Kane
Shelby,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, May 15, 2009
Hello John, I am sorry to hear about your troubles with WCJ, I used to work there in the service department. I was an employee for quite some time. I know the inner workings of dealerships all too well and have seen this kind of thing before many-many times. What probably happened was your vehicle (used right?) was probably traded in already missing the parts that you are without. The used car sales manager does have trade-ins looked over. And any work that needs to be done, within certain price limits, are serviced. Either the technician who worked on the car as a trade in, readying it for the lot did not notice these pieces missing, or, reported this to the used car manager and the manager opted not to order the parts due to the cost. Basically hoping that the future buyer would not notice these pieces missing. Worst case, he would have to order the parts had you noticed them missing right away. He would have apologized with a smile and ordered your parts for you. The salesman probably knew nothing of the missing parts though. You would be amazed at what they don't actually know about the vehicles they are selling, but he did cover his backside at the same time. The name of the game on the sales floor is C.Y.A. "Cover Your A**" and "Pass the buck!" Stating that someone else checked it over was his way of avoiding potential blame. Now, used car managers are all about saving money (even opting not to have brake work done if they barely pass inspection) and do not care about the customer... at least, not once they pay. Unless the customer is rich, well known (famous such as a politician as you mentioned) then they are treated like gold and given lots of freebies!! Unfortunately, you do not have much of a case as I'm sure you know by now, as I have seen many people lose court battles that involved far greater amounts of money and far worse treatment. I do wish you well and the best of luck!
Karl
Clovis,#3Consumer Suggestion
Wed, November 21, 2007
You can try Small Claims Court but unless they specifically wrote into the contract that the car had the accessory kit you may lose your case. All you had to go on was the salesman's word. It is a shame that you can't trust people to do what they say but you should have checked what should have been with the car before you took delivery and ensured that it was there.