Complaint Review: Off Lease for Less - West Palm Beach Florida

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your detailed but inaccurate rebuttal to my initial complaint. It’s true that like many of your Florida customers, I have a home out of state. I am appointed to the Alabama legislature as a special advisor, so I have multiple residences. However, my Florida residence is close to your dealership, and the presence of a second residence does not absolve you of your responsibility to conduct business in an ethical manner with a reasonable focus on customer service.

My bill of sale (which I am willing to post) indicates that the vehicle was $8,000 had 59,000 miles at the time of purchase. Your dealership specializes in selling reliable, excellent condition pre-owned cars, Therefore, implying that the vehicle is unreliable due to age, mileage or brand is a poor excuse.  In fact, the inventory from your own web site shows that many of vehicles that you sell have over 80,000 to 120,000 miles.

It is correct that you offer a 30 day guarantee.  According to the records, I returned the vehicle to the dealership within this 30 day period twice. First was to replace the brake pads which were worn down to the metal liner.  (How did you miss that during the detailed multi point inspection?) The second visit was to address oil leaks. In this case, the maintenance department advised it was just a “small seepage” and “no need for concern”. They also offered to fix the “minor” problem for an extra $1000.00. Most of the major problems, however, onset just after the 30 day “buy back” period ended.

Many times I contacted and visited the dealership to ask for a reasonable remedy. I’m not a difficult customer so any remedy would have been acceptable. After prolonged attempts to reach the decision makers at your dealership, off lease 4 less finally offered to give me a “fair trade in” toward another vehicle.  However, it was anything but “fair”. The dealership stated it would have to be a significant upgrade to a much more expensive vehicle for the dealership to extend me this “courtesy” of buying back my present vehicle since it had so many problems. Again, the arrogant culture of making the next sale prevailed over solving a minor customer service issue.

During this timeframe the vehicle developed many more problems.

My final attempt to remedy this situation was my offer to bring (or tow) the vehicle back to the dealership in exchange for the dealership paying off the balance due of the auto loan- at that time the payoff was around or just over $4000.00 due out of the $8000 out the door price I paid. Basic math- I take a 50% loss here. Again, the dealership refused.

The dealership’s rebuttal implies justification for inaction based upon the amount of money a customer is willing to spend, vehicle mileage, vehicle age and other factors that are all irrelevant. Several firms estimate that this dealership’s parent company makes annual revenues exceeding 255 million dollars. It would not have been a burden for the dealership to do the right thing and take back a lemon.

 To our customers, I am the sales manager for OffLease4Less. We appreciate all of our customers and I would like to take this opportunity to respond to the complaints of our sale from a year ago. The car in question was sold as is and even though the customer states the car was late model I would like to tell you the car was close to 10 years old and sold for $6,000. It is hard to find nice cars in this price category much less Cadillacs. The customer was allowed to take the car home before the transaction was complete and make sure it was what they wanted. The customer was never ignored. The problem is the customer lives over 1000 miles away and cant just pop in for service. We would offer to trade the car in for something newer but he declined. Did the customer mention how many miles he drove this car in the ownership period? I think not! Used it for thousands of miles! The customer has many options when purchasing a vehicle. Should I buy new? If I buy used should I purchase an extended warranty. Our customer signed as is and declined an extended warranty and we are sorry for his troubles.

Sincerely