Mac Haik in Houston denies my written agreement for MSRP (UPDATE: Issue resolved!!!)

[gac458]

Originally Posted by Never2LowChevy

+1 But I dont blame you one bit for not wanting to buy GM because of this. I personally know 4 people that have bought other cars(1 challenger, 3 mustangs) because of stupid BS that goes on with GM. This whole pre-order thing is a mess. GM builds some great vehicles but if they dont get thier heads out of thier they will continue on a downward spiral.

I am pretty sure that when the Challenger SRT8 came out last year dealers were asking upwards of 10,000 over invoice. I know this is a fact because my brother sold a couple of them for $50,000 and he would have sold more if they could have gotten hold of them. Same thing for the new body style on the mustang & same things withe Charger SRT8....This is not a manufacturing issue this is prue greed by the dealerships. GM doesn't get 1 cent of the dealer premiums that these guys are trying to charge, it is pure dealer profit. Everyone wants to pile trash on GM for these dealers, they charge these premiums because people choose to pay them for cars that are highly sought after. Consumers are as much to blame as anyone. Every Chevy dealer in the country was given 15,000 reasons, before a single Camaro was built, to ask for premiums by those of us who pre-ordered. What did everyone think would happen??? They guy who started this discussion is driving a Corvette, how many deals do you think where being offered on the Corvette in 2005 - 2006 when the new body style was introduced??? Just don't get carried away with blaming GM for something we all share responsibility in creating. GM just builds them and then we buy them...As always it's the middle man's that sells it that creates the problems.
FLAME AWAY, I can handle it!

[Joe in T.O.]

Originally Posted by OldTimer

The manager on duty was Corey Echols. I do not know the GM's name as we was not present. Or so I was told.

Also, I am not sure if the car will still be there as I told the manager where he should stick it. Not one of my "better" moments.

I have thought about this and I can't believe the dealer is doing this to you. I think that perhaps this dealer has been notified by GM that they are one of the 1700 (or whatever) that are going to close permanently so what do they have to lose if they screw with GM's name? They will make a profit on this car because it is the hottest thing out there! They probably know that they won't be around to sell you that Suburban next year anyways.

[KJS]

Originally Posted by gac458

I am pretty sure that when the Challenger SRT8 came out last year dealers were asking upwards of 10,000 over invoice.

Consumers are as much to blame as anyone. Every Chevy dealer in the country was given 15,000 reasons, before a single Camaro was built, to ask for premiums by those of us who pre-ordered. What did everyone think would happen??? The guy who started this discussion is driving a Corvette, how many deals do you think where being offered on the Corvette in 2005 - 2006 when the new body style was introduced??? GM just builds them and then we buy them...As always it's the middle man's that sells it that creates the problems.
FLAME AWAY, I can handle it!

HUH?

By your last sentence your baiting folks right?

1- what the #(*% does the sentence about the Challenger, etc. have to do with OldTimer getting stiffed when he picks up his Camaro?
2- What does the fact he drives a Corvette have to do with OldTimer getting stiffed when he picks up his Camaro?
3- He later says "Let me be clear here, I do not hold GM totally at fault. They do, however, have to take some of the blame. It is their product and their future the dealers are messing with. I am including them here because I would like to see someone at GM step up and put a stop to this.

[Toons]

Originally Posted by OldTimer

The manager on duty was Corey Echols. I do not know the GM's name as we was not present. Or so I was told.

Also, I am not sure if the car will still be there as I told the manager where he should stick it. Not one of my "better" moments.

I say screw Mac Haik. I bought TWO previous vehicles from them and when I went to them to order the new Camaro they said "how nice", and then demanded $6000 over MSRP for a 2SS. My contact was the "internet manager", don't recall his name but we met in his office. Of course, I'll never buy from them again and I tell everyone who will listen to stay away. These people are borderline crooks, snake oil salesmen, and otherwise crappy people. My office is a block away, and I won't even let them change my oil. If you live in Houston, avoid this dealership like the black plague they are. Its hard to believe how sh*tty a GM dealership can be to its customers, but its the truth.

