hi everyone,
i have BIG question here...well at least for me it is big...
so i'm about to close on a deal for 09 MDX tech with dealer A because so far they have the best deal. i put $500 cc deposit via phone with the sales guy and scheduled to take delivery and finalize paperwork on saturday. however, this morning i got another offer from dealer B which is better and i doubt that any dealer will match this. i think this offer is final and i would stick with it. now can i back out from the deal with dealer A and request them to refund or cancel the 500 deposit? nothing has been signed and everything was done via phone. what should i do? i really want this mdx....

 

is it a non-refundable deposit?

I did something like this years ago, but my deposit was via Check, so it took about 6 weeks to get my money back.

talk to dealer A, see if they will match, if not walk away, if it is a refundable deposit and they hassle you, call your CC company and dispute it.

my $.02

 

You made a deal with dealer A and in my sales opinion you should honor that deal. If they have been holding that MDX for you they could have passed up selling it to someone else because you committed to purchasing it. How would you feel if they called you back and said they have someone else who will pay more than you and now they are not going to honor the deal they made with you?
What I would do is contact dealer A and tell them what dealer B has offered, explain that this offer came after your committment and that you were not searching out a better price. Maybe they will refigure the price to keep your business but they certainly do not have to match that price.

 

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I would just do whatever deal is best for you. Until papers are signed they can't hold you to anything.

In the end your the one paying for this vehicle.

 

+1 until you sign the papers there is no commitment.. same from the dealer, just because you gave him a deposit doesn't mean he won't sell it to someone else and then present you with another "similar" vehicle..

no signature = no deal = no promise, from either party.

if you can get a better price, go for it, esp in this economy.. don't pay more that you feel the vehicle is worth to you..


it's why I haven't purchased my TL SH-AWD yet.. I have a set out the door price i am willing to pay, and as of yet I have not found a dealer that will meet it.. they are all $2000 - $3000 over what I wish to pay..

for me I can wait, when the right price comes along I will buy... I won't let a dealer rail road me into paying more than I want, just so they can make a higher commission..

 

Couldn't of said it better myself. If your patient then you will find the right deal that satisfy you. Don't let a dealer jerk you around. I'm like you and I'm waiting to find a good deal on a MDX with the options I want but the going price right now is 5k more than I want to dish out, I might have to wait another year but I'll find one eventually.

 

I totally understand your point of view Vandy and thanks for the input. Deposit was put late yesterday around 6pm and another offer came in around 11am today so I don't think there's a significant amount of time for them to be able to deal with other potential buyer on the same vehicle. Besides that, I was planning to honor this deal if other dealer can only match it instead of beat it. I always put myself into someone else's shoe (in this case the sales guy @ dealer A) and I can imagine how suck it would be to handle this type of situation.
But we are talking about almost $1k of difference in accessories and trade-in value. So I can't just ignore that.
I'm planning to call dealer A pretty soon and explain the situation. I was told that if nothing has been signed there should not be a problem at all to back out from the deal. Btw, he didn't mention that the deposit is non-refundable so I assumed everything is still up in the air and my cc has not been charged.

 

He didn't say that they were railroading him into the purchase but it does come down to honoring a verbal committment to purchase a vehicle based on a price that both parties agreed upon. As I said call dealer A and let them know what happened, dealer A has earned the right to make the decision as to whether or not they will adjust their price and keep his business.
Some of you people are no better than the sales people or dealerships you complain about!

 

As Yogi Berra said, "A verbal contract is not worth the paper it was writtien on.", or something to that effect.

 

Called the sales guy yday after work and was told that he was with client so I left him a msg saying that I would like to cancel all the deals/discussions with him because I was offered better deal from someone else. I also left my number if he would like to call me back but he never did. Then I sent him an email to re-ititerate this issue. There was no charge on my cc as of yday, however this morning I just found out that my cc was charged $1k deposit. As far as I remember, we had verbal agreement that deposit would be $500, not $1k. Then I called him right away but was told that he's not in yet. I will try to dispute this charges, hopefully it works out fine. Will keep you posted.

 

Wow, looks like you've got yourself in quite a mess. This is really a heads up to anyone who puts a deposit down on a vehicle. The dealer is going to be pissed as s/he has to pay fees on the credit card transaction(s). I hope you can get this straightened out soon.

 

yup....this is really a mess...

I just noticed that before I put down deposit via phone, I was negotiating with him via email within a day and I mentioned on the email that if I got a good deal from him I would agree to put down deposit and take delivery on saturday. Any thoughts?

 

i would ask him if he would match the better deal you got later on. If he can, go with the original guy; if he can't, then dispute the charge & go with the second deal ...

Good luck ...

 

finally able to sort things out. I talked to the sales guy and as I expected he was pretty upset but later on offered a better deal. I told him that for now I need deposit to be refunded and from there I will compare both deals. So everything is straighten out and thanks guys for the inputs.....hopefully I can close the deal pretty soon...