Complaint Review: vroom

Today we just barely avoided getting burned.  I set out to help my dad buy a car on Vroom.com.  I stumbled on them in our local craigslist, and made my way to the site.  At first I was excited to see we could shop from such a large inventory of high quality, low mileage cars.  I called my Dad to get the idea in his head, and before we knew it, we were browsing through the cars in his price range. 

After he settled on a car, I proceeded to assist him in creating an account and starting the process.  At this point, we had been on the site for about an hour.  We had looked at about 4 different ones throoughly, even accessing the calculator.  That tool lets you slide the down payment all the way to zero, with no mention of minimums.  Dad was excited to be getting a car so conveniently, as it takes a lot for him to get out.  The delivery option was a tipping point, and he was even willing to secure financing online to speed up the process.  

We got about three pages in to the process, and were just about to "submit" his application for credit approval, when I noticed the price of the car was a bit high.  I pulled up another window and sure enough, $1000 had been magically added to the "vehicle price" line making it $10,980.  After Taxes and fees, the bill was $12,034.  

Assuming a gliche, I hopped on the chat tool and quickly had Eric online to assist me.  I explained the problem, and in about 7 minutes he came back with the assurance that the price would be $9,980 for the car.  He asked if I would like to secure it with a deposit.  I said "Yes, but how should I proceed?  The price is still wrong on the form."   He said not to worry, and informed me of the $500 deposit, offering to transfer me to that department.  I asked why we must secure the car with a deposit when we're ready to buy.  He replied that it "holds" the car so no one else can purchase it.  I spoke to my Dad and he said, he no longer trusted them, so forget the deal. Thankfully, we had not yet hit "submit."

If I hadn't chatted with a rep, I would have let them pull Dad's credit without knowing about the required deposit.  This deposit is crooked.  It is refundable, but there are a lot of unanswered questions--like how long does it take to get the money back?  Is it unconditionally refundable?  Also, there's the psychology of the sale.  Once they've got our earnest money, Dad would feel "held in."  Combined with the pricing gaffe, he decided to back out.  Combined with the fact that the deposit isn't mentioned in ANY of the sales parts of the site, and how they let you calculate your financing without it, it's very misleading.  

I voiced my concern to Eric, and told him we'd be buying locally.  He informed me the deposit is disclosed inside FAQ.  I informed him that this isn't good enough.  His reply was nice, but he appologized for MY confusion.   I replied that I wasn't confused at all, just uninformed.  I also replied that his company could suffer some major truth in lending and discrimination suits if this isn't corrected.  He said that those are the bank's responsibility, but I believe that if you are saying "finance with Vroom" and taking the credit ap, it's yours.  

I'm glad Dad wasn't burned on this deal, but had I not been on with him, he might have been-either by the price error or the deposit misrepresentation.  I am filing this with Ripooffreport.com so that others will know and be warned.  Maybe then Vroom.com will change their policy. 

After all, my local dealer will go through all of the sales and financing process without charging me a "deposit" to secure the vehicle from being sold.  I'm afraid this is a ruse for something else--something much more deceptive.