[Paligooner]

I had agreed to a deal with South Bay Genesis to purchase a new GV80 on Sunday evening (3/7) after going through some negotiations over the weekend. We agreed on price and they asked me to submit to a credit check (which was fine). I don't agree to allow credit report pulls willy nilly because I don't finance purchases. But this was fine, because we had a deal (or so I thought). Dealership sent two emails on Sunday night saying to come down at 5pm on Monday evening to pick up the car and finalize the paperwork.

At 12:04pm Monday, sales manager texts me and says "just making sure your (sic) coming in around 5pm, if you want to save time at the dealership email me layout drivers license and current insurance." At 12:27pm, I confirmed via text that I would be coming down at 5pm and would send him the license and insurance information.

At 12:57 pm, sales manager texts that another manager just sold the vehicle to another buyer. Sales manager then tries to pin it on me saying it was taking too long. No warning. No "hey you need to get down here earlier." No "this car is spoken for for the next few hours" to the other buyer. Just a text saying "another manager sold the vehicle". (Congrats to the person who bought the vehicle. Seriously, I doubt they knew anything about this.)

The car may be great, but this is not the way to treat potential customers (and build a luxury brand experience), especially if you are trying to lure people from more established brands like Mercedes and BMW. There are other Genesis dealers out there that can earn my business.

 

[GV802021GCSD]

Not that this is okay, but is it possible they got a better price from someone else? I ordered my car, waited 7 months for it and there was another buyer that tried to take my car. I already had a deposit on it before it arrived which probably stopped that from happening but it also caused me to not be able to negotiate on the car at all. These are in high demand and money does talk.

 

[Paligooner]

Totally fine if they want to create an auction for a hot commodity car. What I didn't like is that they gave no indication that was what they were doing, nor did they give me a chance to bid if they got a better price from someone else. We had agreed on a deal orally and I believe in being able to do deals with people who live up to their word. I know legally you don't have a deal until the paperwork is signed, but I don't think they should be in the business of treating customers that poorly. If anything, they had two people who wanted to buy a GV80 from them. They could have offered to try to locate another car or figure something else out. Instead it was text saying car was sold and then trying to blame me for selling it out from under me.

 

[GV802021GCSD]

As I said not that it was okay to do that to you. I'm not sure how intense the negotiation was that you had with them but perhaps they saw it as steadfast and thought going back to you was a mute point and couldn't find another car for you at that price. When I was told there was another buyer for my car if I didn't want it I was given a price and pretty much take it or leave it from them. I could have walked but made up the difference by financing through another lender that saved me a year's worth of payments at a much lower rate. All in all I was happy with the monthly payment and length of loan so what did it matter what the final number was, the payments were the same as my 8 year old Mercedes was when I purchased it. I'm very happy with the car and don't regret it at all. If you decide to go with another seller you might want to let them know of your previous experience and perhaps they can keep that from happening again.

 

[Tronno]

Welcome to the forum @Paligooner. That is pretty ridiculous service, I'm with you that the least they could do was give you a heads up about another interested customer.

Have you started looking at other dealers to visit? What trim level/spec are you looking to get for the GV80?

 

[BrandSnob]

Got this from a google search:

"Unless there's a statutory provision that says otherwise, oral agreements are, in theory, just as binding as written ones. The problem is that verbal agreements come with a lot of, well, problems. The most obvious problem with a verbal agreement is proving its existence. Jan 15, 2019"

Next time you make a verbal deal have your cell phone recording the "agreement". Then when they pull the rug out from under you that new GV80 may only cost you the price of a good lawyer.