Below is a letter that I sent a a few days ago to Mr. Maxie Price Sr. of the dealership in Georgia by the same name. I am aware that at this point probably nothing will come of it, but if even one of the forum members reads it and profits by it when dealing with Mr. Price's establishment then I feel it will have served its purpose. I think that the letter is self explanatory but should you have questions, please fire away.
Caveat Emptor!

________________________________________ ___

February 8, 2005

Maxie Price Chevrolet
3600 Highway 78
Loganville, GA 30052
Attention: Maxie Price Sr.

Dear Mr. Price,

I am writing to be sure that you personally are aware of problems that I have encountered and my dissatisfaction with the customer relations provided by your company. Sometimes well meaning people who work for you will try and “protect” you from adverse comments, thinking that this is what you want from them. My intention is to ensure that is not the case here.
I purchased a new 2005 Corvette coupe from your dealership through Monica Dean, my agreement with Monica was for a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) deal. Deposit was tendered, the order placed, and on December 23, 2004 I took delivery.
My initial contact with Maxie Price Chevrolet was as a result of favorable feedback from the “Corvette Forum” and because you are a sponsoring dealer. When I initially contacted Monica, she advised, when I queried about price, that the very best she could do was MSRP. Repeated attempts to move her off that number were politely but firmly rebuffed. When I agreed to purchase the car I made one last attempt at a price reduction and was told that she didn’t believe that I would see them on sale by your organization for at least one year. I then pressed on and asked specifically if there would be any sale prices offered in the near future and her response was a very positive and emphatic NO!
To make a long story short, your agency put Corvette coupes in stock on sale beginning January 12 and offered a discount of $1500.00 to match that being offered by GM. That was almost exactly three weeks after I took delivery of mine. When I queried Monica, her response was that she had no idea that was going to happen and that you had ordered it done to reduce inventory.
An inventory check, which you post on Monica’s web site, before and after indicated to me that your inventory position was about the same on Jan 12 as it was on Dec 23. Had I known that would be happening, I would have waited and taken one of the cars on your lot, which would have then entitled me to a total of $3000.00 in rebates since I would have qualified for GM’s rebate as well. That additional rebate is a matter for me to take up with GM and I can understand that you may have had no knowledge of their impending rebate offer.
When my car was due to be delivered, I asked Monica what the final amount would be and she sent me a statement which included fees over and above MSRP totaling almost $500.00 for Doc Fees and Vehicle prep. When I inquired what these fees were for and complained about them, I was told that was part of my deal! I just could not imagine that after making a full MSRP sale that you would seek to enhance your profit even further with this questionable tactic.

Complaints lodged with first with Monica and then with Leah Korab, your Director of Customer relations have resulted in an offer to discount my next vehicle purchase from you for $1500.00 and that you are unwilling to give me the cash back on my Corvette. Unfortunately for reasons that I hope are now very clear to you, I will not be purchasing anything else from you for the foreseeable future, so the discount being offered is too little too late.
Ethics dictate that you should refund me the $1500.00 now because it was less than three weeks between the time I took delivery and the rebate was offered. If I bought anything from any local retailer that was put on sale less than one month later they would certainly offer me the same discount and some of them even offer an additional 10%.
Another, smaller matter concerns the day I picked my new car up, I had an appointment with Monica for 10am. My wife and I arrived at about 9:30 and were told that our vehicle was still out front waiting to be prepped. We went out and looked it over and it still had the shipping plastic and paperwork all over it. Monica apologized that the car wasn’t ready yet and explained that she had two deliveries that day one at 10 (ours) and one at 3. You guessed it, the 3 o’clock car was the one being prepped. They took our car in immediately and had it ready for us by about 10:30 or 11:00, which was very fast, but, left me wondering how much prep work had been done. Keep in mind that I was charged almost $300.00 for this service!
Mr. Price, what concerns me so much here is not primarily the money so much as the ethical issues that are raised. To be sure the money is important, as I have to work a long time to have $1500.00 of discretionary income, but the ethical issues I think cast a cloud over your whole organization. Surely you did not get to be as successful as you are by being cleverly deceitful, I strongly suspect that when you personally made a deal with someone that they could take it to the bank. Clearly that is not the case now and while probably no laws were broken it sure doesn’t leave one with a good feeling about who they are dealing with.
My intention is to complete the GM “Purchase and Delivery Satisfaction Survey” in a less than “completely satisfied” manner as I feel that I have exhausted all the avenues available to me from your place of business. I even tried to contact you directly, but you would not return my calls. This is the only recourse available at this time. I will also let the good folks on the Corvette Forum, as well as anyone else who asks, know of my problems with you and your people in the interests of their enlightenment.
I apologize for the length of this document but feel it important to give you all the information that I have available.
Thanks for listening.

