- Report: #572942
Complaint Review: Auto Line - Atlantic Beach Florida
Reported By:
Jeff -
Atlantic Beach, Florida, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Auto Line
2059 Mayport Rd Atlantic Beach, 32233 Florida, United States of America
Phone:
904-242-8007
Web:
www.autolinepreowned.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
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Auto Line Bait & Switch Sales / Delay in Returning Deposit / Hugely Inflated Prices and Fees Atlantic Beach, Florida
This is specifically for the Budget Lot. Me and my wife were looking
for a cheap cash car to drive for just a couple of months. We were
first lured by their Bait & Switch routine which includes not
having a single vehicle on their lot that is on their web page and vice
versa. The only exceptions are the cars that have been there way too
long! We just gave them info for what we were looking for and left. A
salesperson, Chris, calls us up and says they just got a ton of cars
that are in our range. We get there and there are 0 cars near our
range. Then he says he can get us financing but it will take three days
to get an answer cause of the weekend. We test drove a 00 Cavalier that
had broken gauges and more lights lit up then a Christmas tree.
Also, just one of the tires was worn to almost nothing while the other 3 were almost new. It looked like I was going 25mph the whole time. They wanted $4500 for this car when its excellent bluebook condition is around $2900. They couldn't guarantee that they could fix it in a timely matter so we decided on their 00 Neon. We just wanted to see if we would be approved for financing for just a couple of thousand since they would not budge on their inflated prices. They wanted $2500 down before they would even run the application and had us fill out a "worksheet" which is apparently where they hide their almost $700 dealer fee in small print. When they put the numbers on paper, they apparently lumped this fee into the TTT (tax, tag & title) heading hoping most people are too stupid to figure out an almost 15% markup. Since we used a debit card for the payment we were told they could cut us a check for that amount right away if the deal didn't work out to our satisfaction. They were closing so they had us signing everything quickly with about 5-6 people standing around us distracting us by telling stories about the cars previous owner.
It was at this time that Donnie(takes apps but has no real authority obviously) created a signature line by hand on the bottom of the "worksheet" for my wife to sign thus making it look like we were told about the dealer fee, when in fact they went out of their way to hide it. After doing some research and receiving their call for our approved application, I asked why they inflate their prices about 25% over bluebook value and where they get off charging a dealer fee that equates to 15% of the car value. A neon that should have been about $3000 was being sold to us for about $5,500. Josh(i believe he is the manager) said if I don't buy it, the next person will and that if we had more money or better credit, then maybe we could work out a deal. I asked to cancel the deal and get our deposit back because we were obviously being ripped off. He called back and said we could get the check that afternoon but the girl who signs the checks ended up needing blood work or something so they pushed it back to the next day. Then they said it wasn't on their books yet, so they pushed it back another day.
After 3 days of this they told my wife they would have it by 2pm. I went to the main lot to demand to know why they kept pushing back the time when we could get a check. They called over to the budget lot and Donnie told them to have me come over there to pick it up. I crossed the street and was greeted by a smartass who thinks pulling nothing out of his pocket and saying "if I had your check I'd give it too you" is the correct way to talk to a customer and not expect me to get mad. The they acted like they had been doing me some magnificent favor by taking advantage of my limited funds and poor credit to rape me in the wallet. BEWARE!!! This place is full of half-wit wannabe car salesman who follow the age old tactics of taking advantage of helpless, trusting people. I hear their regular used lot is fine, but avoid the budget lot at all costs. Stick to private sellers cause Auto Line does not even look at their cars before they first try to sell them.
Also, just one of the tires was worn to almost nothing while the other 3 were almost new. It looked like I was going 25mph the whole time. They wanted $4500 for this car when its excellent bluebook condition is around $2900. They couldn't guarantee that they could fix it in a timely matter so we decided on their 00 Neon. We just wanted to see if we would be approved for financing for just a couple of thousand since they would not budge on their inflated prices. They wanted $2500 down before they would even run the application and had us fill out a "worksheet" which is apparently where they hide their almost $700 dealer fee in small print. When they put the numbers on paper, they apparently lumped this fee into the TTT (tax, tag & title) heading hoping most people are too stupid to figure out an almost 15% markup. Since we used a debit card for the payment we were told they could cut us a check for that amount right away if the deal didn't work out to our satisfaction. They were closing so they had us signing everything quickly with about 5-6 people standing around us distracting us by telling stories about the cars previous owner.
It was at this time that Donnie(takes apps but has no real authority obviously) created a signature line by hand on the bottom of the "worksheet" for my wife to sign thus making it look like we were told about the dealer fee, when in fact they went out of their way to hide it. After doing some research and receiving their call for our approved application, I asked why they inflate their prices about 25% over bluebook value and where they get off charging a dealer fee that equates to 15% of the car value. A neon that should have been about $3000 was being sold to us for about $5,500. Josh(i believe he is the manager) said if I don't buy it, the next person will and that if we had more money or better credit, then maybe we could work out a deal. I asked to cancel the deal and get our deposit back because we were obviously being ripped off. He called back and said we could get the check that afternoon but the girl who signs the checks ended up needing blood work or something so they pushed it back to the next day. Then they said it wasn't on their books yet, so they pushed it back another day.
After 3 days of this they told my wife they would have it by 2pm. I went to the main lot to demand to know why they kept pushing back the time when we could get a check. They called over to the budget lot and Donnie told them to have me come over there to pick it up. I crossed the street and was greeted by a smartass who thinks pulling nothing out of his pocket and saying "if I had your check I'd give it too you" is the correct way to talk to a customer and not expect me to get mad. The they acted like they had been doing me some magnificent favor by taking advantage of my limited funds and poor credit to rape me in the wallet. BEWARE!!! This place is full of half-wit wannabe car salesman who follow the age old tactics of taking advantage of helpless, trusting people. I hear their regular used lot is fine, but avoid the budget lot at all costs. Stick to private sellers cause Auto Line does not even look at their cars before they first try to sell them.
