated to anything. My husband takes him at his word, and I do too. He appears sincere and he is right, if he turns out to be a jerk, we will raise holy hell and that will be bad for his business. We are told the car will be here by Sunday, Monday at the latest.

At no point have we discussed in verbal tones a price. Aside from what I wrote on the info sheet to Brad, we have not talked about financing at all. I had mentioned to Brad that we could perhaps give a little more than y down-payment if it would help, but by a little I meant a few hundred or tops $1000 more. But the bottom line monthly payment always remained the same, z.

We go to the finance office to sign this document, at which point Jerk Wad comes back in and informs us that we are paying z+$67/month and that our down payment will be y+$3000!

No diggiety chance!!!

But by this time our son is acting like a normal 15 month old who has been cooped up in a dealership all afternoon, so we just leave.

We call Frank on way home. He is with a customer we are told. We leave voicemail.

We email Frank when we get home, asking him to call us. He doesn’t.

I call Frank on Sunday and do get him. Tell him in no uncertain terms are we are not paying the price on the document and what Jerk Wad said. He agreed. He said he would “not ram a car down our throats.”

All will be over by tomorrow night (Monday) anyway, we think. We will know the financing, we will know if we got the car.

Monday morning comes and goes. I call Brad and ask about when the car will come. He says, “a few days.”

Huh??

I tell him that’s not what we were told AND that we need notice so that we can get a babysitter to stay with our son. Furthermore, can he at least tell us about the financing?

He says he will get back to me.

He doesn’t.

I am D-O-N-E. I tell husband we are walking. He agrees 100%. He calls when he gets home from work to tell Brad this. He has left for the day. He asks for Frank. Gets voicemail. But just to make sure everything is covered, he also emails Frank and clearly states we are no longer interested.

This morning, Brad calls. I am out, he leaves a message. I call back and get his vmail around noon. Phone tag ensues. He calls back around 2 and says we can have our pricing, “he thinks.” He also tells me again he has no idea when car is arriving. I tell him I think we are still no longer interested, but want to check with husband. He says he will be there tonight and I pledge to call back.

I do. Call about half-hour later and am told he is unavailable. Receptionist tries five times to transfer me to vmail and is unsuccessful. She finally agrees to take a message and I tell her to tell him we are not interested. And to cover my arse, I also decide to call him back later (after 6, while he is still supposed to be there) and repeat. I do call. He is gone for the day. So this time I leave on vmail. We are no longer interested. Period.

***We like the Edge just fine. But we don’t like it $3000 more than we can afford for a down-payment and $67 more a month than we can afford. Looking back, I think they were trying to have us slide into a payment plan we couldn’t afford. I think maybe they thought we would just agree and not raise a fuss. I think Jerk Wad was also annoyed we were not interested in the used cars, so he could save the higher priced cars for the richer customers. Who knows??

I know I can “bitch a fit” (excuse the expression I am stealing from Heather, but it really applies here) but I also know many other people just don’t like to do that. They get intimidated by sales people and people in authority. This is not a character flaw on their part, any more than my desire to have NOTHING to do with mice or snakes is a character flaw of mine. Everyday we read stories of Americans who are paying more than they can afford for a mortgage or a car or have credit card debt in the five or six figure range. Yes these people knew what they were doing, but chances are in part they also felt like they had no choice.

Why??

Why would Ford or any other company want to force a customer into a product they can’t afford?? And the fact this is Ford I think gauls me the most. I really wanted to buy a Ford. I like them. I love my Ford Focus that we still have, and growing up my family never owned a car that did not come from Detroit. I wanted to help the economy, my country. Yes I know that sounds naïve, but that’s really who I am. But this whole thing just made me sick.

So assuming Jerk Wad or Frank, or even poor Brad, don’t call us tomorrow and say we are contractually obligated to buy a car we have never seen and they have no idea when will arrive “from the Carolinas,” we are going to buy a Honda CRV.

This blog is already way too long, so will post about that later.