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  • Report:  #295451

Complaint Review: Bill Heard Chevrolet Plant City Florida - Plant City Florida

Reported By:
- Zephyrhills, Florida,
Submitted:
Updated:

Bill Heard Chevrolet Plant City Florida
2002 N. Frontage Rd. Plant City, 33563 Florida, U.S.A.
Phone:
813-359-5000
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
SHOP AT THIS DEALERSHIP AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

This dealership's salespeople, sales managers, and finance people do not give a flying F about customers, only their own pockets. I have included a copy of the letter I sent to them so you can see all of the details. You can also see about the investigation the Office of the Attorney General of Florida is conducting into this company of dealerships at www.myfloridalegal.com and type in Bill Heard Chevrolet.

If, for some reason, after reading this, you still wish to do business with them, KEEP A CLOSE EYE on their finance people when you go to sign the contract. After the sales manager and I agreed on X no of months @ X no of $'s, the finance guy, Griff, tried to slip in a contract for me to sign @ $32 more per month.

Griff is a very shady character!

FOLLOWING IS THE LETTER I SENT TO MANAGEMENT AT THE DEALERSHIP:

December 29, 2007

Bill Heard Chevrolet

2002 North Frontage Road

Plant City, Florida 33563

Dear Sir or Madam:

I attempted to resolve this issue with two members of your staff, Zack Collins and David "Griff", over the past couple of weeks and have not received a satisfactory response from either of them. I have gone online to the Office of the Attorney General of Florida and I know that your company has entered into a Assurance of Voluntary Compliance with the State of Florida and you have agreed to resolve any consumer complaint within 45 days.

I have tried to resolve this issue through your employees, but their attitude is that it is my problem and I have to deal with it. I am sorry, but that is entirely unacceptable! I have already filed a complaint with the State Attorney and now I am informing you of the complaint as follows:

My husband Ronald Cash and I purchased a 2008 Chevrolet Silverado from your dealership on Saturday, December 15, 2007. At that time, we informed David "Griff" that we wished to get financing through our credit union Tampa Bay Federal Credit Union. Mr. Griff said he understood because we could get a better interest rate and cheaper GAP insurance from our credit union. At no time did he say or do anything to indicate this would be a problem.

Griff had my husband and I sign what he called a "dummy contract" in order to protect the dealership in case we did not obtain financing on our own. He told us at the time he had no intention of submitting the contract to any other financial institution, he would wait to hear from us about financing through our credit union.

On Monday, Dec. 17, 2007 I spoke to Griff and told him my husband and I would visit our credit union after work to apply for the loan. (by the way, this was the only time I was able to contact Griff, until I spoke to him yesterday, he would never return my or my husband's calls.) We completed the paperwork but had to return on Tuesday to find out if the loan was approved because there was no one at work in their underwriting department to give the final approval for the loan.

On Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007, we returned to our credit union after work and signed the final contract for the loan and the loan rep fax a lien receipt to attention Zack Collins at your dealership. I was sure the loan was finalized and a done deal.

On Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007 I received a letter from Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union affirming my loan for the truck through them.my first payment of $628.22 was due on 1/14/08, blah, blah, blah. Imagine my surprise!!

On Thursday, Dec. 27, 2007, I called your dealership and left a message for Griff to ask him about this letter and I called again and spoke to Zack Collins. Mr. Collins told me he would look into the matter and call me back.

On Friday, Dec. 28, 2007, Mr. Griff called me and we spoke about the letter from this other credit union. He informed me it was a done deal, he could not do anything to change it. The only solution he offered me is to refinance the loan through my bank.

This is very deceptive practice on the part of your dealership:

1) When Griff had us sign the contract, he said it did not mean anything and that he would not submit it to any financial institution. He told us it was only to cover the dealership in case we never sought financing from our credit union.

2) He never informed us that he would put through the contract if we did not get our own financing within 72 hours. I certainly would have taken more time, although I was at work, to talk to him and let him know what was going on at my bank. I did not know I was so time constricted. The loan was finalized through my bank and they faxed your dealership the lien receipt by 4:30pm on Dec. 18th, which was within the 72 hours time limit Mr. Griff says he informed us of, but I never heard of until I spoke to him on Dec. 28th.

3) He did not inform us that he was submitting the contract to Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union.

4) He did not inform us that Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union had issued a loan for our vehicle. I did know this until Dec. 26, when I received the letter from them, dated Dec. 19th, after our bank faxed you a lien receipt on Dec. 18th.

