Dealership Scam

[stevenl]

You got scammed by somebody pretending to work at a Ford dealer. Did you ever get anything with 'Ford' on it BTW, especially the first receipt?

Now the dealer is making up for it, with a discount, honouring your deposit and giving you a fast track car. You have a legit contract for that.

So what is the problem now, looks like all is sorted to me.

He only made up for half the price increase. I still did not recover free insurance, plus having to wait until december instead of getting it now like I should. It was possible that it could take longer than december. I am entitled to have my original deal. The manager realizes that, otherwise he wouldn't try to make up for it, even though it was not enough.

Again, do you have a receipt or anything else with 'Ford' on it?

[pistonface]

It is all resolved now. I emailed some names provided very kindly to me by one of the members commenting on this thread. When the manager offered to come up with half the price difference, I still lost insurance and other promotional offers. It still wasn't fair. Also, still would have to wait until december for the truck instead of getting it now. Who knows the manager could have been in on it all along. In any case, the manager had snapped a picture of the new booking contract with that "half-make up" deal and I never got it in the mail when he said he'd mail it. Everything was all in words. Not being able to rely on just that, and wanting the original deal I deserve, I wrote to the ford executives and in no time they overrode Thaiyarnyon (the dealer) and took the reigns themselves. Now I will be expecting the truck this month, with all original promotional offers and the original price. So in the end I had to wait a few more weeks. I can live with that.

Many examples of scam attempts have been mentioned in this thread, things I am aware of and would never let happen to me. I've been in Thailand long enough. Buying a new car in this country however, is new to me. Scams go to just about any level in this country. More lessons learned. That's it.

[anon210]

Glad your issue was solved at your satisfaction Piston! Hope you will enjoy your brand new ranger soon!

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect App

[SoCalChris]

Hi guys,

I booked a ford ranger back in april. The contract says I get it at the lastest October. Well basically I found out that I was scammed. The saleslady wrote up a fake contract and her dealership had no record of my booking. Since April she was leading me on with a bunch of BS until I called the manager of the dealership and found out this lady had already been fired like 5 months ago. Now I'm in the process of trying to get some accountability from parties involved....whatever I can do.

Has anybody had similar experiences? Tell me your stories. Advice/sugggestions?

Thanks.

You signed all these papers and paid at the dealer?

--edit ---

I just read "she came to your house".

EEEHERRNNNNNN. (That's my buzzer sound)

That's Alarm Bell #1. That's like someone calling you at home saying its your bank and they need your account details.

If you buy a car, you go to the dealer and get a sales person there. All paper work and money is done at the dealership.

yup lesson learned there.

Just because the person comes to your house, does not automatically make it a scam. But I learned the hard way that excellent customer service might suggest someone will make extra money off of you. Case in point for my 1st used car purchase where Thai automobile financing has to be one of the biggest rip-offs I have ever seen:

I wanted to buy a used car, could have paid for it in full but I would have almost 0 funds in the bank so decided to finance 200K THB. Thanachart says they will do it for "3.5% interest for three years", which I thought was OK. Unfortunately, they come to my condo on the day that I had a bad cold (completely drugged up too). I was simply useless along with my wife with no financing experience to back-calculate from the final payment amount. I also thought how funny for them to come to my residence if they will make only about 11,000THB in interest charges from an earlier calculation.

Turns out that is not how it works here in Thailand as confirmed by 5+ other online financing ads and car show flyers. First off, they will charge you 7% VAT on the financed amount...add in an extra 14,000 THB. Next, 3.5% for three years actually means 10.5% APR for the entire finance period (3 x 3.5%). And lastly, they will calculate the payment based on a balloon loan and not an amortization loan, the latter being what the payment schedule actually is......... add in in an extra 22,000 THB more. Once I was done reading the loans docs and back calculating the next day, I was pi$$ed. I spent 36,000 THB more than I would have with the same quoting and processing in the US.

I tell all of the friends and Thai family NOT to finance in Thailand, The banks are a bunch of crooks on the naive Thai population (or if you are a sick and drugged up farang).

Edited November 4, 2012 by SoCalChris

[pistonface]

You got scammed by somebody pretending to work at a Ford dealer. Did you ever get anything with 'Ford' on it BTW, especially the first receipt?

Now the dealer is making up for it, with a discount, honouring your deposit and giving you a fast track car. You have a legit contract for that.

So what is the problem now, looks like all is sorted to me.

He only made up for half the price increase. I still did not recover free insurance, plus having to wait until december instead of getting it now like I should. It was possible that it could take longer than december. I am entitled to have my original deal. The manager realizes that, otherwise he wouldn't try to make up for it, even though it was not enough.

Again, do you have a receipt or anything else with 'Ford' on it?

Yes, the original 'booking' which as I described in the beginning but it turned out to be a fake. The scammer actually superimposed me on a contract belonging to someone else. The form is apparently a photocopy. My new contract has its serial/form number in color. Though that contract was fake and supposedly made behind his back, she was still working under him at the time and eventhough the contract was fake and has no legal value for me in claiming whatever was in the contract, it proves the one thing: fraud. The manager acknowledges there's a responsibility on his part (or covering it up and saving his ass by doing me justice) otherwise he could have simply denied any responsibility instead of preemptively offering help. He didn't ask for any proof or argument from my part on why I think it was a fraud and that why he should be responsible or that why I think I should have the COMPLETE original deal restored. He could have said "I'm helping you a bit, better than nothing, I didn't even have to". I contacted the Ford upper brass and BAM!! They got me everything, no questions asked. I've always been entitled to this original deal.

[anon210]

Piston, to be clearer, yes, you were acting with someone who was an agent of the Ford dealer, and was in the position of representing false elements on behalf of her boss. So, obviously, he (the manager/owner of the dealership) bears all the responsibility at law of the commitments taken on his behalf.

Ford HQ simply accepted what would otherwise been enforceable at law.

Second, this being said, and to dot the "i", you have no "entitlement" to special conditions. What you have the right to pursue instead is an agreement passed between you and the agent of the dealership.

[eezergood]

NAme & shame the dealership!

[anon210]

NAme & shame the dealership!

Piston has named him in his comment above: "Thaiyarnyon".