My mother recently changed her mind about buying a new Mercedes B-class. She made the agreement verbally and paid a deposit over the phone with her Visa, but hadn’t yet signed or returned the contract that the salesman sent her. Now that she’s changed her mind, the dealership has told her that they cannot refund her deposit because the car she ordered is already in their showroom and they have already been invoiced for it by Mercedes.
The contract she was sent states that deposits are non-refundable except under specific circumstances, but I told my mother that since she never signed the contract, she therefore never agreed to any of the terms and conditions and is therefore not legally bound by any of them.
My take on it is that if she HAD signed the contract she would have to admit her mistake and wave bye-bye to her deposit, but in this case I believe that the salesman made a mistake in ordering the car before he had the signed contract in his hand. If I was his manager I’d be pretty pissed at such a basic error, but they seem to want to try and screw her out of the money rather than admit their mistake.
I sent an email to the dealership on her behalf to explain her position and to say that if we couldn’t resolve the matter amicably, she would have no choice but to seek legal means to recover the full amount of the deposit.
What do you think? Does the dealership have any legal right to refuse the refund under these circumstances? Bear in mind that the deposit is approximately $4,000 so it’s not an amount that my mother can simply afford to give away. They would essentially be penalising her $4,000 for changing her mind…
Contact Visa. Tell them there is a dispute and she’s not paying. She will not be required to pay that portion of the Visa bill until things are resolved.
Once that’s done, start talking with the dealer. Mention going to the newspapers.
IANAL, but I do know that with a few exceptions contracts can be verbal. She agreed to buy the car and paid a deposit to back that up. The fact that she hadn’t received the new, written contract which would have superseded the verbal one doesn’t change the fact that she did agree to buy the car.
In that case the dealership would have to prove that she agreed to all of the terms and conditions of the contract, especially the one that says her deposit is non-refundable. In fact the contract states “This document contains terms and condition that constitute a contract. By signing, you agree to be legally bound by them”.
Without a signed contract, the dealership have no proof that she agreed to be legally bound by the terms. No contract - no agreement.
The dealership can easily argue that she agreed to the terms and conditions by agreeing to pay the deposit.
I would say the best course would be to treaten going to the local press as well as disputing the charge with Visa. The dealership has no signature and no proof of delivery of any services or product, so I cannot see why Visa would not reverse the charge.
IANAL either, but I think you’ve got a problem. If the dealership ordered the car to some specification ordered by your mother and they can offer proof of that, then I think they can keep the deposit. I’d guess that’s going to be their position. How are you going to refute that, after all your Mom did give them her C/C number
If you go into this making accusations and threats, you’re liable to be met with a stone wall. I’d suggest you go to the dealership and talk to someone in authority. Tell them your Mom can’t afford to lose $4000. and ask them if there’e a compromise position. Maybe she could buy another car, or forfeit a lesser amount, like 3 to 5 hundred.
If you go at these guys head on, I think you’re gonna’ lose.
There’s one sure way to solve the whole problem, go through w/ the original deal.
If you contest the charge w/ the C/C co. they are going to cantact the dealer and I’m guessing they are going to see it as a legitimate charge.
Sure, that’s the purpose of a deposit. To protect themselves from incurring costs and then having the customer change their mind. If the deposit was fully refundable, then there is really no point in asking for one in the first place is there?
I can understand that and would normally agree. No-one wants to be stuck with something that a customer ordered only to have them change their mind and leave you with something that you can’t sell on. That’s not true in this case though, as my mother did not ask for any special modifications or accessories. The dealership should have no problems selling a brand-new B-class, so I fail to see how they’d incur any kind of loss. In short, it can’t hurt them to refund the deposit, as they’re sure to sell the car for it’s full value to someone else anyway.
Would that really help? WOMAN TRIES TO BUY NEW MERCEDES, CHANGES MIND, LOSES MONEY isn’t exactly the sort of headline that would spur the masses to righteous anger.
Agreed. We want less hassle, not more. We’d only really go to a lawyer as a last resort and would really prefer to sort this out amicably without any threats, added expense or difficulty.
Exactly, and who gives a $4,000 (with a credit card?) deposit without knowing all the details? At the least there would have been some electronic exchange if it was me. A Fax perhaps, with the contract details or an e-mail. Something.
Your mom gave them a credit card number for a deposit.
Deposits are made so that the person who receives the deposit can acquire/build the product without incurring too much risk when the purchaser has second thoughts, like your mom did.
This is a basic rule of commerce in our society, isn’t it?
I don’t care about what she signed and when. You’d have a hard time convincing me that she shouldn’t be on the hook for that money.
I guess the crux of our argument is that without a signed contract, they have no documentary evidence to prove that she agreed to the terms and conditions of the sale. The salesman could just say that he told her the deposit was non-refundable, but without that signature we only have his word for it.
In all honesty I don’t think that my mother, kindly and trusting soul that she is, did actually realise the deposit was non-refundable. She hasn’t bought that many cars after all, and I believe she received the contract for her to sign in the mail after she paid the deposit by phone.
The dealership has proof: she gave them her credit card information to make the deposit with.
IANAL, but it’s pretty clear that she understood why she was being asked to make a deposit, and that she knew that it was a deposit. Sounds as if the dealership has acted in good faith here.
So I don’t think you’re going to get any satisfaction by threatening to lawyer them, no matter how many times that worked on tv shows.
All she had to do was mention a preferred color, or what kind of radio/CD player, etc. and I’ll bet that was part of the conversation she had w/ the salesman. As I said, the dealer is going to maintain that they had to order the car and you’ll have a hard time proving different. Call a lawyer, I’ll bet they tell you you’re between a rock and a hard place.
She knew she was making a deposit, she just didn’t necessarily realise the deposit was non-refundable. She may have thought harder about whether or not she really wanted that car if she’d known that. Again, without a signed contract the dealership has no proof that she agreed to the condition that the deposit was non-refundable.
She asked for the car in black, but how would this prevent the dealer from simply selling it to someone else? It’s not like she asked for a totally pimped-out version that they’d have trouble selling…