5) He did not inform us that he never (as he claims, even though the loan rep at our credit union has confirmation that the lien receipt was faxed to your dealership on Dec. 18th) received anything from our credit union.

6) By obtaining a loan in our name from Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union and ignoring communications from our credit union he has:

a. made it impossible for us to obtain GAP insurance from our credit union at a reduced rate.

b. If we refinance the loan through our credit union, it will have to be a higher interest rate because it is no longer considered a new car loan.

As resolution, I would like to see your dealership return any funds you may have received from Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union, do whatever necessary to cancel any loans obtained in our name, and follow up with the lien receipt and any other paperwork you may have to complete with our bank, Tampa Bay Federal Credit Union, so we can have the original loan with the lower interest rate and GAP insurance we applied for.

Thank you in advance for your attention to the matter.

Sincerely,

Donna S. XXXX

Donna

Zephyrhills, Florida

U.S.A.

Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Bill Heard Auto Dealers

CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.


6 Updates & Rebuttals

Donna

Zephyrhills,
Florida,
U.S.A.
Bill Heard Chevrolet, Plant City, FL

#2Author of original report

Wed, January 09, 2008

Tom Monks, the general manager of this dealership came through for me and honored my original deal...what a guy! Thanks Tom! Donna


Donna

Zephyrhills,
Florida,
U.S.A.
Bill Heard Chevrolet, Plant City, FL

#3Author of original report

Wed, January 09, 2008

Tom Monks, the general manager of this dealership came through for me and honored my original deal...what a guy! Thanks Tom! Donna


Donna

Zephyrhills,
Florida,
U.S.A.
Bill Heard Chevrolet, Plant City, FL

#4Author of original report

Wed, January 09, 2008

Tom Monks, the general manager of this dealership came through for me and honored my original deal...what a guy! Thanks Tom! Donna


Donna

Zephyrhills,
Florida,
U.S.A.
Bill Heard Chevrolet, Plant City, FL

#5Author of original report

Wed, January 09, 2008

Tom Monks, the general manager of this dealership came through for me and honored my original deal...what a guy! Thanks Tom! Donna


Bg069

Busines,
Florida,
U.S.A.
This might help out some (i hope)

#6Consumer Suggestion

Mon, January 07, 2008

I know in the sanford bill heard by florida law they are suppose to video tape all transactions for quality control and when everydeal is done they put a burnt disc of the transaction in the file of each deal. Find your self a lawyer to request that recording of your transaction in which he states that the dummy contract wont be submitted anywhere.


Jim

Orlando,
Florida,
U.S.A.
I do not defend BOGUS BILLY but YOU have a responsibility to use COMMON SENSE!

#7Consumer Suggestion

Sun, December 30, 2007

Why in the h*ll did you sign what was called a "dummy contract"? What was this to protect the dealer from? "Hello?" Anybody home upstairs? I'm affraid to speculate what the "dummy" in "dummy contract" means. Yes, you bet I'm being hard on you because you went in leading with your chin to a dealership WELL KNOWN for its legal problems in state after state. Lets not forget the $50 MILLION lawsuit by the State of Georgia! But lets stop and think, exactly what was this to protect the dealer from? Common on, think! The answer is NOTHING! But there's more. Did you read their newspaper advertising? Did you see the BOGUS FEE? What name did they attach to it? "Dealer fee", document fee" service fee", administrative fee"? Apparently you fell for this pure BS too! I'm not your enemy here but it distresses me tremendously when people do STUPID things at a car dealership. The level of fraud and deception in the car business is at epidemic proportions. You have the primary weapons to avoid being defrauded...your head and your feet. The slimeballs and pond scum in the business know first hand how person after person walks thru the doors ready, willing and able to play doormat, sucker or chump. Then, they move in with any con-job possible. Never again do you need to be treated like this. If you have the brains to use a computer, you have the brains to avoid being the victum of the sleezy car business. Now that you are armed with the information, what are you going to do? You can post a reply to this and blast me for trying to help you and not telling you what you want to hear. Or you can take your new found knowledge and spread the word amoung your circle of acquaintances. The choice is yours. You and I cannot change the sleezy car business but we can avoid becoming a victum by knowing what we are doing before we walk thru a dealer's doors. Then, armed with knowledge, at the first sign of fraud or deception, we use our feet and walk out. Be well!

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