$500 non-refundable deposit in Chicagoland (Libertyville)

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lukati

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 17, 2011
Messages
288
Hi,

I ordered my LEAF early last week. At that time, a few of my closest dealers could no longer be selected, so I chose Liberty Import Center in Libertyville. They had quoted me MSRP and everything seemed to be OK. (Actually they quoted my a 2011 way under MSRP per email at first, but that was an "automatically generated" email without merit).

I finally managed to get my contact at Liberty, Jeff Bogdala, on the phone earlier this week and he claimed that I hadn't in fact ordered a LEAF, that there was nothing he could see that indicated I had ordered. I would have to print out my order confirmation and come to the dealership. He then called back a few minutes later to say that he had found my order. However, I would need to come in to sign some paperwork and pay a $500 non-refundable ordering deposit for the order to go forward. He implied that the car had not in fact been ordered. I called Nissan and they knew nothing about ordering deposits. They called Liberty for me, and then let me know that this was a dealer requirement that had nothing to do with them.

Can the dealer really hold up my order? I am scheduled to test drive the LEAF later this month in Chicago and I don't want to spend the $500 before I have actually had a chance to see the car. Also, I dislike this dealer practice in general and I am thinking of voting with my feet. Jeff seems to finish every second sentence with "my friend", which makes me think that he is a true car salesman that might be trouble later on as well. On the other hand, I don't want to loose my order and I suspect that even fewer dealerships around here will be able to take an order by now.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

EDIT (8/20/11): After some push back, the dealership apologized and waived the deposit.
 
If I were you I would walk away from this dealer. I've been working with Bill Kay Nissan (check the Chicagoland thread). The contact there is Steve Berman. He claims someone else sent me a quote for $1,000 over the MSRP (/w add ons), which they were claiming was including delivery charge but not tags and taxes. I rejected the offer and resubmitted it to them. Steve seems to know what he's talking about, but he's dragging his feet in giving me a quote since I haven't had my home assessment completed, which isn't necessarily bad if he's trying to be as accurate as possible. Nothing was mentioned of $500 non-refundable deposit. That's crazy. I know others in the Chicagoland thread have been working with the Mcgrath dealer and are having success.
 
chijayhawker said:
If I were you I would walk away from this dealer. I've been working with Bill Kay Nissan (check the Chicagoland thread). The contact there is Steve Berman. He claims someone else sent me a quote for $1,000 over the MSRP (/w add ons), which they were claiming was including delivery charge but not tags and taxes. I rejected the offer and resubmitted it to them. Steve seems to know what he's talking about, but he's dragging his feet in giving me a quote since I haven't had my home assessment completed, which isn't necessarily bad if he's trying to be as accurate as possible. Nothing was mentioned of $500 non-refundable deposit. That's crazy. I know others in the Chicagoland thread have been working with the Mcgrath dealer and are having success.
Something doesn't seem right there. I don't believe there is a requirement for a home assessment before getting a quote. Call Nissan.

Bill
 
ebill3 said:
chijayhawker said:
If I were you I would walk away from this dealer. I've been working with Bill Kay Nissan (check the Chicagoland thread). The contact there is Steve Berman. He claims someone else sent me a quote for $1,000 over the MSRP (/w add ons), which they were claiming was including delivery charge but not tags and taxes. I rejected the offer and resubmitted it to them. Steve seems to know what he's talking about, but he's dragging his feet in giving me a quote since I haven't had my home assessment completed, which isn't necessarily bad if he's trying to be as accurate as possible. Nothing was mentioned of $500 non-refundable deposit. That's crazy. I know others in the Chicagoland thread have been working with the Mcgrath dealer and are having success.
Something doesn't seem right there. I don't believe there is a requirement for a home assessment before getting a quote. Call Nissan.

Bill


Perhaps if one selects AV and did not do the waiver but why would one use AV?
 
If your order has already been received and it shows as such on your dashboard, you cannot switch dealerships unless you cancel your order, get your $99 back and open another account, reserve and order.

Luck has it, that you can create a new account and make the $99 deposit, then go and order another LEAF through another dealership and only then, cancel your existing order. (just to be sure that everything goes well before you cancel the initial one)

The only hassle is that you need $99 to put as deposit before you can claim the deposit from the first order.
 
amtoro said:
If your order has already been received and it shows as such on your dashboard, you cannot switch dealerships unless you cancel your order, get your $99 back and open another account, reserve and order...
I don't believe you're correct about that. I believe you can cancel and do a new RAQ, or order a second vehicle using your current account. You have to call customer service to do it, though.
 
