Valpo Car Company

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/11/23) */
It's really a shame it had to come to this. After all we have helped Mrs. [redacted] with, aside from refunding the entire purchase after a year of driving, we have no understanding of how to make her happy at this point. We are very surprised to...

see a Revdex.com complaint. We understand Mrs. [redacted] is upset with the way the things turned out, but she is making it seem like we knowingly took advantage of her. We have contributed monetarily (in a gift of good will) to help her with her car problems, and have even loaned her a car to use as to not inconvenience her. The car she purchased (and every car sold at a used car lot) was purchased and signed for "AS/IS with no warranty". This exonerates both the manufacturer and reselling dealer from any future repairs. Mrs. [redacted] purchased an extended warranty, but has claimed it's no good. Her initial repairs normally should have been covered under her warranty, but instead of following our advice to take it in to a repair shop and have professionals handle it, she went out-of-cadence and called the warranty company directly, blaming the dealer (us) for selling her a damaged car. Surely no warranty company would authorize repairs on a car that a customer claims was damaged upon selling; though she viewed her actions as an act of self-preservation (denying any culpability in the damages), she actually destroyed her chances of having warranty repairs. Furthermore, the mechanic who serviced the car for us before it sold (as is standard procedure; all cars get a 'checkup' before selling, and we offer customers to take it themselves to a mechanic) had an interesting opinion. He saw the car before it sold, and after when there was deemed a problem. He told us the undercarraige and oil pan had been bashed up in certain places, that it wasn't that way before. He told us that it had been damaged after the customer had taken possession. Who knows what else had gone wrong that is now supposedly our fault? We have gone above and beyond to try and help Mrs. [redacted]. I wish we were able to make her happy, but it does not seem like any reasonable scenario will please her.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/12/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
First of all they did take advantage of us! The leak mentioned before purchase with the hood up in front of the owner. Maybe they shouldn't of sold me the car? They should of said they wanted to get it checked out before selling it instead of telling me it was cleaning fluid! Then they knew it again when I brought it in a week later. The mechanic was told to replace only the water pump that was leaking and nothing else? Really? I brought it in for same oil leak? They have taken advantage of me for a year now. This car has been in for servicing at least 7-8 times in this past year for the same thing. Why am I getting conflicting stories from both of their mechanic's! Sure seems they trying to tire me out so I would just say forget it and forget the problem. I think they were baiting me and not fixing the problem so as to make me look like an it! They would take it to their mechanic who said they were selective on what to fix! and what not to, because it would cost too much! I had taken it to a Mini dealer, they found a lot of problems, but did not note bashed up oil pan/undercarriage? Neither did the mechanic I talked with a couple days ago. They are out right lying! The insurance I paid lots of money for through them talked with me after the first mechanic in Griffith looked at the car and called them, not me, to let them know what he found and needed to be repaired. I have never called them direct! They then asked to talk to me and I told them the truth. Later that day, I spoke with VALPO CAR CO. and they said not to tell them the car leaked on the lot, just tell them what is wrong with the car. Sorry, I was hoping that if they were a reputable business, they would of had the leak fixed but they only want to prove I am just giving them a hard time. I was not going to lye for them, I told the truth. Yes it did hurt any chance of them paying for this leak, but I could not lye! This is the worst car dealer I have ever dealt with! They lie,they cheat, they tell me one thing and the mechanic tells me different. They never had any intentions to fix this oil leak.They wanted me to lie and get the expensive policy I bought from them to fix it.
I would still like for them to give me my money back and make us both not have to deal with the other ever again...

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2017/05/09) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted], Manager
Contact Phone: XXXXXXXXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@live.com
Mr. and Mrs. [redacted] purchased a vehicle from us earlier this year. They ran into a problem with some spark plugs within a month of...

purchase. As an act of good will, Valpo Car Co covered their repair bill. Shortly after, the Kidds were still experiencing problems, and had paid us a visit in person. The owner of the business, [redacted], was very busy at the time they came in, and told them that one of us would call them back. This was during tax season and we were extremely busy. We're a family owned small business, so you're dealing with either [redacted] or [redacted] is, as we all are, human, and forgot to tell me ([redacted]) to call her back. No harm intended, but a mistake nonetheless. Mrs. [redacted] claims she left us messages and called many times, but we never received one. Granted, we did have some voicemail troubles with Comcast for a couple weeks, but I was able to retrieve all of our missed voicemails and Mrs. [redacted]'s was not on there. I do believe her when she said she left one, but we did not receive it. The reason I am illustrating this is because we absolutely were not ignoring her; we are vigilant to take care of our customers, but in this instance, it somehow slipped through the cracks. The customers could have paid us another visit to see why we weren't responding. After receiving this Revdex.com complaint, I ([redacted]) immediately reached out to apologize and clear the air. I also made a mistake- I believed the light that was on the dashboard on her car had something to do with the headlights. Turns out, it was a brake system indicator light. Upon discussing this with Mrs. [redacted], I apologized and atoned for my mistake. In another act of goodwill, we paid for a full brake job- brakes, rotors and sensors all around, which cost us several hundred dollars. We are not here to hurt anyone or lead anyone astray, so it was a no-brainer to help our customers. Upon purchase, the customers signed an AS/IS form, holding the dealership harmless in the event of any repair. It is a used car, after all, there are a thousand moving parts that can defect at any time. We check our vehicles out, we do our best to repair and remove any mechanical malfunctions to prevent them from affecting our customers, and we even allow our customers to have our vehicles inspected themselves before purchase. But, sometimes things happen at an inconvenient time, and with this scenario, it was weeks after purchase. We did our best to rectify our mistakes, and we helped the customers line up mechanical repairs to address the issues at hand. I tried calling Mr. and Mrs. [redacted] and left several voicemail messages to confirm that they are satisfied, but I have not received any communication back. I apologize for our shortcomings, but I believe we did right by our customers. Attached are the two receipts for our good will work, totaling [redacted] paid entirely by Valpo Car Co. Thank you.