Dealer sold my reserved car

[mkhuffman]

I went through my buying experience 100% through Ford's website. I had some emails exchanged with the salesperson at the dealer, but I have nothing 'signed' with them. Ford took my deposit through their website. It's six months and I still don't have a production date, but things like this make me a bit worried.

Not sure what happened with the OP, if he had actual signed paperwork with the dealer, but in my case, I don't think I'd have any recourse if they were to pull this. I've heard from people repeatedly, got copies of anything you've signed, but I can't do that. Nothing I have from Ford even has the original price or options on it.

Dude. You are right to be worried but you can correct this problem tomorrow. Don't wait for your car to show up, because then it is too late. As of today you have no agreement from the dealer regarding the Out The Door (OTD) price. You have no recourse if they want to add ADM.

Contact your dealer and get a signed purchase agreement that shows your deposit and all the fees, taxes and everything along with your final OTD price. Then you can rest easy. Until then, expect the worst. And it is your responsibility to protect yourself, not the dealer's. Don't blame them if you fail to take the action needed.

If you have a signed purchase agreement with a deposit, it is a legal contract IMO. If you don't have that, you have nothing.

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[Pushrods&Capacitors]

I'm not a Tesla fan; But, I prefer their method of dealing directly with them to order, pay and deliver a BEV.

The problem with Tesla is the other side of the coin though - with Tesla you get the locked in sales price, but, without any dealer to advocate for you when your car has any problems you’re 100% at Tesla’s mercy as to their warranty coverage decisions. Many Tesla owners find this out the hard way and then realize the good part dealers can play in getting the maker to cover issues under warranty, rather than just denying the claim and making the customer pay.

 

[mkhuffman]

No signed contract unfortunately as the dealership said there could be nothing done until the car arrived.

They lied to you, plain and simple. Both dealers I worked with gave me signed purchase agreements with all the costs itemized and my final price. There is absolutely no reason for a dealer to refuse to do that unless they plan to add ADM and know you won't like it. If a dealer refuses to provide a signed purchase agreement it is a huge red flag and you should find another dealer.

 

[mkhuffman]

Simply ask the dealership to print the original DORA, sign it, and send it to you.

Does the DORA show all the taxes and fees charged by the dealer? If not, I don't think it is sufficient.

The buyer and seller need a signed agreement that outlines all the costs. Otherwise the agreement is not complete and the dealer can add all kinds of things with no recourse available to the buyer. Except complaining on various web sites.

If the DORA has all those things, then it should work.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Putnam has been around a long time. Unfortunately, they are amongst the worst of the worst. Their parts department manager screwed me up in the middle ‘80s and their sales department left my sister hating them in the late ‘80s. I was not happy to hear that they were taking over the Veracom Ford dealership. Putnam gives bad dealers a bad name and I see they are still at it. ??

 

[swim203]

They lied to you, plain and simple. Both dealers I worked with gave me signed purchase agreements with all the costs itemized and my final price. There is absolutely no reason for a dealer to refuse to do that unless they plan to add ADM and know you won't like it. If a dealer refuses to provide a signed purchase agreement it is a huge red flag and you should find another dealer.

I had my dealer tell me something similar. After ordering and then reading all the stories on this forum I called my dealer and they said there was nothing to sign, "I'm in the system". So I went in the next week and tried to see if there was anything they would print for me to sign. They said there wasn't and they'd honor MSRP as it was a special order. I had put down a $1,500 deposit so I'll be pretty annoyed if I get screwed in a few weeks. I really hope that doesn't happen because I do think the Mach-E GT will be a fun car to have and make sitting in CA traffic more enjoyable. If they honor the price I'll be happy and will leave positive reviews on the dealership. If not, I'll be sure to let me opinions be known and then will have to move on to something else.

 

[ARK]

This is terrible, I hope OP is able to raise some hell about the dealer to Ford.

 

[car_driver_guy]

Putnam has been around a long time. Unfortunately, they are amongst the worst of the worst. Their parts department manager screwed me up in the middle ‘80s and their sales department left my sister hating them in the late ‘80s. I was not happy to hear that they were taking over the Veracom Ford dealership. Putnam gives bad dealers a bad name and I see they are still at it. ??

Haha nice (not nice) to know the culture has been around for a long time. One of the managers blew smoke at me saying that "this is one of the most ethical places I have ever worked at." This does not reflect kindly on dealerships in general...

 

[ORG]

Ordered from Ford Store San Leandro 4/21. Never went in to sign anything. Car arrived end of 12/21 and received a call from the online sales manager. He even asked if I wanted to wait to roll over to the new year (6 days, which I did). No markup, no BS. Definitely recommend them if you decide to order again.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Right - probably a better choice than Farley. My brain picked the wrong Ford exec when I posted previously! ?

Tweet at both of them. Email the Customer experience executives. Basically paper all of them with the problem. If the story the OP us telling us straight (and I have no reason to believe otherwise), Ford needs to do something for him.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Hit 'em hard so Ford doesn't send them anymore MMEs. That would save a lot of other people from their shinanigan

I’d suggest cutting their F150 allotment. That would cause some change.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I don't want to tar all dealers with the same brush as there are a few good ones out here, but CA is the land of more money than sense idiots that happily pay ADM and large dealers that hoover up most of allocations as a result in some areas people have very little local options and customers are treated as such.

The good dealers know the money is earned not in the sale but in the service department and have also remembered that there is are plenty of honest dealers in other states and it doesn't cost anything deal with them over the internet and it really is not much hassle to get a vehicle drop shipped or fly out and enjoy the drive back.

My particular AZ dealer, which I had to use because it's the only one within a few hours drive, bought its franchise location from Ford when the previous dealer was imprisoned for finance fraud, among other charges. Several of the largest dealership fraud cases in the country have been against Arizona dealers.

One of the very largest dealership fraud case was against a massive dealer in Texas, the owner of which ended up being sentenced to 14 years in prison and required to pay $9.2M in restitution.

This isn't a California thing. This is a greed thing. And greed exists wherever you find humans.

 

[bcaceres]

The proper remedy for this dealer is for them to find the same car from another dealer, pay them the market-adjusted price to get it and then sell it to you for the $1000 below MSRP ($500 for your deposit and $500 for your trouble).

I would DEFINITELY contact Ford, the BBB and the local news. Show them the flawed purchase contract they sent you by email (missing your $500 deposit), show them the original contract you signed when you ordered the car. By bringing it to the local news you might even see a lawyer step up and want to take your case solely for the publicity of it.

Don't let these jerks get away with this. You could have chosen any dealership and so can everybody else. This dealership is not going to get any more Mustang Mach-E or F-150 Lightning orders assigned to them if you make it known that they do not honor their side of the reservation/order agreement.

 

[minjaep]

This is crazy. I gave them one star on the reviews (Google, Yelp). The current rating is too high for them.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

My particular AZ dealer, which I had to use because it's the only one within a few hours drive, bought its franchise location from Ford when the previous dealer was imprisoned for finance fraud, among other charges. Several of the largest dealership fraud cases in the country have been against Arizona dealers.

One of the very largest dealership fraud case was against a massive dealer in Texas, the owner of which ended up being sentenced to 14 years in prison and required to pay $9.2M in restitution.

This isn't a California thing. This is a greed thing. And greed exists wherever you find humans.

In fact, the highest fraud is found in Nevada. CA has one of the lowest rates of autodealer fraud in the country.

https://clearsurance.com/blog/worst-states-for-auto-related-fraud

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