[Never2LowChevy]

Originally Posted by gac458

I am pretty sure that when the Challenger SRT8 came out last year dealers were asking upwards of 10,000 over invoice. I know this is a fact because my brother sold a couple of them for $50,000 and he would have sold more if they could have gotten hold of them. Same thing for the new body style on the mustang & same things withe Charger SRT8....This is not a manufacturing issue this is prue greed by the dealerships. GM doesn't get 1 cent of the dealer premiums that these guys are trying to charge, it is pure dealer profit. Everyone wants to pile trash on GM for these dealers, they charge these premiums because people choose to pay them for cars that are highly sought after. Consumers are as much to blame as anyone. Every Chevy dealer in the country was given 15,000 reasons, before a single Camaro was built, to ask for premiums by those of us who pre-ordered. What did everyone think would happen??? They guy who started this discussion is driving a Corvette, how many deals do you think where being offered on the Corvette in 2005 - 2006 when the new body style was introduced??? Just don't get carried away with blaming GM for something we all share responsibility in creating. GM just builds them and then we buy them...As always it's the middle man's that sells it that creates the problems.
FLAME AWAY, I can handle it!

You dont get what I am saying, some people do know that its not GMs fault that the dealers are greedy. But to the GENERAL PUBLIC, the dealers are the ones that people see when they think of GM(or any other brand). But you are right when you say WE ALL SHARE RESPONSIBILITY, including GM. Maybe GM should start letting customers buy straight from them instead of having to do with the middle men. That would solve alot of problems!(I know, laws prevent it, but laws get broken and changed all the time, mainly by the ones who make and enforce them). Either way, it leaves a bad taste in the consumers mouth and makes them go elsewhere, be it another dealer or another brand, and if enough people get a bad taste in thier mouth then everybody, dealers, GM, suppliers, ect... will suffer. It's common sense, a happy customer is a repeat customer, and bad news travels alot faster.

[Toons]

Originally Posted by OldTimer

I currently own a 2009 corvette. First thing I am doing this weekend is selling it to Carmax. I will not appear to support them after this. This web site convinced me to give GM another chance and I did. For me, it was a mistake. Sure, some of you will say go to another dealer. No way, I had my deal made for 8 1/2 months just to be screwed. Why give them another chance. I really wish someone with some Integrity at GM would read this and take notice.

Take your corvette to Corvettes of Houston and talk to the sales manager. He bought my 2001, and is buying a 2010 Camaro as well (Black with IOM interior, IOM stripes). Gave me a fair price, and loves to talk about the Camaro.

[achalk]

Originally Posted by OldTimer

Let me be clear here, I do not hold GM totally at fault. They do, however, have to take some of the blame. It is their product and their future the dealers are messing with. I am including them here because I would like to see someone at GM step up and put a stop to this. I don't want to see GM go down any more then most of you. They have spent millions on this car and customers are going to be completely put off once they see what the dealers are doing with the markups!! Everyone at Mac Haik knew I was coming and knew the deal I had. They were waiting for me. The general manager had already told the manager (Corey Echols) they were NOT going to honor the deal. The only other person at that dealer that was well aware of my deal, since I spoke more to him then my salesman that left, was conveniently gone.

And about a law suit, I am not spending any money to prove I was wronged. Hopefully this forum will do that for me!!!

I feel sick to my stomach just reading your story. I'm very sorry, man. You are right, however. It is definitely mostly on the dealership, but that dealership has the GM name, and thus should be managed to certain expectations/standards by GM (as all dealerships should, but are not).

I understand about not wanting to spend money on a law suit, but please don't stop at this forum. Definitely go to your state's Better Business Bureau, State Attorney General, and even your local news.

Good luck and I hope you have a better experience whereever and from whomever you make your next purchase!

[RallyFever]

Originally Posted by OldTimer

Let me be clear here, I do not hold GM totally at fault. They do, however, have to take some of the blame. It is their product and their future the dealers are messing with. I am including them here because I would like to see someone at GM step up and put a stop to this. I don't want to see GM go down any more then most of you. They have spent millions on this car and customers are going to be completely put off once they see what the dealers are doing with the markups!! Everyone at Mac Haik knew I was coming and knew the deal I had. They were waiting for me. The general manager had already told the manager (Corey Echols) they were NOT going to honor the deal. The only other person at that dealer that was well aware of my deal, since I spoke more to him then my salesman that left, was conveniently gone.

And about a law suit, I am not spending any money to prove I was wronged. Hopefully this forum will do that for me!!!

When you sue, you can recover your attorney's fees as well. This is very common as it is not your fault you had to go to court.

Yes, you have to front the money, but you'll get the car and your money back in the end. Not to mention putting that dealer in check!!

[GothamCamaro]

SUE their ass. Unbelievable.

[SWHCPA]

Originally Posted by OldTimer

On August 15th I became #2 on the list for a 2SS/RS at Mac Haik Chevrolet in Houston, Tx. I ordered my car on October 15th, a CGM 2SS/RS with 20" polished wheels. I received a call this morning my car was in. I went over to pick it up and found out why GM is struggling so much these days. They would not honor my written agreement to purchase the car at MSRP and said I either paid them an $8000 premium or forget it.