 

You placed a deposit on an ordered car.

The dealership, 3 weeks later, offered a discount on instock cars.

Is this correct?

Lars

 

Wow! Very well written. When you were made aware of the extra charges, why did you not back out of the deal right there and then?

 

I do not have question.
I would like to command you for expressing your feelings after a deal. And I totally agree with the letter and the spirit of your correspondence.
I only know the Price dealership through the Forum. I have read a lot of compliments regarding this dealer and Monica. And I am sure those compliments were well deserved from satisfied customers.
Though I have read some concerns regardind Monica.
This is the beauty of this Forum: you compliment when you are "totally satisfied" and you express your concern when you are less satisfied.
Knowing what is going on, or rather what is at stake, with the GM Survey and the pressure put by the dealers on the buyers I do believe you are entitled to use the survey and specifically the Finances field.

You are right to make an issue of the ethics which is, in my opinion, one of the most important problem one has to deal with.

Now, I am curious to read Mr. Price answer, if any BTW.
I do not want to prejudge it but I am close to bet that it might be, well, ...........curious.

I hope you do enjoy your Corvette. Beyond your disappointment what remains is the ownership of a brillant car.

 

Yep...you've got to pin them down on that Doc fee, dealer prep BS in advance or they will ram it to ya......and at MSRP? Now the first part....to me you make your best deal and then live with....can't let future discounts ruin you're enjoyment of the car....if you let it, it will drive you nuts.....

 

maybe im wrong, but in my opinion, you agreed to pay msrp, therefore you are not entitled to the $1500 off. i myself paid full retail and shortly after delivery, i saw kerbeck was taking off $2500. oh well, thats the price you pay when you want it NOW. as for the other moneys, i am not sure if i paid that or not, but i probably did. i do however remember a "tire tax" on my bill, can someone define that one for me?

 

It sounds like your timing was bad. It doesn't sound like it was Maxie Price's fault. All dealers have their own junk fees and some states dictate the amount they can charge. I would be upset also, but buying a car is not like buying a pair of shoes. If you see those same shoes on sale in a couple of weeks you can always return them and rebuy them or get another pair in your size. Monica Dean seems to be very professional at her job and does a great job promoting herself. If she was local I would certainly buy from her. I have seen tons of good praises for her services and never any negative ones on the Forum. It's not her fault your timing was bad. As for keeping you waiting while your car was prepped, that happens at most dealerships and then getting past the finance person is another story. Enjoy the car and don't look back.

 

 

Do your research, make the best deal you can at the time and then don't worry about it.

 

I tend to side with the dealership on this issue. Unfortunately making a deal on a C6 the first year of it's production and when the market is hindered with things such as allocation, constraints etc is not the same as going to Wall Mart and Buy a TV. After the deal is done is too late to go back and ask for refunds! It would have been nice to have had a written agreement with the dealer expressing the stipulation of honoring future sale offers within a specified time frame (assuming the dealership would be willing to sign such agreement) but, unfortunately, you dont have that as part of your deal.
I understand your point about the upcoming sales price not being disclosed to you by your salesperson. Maybe she did not know, maybe she did. Lot of times such decisions are taken on weekly basis. Statements that the C6 will not be discounted for a whole year..... you should know better than to believe them. You have access to the Net, you see what the competion is doing, you know that the rest will follow!
It would speak volumes of the dealership if they decide to refund you the $1500 because of marketing and PR reasons. Irregardless if they do or dont, do yourself a favor, take it out of your mind, go forward and enjoy your car!

