Chevy dealer fined heavily for employee behavior
Employees at a Florida Chevy dealership stepped way over the line in trying to close sales. The dealer got whacked in the wallet.
Bill Heard Chevrolet was fined $325,000 over allegations that employees at the Florida dealership held a customer against her will for several hours, falsified drivers’ licenses and used a variety of deceptive trade practices. According to a report in the Orlando Sentinel, this was one of the largest fines ever imposed on an auto dealer by the state attorney general’s office.
After a yearlong investigation, the dealership admitted no wrongdoing but in addition to the fine, agreed to halt all deceptive trade practices and to hire an outside auditor.
Some of the most dramatic allegations came from a woman customer who said that on March 11, 2001, she drove her 1992 Chevy Blazer to the dealership “just to look around.” After test-driving a 1999 Chevy Cavalier and trying to negotiate a deal, she announced she simply couldn’t afford it and started to leave. But a salesman picked up her keys from his desk, put them in his pocket, and refused to return them for six hours, she said under oath.
According to testimony in the case, the customer asked for her keys politely. She raised her voice. She cursed. “Each time I said it, it was, ‘What’s the problem?’” About midnight she finally broke down and agreed to buy the Cavalier for $17,700.
The Cavalier has since been repossessed — that was the customer’s plan — because she never made any car payments. She also successfully stopped payment on the $2,500 check she left as a down payment.
The experience left her with a ruined credit rating. The woman was one of more than a dozen customers who took their complaints to the Florida attorney general’s office, according to the Sentinel report.
One of the most startling allegations is that dealership employees counterfeited two Florida driver’s licenses. In one case, an employee cut and pasted an identification card to make it appear to be a Florida driver’s license, even though the customer had lost his license to a suspension more than 13 times.
The Florida attorney general’s office has turned the information about the falsified licenses over to the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles, which regulates them.
The dealership also was accused of using high-pressure sales tactics, getting buyers to sign agreements that didn’t match the negotiated price, misstating interest rates and misrepresenting monthly payments.
The attorney general’s office was reportedly on the verge of filing suit against the dealership when the two sides negotiated the settlement.
After all that, however, the assistant attorney general who negotiated the settlement had some good words for the dealership, saying that it had worked with about half of the complaining customers to resolve their problems. Some of the employees accused of the wrongdoing left the company months ago.
A portion of the fine, $75,000, was set aside to repay victims.
I had an odd experience with Bill Heard in Nashville. When I stopped in to look at a used '99 Vette, they would not give me a price. They wanted me to sign a document agreeing to buy the vehicle if a fair price was reached. I've never heard of signing anything to negotiate. They said that it would show that I was serious about buying the car. I told them that I had cash in hand. Is that not serious enough? I didn't sign. They didn't give a price and asked what the car was worth to me. I offered a low price on my estimate of what they probably had in the car. They turned me down; still with no price or counter offer. They asked me to offer more. They again offered to tell the price if I signed the document. I left. I'm not an attorney and wonder what the purpose of their document is.
I'm glad they finally got nailed...I only wish it was for more...or that the dealer lost it's license to sell cars....I heard so many nasty things about them. :mad :mad
Corvette Store
Bill Heard in trouble finally
