Dealer Wants Car Back They 'Accidentally' Sold - Ep. 7.253

Stealership: We sold you that Bronco by mistake. It is the Display Model and need it back. Bronco Buyer: I have a Restocking Fee of $10,000.

My daughter bought a car from one of those companies that deliver cars to your door, and they call her a day after the purchase asking for the car back, with some cockamamie excuse about some scratches not clearly seen in the pictures. The real reason was that the car was worth more than what they asked for. Of course she kept it

That car APPRECIATED 50% the minute he drove it off the floor!

After all that, I bet the customer still got an email from the dealership 2 weeks later asking for a positive Google review.

Does this dealer accept returns of cars that customers "accidentally" bought?

Buyer: "Sure, I'll bring this car back, but they're in pretty high demand and hard to find. I'll sell it back for $15k over sticker price."

I actually had a GM dealership try this in our suburban. After we paid and traded in our Tahoe they called the next day to tell me they gave me too much in my trade in and asked me to reverse the sale. I laughed and threatened to sue them if they persisted. They left me alone and apologized for bothering me.

A 50 cent sign on the vehicle windshield stating "DEMO MODEL, Not For Sale" , would have prevented this.

I suspect that somebody in the upper echelon of the dealership had promised it to somebody for an xmas gift or even a family member.

"Oh you want it back? How much will you give me for it? Don't lowball me, I know what I've got."

A guy in our Corvette club had a similar issue when he bought the 1978 Corvette Pace Car. As soon as word was out on it, he placed his order, luckily it was on the dealer sheets, and he paid for it, just waiting for delivery. If you remember, the '78 Pace Car was the hottest selling item ever at that time, with prices doubling for them when they hit the dealer since there was only one per dealer. They tried to reneg on the sale and cancel it, but he had already paid his $14,000 so it was his car. He ended up with a lawyer for that AND as soon as it hit the showroom, they had installed the Pace Car decals on it, which was optional on the install, and he wanted his left off but in the car. The dealer ended up having to take them off, redo the finish on the entire car, and get a nearly impossible at the time second set of decals. Somewhere in all of this, he agreed to them displaying it for the entire month of May (or April and May) in exchange for some other things.

Dealer: We want the car back. Me: Thats cool, everyone should want something, gives them a goal in life.

Many years ago, when you ordered a car with specific options, I was undecided about buying a Buick. It was the last day of the month, and the salesman was so anxious to make the sale he came to my house late in the day with all his books for options. I added and subtracted items and when the salesman made a big error in arithmetic and quoted a price I knew it was way low I said I'd buy it! So I had him write up the sale and sign it. The car agency didn't dispute the price.

From the call "threatening he'll be in trouble", he should have call the police and state attorney general as an extortion or other attempted felony. Then go with News Agency to insist the government file charges against the dealership.

I worked for a big car dealer for twenty years and the end-of-year sales push makes a shark feeding frenzy look like a Koi pond. It's utter chaos. The money on the table for the dealership can be enormous, and stress levels go through the roof. Somewhere in that mess someone screwed up. Oops. So they can either own up to their mistake, explain what happened to the customer, hope they cooperate and tell all their friends on social media how awesome they we're treated by the people at the dealership, or they can blame the customer, make empty threats that their own lawyers would never put in front of a judge, and die a flaming death on-line. The first mistake was human error. Stuff happens. Live and learn. Move on. The decision to attack the customer was an irresponsible, immature and myopic management decision that may well cost them everything. Game over.

Dealer: We sold you the Bronco in error and want it back. Owner: Sucks to be you.

I just bought a car. How do you accidentally sell a car? There is a TON of paperwork for the dealership to prepare and the seller to sign.

I want the money back that I accidentally spent on strippers in my 20's.

A similar thing happened with a friend (early 20s at the time) a long time ago with a some fancy sportscar that ended up being one of those where people got into bidding wars to buy new ones thousands over sticker. He went in and purchased the car sight unseen at full sticker price weeks before the dealer had taken delivery. He did finance the balance over his down payment through the dealership arranged financing. Before dealership got the car they called friend and told him they had cancelled the financing and couldn't sell him the car at the previously agreed upon price. Friend's dad got a case of the "Oh hell no!". Friend's dad co-signed on a line for friend at his credit union. Friend and friend's dad go to dealership and were told "the salesman wasn't authorized to make that deal." Friend's dad responded with "what part of 'legally binding contract' don't you understand". Dealership ultimately caved and friend got the car. Always love hearing that story.