Complaint Review: Balise - Warwick Rhode Island

In June 2009, my 80 year old mother went to Balise and asked specifically for a safe car equipped with side-curtain airbags. Safety is her number one concern, as her passengers are mainly her grandkids and her great-grandkids. Sue DeChristofaro, a saleswoman at Balise Nissan in Warwick, sold her a 2006 Chevy Cobalt with NO side airbags, telling my mother that it was equipped with them. When I saw the car I immediately noticed that it has no side air bags. Both Sue and the sales manager, Bob Martin, insisted it does. It does not!

When Balise finally verified that the car does not have side air bags, three days after my mother bought it, the run-around began. First off, Sue DeChristofaro told me how dangerous side air bags are and how small people, such as my mother, have been killed by them!! (Now theres a statement that needs no elaboration). After some back and forth, Bob Martin said "We will make this right". Evidently making it right, in his view, means charging my mother $2,000 to trade in the car that they falsely told her came with side airbags! Thats his resolution to their mistake: if my mother wants the car she had explicitly asked for from the very beginning, then they will trade in the car that THEY erroneously claimed had side airbags, minus $2,000. "Thats the way it is done" is what Bob Martin told my mother. Wow!! I wish my mother was aware before she bought the car that if Balise screwed up, it would cost her money, and that, "Thats the way it is done"! Bob Martin further stated "You cant expect to trade the car in for what you paid for it". Even though this is THEIR mistake, they insist that this 80 year old, recently widowed woman on a fixed income pays for it!

I called Bob Martin: he did not return my call. I called Balise in Massachusetts, where the company is headquartered, explained the situation, and was put in contact with Forrest Jones. He promised to look into it and call me back the next day. He never called back, and four more calls and messages to him were ignored. I sent a registered letter to Paul Balise, the company president, asking for his help in resolving this. He has ignored the request. A consumer advocacy group contacted Balise personnel at their headquarters in Massachusetts, and they have been ignored also. We have been met with a wall of silence from Balise headquarters; they have done absolutely nothing to resolve this.

My mother spends her days doing what she loves, picking up her young grandchildren and great-grandchildren after school, and bringing them to her home. Her main priority is safety, which is why she specifically asked for side airbags so the children and she would be safe in this car. Balise failed her, and have done nothing to resolve the situation. Unless putting the burden of their mistake onto my mother is their way to make this right, as Bob Martin has stated. This would likely have been the last car my mother would be purchasing- it is without a doubt the last car she, or anyone else in my family or any of their friends, will purchase from Balise.

My mother will be trading the car in at another dealership for a car with side airbags. Of course, thanks to Balise, she will have to take the trade-in value for the car and absorb the loss herself, as it is not the fault of a competing dealership.