Charles Gilchrist's Southwest Ford

I would like to start out by saying that the response I received from [redacted] at Southwest Ford COMPLETELY missed the point.  The whole issue is not how cheap can we get a car from you or how good of a deal that you gave us.  The whole reason for this complaint is due to the fact that Southwest Ford made a fraudulent sale to us when they sold us a vehicle that had been wrecked prior to us buying the vehicle.  We asked, prior to our purchase of the 2013 expedition, whether it had been wrecked or had any other problems, and we were told no.  Knowingly, or otherwise, we were lied to and sold a vehicle that has caused us nothing but problems from the very beginning.  This is not just an everyday, "we want to trade our vehicle in for a newer model" type situation.  This is a "I purchased the vehicle that I really wanted and had absolutely no interest in trading my car in any time soon" situation.  I did not want another car.  However, we had no other choice because we were lied to with the purchase of our first one.  So this was not to ask you to "give us a good deal on a new car".  This was simply to ask Southwest Ford to own up to their mistakes and attempt to make things right.Yes you did offer to purchase the car back for $40,000, but that was NOT the amount that we paid for it a year and a half ago.  When I made my first payment on that vehicle, my balance was a little over $48,000 after a downpayment.  Yes there were 20,000 miles put on it, but throughout that 20,000 miles, I spent a couple of months trying to get the car in to the shop to have everything fixed.  I kept being put off because supposedly, there were no rental cars available.  When I finally did get to put it in the shop, it was kept for 2 weeks and it was a constant battle to get those things paid for even though I had warranty.Yes, you did offer me a brand new 2015 Ford Expedition EL Platinum, and that is what we went with because we didn't feel we had anymore options.  I love this one just as much, or probably more than I did mine, mainly because it's new, so I'm pretty confident that it shouldn't have the issues that the 2013 had.  However, the base payments was NOT to the penny.  My previous payments were $762.86 INCLUDING warranties and GAP insurance.  The paperwork stated that I would be paying $763 for this 2015 expedition, so to say it was to the penny, is not accurate.  The 762.86 included all of the warranties as well, so with my payments now being just shy of $800, I would say you completely missed the mark on this one as well.You did offer to find me a smilier vehicle with the same miles instead of the brand new vehicle since we did not want to start over on payments.  However, there was absolutely nothing on your lot that even remotely compared to what my vehicle was when we purchased it in 2013 except for two SUVs.  One, I was not the least bit interested in, and the other one, although I did like it and would have taken it had Southwest Ford been willing to make that transaction, it was not what I ultimately wanted.  Yes, we did demand that something be done that day, but it was demanded earlier that morning after our car had been in your shop going on 3 weeks, no one returned my husbands phone calls for status updates, we had the car rental place contacting us to ask if we still had their vehicle because they hadn't received payment and couldn't get in touch with anyone at Southwest Ford.  Every time [redacted] said that he would call my husband back, my husband would have to call him back in the next day or so because he never heard back from him.  This was not an all of a sudden kind of thing like you are making it sound.  This was weeks of being patient, being constantly inconvenienced, and being ignored that finally made my husband call and say that we need it handled and we need it handled by end of business today.  It took him doing that to get anyone to do anything.  It still was not handled by end of business day.  It was the end of next business day before my husband came home with the new car, but in our opinion, none of this was handled properly.  Also, PRIOR to us driving an hour to the dealership that evening, we were told by [redacted] that the car was ready, the payments would be the same, there would be 0% interest for the entirety of the loan and it would be an even trade.  When we got there, the story was a little different.  Yes we could have 0% interest but our payments are going to be a little higher and we will be completely starting over on our note.  So, yes we were upset, because our time and gas was wasted.  We left that night without a vehicle and without talking to anyone that could resolve this.  So we didn't just "demand" anything "the night we came to the store".  We had been working on resolving this issue for 3 weeks.  We did request to purchase the other used SUV that was priced at $68,000, but only because, as previously stated, it was one of the only vehicles on the lot that could come close to comparing to what mine was when I purchased it.  We were just trying to stick with used because we didn't know that new was an option at the time that we asked for that.  When we were told that they could not make that happen and explained that they have more control and more leniency with new vehicles that they already own, we completely understood and that is when we were offered the new vehicle.  Again, we LOVE the actual vehicle.  I have absolutely NO complaints about that vehicle.  It is all about how we got to this point.I think it is also important to note that we were told that we could take our vehicle to another dealership and trade it in.  I have a problem with this, but I think it speaks to the character and integrity or lack thereof at Southwest Ford.  If we traded it in anywhere else, we would either have to lie to them like Southwest Ford lied to us, or we would be so upside down that it wouldn't be worth it.  Neither of those seem like good options to me, nor do they fix the problem, nor does Southwest Ford have to take responsibility for their mistakes.I am perfectly aware of the numbers side of things and I realize that newer vehicles cost more.  I am not oblivious to any of that.  I know that if I purchased a $63,000 vehicle for $48,000, that means that Southwest Ford loses money.  Although I am not after anyone's money, I just don't see how it is right to dump the money that Southwest Ford would have lost due to their own mistakes and lies, on their customer.  This is not about getting a good deal.  This is about Southwest Ford lying to us and then making it out to be our fault.  How is it right to make us start completely over and pay more money because of someone else's mistakes?We paid 1.5 years worth of payments on the expedition that I picked out and planned to keep for a long time.  I didn't want any other vehicle, I wanted that one.  I was pretty much forced into a new one, given the circumstances, and I am just asking that they at least meet me half way and take 1.5 years of the payments off.  At $800/month, that comes to $14,400.  I only asked you to meet me at 10,000.  If we were trading in our vehicle just because, or we were actually shopping for/wanting another vehicle, your "deal" would be an AMAZING deal.  However, that is not the situation.  We bought a car we wanted.  We were lied to.  We found out about it when our car died on the side of the road.  Southwest Ford does not take ownership of their mistakes/lies.  We as the customer pay the price for that.  THAT is the issue.

Please see attached

Revdex.com
Response:  [redacted]
These were
the options that we gave to the customer.
We offered to purchase back the 2013
Expedition for $40,000 which was the amount they paid for it a year and a half
ago with no mileage penalty.  Keep in
mind there were approximately 23,000...

miles put on the vehicle.  This then would give them the option to go
anywhere and purchase another vehicle.We offered them a brand new 2015 Ford
Expedition Limited that has an MSRP around $63,000 for the same payment they
had on their 2013 model.  The base
payment was to the penny of their previous payment and they chose to take an
extended warranty and Gap protection which added to the monthly payment.We offered to find them a similar
vehicle with the same miles.  This option
was given to them because they then decided that they were not willing to go
any longer on the term than what they had left on their current vehicle.  This option could not be done at that moment
which they demanded the night they came to the store.The customer also requested to
purchase a $68,000 pre-owned vehicle for the same terms and payments from the
previous $40,000 vehicle.  When told that
we could not make the happen we were told that that was not acceptable and we
need to figure out how to do it.  He then
told us to figure it out, because if not he would contact his attorney.
There is no
possible way that you can buy a $63,000 vehicle for the same payment for the
price of a $40,000 vehicle with less payment terms than the $40,000
vehicle.  We gave them an outstanding
deal and were repeatedly told that was not good enough.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
I feel like the dealership has gone above and beyond once the compliant made it to the right person. Once this happened things got resolved in quick fashion.
Regards,
[redacted]