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Dealership Doesn't Like Deal, Steals Truck Back

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Dryden

Dryden

Sober as Sarkisian
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http://www.newschannel5.com/content/investigates/20762.asp?q=BILL+HEARD

NewsChannel 5 Investigates:
Dealership Doesn't Like Deal, Takes Car Back
Posted: 7/17/2006 9:55:00 PM
Updated: 7/17/2006 11:23:17 PM

Earl Kieselhorst thought he owned a 2003 Chevy Silverado -- a truck that he bought from Bill Heard Chevrolet in Antioch.

Kieselhorst says he "paid cash for it. Made the deal. Sales manager signed off on it. Signed all the paperwork. And drove off."

He traded in his car and gave the dealer a check for $8,100.

"I have the keys," Kieselhorst tells NewsChannel 5 investigative reporter Jennifer Kraus.

But he doesn't have his truck.

Bill Heard does.

"I can't see any reason why this wouldn't be my car," he adds.

Just one day after he bought the truck, a salesman from Bill Heard called to say the dealership was having second thoughts about the deal.

He told Kieselhorst that if he wanted to keep his truck, he needed to fork over another $10,000 -- something he refused to do. After all, he says, they had a signed deal.

But the next morning, when Kieselhorst woke up, his truck was gone.

"And I was like I can't believe it," he recalls.

The dealership had come and taken it in the middle of the night.

"I've got a contract. This is a legal contract. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say."

Metro police investigated and wanted to file charges against Bill Heard for stealing the truck.

Detective Ray Paris got a statement from Bill Heard, blaming a rookie salesman for what happened and calling it a mistake. (Read the statement given to police by Bill Heard.)

"They inadvertently sold the vehicle at a lower cost than what they should have," Paris says.

Kathleen Calligan says the Better Business Bureau has received literally hundreds and hundreds of similar complaints about the Bill Heard dealership -- more complaints by far than any other auto dealer in all of Middle Tennessee.

"Not only is this an unbelievable volume of complaints, most of them are unresolved," she adds.

Calligan says that, in this day and age, dealers know exactly how much a vehicle is worth.

And if a dealership truly does make a mistake, she says they'll take the loss -- rather than call the customer and demand he make up the difference.

"There is absolutely no reason for a sale not to be final when the customer walks out of the dealership," Calligan adds.

Yet even after Bill Heard had taken back the truck, the salesman called Kieselhorst again.

"He calls me back and offers to sell it to me for $11,000 more than I paid for it," Kieselhorst recalls.

Kieselhorst said no way.

And even though he still believes he is the rightful owner of the truck, when we went looking for it at Bill Heard, we found a customer checking it out. It was for sale, the customer and a saleswoman told us.

"The whole thing has just gotten more and more ridiculous," Kieselhorst says.

And now the self-proclaimed largest Chevrolet dealership in the world is accusing Kieselhorst of "trying to pull a fast one" on them.

"This is the way this company does business," Calligan says. "They really thought they would be able to pull a fast one on their customer."

After we tried to get their side for days, Bill Heard faxed us a statement just before air time, saying that Kieselhorst "should have known" that the deal he got was too good to be true.

The company says:

"It is not reasonable or fair to expect for Bill Heard Chevrolet ... to be bound by a sale where a clear and material mistake was made, and the customer was aware that it was a mistake."

Kieselhort says he just thought Bill Heard was giving him the type of good deal they advertise.

As for the police investigation, the DA says this is a civil case, not a criminal case. He says Kieselhorst is free to take the dealer to court -- something he's now seriously considering.
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for the police investigation, the DA says this is a civil case, not a criminal case. He says Kieselhorst is free to take the dealer to court -- something he's now seriously considering.

And why wouldn't it be a criminal case? Didn't they steal the car from the rightful owner. I wonder if the guy had the time to register the vehicle before the dealership stole it.....Sounds like the DA is protecting another FAT CAT....
 
Upvote 0
I agree that this sounds way too fishy, especially with the dealer's re-capture of the car being treated as a civil offense.

Here (attached) is the dealers Statement. - all I can say is that it written in truly poor legalese. (The statement was in the form of a PDF file which was a photocopy / .jpg).

The core of the dealer's claim is that the vehicle was "improperly stocked" and that he has "hold check on a cash transaction" which was not signed by a company representative. He elsewhere described the only thing he has from Kieselhorst as a "non negotiable check."

Which if a de-befuddle the BS I believe translates to, this transaction wasn't rung up correctly, and it was done with the wrong price. So I guess the dealer holds that Kieselhorst effectively stole the vehicle.

But, it is, or should still be, a sale.
 

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Upvote 0
Thats very lame, in the dealers letter to the police it states he offered Mr. Keiselhorst a check for $500.00 for the mistake they made... I wonder if this was their attempt at re-imbursing Mr. Keiselhorst for the $8,100 he paid for the truck. I say screw Bill Heard, get every other customer thats been screwed by him and sue his ass for everything. Corrupt people like Heard is whats the problem with America today.
 
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