The salesman I ordered the car from apparently left them a couple months ago so I was working with someone I hardly knew. He was on my side but the manager on duty said the paper that the agreement was written on meant nothing to him. It had my order alpha number on it, specified they agreed to sell to me at MSRP and was signed by myself, my salesman and dated. I wish I could remember the manager on duty that I talked to because he lacked any character or integrity. He was so smug and arogant it made me feel like an absolute nothing.

I picked that dealership to order my car from! I walked into their show room and picked them to get my business. I have been in and out of their many times since that August. I have test driven Suburbans on their lot and my saleman knew I would be in the market for one in early 2010.

Bottom line is I got all hyped up with the pre order event, got my car ordered and now this. So, to me, it comes as no surprise why GM is going thru such a hard time. They just lost 6 customers for life. I have 5 drivers in my family, currently, soon to be 6. We are all very upset over this. We have all been waiting for "our" car to come in. They just lost 6 future GM owners to screw 1 customer for 8 grand.

I currently own a 2009 corvette. First thing I am doing this weekend is selling it to Carmax. I will not appear to support them after this. This web site convinced me to give GM another chance and I did. For me, it was a mistake. Sure, some of you will say go to another dealer. No way, I had my deal made for 8 1/2 months just to be screwed. Why give them another chance. I really wish someone with some Integrity at GM would read this and take notice.

By the way, the car was beautiful, just beautiful!!!! I can't describe the way I was taken from sheer joy when I first saw it to the way I felt on my drive home.

If you have documentation with signatures, then you have a written contract. The dealer is dealing in bait & switch. Both the Harris County DA and the State licensing agency (sorry, can't remember which one) will get in their face on your behalf. Start making calls immediately.

[OldTimer]

Originally Posted by gac458

I am pretty sure that when the Challenger SRT8 came out last year dealers were asking upwards of 10,000 over invoice. I know this is a fact because my brother sold a couple of them for $50,000 and he would have sold more if they could have gotten hold of them. Same thing for the new body style on the mustang & same things withe Charger SRT8....This is not a manufacturing issue this is prue greed by the dealerships. GM doesn't get 1 cent of the dealer premiums that these guys are trying to charge, it is pure dealer profit. Everyone wants to pile trash on GM for these dealers, they charge these premiums because people choose to pay them for cars that are highly sought after. Consumers are as much to blame as anyone. Every Chevy dealer in the country was given 15,000 reasons, before a single Camaro was built, to ask for premiums by those of us who pre-ordered. What did everyone think would happen??? They guy who started this discussion is driving a Corvette, how many deals do you think where being offered on the Corvette in 2005 - 2006 when the new body style was introduced??? Just don't get carried away with blaming GM for something we all share responsibility in creating. GM just builds them and then we buy them...As always it's the middle man's that sells it that creates the problems.
FLAME AWAY, I can handle it!

You miss the entire point. If you walk into a dealership knowing you are going to have to pay $x for a corvette there are no surprises. I saw the chally's marked up just like everyone else did. I didnt pre order a chally at MSRP. I ordered a Camaro at MSRP. This was a pre ordered car with an agreed to price at the time it was ordered. GM can claim ignorance as I have already been told on another thread. That is fine. It is their reputation. The only Camaro commercials I have seen on TV have been for GM, on national TV during prime time, not some individual dealer. Dealer commercials are local, not national. If GM knows this is going on then they need to state it in their national advertising. "Please be aware that this car will not be available at the price advertised here. Your dealer is free to mark it up to whatever price they can get customers in your area to pay."

[Richochet83]

Originally Posted by OldTimer

On August 15th I became #2 on the list for a 2SS/RS at Mac Haik Chevrolet in Houston, Tx. I ordered my car on October 15th, a CGM 2SS/RS with 20" polished wheels. I received a call this morning my car was in. I went over to pick it up and found out why GM is struggling so much these days. They would not honor my written agreement to purchase the car at MSRP and said I either paid them an $8000 premium or forget it.

The salesman I ordered the car from apparently left them a couple months ago so I was working with someone I hardly knew. He was on my side but the manager on duty said the paper that the agreement was written on meant nothing to him. It had my order alpha number on it, specified they agreed to sell to me at MSRP and was signed by myself, my salesman and dated. I wish I could remember the manager on duty that I talked to because he lacked any character or integrity. He was so smug and arogant it made me feel like an absolute nothing.

I picked that dealership to order my car from! I walked into their show room and picked them to get my business. I have been in and out of their many times since that August. I have test driven Suburbans on their lot and my saleman knew I would be in the market for one in early 2010.

