d**k Says Yes / d**k Hannah Dealerships ripoff: Unlawful portrayal of lending. False advertising. Vancouver Washington

My story begins in search of a vehicle. I filled out the online form for DickSaysYes.com. On this site, you are supposed to find out if you qualify for financing. About 10 minutes later I got a call from a woman following up. I recently filed a Bankruptcy due to medical bills.

She told me that the process was completely different. That, since I went through d**k Says Yes, I would be working with a "financial advisor" and never see a sales person. She stated that there would be no regular tippy tappy in the negotiation process - either they could swing a deal or not. She stated that I was looking at a car 2002 or newer with 50k or less miles on it to secure financing. She stated that cars that fell within my parameters for payments would be pulled up for me to check out when I arrived to make it a quick and smooth process. She told me that I could secure financing for $150/mo with zero down based on what she saw on my credit score. She made "an appointment" with me the the following day.

I arrived for my appointment, only to be passed off by my phone contact to a gentleman who wore a tag that said "Aladdin - Financial Advisor". Aladdin was NOT a financial advisor, but a salesman, according to his business card.

He told me that they had to send my info to two lenders and they would pull my credit before seeing any cars. That way, they could take me to only the vehicles that would work for my payments (which I stated I would go up to $200). I expressed my concern at having my credit hit too many times and wanted to see what they had incase I did not find anything I liked. He told me that hitting your credit report does not change your credit score. I know this to be false.

Proceeding, after shopping my personal information to their two lenders, Aladdin and the finance manager both tell me I can only be financed for a car 2003 or newer with 30,000 or less miles. That this is due to the remaining manufacturer warranty. They want to be sure I don't ditch my car on the shoulder of the highway at the first flat tire (his words, not mine). The finance manager comes back over and this time gives my "financial advisor" a list of cars that would fit within my parameters. This magic list apparently had the names and locations of a handful of cars where the dealership had $5000 to $7000 playroom in the pricing.

We venture out, cruising the d**k Hannah Auto Mall, and so far, realistically I see nothing that would work, even if they came down a ton. Finally he takes me to Celica on the magic list. Suddenly my astute "financial Manager" can't read the invetory tags to tell me what the asking price is on this car. But, it does fall on that magic scrap of paper, so I decide it is the most prudent choice cost wise.

We get back and the tippy tappy back and forth game happens. They inflate the cost of the Celica to $1000 over high blue book and come back with payments double of what I stated I would be willing to do and what they said they could do on that vehicle.

Interestingly enough, none of the cars on his magic list were 2003 or newer. None had under 30k miles. This one was a 2001 and had almost twice the miles with 58,800.

When I questioned why suddenly a lender did not care if it fell within their lending parameters, I was told that this only applied to "Domestic cars".

The entire set up with the d**k Says Yes program is falsly portrayed. It is exactly the same thing as walking onto any car lot. Despite laughing at salesmen on the phone, that is what you get. A salesman. Abeit with a different title on this nametag. Despite stating that they would have cars pulled up for me, there were zero at that location and we had to travel over 5 car lots to find any. Despite claiming they had $5k playroom in the Celica, they started off over pricing it. Despite claiming there would be no tippy tappy back and forth with a sales manager, that is exactly what happend.

I know d**k Hannah has a swarmy reputation and I would never had gone into this dealership EXCEPT that it was portrayed to me to be something completely different than it was. It is an unethical, and I am sure illegal, way for them to pull customers who would not normally go to their locations. I would have had better service off any car lot than going through this "program".

They claim they are not "really" a part of d**k Hannah, yet all the cars we saw were on d**k Hannah lots.

Also, to put icing on the cake, the finance manager stated to me that my interest rate was "pretty good" coming out of a bankruptcy and that it stood in the "Low Teens". Sneaking a peek under his hand at the interest rate, it was 16.99%. I can't remember last time when something landed over the mid point of 15 that it was considered "low teens".

Claudia
Portland, Oregon
U.S.A.