Ed Morse Cadillac Of Tampa ripoff deceptive sales tactics Tampa Florida

My husband & I live in Brevard County & had been looking for a 1995-1999 Ford E-150 conversion van, since Sept 29, 2004, (after the hurricanes) to use as a "hurricane escape vehicle." We looked in the local newspaper, thrifty nickel & autotrader. We looked at about 15 in the Brevard, Volusia, Indian River & Orange Counties before deciding to look in the Tampa area.

I printed out the ads from the autotraderonline for 7 vans. 2 were private owners & 5 were dealers. I called on Wed, Oct 20, to verify that the vehicles were not already sold & advised the various contacts that we would be driving over from Brevard (115-135 mile one way) to see the vans. I called everyone Thursday evening to verify that we would be in the Tampa / Clearwater area around 9:30AM. One of the private owners had just sold the van, but one of the dealers that I talked to earlier told me he had sold the van I was interested in, had called back & said it was actually NOT sold, but was in a different part of the lot. I added his information back to the list at the end.

We left home at 6:30AM & arrived in Clearwater at the 1st stop (private seller) @ 10:15AM. The van was a nice, fully loaded 1996, but it was the highest priced ($7500). My husband really wanted to see the van at Ed Morse (1997 for $6990 with only 65,000 miles on it), because he felt that a Cadillac dealer would not accept a van that was in bad shape. It was the only one that offered a warranty. & he felt the dealer would be more
likely to negotiate a better price. We had a newer, less expensive van (1998 for $4748 with 95,000 mile on it) to see at Brandon Honda also.

Our 2nd stop was a buy here pay here guy & we were not impressed with the van. We decided at that point to skip the other 3 vans we had listed with buy here, pay here guys, because we wanted to make a deal for a van & get back home. One of my dogs is diabetic & I don't like to leave him for long periods because he has had problems with low blood sugar in the past.

We stopped at Ed Morse at about 2PM. We met Mike Calhoun, manager of Internet sales & he turned us over to the salesman Ken Cranford. We looked at the van, took it for a test drive & asked a bunch of questions. We told Ken we had another van to look at before we decided. He offered us a Carfax report, which we took a copy of & he explained the buyback guarantee & their 30 day 3,000 mile 50/50 warranty. As we were leaving to go to Brandon Honda, Ken said to be sure that the price they were offering included dealer fees. My husband discussed with him that we were not going to pay any dealer's fees, since they were pure profit for the dealer. That's one of his pet peeves about buying cars.
I showed Ken the copy of the information I had printer regarding the van he was trying to sell us that said, "prices include all costs, except tax, tag and title." He said if that's what it says then that was fine.

We went to Brandon Honda. This was about 3:30PM. I was getting anxious, we had a 3 hour drive (maybe longer in rush hour traffic), we hadn't had anything to eat since 5:30AM & we hadn't even stopped long enough to take our medication. My husband is a disabled veteran & takes about 30 pills a day. I have MS & take several medications. We saw the van at Brandon Honda & it had a lot more features than the one at Ed Morse (TV, VCR, Alloy wheels, CD player) & it was a year newer, though it did have higher miles & it was a little dinged up inside & out. We took it for a test drive & I decided I liked the one at Ed Morse better, even though it was more plain & basic. My husband was concerned with the difference in price ($6990 Vs $4748) & he hadn't even started negotiating on either one of the vans yet.

I left him to negotiate with the salesman there & called Mike Calhoun back at Ed Morse regarding their van. I told him we were down to a choice between the two & I liked theirs, but my husband liked the price of the other one. I asked him to give me his best CASH price. He got together with Ken & the finance manager, Todd Thompson. They offered a price of $6200. I asked if that was the best they could do. Mike asked me the price & information about the other van. I told him the price was $4748 before we started negotiating. He said to me, Tell me what price you want to pay & I'll see what I can do. I felt $5800 was fair (from what we had seen) & that's what I offered. He conferred with Todd & Ken. They accepted the price of $5800, but said, Tax, tag & title are extra. I told him I would talk to my husband & we would either call him back or we would come back. It was now about 4:30PM.

The salesman at Brandon Honda stayed firm on his price $4748 & said we could talk to his sales manager & maybe he could do better. I was really not feeling well, we were both hungry & tired. I told him we were going to get dinner, talk it over & make a decision. When we left, we decided that the van at Ed Morse was the one we wanted & decided to go back there, get the deal done, go to dinner & head home. Unfortunately, going back to Ed Morse we got lost.

We finally got back there & Ken was talking to my husband about the contract, title, extended warranty, etc. I excused myself & went to the ladies room. Ken got us some bottled water to take our medication (finally) & I went & sat on the sofa in the showroom while they finished up getting the information. They came to get me to get a copy of my drivers license to put my name on the title. My husband came out to sit with me in the showroom while they finished the paperwork. He said that Ken told him that they were going to have to show the dealers fee of $499.99 on the contract, because it was against the law not to show the dealers fees. He said it was considered discrimination if they didn't charge everybody the dealer fee.

At that point, my impression was that they would show the price of the vehicle less the dealer fee ($5300) add the dealer fee ($499.99) & then add tax, tag, title fees as we had discussed. It was now almost 6:00PM, we had filled out all the paperwork (the contract was the last thing to be signed), I was so tired & anxious to get something to eat & get on the road home I didn't look at the figures (my mistake). I gave them a check for $6884.75. I just thought they must have charged a lot for tax, tag & title. We finally had dinner & left Tampa at 7:00PM. Because of the traffic from the President's visit to Tampa & an accident that shut I-4 down, we didn't drove straight through & arrived home at 10:15PM.

In the morning, I looked at the paperwork & realized what they had done. I called & talked to Mike Calhoun & he said the offer was $5800 plus tax, tag, title & dealer fees. I said, if that had been what he had told me we never would have come back there, knowing how my husband despises dealer fees. He said he had 3 witnesses & 1 of them didn't even work at the dealership, he just happened to be there. I was curious why, if he was telling the truth, he felt he had to introduce witnesses into the conversation.

I feel like they took advantage of the fact that we were tired, anxious to get dinner & get home. I believe these practices are what cause people to prefer having a root canal to shopping for a car. I would like them to refund the $499.99, but I realize that probably won't happen, but at least there will be a record of their deceptive, sleazy sales tactics. Hopefully, someone else will benefit from knowing they have complaints against them.

I am also sending this information to the
state attorney general's office, the AARP (of which we are both members) & anybody else I can think of that can get the word out about disreputable car dealers. I told Mike Clahoun I was going to do so & he said, go ahead. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Sandra
Malabar, Florida
U.S.A.

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