Bottom line is I got all hyped up with the pre order event, got my car ordered and now this. So, to me, it comes as no surprise why GM is going thru such a hard time. They just lost 6 customers for life. I have 5 drivers in my family, currently, soon to be 6. We are all very upset over this. We have all been waiting for "our" car to come in. They just lost 6 future GM owners to screw 1 customer for 8 grand.

I currently own a 2009 corvette. First thing I am doing this weekend is selling it to Carmax. I will not appear to support them after this. This web site convinced me to give GM another chance and I did. For me, it was a mistake. Sure, some of you will say go to another dealer. No way, I had my deal made for 8 1/2 months just to be screwed. Why give them another chance. I really wish someone with some Integrity at GM would read this and take notice.

By the way, the car was beautiful, just beautiful!!!! I can't describe the way I was taken from sheer joy when I first saw it to the way I felt on my drive home.

Thats my only concern that I'm going to wait all this time and my dealer is going to mark the car up $5,000 to $10,000 over MSRP once it gets here. I got several verbal confirmations that there will not be a dealer markup from the manager who I am directly working with. I also explained to them that I been thru this type of shit with a Nissan dealer when the 350Z first came out. I ordered it and the dealer marker is up $10,000 once it arrived. But my Chevy dealer assured me this would not happen when dealing with them. The first guy I was dealing with at this Chevy dealer "mysteriously" disappeared. And nobody called to tell me anything. I found out when I called him and they said he was gone. But tomorrow I will get the manager to put something in writing and have us both sign it agreeing to the MSRP.

I feel for OldTimer because its nothing you can really do but ask for your deposit back and find another dealer. And the dealer is acting arrogant because he knows the demand is so high for this car that somebody will pay whatever the price tag says to have one. Honestly your dealer is dangerous becuase some folks are in hard economic times and made budget shifts so that they can afford this beautiful car. And then to pull some stunt like this can really push that button to make somebody go off.........I say you go up there afterhours and burn that bitch down.

Its ironic you posted this today because I was just at this dealer today that had a Victory Red/ 1LT /cloth seat/ automatic trans/ RS package. When the dealer said these magic words "This car is not sold and if you want it you can have it right now as we speak.." I was so temped to buy it because I am tired of waiting for my order to be processed. But when I looked at the sticker it was about $28.5K with an extra hand written sticker that had a $10,000 mark-up. As bad as I wanted that car, I was not going to pay more for a car when I can get the one I want for less. Plus it was no where near the car I wanted. One it was Red, it was a 1LT, had cloth seats, and no sunroof. The only thing it had that I liked besides the obvious was the RS package. More than that like I said b4, it would be insane to pay more money for something you don't really want rather than paying less for something that you do really want. I would have been regretting that as long as I owned that car.

[chevygolfguy]

It sounds to me like there are really two problems here; one is legal and the other practical.

From the legal perspective what you probably had was an "order" and not a contract to purchase the vehicle. That contract is handed to you when you swap $ for car keys. Unfortunately for a contract to be binding, you have to have a few things, one of which is a meeting of the minds. In your mind, you had an enforcible deal. The dealer on the other hand had another name of a potential buyer on a list that wanted a new Camaro. The sales guy who was on your side (don't believe that for a minute, it's called "good cop - bad cop" or "Mutt & Jeffing it") probably didn't have the authority to legally bind the dealership; that authority usually resides with the sales manager or the owner. Sure you can sue the dealership, but you are likely to lose early on in that battle for the reason above stated (and there are others - but all it takes is this one reason).

As to the practical, the dealer doesn't give a rat's behind about the damaged goodwill and whether he has lost 6 potential buyers of cars. He may not even be in business in a year from now given what is going on in the world today. Even if you did sue and win, the reality is your car will be long gone and you would be looking at another one or cash damages. The better tact to take is to move on, find a car at another dealer and tell everyone you can about your "buying experience" with the bad dealer. That will have a more profound affect on the dealer than the threat of a lawsuit or loss of business from 6 relatives. As to the AG or BBB, they won't do a damn thing for you, even if you can get them to listen. And the media won't care either. You don't sound like you fit the profile of a downtrodden citizen being beaten up by Goliath (sp?). And GM is a whole other story. Not enough time to talk about why they will be of no help.

As one reader stated, in about a year you should be able to buy under sticker if they are still building them.

I have a 2ss on "order". We'll see what the dealer wants when it comes in.

Good luck! How much for the vette?

[Richochet83]

Originally Posted by Camaroyoung

Stories like this really make me sick! $8,000.00 is robbery! Take it to your local new channel. Expose these A-holes!

How about a $10,000-$12,000 Mark-up. That what a local dealer told me today