Windham Chevrolet Ripoff deceptive advertising Quitman Texas
On 7/10/04, my fiance and I went to Windham Chevrolet in Quitman, Texas to look at cars. A few days earlier, Gary had received a Pre-Approval letter in the mail supposedly guaranteeing him that he was pre-approved for a car loan. Since he has a bad credit history, he followed the instructions on the letter to "activate the pre-approval amount", and spoke to representative Kristie Langley. He told her that he usually got turned down on car loans because of his credit history and wanted to verify the legitimacy of the pre-approval letter. She assured him that his credit would not be a factor and that the pre-approval letters were only sent out to potential customers who had a certain credit score and that he must have met that score or he wouldn't have received the letter.
When we got to the dealership, salesman Mickey Vogt showed us a few cars and let us test drive one of them. After the test drive, Gary mentioned that he had received one of their pre-approval letters and Mr. Vogt made no response. In the office, he did the paperwork to appraise our trade-in and proceeded to fill out a credit application. Gary mentioned again that we had a pre-approval letter and Mr. Vogt again did not seem to care. After running a credit check, he told Gary, as expected, that due to his credit history he would not be able to help him with a car loan. Gary told him about the conversation he had had with Kristie Langley, and Mr. Vogt brushed it off and said that if Ms. Langley had known about the bad credit she would have advised him that a trip to the dealership would have been a waste of time. He did not seem to wish to discuss the matter any further, and we left.
This pre-approval letter scam is deceptive advertising at the very least, as there was nothing in the "fine print" to indicate that we were not guaranteed to be financed. The only thing in the fine print about credit stated, "Credit severity may affect down payment," but we were brushed off long before we ever got to that point.
This was my first experience with one of these pre-approval letters, which I had always assumed were legitimate....but not at Windham Chevrolet!
Janet
Lindale, Texas
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Melani
Quitman,Texas,
U.S.A.
Angry customer with credit issues needs to take responsibility
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Fri, October 01, 2004
Windham Chevrolet in Quitman Texas outsources all of its direct mail advertising to a National Advertising Company specializing in Dealership Promotions.
I can assure you that all aspects of the direct mail promotion this customer is referring to are legal, and ALL details were in fact noted in the fine print. I have included the verbiage from that direct mail piece to confirm the accuracy of this rebuttal.
"Your new vehicle payment cannot exceed 20% of your gross monthly income; vehicle payment totaled with your current monthly payments must not exceed 50% of your gross income. If you accept this offer, we may not extend credit to you if, after you respond, we determine that you do not continue to meet the criteria used for this pre-approved offer. Any equity deficit in your current vehicle must be paid off or refinanced with new vehicle. Credit severity may affect down payment. Bankruptcies must be discharged. Notice: We used information in a pre-qualifying report from a credit-reporting agency in connection with this firm offer of credit. Lender assumes no responsibility for incorrect information supplied by various credit reporting agencies. Subject to lending institution's final credit approval.
It is unfortunate that the customers credit history is such that we could not find a single lender to approve a loan for them. However, as owners of this Dealership, we are not responsible for this customer's credit issues, only she and her fiance can take responsibility for that.