- Jurisdiction
- California
I live in Arizona. Found a specific vehicle for sale in Palm Springs, CA. Contacted dealership. Said I wanted to buy vehicle but couldn't pick it up until Tuesday the following week. They said they couldn't hold the vehicle for me. Said I didn't want them to hold it, I wanted to buy it and I was pre-approved for my loan already. Was told I needed to make a down payment of $500 so they would pull vehicle off lot. I agreed and asked how they wanted the funds. Salesperson didn't know so I asked to speak to his manager. The sales manager then told me that wouldn't work because if I changed my mind they would have to give me the deposit back and they could potentially miss out selling vehicle to someone else.
Reiterated I didn't want vehicle held, I wanted to buy, sight unseen. Said they would have to overnight sales contract to me, I would have to sign and overnight back to them. I agreed. Also made arrangements for the contract to be faxed to my bank so process could be completed for my pre-approved loan, which they did. At 4 PM, I called the salesperson to tell him I was concerned I would not receive the UPS letter in time to sign and turn it around so he received it back for Saturday delivery. I said I could photograph the contract and send it back to him electronically or scan and email it back. He said photograph would be fine and scanning would be last resort.
I received the UPS overnight at 4:15 pm on Friday. When I looked at the contract it was wrong because they included CA sales tax when I would be paying the sales tax to AZ when I registered the vehicle. In a conference call with the Finance Manager, it was agreed that I cross out the wrong total, write in the correct total, initial the changes and sign. By now it was long past a time when I could overnight the contract back and the salesperson agreed that I would take photos of the contract and send to him, which I did. I also offered again to scan the contract and email to his management team. He said this was not necessary. I made arrangements to take Greyhound from Phoenix to Palm Springs and the salesperson agreed to pick my up on Tuesday morning at 10 AM. That was Friday at 6PM.
Later Friday night, I received a price alert on my email that the vehicle has been reduced $1,000. Salesperson's text response was that the price reduction would not go into effect until Sunday but the price of the vehicle would not change because they had already sold the vehicle to me.
Within 5-minutes the salesperson called me to ask if I was backing out because of this. I told him I knew the price reduction was already in effect because I looked at the website. He said that was true and said he talked to his sales manager who said they would honor the new lower price if I would keep the deal. I told him I greatly dislike the dishonesty in his approach, but I wanted the vehicle and I agreed to keep the deal at the new price. It was again reiterated that he would pick me up at the bus station at 10 AM on Tuesday morning.
Received a text from salesperson at 1:15 on Sunday afternoon, asking if I was still coming on Tuesday because he hadn't received the overnighted contract. I did not get into the idea of how he thought he was getting an overnighted contract on Sunday so I just told him I would be there as we discussed. Received another text at 5 PM on Sunday stating that they sold the vehicle and I needed to cancel my trip.
The only thing the salesperson would say is that he hadn't received the overnighted documents from me so he wouldn't pull the vehicle off and they sold it to someone else.
My question, after all of this, is did we have a legally-binding sales contract between myself and this dealership? They sent me a contract. I signed the contract, photographed it and sent it back to the salesperson via text. The salesperson accepted this, told me the vehicle was sold to me, faxed the contract to my bank and agreed to pick me up at the bus station. Then sold the vehicle to someone else. This seems so wrong. I invested a lot of time (as did they) in this deal and the vehicle was unique and it's unlikely I will find another of the same model, year, options and low miles. (2012 Ford Escape, XLT loaded, $9K miles). What, if anything should I / can I do?
Reiterated I didn't want vehicle held, I wanted to buy, sight unseen. Said they would have to overnight sales contract to me, I would have to sign and overnight back to them. I agreed. Also made arrangements for the contract to be faxed to my bank so process could be completed for my pre-approved loan, which they did. At 4 PM, I called the salesperson to tell him I was concerned I would not receive the UPS letter in time to sign and turn it around so he received it back for Saturday delivery. I said I could photograph the contract and send it back to him electronically or scan and email it back. He said photograph would be fine and scanning would be last resort.
I received the UPS overnight at 4:15 pm on Friday. When I looked at the contract it was wrong because they included CA sales tax when I would be paying the sales tax to AZ when I registered the vehicle. In a conference call with the Finance Manager, it was agreed that I cross out the wrong total, write in the correct total, initial the changes and sign. By now it was long past a time when I could overnight the contract back and the salesperson agreed that I would take photos of the contract and send to him, which I did. I also offered again to scan the contract and email to his management team. He said this was not necessary. I made arrangements to take Greyhound from Phoenix to Palm Springs and the salesperson agreed to pick my up on Tuesday morning at 10 AM. That was Friday at 6PM.
Later Friday night, I received a price alert on my email that the vehicle has been reduced $1,000. Salesperson's text response was that the price reduction would not go into effect until Sunday but the price of the vehicle would not change because they had already sold the vehicle to me.
Within 5-minutes the salesperson called me to ask if I was backing out because of this. I told him I knew the price reduction was already in effect because I looked at the website. He said that was true and said he talked to his sales manager who said they would honor the new lower price if I would keep the deal. I told him I greatly dislike the dishonesty in his approach, but I wanted the vehicle and I agreed to keep the deal at the new price. It was again reiterated that he would pick me up at the bus station at 10 AM on Tuesday morning.
Received a text from salesperson at 1:15 on Sunday afternoon, asking if I was still coming on Tuesday because he hadn't received the overnighted contract. I did not get into the idea of how he thought he was getting an overnighted contract on Sunday so I just told him I would be there as we discussed. Received another text at 5 PM on Sunday stating that they sold the vehicle and I needed to cancel my trip.
The only thing the salesperson would say is that he hadn't received the overnighted documents from me so he wouldn't pull the vehicle off and they sold it to someone else.
My question, after all of this, is did we have a legally-binding sales contract between myself and this dealership? They sent me a contract. I signed the contract, photographed it and sent it back to the salesperson via text. The salesperson accepted this, told me the vehicle was sold to me, faxed the contract to my bank and agreed to pick me up at the bus station. Then sold the vehicle to someone else. This seems so wrong. I invested a lot of time (as did they) in this deal and the vehicle was unique and it's unlikely I will find another of the same model, year, options and low miles. (2012 Ford Escape, XLT loaded, $9K miles). What, if anything should I / can I do?
