Rendered Fat said:

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I appreciate the advice. I'm a lawyer too so all I've got to lose is time (but admittedly don't practice consumer law). That being said, if this scenario isn't a DTPA violation, I don't know what is.

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I don't disagree with that. And if you're a lawyer, then most of what I said is off the table for the simple fact that you don't have to try and find someone (and pay them).

I took on a car dealership once on contingency when I first opened my office. Regretted it. Then, I took on a few more later when I got the money upfront and a strongly worded engagement letter. All clients bailed within 6 months to a year and a half. I still got paid for my work but although I didn't mind civil cases that settled with my client being relatively happy, I hated doing ONLY discovery and pre-trail crap. I wouldn't have taken the cases had I known they were just going to die, whether I got paid or not. I had other stuff to keep me busy.

Later, I defended a couple of small car places, though they didn't do anything like this. One tried very hard to do things the "right way" but ended up going out of business. My only point in all this is that damages, even in a DTPA case, are tough to prove in these situations and USUALLY (not always) as high as the plaintiff thinks prior to filing suit.

agdaddy04 said:

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I'd have stopped when she told you she couldn't take a deposit without you there. That's complete BS. When I was looking at a few vehicles out of state last year, they would've handled everything remotely. There were a couple of times I did put a deposit down over the phone to reserve it and the deposit showed the VIN.

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At the very least, this is good advice for everyone going forward. The car dealership I worked at in freakin' 1987 took credit cards! Over the phone might have been a novel concept back then (I honestly don't recall but I don't think so) but trust me: we looked for ANY source of payment from anyone. If they're turning this down, there's another reason.

Quote:

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Also, use email not texts and talk on the phone as well.

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Once deal to agreed upon, draw up a simple contract and sign it. Have signature line available for sales rep and sales manager. Do not go to dealer without this in hand signed. I do this and never have a problem. The trick is to have terms agreeable by buyer and seller with the seller on the hook if vehicle is not available. Below is a sample of what I would write today:

Date

Agreement for Sale of 2011 Ford F-150 VIN: ABCD

Dealership name, hereafter identified as seller agrees to sell (Model year, model and VIN) vehicle to Joe Moe, hereafter identified as buyer.

This sale shall occur no later than (date here) here after identified as agreed date.

Buyer pays earnest money of $X to secure the vehicle. Seller agrees to not sell this vehicle until after agreed date. If buyer or agent of buyer does not appear in person by the agreed date, earnest money is forfeited and seller is under no obligation to honor sale of vehicle to buyer.

Seller to sell vehicle for the terms below:
Sales Price
Sales Tax (6.25%)
Title and License

If vehicle is not in agreed condition seller agrees to provide a substitute vehicle equal or greater than identified vehicle. Buyer may reject substitution and earnest money is returned.

If vehicle is not available for any reason, seller shall pay buyer back earnest money plus penalty of $x; pay for all travel expenses incurred by buyer or buyer's agent including mileage, meals, rental car and lodging. Buyer has option to obtain rental car at sellers direct expense.

Agreed

Buyer


Sales Rep


Sales Manager

Appendix:
Description of vehicle with condition. Include photos.

Not sure what OP expects. The dealer can't sell you a vehicle they don't have, and isn't obligated to sell you one at the price you want. Sucks you wasted a lot of road time though.

They will claim it was a mistake. How do you prove it wasn't?

TulaneAg said:

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Cromagnum said:

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Not sure what OP expects. The dealer can't sell you a vehicle they don't have, and isn't obligated to sell you one at the price you want. Sucks you wasted a lot of road time though.

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That's what you got out of that story?

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That's what I get out of it when there is no VIN# mentioned. At minimum this should have been pulled to verify that a specific truck (or trucks) is physically on the lot.

Rendered Fat said:

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sts7049 said:

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when i read that exchange, one thing i take from it is that you entered into the whole situation with expectations that were not in line with reality. you went into it with this idea you could easily just swap a bit of info over some texts and it was done. i'm not saying they have no fault in all of this, but you set yourself up super easy for failure here.

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See, I don't understand this line of thinking at all. They offered to sell me a new truck at a specific price, down to the penny. I accepted that offer and stood ready, willing and able to perform. That is the essence of a contract in Texas. How did I "set myself up for failure"?

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because unfortunately, this is how the industry has operated for years if not decades. again, i'm not saying it's RIGHT, but it is the reality.

look, if you want to use your experience as a catalyst for change i'm all for it. this bullcrap needs to change. my gut tells me though that this isn't likely to go very far and you will not the the last one who gets burned and wants to do something about it.

Rendered Fat said:

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Cromagnum said:

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TulaneAg said:

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Cromagnum said:

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Not sure what OP expects. The dealer can't sell you a vehicle they don't have, and isn't obligated to sell you one at the price you want. Sucks you wasted a lot of road time though.

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That's what you got out of that story?

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That's what I get out of it when there is no VIN# mentioned. At minimum this should have been pulled to verify that a specific truck (or trucks) is physically on the lot.

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Of course they've canceled the link now, but the text that she sent me (that I alluded to above) was a hyperlink to a specific vehicle that had the VIN and stock number on the link. Thank God I had the foresight to screenshot the link before they deleted it. This wasn't for some arbitrary, pie in the sky truck. We had a deal on a specific unit. And I specifically asked her if the unit was on the lot and she replied "yes, it's here."

For the life of me, I cannot understand how some of you goaltend so hard for scumbag dealerships. It is utterly amazing.

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Oh I'm not goaltending for dealerships and generally hate them too, especially used car dealers. I'm trying to understand what do you hope to accomplish with a lawsuit though? The situation sucks, but you are probably just making a bigger headache for yourself. At the end of the day, that dealer is still going to have a-hole managers, and you still won't have a truck from them.