Team Ford Of Marietta, Larry Nelson Finance Mgr./Bob Baurer Salesman dishonest, changed price on paperwork without notifying me, lied about financing with a program offered by Capital One Bank "Auto Finance Dept" consumer rip-off fraud Marietta Georgia

On July 27th I received a notice from Capital One Auto Finance Dept. that Team Ford of Marietta and they were running a weekend special starting August 1st thru August 3rd 2003. I was preapproved and to call a number for the amount. I called the number and was given a confirmation number for which I was to write down and the amount of approval which was $24,995.00 towards financing a new car. My son turned 16 in April and we had been waiting for an opportunity like this so we could get a used vehicle for him.

We went to Team Ford of Marietta and handed the pre-approved paperwork to a salesman by the name of Bob who anxiously met us half way through the parking lot. Bob took the paperwork inside and came out approximately 10 minutes later and said that we were approved for any car we want as long as it was not more than five years old and had more than 50k miles on it.

My son and I had enough time to look at several small trucks that we had discussed getting him and did not want to spend more than 15K on a used vehicle. We were trying to keep the payments around $300.00 per month so he could afford the payments. One of the vehicles we looked at had a sticker in the window for $15,866.00 and we asked Bob about coming down off of that price. He had not seen the sticker in the dark tinted window and walked to the front of the vehicle where there is a yellow tag stuck in the window giving info on that vehicle.

Bob said there is no way he could go below 15K on the vehicle as the truck was worth between 17K and 18K. We took Bob around the vehicle and showed him the sticker in the window and he explained that someone must have made a mistake and he would be right back, marching off like he was upset for someone making a mistake. (This is where the deceipt started at the dealership)

When Bob returned he said the GM told him that he could sell it for what the sticker quoted and explained that it was our "lucky day!" I told him that I was not going to pay sticker and he said he would come down $1,000.00 off the sticker price but that was the best he could do as the truck was worth much more than that.

We test drove the vehicle and decided that this was the one. We went in with Bob to do the paper work, signed a few things and Bob took the paper work to the finance manager Larry Nelson. Bob and Larry were in the office for a long time, 30-45 minutes or so working numbers as we watched them through the glass window.

Bob came back to his office where we were sitting and we signed more paper work. We were now ready to see Larry Nelson the finance manager.

Larry Nelson said that there was no way he could get me to $350.00 per month on payments and explained that even with financing at 60 months we were still coming in about $420.00 a month. That seemed very high to me and I asked him how much he was trying to finance? He looked at me a little nervous and said $16,800.00. I told him that there must be some mistake. I agreed to put $1500.00 down on the vehicle and Bob agreed to take $1000.00 off of the invoice making the vehicle cost $14,900.00 less my deposit of $1500.00 I should only be financing around $13,400.00.

Larry Nelson looks at me and says there is no way that they could sell the truck for less than $14,999.00 they would lose money and that Bob did not know what he was talking about when he said he would lower the price $1,000.00.

Larry claimed that this was July 31, 2003 and that it was the last day of the month and if it were not the close of the month we would not even be having this conversation about financing less than $16,000.00.

I felt at this point that I needed to walk but, my son really fell for this vehicle and I could see how bad he wanted the truck. I agreed to the financing and we signed the paperwork, I wrote out my deposit for $1500.00 and we negotiated the payments at $360.00 a month.

Larry asked me for my last two paycheck stubs and I explained that I owned my own business. He asked for the last two years of taxes that I filed and I agreed to bring them the next day.

My son Chris took the returns to the dealership the next morning and I received a call. Keep in mind I was pre-approved through Capital One Auto Finance Dept. and already given an amount and a confirmation number.

Larry proceeds to tell me that he can't find schedule "C" for my returns. I told him that is all the work my CPA gives me after filing each year and that everything should be there.

I show an income of over 100K each year for the past several years and Larry mentioned that this looked good but he still had to have form "C".

I told Larry that I opened my new business 10 months ago and that I have not filed any business tax forms for 2003 as the year is not over yet. Larry then says that he will call me back.

I recieve a call a day later and he is claiming that we would need to bring the vehicle back that he is not able to get us approved as all lenders want at least two years of tax returns for new businesses.

My son has had the truck now since Thursday and it is Saturday. He has told all of his friends and is so excited about the truck. All the nieghbors have seen Chris proudly driving his new "used" truck and now I must tell him that we have to take it back because we were mislead and lied too.

This whole ordeal has been nothing short of a rippoff! From the Capital One letter working with Team Ford on this promotion confiming a pre-approved amount of $24,995.00 to how Larry tried to bump the cost of the vehicle up as we first met with him when we were signing the final paper work. Of course Bob (salesman) is no where to be found when we go in to sign the paper work so when Larry disputes something that Bob has agreed to do Bob is all of a sudden a ghost.

I found their practice to be quite slippery and way below board of what an honest company that is working with the public and practicing good business should exemplify themselves as.

The good cop bad cop skit with Larry and Bob and the deceipt from the white sticker in the window to what Bob claimed was on the yellow sticker on the front windshield "in code" has made my son and I both glad we have much larger and better values!

To try and steal money from someone by jacking up the price of the vehicle hoping that they won't notice is very shady and someone needs to adress this at there place of business before Team Ford gets in really deep trouble for ripping off someone who has a contact in the news business and runs a special on them or an article that may hurt them in the long term.

Because my business is new and I do not have financials from tax returns to show for the last two years I had to turn to a family member to help. All the paper work has been submitted and we are now waiting on an answer from Larry Nelson.

I promise that I will never buy a car from Team Ford and will tell all my business customers (which I have over 700) and ask them to tell people they know to please look somewhere else before stopping in at Team Ford of Marietta Used Car Department.

I hope your car shopping business has been a better one than ours! Have a good day.

Greg
Woodstock, Georgia
U.S.A.

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