Is this legal? Should I contact a lawyer?

As an alternative to immediately getting an attorney involved, which could be quite expensive, you may first want to try filing a complaint with a consumer protection agency, such as the Better Business Bureau. Once you do this, the dealer will be more motivated to resolve the complaint and return your deposit, since your filed complaint will be in the public record.

Rick (soon to be 2006 prius owner)

 

If they clearly violated the contract and they won't give you your money back contact the state Attorney General's Office. If you still can't get your money back take them to small claims court, just be sure you have all the paper work with you. No need for an attorney for $500 that's what small claims courts are for.

Also you might want to check with your credit card company, since you didn't receive what you ordered they may just take the money back from the dealer for you. I'm not sure what their rules would be but it won't hurt to check.

Good luck.

Remember deposits only protect the dealer not the customer.

 

Although I'm not a lawyer I did go thru 1st year of law school and got an A grade in contract law. The one year of law school didn't get me a degree but I was armed with enough knowledge to have the bark of a lawyer so I no longer got pushed around by businesses telling me what I can and can not do. Fight this one. You can get your money back. This one should be easy.

The basic thing I recall is that the courts DO NOT expect an invidual consumer to read all the fine print of a contract. The courts will only expect you to be bound to what would reasonably happen. If it's a deposit to buy materials to do work then it's reasonable to expect it to be non refundable. However, if it's just a a deposit to reserve the right to buy a car then it's normally expected for it to be a refundable deposit. The courts simply DO NOT tolerate a business trying to CON consumers out of money. Having you forfeit $500 for absolutely no service in return is downright fraudulent. On top of that you claim the salesperson said it was refundable. So now you have verbal contract that says you get your money back. And so the written contract now has terms that they tried to sneak by you. This is not acceptable. The basic reason is that if the courts accepted this then the dealer could have also put in the contract in small print more outrageous things like the right to dock all your wages as a penalty. The only exception to being bound to all the small print in a written contract is if you are representing a business or are a lawyer yourself, in which case you are expected to spend careful time reviewing all the fine print and implications thereof.

Anyway. For starters immediately file a dispute with the credit card company. You'll get a temporary credit.

Next look for government agencies, contact Toyota upper management, and contact the Better Business Bureau. Contact your district attorney about what can be done. I had a district attorney on the verge of arresting someone once for writing me a bad check after his company went bankrupt. I wouldn't bother with a lawyer because $500 is too small. I wouldn't bother with small claims court either because that's the unecessarily hard way. Basically, YOUR CASE is way too strong for you to get your money back, so this should be easy.

I recently won back around $500 in faulty alarm installation costs from a Toyota dealer. I did not have to go to court. The whole process took about 3 weeks. I mainly stood my ground because I knew my rights as a consumer.

 

that's the first thing I'd do. Also make out a copy and another stamped and addressed to Toyota Motor Corporation Of America and the address is in your warranty manual and show it to them also. That one will probably get your money back faster than anything.
I had an issue with a dealer and when I emailed the general manager the copy of the letter that I sent to the BBB, Toyota, and their dealership, when I got home the phone was hot from it ringing all day with them trying to get my problem fixed and fixed immeadiatly.

 

YES!

 

Squeaky Wheel. There are good dealers and bad ones. My local dealer gave me my deposit when I got my car out of town. I have had some bumps with them but nothing serious they seem OK. I did have an experience many years ago when two sales men played keep away with my keys that I was "required" to give to them if I wanted to test drive a car. I was young. I have been treated well and badly over the years. I am happy you got your money back.

 

nice...
i concur with the small claims aspect, had it come to that. that is, after busting some balls at the STEALERship... nothing like getting served some sort of notice for a court date to motivate folks as such...

fwiw, check out the local laws (i know someone posted them, i'm too lazy to read through it), aside from whether you can get your money back, you might be entitled to get even MORE back... here in MA we have what's called "93a", "deceptive and misleading sales practices", whereas if someone gets nailed for it, it's not ONLY your $500 in this case, but 3X the "damages".... given, sometimes, it might be MORE fruitful to go to small claims and win under such conditions...

know the law... just about every State has 'em online anyway...

lesson learned though, NEVER leave a deposit unless you have something IN WRITING that's acceptable to you regarding any sort of refund mechanism...

 

Some states have laws regarding an auto purchase. In essense even if you sign a contract you have a certain amount of time to back out. So even if the car was delivered to you, you could back out say within 24 hours. This was done to protect the consumer from the pushy salesman. Now what you have is a contract to purchase a car and it was not delivered. So if your contract says 05 and they did not deliver it is a voided contract and they owe you a refund. Tell this to your credit card company and they will backcharge the dealer. This is called "failure to perform" in the contract world. Now if the dealer tells you that he will get you the exact car you ordered (and your state has no special auto laws) then you are out of luck. Also note that it was a poor decision to sign a contract without a time limit and a clause that says non-refundable. Toyota dealers are the best at being the worst at selling cars and most states have laws to protect the consumer. I suspect your state may have one that essentially means they have to give you the mondy back EVEN IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND. I only hope you did not wave that right by signing a contract that says you can change your mind up to x days. In this case....the only thing I can say is never sign a contract without reading the find print and assuming the worst will happen.

 

nice work jw !! who needs lawyers to help settle your problems when you have your fellow prius owners

make sure you do post the dealership in the relevant thread. Also, I would still write a letter of complaint to the dealership president/owner and to the appropriate dealer regulation authority

 

i suppose telling us which dealer it was is now out of the question?

**EDIT**

aww umm... gee must be early...still on my first cup of coffee...no !! wait...first POT of coffee...

anyway, i'm very happy to hear that you are getting resolution on your issues. i never thought it would be a problem for you...

 

The "dealers and pricing" section is visible from the main forums page

Make sure you post your experiences with these imbeciles there.

http://priuschat.com/Dealers-and-Pricing-f14.html

im glad it's all worked out

 

Is this dealer in Alton, IL? That's where I ordered my Prius, but they did not require a deposit. They said that a deposit wasn't necessary since they know they will sell it if I don't take it.

Andy