On Monday, we posted part of Mark’s story about how he tried to return a Toyota Prius and ended up incurring the wrath of vengeful salesman who placed obscene phone calls at all hours to his wife. A warrant is now out for the salesman’s arrest.
Mark had some friends call Naperville Toyota to let them know the complaint was on The Consumerist. Reportedly, the annoyed lady on the phone said, “one unhappy customer will not hurt us.”
Since appearing here, Mark has received inquiries from area newspapers, included the Chicago Tribune. He also plans on filing on lawsuit and is speaking with a lawyer this weekend.
His outrage so hot and fierce, we were not originally able to put up Mark’s whole complaint, with the squirrely financing details and all. The letter is now posted in it’s entirety after the jump…
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Suzzane writes:
“I know this indeed varies by dealership and possibly by state, but the fact that the buyer gave the dealership a significantly post-dated check is not that uncommon from my experience.
Here in Southern California I’ve seen dealerships accept checks post-dated for up to 3 weeks+ for various reasons, the best of which is probably just to appease the customer and make the deal. If they invariably run a buyer’s credit and it comes out good enough, many dealers will let someone take the vehicle off of the lot with just a check in hand and the promise that it will clear down the road.”
It’s starting to sound to me like someone just wants some money.
Oh you Americans, so keen to sue anyone when a simple baseball bat (stick +1) to Jim’s kneecaps would have solved this problem in a much more satisfying way.
I recently buyeded a car (XR6, yay!), and while I have some regrets, I just chalk it up to experience and keep reminding myself that when I get another new car in like 10 years or whatever to be a little more cautious.
»Sturm
Violence will not solve a thing here. Jim will be getting his very soon
when he gets served for the lawsuit he will be arrested for the
harassment.
But it’s so much more satisfying
For some violence maybe more satisfying but suing Jim Gentile and
Toyota of Naperville is so much sweeter. Not only that Jim has a suit
on his hands but he will also face a disorderly conduct and phone
harassment charges.
The more I’ve thought about this, and especially after reading Duster’s post, the more I’ve thought that this case is an absolute abuse of the legal system. The harrassment matter is totally a criminal issue and unrelated to the dealership at all. It’s been dealt with through the proper channels. I will say that it’s your right to personally sue him civilly, and more power to you.
However, entering into a suit with the intent of just settling for cash is wrong. Either you’re in it to win it and want your day in court (and take your chance of losing and having to pay the defendant’s legal fees) or you’re just troling for cash because you made some really bad decisions. After all this, I believe it’s the latter.
Also, you need to treat your counsel with a healthy dose of scepticism. No matter if you win or lose, he still gets paid. Remember that when he’s egging you on. Take his advice, but take it with a grain of salt.
Either way, I’m really interested to see how this one turns out.
Elivisisdead:
On Saturday we went to our lawyer. He is taking the case on a no win,
no pay case. We went to a few different lawyers and they all said the
same thing. The lawyer said that it is against the law for the salesguy
to take information out of the dealership. Yes it is the dealership
owner fault. If this scumbag was never employed at the Naperville
Toyota, then we would have never been frauded and I would have never
received any of the discusting phone calls on my phone.
Either I or my husband will be keeping consumerist.com updated.
You may believe in what you want about us suing for the money. It is
both money and to stop dealerships letting their salesman doing fraud
and harassing the customer. Someone has got to teach them a very good
lesson and it might as well be us.