Complaint Review: Bob Watson Chevrolet

I'm contacting you in the hopes that you can help me, or at least stop this from happening to anyone else. On or about 2/26/08, I received a letter from Bob Watson Chevrolet saying that I was approved for a car loan. I applied online and they called me back the next day and said that I was approved for a loan and that they could cut my interest rate in half. On 2/28/08, I went there and after talking with the salesman and picking out a car, I was told they couldn't take my old car as a trade-in because I still owe too much money on it. I told them to just give me my car keys back and I'd leave. He said, " Wait a minute, here's what you do. Once the
loan goes through, call the bank that has the loan on the old car and tell them that you're voluntarily surrendering the car." I then asked him if I could be held responsible for the balance and he said, "No, they'll just auction off the car and use the
balance owed as a tax write-off." I asked him if he was sure about this and he said, "Yes." Figuring he knows more than I do, I took him at his word. I called the bank that has the loan on the old car and they said that I would be responsible for the balance after it was auctioned off. I called Bob Watson back and they
told me that they didn't say that and there was nothing they could do since I already signed all the papers. So then I contacted Chevrolet and all I've gotten for 2 weeks were 2 reference numbers, an apology and "someone will call you back in 24 hours." I come to find out that I'm not the only person this has happened to. There was an article in the Sun-Times on 3/23/08 in the Fixer's column about this happening to 2 other people at Gateway Chevy. So is there anything that you can do to help me with this situation? Or at the very least, stop this from happening to anyone else.


P.S. They lied about cutting my interest rate in half, in fact, it went up!

Rich p
Hammond, Indiana
U.S.A.