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It's worse than you think.
I bought a certified used 9-3 Cv about 6 weeks ago from Dean Hill. I traded in a 3 year old truck that had 16,000 still to pay on the loan. A month later, I received a notice from the bank saying that I was overdue on the loan payment. I called Dean Hill and they made up some story about the person who did those things was out of the office, and the paperwork was in the wrong place, etc. I did receive a pay-off notice from the bank last week, so at least they did take care of it.
But . . .
When I bought the car, the salesperson told me that they had been having some trouble with the DMV not processing registrations in a timely manner and to not be concerned if it took 4 or 5 weeks. I have not received my license plates yet, and my paper plate expires on Wednesday. I called yesterday and was told that after being in dispute" with their bank for several months, Dean Hill Saab had filed Chapter 11. The titles of many of the cars that were recently sold were still being held by their bank. He checked, and sure enough, my car's title is being held by their bank. I have been promised that this would all be cleared up by the judge next week, and if I didn't have my plates they would drive dealer plates to me (I live over an hour away). The guy also copped an attitude with me when I asked him how this could happen. His words: "If you have a negative attitude about car dealers, there's nothing I can do to change that."
Except for the facts that my former loan was screwed with and my registration has not been processed because my car's title is being held by their bank, I figure the rest of the story is all crap.
1. The story they told me at the sale about the DMV is a lie-- they knew they were playing around with cashflow and would be delaying the processing of my sale in order to pay current debts.
2. The story they told me about my trade-in's loan is a lie -- the used that $16,000 to satisfy current cashflow, hoping to pay it back before I received an overdue notice (which they weren't able to do). This makes them not only liars and cheats, but also stupid.
3.I experienced their service department a few weeks ago --- they tried to pass off a mishapen window gasget as "normal" and "that rushing wind sound will stop after the gasket reforms itself to the window." I forced them to order the new gasket.
4. The facts point to a common problem: bad management has led to slow sales and trouble with cashflow. Instead of dealing with it, further bad management led to deceiving customers. The problems snowballed to the current fiasco.
5. If they had called me weeks ago and told me what was going on (which is what any legitimate business would do), I would have been pissed off, but I would have at least appreciated being kept informed about what was happening to MY property. I will surely never do business with ANY Dean Hill dealership again (they have several in the area).
6. I would caution anyone contemplating doing business with Dean Hill Motors to be VERY careful.
7. I will be calling the Attorney General's office on Monday morning. This all sounds just a little bit TOO shady to me, and I want to find out what the laws of the state of Vermont say about this whole thing, what my options are, etc. I especially think the AG's office will be interested in the story about my loan not being paid off.
It always surprises me when people turn out to be liars ans cheats, when dealing honestly with people is relly the ONLY way to achieve and maintain long-term success.
Does anyone know of an honest Saab shop in central/northern VT or NH? Has anyone done any business with the Saab dealership in Montpelier?
DCMaguire
posted by 68.187.233...
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