I paid a fully refundable $500 deposit for a new Prius ~3 months ago but now have decided to wait till the '10 debuts next year. Although the dealer (salesman in this case) says he will process it, now I'm finding myelf calling the dealer every other day to find out why it's not being processed. This kind of customer deception is driving me angry + frustrated [not that I expect the dealer salesmen to be any better (although there are exceptions) but this is unacceptable) Have any of you faced/gone through this? Any suggestions on how best to proceed?
What is the problem when you call? Do they say they are processing it and then don't? Do they give you the run around and not let you talk to the appropriate person? Do they explicitly refuse to process your refund? How long have you been trying to get a refund? If this problem persists, I'd escalate it to the Toyota Corporate office.
Rigormortis has the right suggestion. Our experience was just the opposite. After 15 weeks of waiting our salesperson said they would offer to refund our "non-refundable" 1k deposit. They had never cashed the check! When we got our Prius at another dealership they sent us the check back with a polite note. My wife had called and stopped payment on the check just to make sure but the dealership returned our deposit.
In my case, the dealer charged my credit card for the $500 deposit. After reading these threads, i think I'll write a letter + give them some more time. What a headache, when they had to charge my card, it took them less than a minute but to process a refund, I'm beging referred from sales to finance to accounting to 'main office' and what not...!! Sure there are nice, genuine guys out there so I would not generalize but believe me, I would beware of *most* salesmen...
when calling them often to inquire 'why has my refund not been processed yet' keep in mind that when a merchant runs a refund to your credit card, it can take 5-7 business days to show up. have you tried just showing up with the receipts and the credit card you used to the actual dealership and seeing if someone there will just swipe it? 3 months on the waiting list, might be still okay to contact your bank and do a chargeback. make sure you provide all the contact information and the times you called trying to get a refund. merchants are willing to do anything to avoid being taken to small claims court or get a chargeback
This all makes sense. For the next few days, I'm going to wait and watch (the processing may take 3-7 days as mentioned above) I have to say that right now, it does seem that dealer's have Prii (both new and used) sitting on their lots more than they did even a month ago...I mean it is still their best selling car and all but come Jan/Feb, I wont be surprised if they sell Prii below MSRP...
I'd make sure they know when your ready to buy a Prius (and you will) it will not be there! My dealer had 6 or 7 Prius's that where ordered and then cancelled and they had no problem selling them. Hell I bought one of them! Jay
Do not wait, do not keep calling, go down to the dealership, demand it then and there. If they don't issue you a check, then tell them you will be there every day, you will tell their customers not to trust them, you will never ever buy there, you will recommend to people to never buy there. See if that gets results.
yeah that will get results, probably a restraining order against you because you are harassing them. or maybe something simple like a trespass warning. all you have to do is write them a certified letter demanding the refund, wait a month and then go to small claims. then you will be able to collect the deposit (maybe more added on a damage assessment) and your cost costs including filing fees and process server fees. make sure your letter demands the money back in 30 days or you will be sued. you have to write a written certified letter first asking for the money and the reasons why it is owed to you, you cannot just sue them without formally asking for the money first. the small claims office will have volunteers there to help you with filing out the paperwork so you sue them correctly, and you need to make sure you are suing in the correct jurisdiction (county/city) (where the defendant does business, etc). also you should check the 'agent of service for process' is. it might not be good enough if put down the manager as the agent. if you do your own investigating (which is free) you will save a lot of money on process server fees. expect to pay about 50-100.00 to have your papers served. when the representative of the business shows up, he might be willing to write you a check right there, without even seeing the judge.. once you get the judgement and they do not pay, that opens a pandoras box of fun things you can do. for a fee, your local sheriffs office will stand guard at the business and do a "till tap" and take the money owed to your directly from their cash registers.. or you can go to their bank...
Not really, you are there to collect your money, money owed to you, sure they can kick you out, but then you have a totally different case, theft.
my "deposit" was a check written to the dealer that was returned to me along with my new keys// so they never had the money to begin with... in your case with a credit card charge, i m sure there will be a processing time. where i work, charge reversals thru credit transactions can take up to two weeks and its based on the credit card company, not us... some take as little as 3 business days so you might be arguing with the wrong company... oh btw, calling your credit card company is a waste of time, they will most likely advise you of nothing.... i have customers calling all the time to complain about their refund and they simply do not believe that its out of our hands... only thing i can say is the refund was processed X days ago and to allow "UP TO 10 BUSINESS DAYS". i dont tell them that some get there money in 3.
I think the best wa (if I dont hear from them) is to write a certified letter as rigormortis suggests and take it from there. One Q I have rigormortis is (and this is just out of curiosity) - why must I put 'within 30 days' in my certified letter or else risk being sued myself?
Its probably because businesses have 30 day periods to pay their bills, you are asking for your money back with the legal limit of the law, after that, they are delinquent and subject to fines and court orders.
You do need to give them a reasonble time to respond. I don't pretend to know what the low end of "reasonable" is. Demanding immediate payment is probably unreasonable. How often does the dealer issue checks for their payroll and accounts payable? Weekly? Twice per month? It is at least monthly. IMO send the letter and file complaints with the BBB and local consumer affairs office.
