My wife, 4 year old, and I arrived around 6 PM at a dealership with a car we pre-selected online. We test drove it immediately, and after 10 minutes settled on it. We proceeded to wait FIVE hours to finalize the purchase. The lobby was empty, closed at 9PM, and we left at 11:30 alone. Why did we stay? Because every 30 minutes, our sales rep came out to tell us we were almost done. Local lots were empty due to the pandemic, and pricing at this location beat everything else available in our region. After a while, you feel insane for staying that long, but you feel invested. I was told the staff had already removed all the expensive optional services from the agreement to save time. I was even shown a sheet of paper with what was removed. Then Finance arrives and tells us that I need to put money down. It was a number no one mentioned to us until 11:00 PM, and at this point we are so beaten down and tired we negotiate a middle number from what we expected to pay, and what he mentioned. NEVER compromise with these persuasive personalities.
Here is the important part: I just got my first statement summary from the bank. $19,999.99 is the loan amount on a $14k sticker priced car. $3k after the fact is interest. I also put $2,000 down at time of signing. No features added were requested by me. I was never given ANY indication I was signing anything optional. One item that was NOT described at ALL to me was an arbitration document. From what I understand, they are optional agreements (per federal law they cannot be required - learned after the fact) and I signed as if it were required, because that was the way it was presented to me.
I understand I should have reviewed all of this. After 5 hours of waiting, with a child who had never stayed up that late, and a wife in desperate need of a car, I failed my family. I feel like I have hurt our finances and I am incredibly upset about it. Is there anything I can do besides beg the finance department to adjust the loan? Is it too late at this point? I know I was swindled. One thing on the arbitration document mentions I can still go to small claims court - is it worth it?
Submitted August 19, 2021 at 11:23AM by NewTech20 https://ift.tt/3k6SKBA
