How To NOT Be a Jerk When Selling Used Cars
A 23 year old student in Florida bought a 2003 Saab from a car dealer and shortly after it started having transmission problems. The car dealer sold her a warranty and fixed the tranny but the repair cost the buyer $300.00 out of her pocket.
And then again
And then the transmission went out again and this time the dealer charged her $400.00 for the repair because he said the warranty she bought did not cover labor.
DMV complaint
Now the buyer got really mad and complained to the local DMV and the DMV told the car dealer to refund her the $400.00 she put out for the second repair.
Uncool
The car dealer complied with the DMV but instead of returning her $400.00 with a check or large bills, he gave her a few dollar bills and two bags of pennies. Mind you, these weren’t pennies in one dollar rolls. Nope, this was two large bags filled with thousands of loose pennies!
Pissed off buyer
Now the buyer is reeeeeally pissed off so she left the money at the dealers.
Local news
Somehow a local news station heard about this and tried to interview the car dealer but he declined by saying…
“The warranty did not cover labor and I failed to write that in, that was her loophole. I am doing what DMV asked me to do, it is legal tender.”
Viral Facebook bomb
So then that same news station did a piece with the girl and the car dealers Facebook page was obliterated with nasty comments that went viral.
Google gone wild
I just typed “car dealer refunds car in pennies” into Google and was still seeing results for this on page 11! Whoa.
Hanging by his nails
This guy had only been in business for a year and commented that he didn’t know if he was going to be able to stay in business. Not that I’m defending his actions, but this is very sad stuff that was so unnecessary.
In fact, he received so much negative attention due to the news piece and social media that the buyer said she felt sorry for him.
Lessons to learn
- Don’t hide anything from your buyers about the condition of the vehicle they are buying.
- Make sure every agreement with your buyers is easy to understand and clearly spelled out. In this case, I would have told the buyer that the warranty did NOT cover labor and would have had her initial and date that section.
- Never treat your buyers like crap by pulling stunts like this guy did with the bags of pennies.
- Don’t underestimate the power of local news stations that lust for stories just like this and the power of search engines and social media.
I read all comments, so please let me know what you’re thinking by leaving your comments or questions below. :-)
Steve
I heard about this before but enjoyed your take on it steve.
Steve, that was a really dumb thing this dealer did. I bet he regrets it too.
Steve, just for sh*ts and giggles, I followed your lead and did the same search on Google that you did and I’ll be really surprised if this guy will survive this.
Steve, I enjoyed your breakdown here but am I correct in thinking that you are sympathizing with the car seller?
Hi Stacy,
I don’t approve of how the dealer treated the buyer and what he did only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes. If this car dealer is inherently a scumbag with a history of being dishonest then he deserves everything he got. If it was a one-time immature and idiotic stunt, then yes, I do feel empathy for him. However, me feeling empathy towards a fellow human being that made a dumbass mistake doesn’t at all lessen the fact that what he did was wrong. Also, a lot of energy and money was required to start his business, and if that start-up capital was borrowed from friends and/or family, then I really feel sorry for them because they may never get back the money they invested in his business.
Thanks for commenting Stacy. :-)
Stephen
Hi Steve, love your take on the dealer. It really was a DA thing to do. Everyone knows poop runs downhill and this dealer may have very well borrow from friends and family. I’m sure this dealer will learn to take the high road next time. I’ve been self employed since 1976 and the first lesson I learned was:
An unhappy client will scream, hoot and holler 100 times louder than a happy customer.
You are so right that unhappy customers make the loudest noise and this is especially true in these days of social media.
Thanks for chiming in Gene. :-)