Richard Lucas Chevrolet THEY STOLE $500.00 from me avenel, New Jersey

I think the point that is being missed, and this is my fault for not clearly explaining it is the dealer simply lied to me, the salesman and the sales manager  blatantly lied. And to be honest I think it was more the sales manager cause when he would not refund my money the sales man look shocked, he actually said "why, we do this all the time and I promised him it was refundable".

When I was at the dealer I made it extremely clear that I may not buy this car, My wife needed to see it and we were undecided on the color.  Again this was made clear multiple times.  When I told the dealer I would need to come back THEY stated THEY could do a "good faith" hold on the car for a small deposit.  THEY (salesman and sales manager) both stated this was a FULLY REFUNDABLE deposit.

I did not make this up in my head it was sworn up and down to be refundable, I can not stress how many times I was  reassured of this.  They were fully aware that I may not purchase the car. I was completely upfront about that. I got back to the dealer two days later to advise I was not buying the car.  What damages could they have suffered? The car was not even on the lot, It was not special ordered for me, and they were fully aware that I may not by it? They offered to hold the car to try and make a sale, its a sales tactic and this time it did not work out. Up until the day I walked in to actually get my refund I was told it would not be a problem, A sales manager told me to just stop in cause he needed to swipe my card for the refund.  The problem only occurred when they realized I bought another car.

Bottom line, I was blatantly lied to. And this was a completely unethical act.  The only thing I am guilty of here is being a trusting consumer, which I assure you will not happen again.  Lets call it an expensive lesson learned. So am I an idiot for trusting these people, apparently so, but when working with an established dealer,family owned and that has some longevity I did not think they would use such an underhanded tactic, again lesson learned. Overall its just bad business.  In the end this is just my experience with this dealer. Take it for what it's worth...about $500.00.  

Am i totally stupid...in this case yes.  But leaving a small deposit to hold a car is  common practice here.  And I have not once ever had a problem.  It was a bad judgment call. That does not change the fact that I was blatantly lied to. Do I expect to see this money...most likely not, will I be sure to advise people not to make the same mistake I did. d**n straight.  Not all people have your brilliance so I am going to try to help out the simple folk like me a bit.

Imagine if you put down the deposit and then came back and decided you wanted to buy the car - but then they said, "Sorry, we just bailed on the deal and sold it to someone else." You would be furious (and rightfully so) because "a deal's a deal."

Well guess what, it goes the other way too. You bailed on them, meaning you breached the contract, so you can't just get your money back. Depending on what you have in writing and what the dealer's actual damages are, it is possible you could get a partial refund, but just calling them "thieves" makes this a brazenly fraudulent report.

And, WHY would you ever listen to a salesman? Are you totally stupid?? You put up the $500 to guarantee your performance in the deal. You back out, you lose the $500. Thats the way it works. Otherwise, what would be the reason for the $500?

Just common sense here.

for a car dealership to keep your deposit if an automobile transaction never transpired, according to information available on the web.

You can 'Google' this- OFFICE OF CONSUMER PROTECTION- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS, and go to that site and click on question #19, okay?

Contact your Attorney General's office immediately for advice and information in your state.

Good luck to you!