 

I don't think the dealership was out of line. EXCEPT maybe, just maybe the dealer prep. seems a bit steep for a 1 hr. prep.

 

Isn't the cost of dealer prep included in the base price?

 

sorry, as much as i like to support the underdog, i can't "feel bad" for you in this instance. you had 3 main points in your letter over which you were upset:

the msrp price (1), the jan. rebate from GM (2) and the extra doc fees (3).

1) you made the deal at msrp. you don't REALLY expect a dealer to go back and discount it later, do you? seriously?

if so... for how long? for how much? when does it end? IMO... even *thinking* that the dealer would.. or should.. is ridiculous. sorry, my opinion.

2) as i understand it, dealers have NO "warning" from gm as to what/when/how much rebates or incentives will be offered until they're announced. so, GM's $1500 "customer loyalty" rebate from Jan that you missed by purchasing in December is a TOTAL non-issue.

3) finally, doc fees and prep fees are usually limited by law but up to that, are discretionary (and negotiable). if you didn't want to pay them you should've either a) negotiated them up front or b) walked away.

i REALLY hope this doesn't sound harsh, as it's not meant to be.. but you posted on a public open discussion forum and in doing so, ask for opinions by the simple act of doing so. honestly, my opinion is.. you're "wrong" on every count.

you've got a GREAT car... that 99% of the driving public would kill for. enjoy it!

 

All new cars sold in new jersey now have a tire tax of 1.50 per tire, lucky for you the vette dosen't have a spare.

 

It sucks feeling like you got screwed, but I don't think that it was done intentionally. A $300 prep fee is serious but the rest of it is simply business.

They agreed to sell you a car and you agreed to buy it at a certain price. Nobody likes to find out that there was a sale right after they paid full price for something but it happens all the time with every imaginable consumer product and there is really nothing wrong with that.

The real question that needs to be answered is if a person can go back and dispute the price they paid for something, how long should that period run in the absence of a clear policy agreed to by both parties? Is 3 weeks the cutoff like in your case? If someone came back at day 22, are they SOL? I know that may sound harsh, but there is no answer that will satisfy everyone and the dealer needs to have a policy that is standard. In the absence of a price guarantee or price match timeframe, the price you pay is the price you pay at the time you pay it.

Don't be pissed at the dealer. You paid it and they didn't hold a gun to your head to write the check. You did, however, receive a worldclass automobile in the process. I imagine you were totally happy with your purchase until you saw the prices fall.

You bought a car, not a business transaction. Enjoy it and drive it. Some of us are still waiting for our cars to be delivered, and in my case, expect to pay MSRP even today since we placed the order several months ago.

 

You know after reading about Chad and others about M Price I wouldn't buy a nickel bag of triggers hourse Sh*t from them but that's just my .02 cents. They maybe right this time but there name just keeps coming up.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I, for one, will add this to my own "life experience" data base and hope that I can benefit from this knowledge. I respect the manner in which you communicated your frustration to the dealship. Hopefully the outcome of all this will result in a resolution which allows you to enjoy this outstanding vehicle.
Hope your day is going well.
antoniopaolo

 

You should have told them to keep the car. Prep and doc fees are used by the type of dealer I won't do business with ever...

 

Even if you pick the car up at the National Corvette Museum, the NJ Tire Tax must be paid!

 

still doesnt make sense. where is the money supposed to go? your not leaving any tires there for them to dispose of, they are all leaving with you.