Refund on cancelled order

[todayusay]

as far as a dealer requesting prompt payment, a day is a little short, but most won’t allow it to sit for more than several days. Was required to complete my paperwork in four days on the Ram 3500 in order to keep the price quoted at the initial order date (price protection)… MSRP went up $2800 during the 12 weeks which didn’t come in play…some dealers either didn’t want to or didn’t know how to even apply this program in order to protect the buyer

 

[firsttimetahoe]

Ultimately it's GM's ordering process that is causing this mess; why in the world would they have it set up where customers can place orders that may not be accepted for months?

Ram's ordering system wouldn’t allow the dealer to place an order that has a constrained item.

The majority of times this happens is because the ordering manager never actually submits your order, because they know something something the customer ordered is on constraint. They’re not going to waste an allocation on something GM won’t accept. The ordering manager really should be the only
person who you talk to when you go to buy a car. But that’s not how the dealership model is set up for the most part. You may build an entire car with your salesman, he has no idea what on constraint and at the end of the week the ordering manager is entering everything into their system and he gets to your order, enters everything, notices what on constraint and he just doesn’t do anything else.

And I agree with you that dealers aren’t helping most customers themselves either. They don’t always provide key info, like what’s on constraint, that may cause a delay for months. If that’s what is holding you up from being in their next allocation when it’s your turn, they should tell you ASAP to make that decision - do you want to drop it or do you want to leave it.

But it’s also not always in their control since it changes week to week. So unless your order is being submitted ASAP because they have an immediate allocation, they have no way of knowing what may be on constraint by the time you’re in their next allocation.

It’s a complete mess. But it works both ways because when you get a bunch of customers placing simultaneous orders, it’s not shocking that dealers are going to tell customers your car isn’t guaranteed to be yours unless you buy it immediately.

 

[smokey_mountain]

Process is broken on many fronts - once the order is placed with the dealer, months go by and all GM tells the customer that "your dealer placed the order but GM did not accept it..." what does it even mean? What is the ETA? Dealer tells me that they do not know, GM says they do not know... We (the customers) are now left to self serve even the order placing, many already service their vehicle as they are afraid that dealers will mess things up during the routine maintenance. Perhaps, direct to customer model is not that surreal anymore.

 

[todayusay]

From the dealers’ persepctive, I wouldnt want to take a bunch of random orders that I know won’t be filled anytime soon, but there are a lot out there doing it. Of course who knows if having their order bank chock full of orders may impact allocations….as in why give a dealer an allocation if it‘s possible it may not get filled?

 

[Randy2876]

Anyone have trouble getting a refund after cancelling an order. I left a deposit when I ordered three weeks ago and the order has still not been accepted. I found a Yukon XL I could live with and bought it however the dealer I ordered from told me no refund. What a load of crap.

I cancelled my order after waiting 5 months and still at 1100. It took several emails and phone calls, but I did finally receive a refund on my deposit.

 

[OR VietVet]

Low and behold they reversed the charge a few minutes after I posted this. If the order was actually accepted I would have maybe understood but bottom line they will sell whatever hits the dealership….

You did not answer the question. Did you sign anything and did it say "non-refundable"?

 

[chevylade]

It’s questionable if you have a valid contract if GM hasn’t accepted the order. They can’t keep the deposit if you don’t have a valid contract.

 

[firsttimetahoe]

It’s questionable if you have a valid contract if GM hasn’t accepted the order. They can’t keep the deposit if you don’t have a valid contract.

True, but if a dealer officially submitted your order to GM with one of their allocations, and it just so happens something you ordered is on constraint (which is why GM didn’t accept the order)….the dealer is losing out by not ordering something else that’s not on constraint that they could actually get accepted and sell….

So it works both ways.

I think it’s crazy you can actually custom order a car where there is a refundable deposit and you can backout whenever. And do it at multiple dealerships

But if it’s non-refundable- I agree there should be some sort of stipulation that allows a customer to cancel and get A refund, Like for example the order is never accepted by GM after X amount of time

 

[todayusay]

True, but if a dealer officially submitted your order to GM with one of their allocations, and it just so happens something you ordered is on constraint (which is why GM didn’t accept the order)….the dealer is losing out by not ordering something else that’s not on constraint that they could actually get accepted and sell….

So it works both ways.

I think it’s crazy you can actually custom order a car where there is a refundable deposit and you can backout whenever. And do it at multiple dealerships

But if it’s non-refundable- I agree there should be some sort of stipulation that allows a customer to cancel and get A refund, Like for example the order is never accepted by GM after X amount of time

If there was a true commitment to buy (contractually), then there wouldn’t be the additional opportunities of being given the ole run-a-round….

of course if there was the contractual commitment on the buyers side, then there (should) be a similar contractual commitment to sell on the dealer‘s side as well. Which as others have experienced, dealers are enforcing stipulations that either aren’t documented or what most would consider unreasonable…

in what instance should a dealer be requiring a buyer to fully purchase a vehicle before it even arrives at the dealership…or when it arrives tell the buyer they have x amount of time to “buy it” or they’ll sell it to someone else?

buyers are abiding by these dealers’ demands because they know if they don’t, then they’ll miss out on that vehicle and their next opportunity to buy one/order one may be 6 months down the road.

 

[firsttimetahoe]

in what instance should a dealer be requiring a buyer to fully purchase a vehicle before it even arrives at the dealership…or when it arrives tell the buyer they have x amount of time to “buy it” or they’ll sell it to someone else?

Never. That should be illegal. You should be able to inspect the car before you sign. Never make payments and take ownership for something that won’t be in your possession.

There should be a reasonable time for you to complete the paperwork once the car arrives at the dealer. Obviously 24-48 hours is ridiculous. But unless you’re on vacation or have an emergency, you shouldn’t be given more than a week

I think most car salesman and dealers are awful. And too many people have bad experiences. And yes, they lie to you. But placing all of these orders at different dealers because you’re trying to get the car made the quickest Certaintly adds fuel to the fire.