Public Motors Liars!! Santa Ana California

I had to go to the BBB to get my complaint resolved, which it isn't completely.

Case # 20034567 Los Angeles BBB

Basically I agree with all of these negative reviews, they are liars, they hold money needed to be refunded for not good reason (which is why I had to involve the BBB), they sweet talk you then stab you in the back. By the way, the BBB got them to give me my refund the day Public Motors received something from them, so if you are having issue, I strongly recommend you contacting the BBB to get it resolved.

I bought a car mid-April.  My issue had to do with the autogap insurance which I was lied to about and told that the bank financing our car was requiring it.  It was a $895 fee!!!!, which I found out later, the finance people working at the dealership make the profit from selling this Auto-gap policy. I was told I had 30 days to cancel and the money would be refunded within 90 days. I figured out the very next day after buying the car that we did not have to have this and complained and tried to cancel it.  A 109 days later and only because I contacted the BBB did I actually get my refund.

Sally, the customer service manager, curtly told me, after I found out this was an in house problem (refunding the money) as the contact was never submitted to the company that process the contracts and I was wondering why it wasn't expedited any since they lied to me about it, that "any refund takes 90 days". This outraged me because she was wrong - the cancellation form states, "MAY TAKE UP TO 90 days", which implies it could be sooner. But it definitely doesn't say, "90 days or until our accounting department gets around to it!!" -- seeing as it ended up being 109 days! And there is something wrong with signing a contract (the Autogap contract) that states that a customer should receive a refund in 60 days, but then Public Motors choose to make it 90.  

I was also upset that I had to pay interest on this $895 for 4 1/2 months, so BK the general manager told me (and apparently Sally had never told him I had any type of complaint until this point 4 months later) that they would refund me the $16.20 in interest and give me a free tank of gas or refund me an oil change as an apology.

I closed my complaint with the BBB because Public motors had refunded the Auto-Gap and *was going to pay me* the interest I accrued on my account which I had asked for from them (and give me a tank of gas as an apology, which I didn't ask for). So therefore I was going to be satisfied.

However, when I submitted my tank of gas for a refund (which they were going to pay me for with the interest I was promised)  they are telling me now that they will not pay me  unless I sign something with them which says, among other things, "I, my name, purchased a vehicle from Public Motors, had a dispute and Public Motors resolved it. I am very satisfied with the way Public Motors handled the transaction. I agree not to discuss this settlement or to slander or disparage Public Motors at any time, either verbally or in writing, or by any communication on the internet."

I refuse to sign anything that say that as I am "very satisfied with the way Public Motors handled the transaction" - a matter that is only semi-resolved and only because I involved the BBB. And I do not want to remove anything I have written about this company because it's truth (not slander or disparaging) and others should know what they did by having a record of it on the BBB or other places that asks for reviews of the company. I am very sure I am not the only one who this has happened to - others just probably never questioned the extra cost or thought it was necessary as well.

 As a result of signing the form they sent me I would have to agree to remove the google review that I did on their company as well as this complaint. So the way I look at it, they told me they would pay me the $16 and offered me a tank of gas, not as an apology, but rather as a way to shut me up.

When I wrote and asked Sally about it, saying that no one told me at any point that I would need to sign something like this, she told me it was a generic form they use as a settlement agreement. If that is the case, they should have told me I was going to have to sign something like that, but 2 phone calls from the general manager and several emails back and forth with the customer service manager and no one said a word.  I asked her to have BK, the general manager, call me to discuss this further. 

That was a week ago and no one has called me to discuss this. I can only conclude that they do not want to completely fix this situation of my husband and I being lied to by several people in their company, most directly the finance manager. That is very poor customer service on their part.

Read carefully all these reviews listed here and don't buy a car from here!!