I called them about that exact subject, they told me that after the order is placed, you can only cancel everything and start again :?
 
amtoro said:
I called them about that exact subject, they told me that after the order is placed, you can only cancel everything and start again :?
Start what over again, though? Did they tell you to create a new account, or just that you'd have to start the RAQ/order process over again?
 
amtoro said:
I called them about that exact subject, they told me that after the order is placed, you can only cancel everything and start again :?
You mean after the RAQ is finalized. This is basic offer and acceptance. If the $500 deposit was described in the dealer offer and the customer accepted then you are correct. In the case of the OP it would seem there is no completed RAQ and after 24 to 72 hours it should expire and cancel and allow switching dealers.
 
smkettner said:
amtoro said:
I called them about that exact subject, they told me that after the order is placed, you can only cancel everything and start again :?
You mean after the RAQ is finalized. This is basic offer and acceptance. If the $500 deposit was described in the dealer offer and the customer accepted then you are correct. In the case of the OP it would seem there is no completed RAQ and after 24 to 72 hours it should expire and cancel and allow switching dealers.

+1 That's correct. If the order/quote from dealer hasn't been accepted by the customer, they can change their PD after 24 hours and RAQ with a different dealer.
 
Thank you all for your comments.

I did actually accept the offer on August 10 (knowing nothing about the order deposit), so I would need to cancel or order another car using a different account to change dealer at this point. In response to your comments, I emailed my contact and let him know that I will take my business elsewhere if he doesn't waive the deposit by tomorrow evening. I also promised to badmouth his dealership here if he didn't do it. Let's see what happens. :)
 
If the $500 deposit was not detailed in the offer it does not exist.

But if the dealer wants to push the issue I would also cancel the order and restart elsewhere.
 
I just don't want to end up in a situation where the dealer refuses to sell me my LEAF (in November or December) because I didn't pay the deposit on time (and then the dealer turns around and sells the orphan above sticker to someone else).
 
I accepted the offer with Libertyville for MSRP, with the $500.00 deposit requirement. They are only a few miles from my work, and I use their VW dealership for my current VW servicing.

I RAQ from them on a Friday evening, bounced back and forth with Jeff Bogdala over the weekend and Monday. The dashboard said they should have placed the quote within 24 hours, but they said they were having issues with their dealers' dashboard. They wanted me to come in and sign their sales order instead. I told them make it appear on my dashboard or I would switch dealers.

They finally got their act together. I don't really begrudge them their $500 deposit. They want to see ernest buyers, not looky-loos.
 
This sounds quite strange and a bit alarming to say the least as my experience has been anything but above board ... when I placed my order (with McGrath Nissan of Elgin) they were one of the few 'LEAF certified' dealer's at the time (more have finally gone up to that stage in Chicago) and the owner had made a commitment to sell at MSRP. As far as the ordering process, you pick a dealer, they send a quote, you agree to the quote and then Nissan accepts the order (all done through the online LEAF site) so unless this dealer had spelled out that a non-refundable deposit was a requirement of the quote, your acceptance should not have these 'after quote' strings. Now I know if you don't like the quote, you can reject it and select another dealer but if you did indeed already 'accept' the quote the order should be placed at the terms in your online quote; that's how the online system is supposed to work. If you do get a chance to get a requote by explaining this the NCS I would think you could get a 'new' quote from another Nissan dealer but others say no -- if you check the LEAF thread on what dealer's will sell at MSRP or less in IL you should find at least three to pick from. I would have chimed in earlier but for some reason my Win 7 PC still shows this site as 'read only'; this older one on Win XP shows it's 'live' again; looks like I may need to clear out cookies!

Sorry for your troubles but hopefully Nissan Customer Service can help you out --- BTW, as there is a backlog of people who want these and it looks like most dealers are getting a very small monthly allotment (in some cases 1 LEAF/month) I really can't see ANY reason for a non-refundable deposit; what happens if you simply don't like the car, the dealer gets your $500 and you walk away --- that's just not right?

UPDATE: just saw the last post, plan to edit Libetyville as requiring a deposit, as far as I know McGrath and Martin do not require this so it should be noted
 
bigtlb said:
The dashboard said they should have placed the quote within 24 hours, but they said they were having issues with their dealers' dashboard. They wanted me to come in and sign their sales order instead. I told them make it appear on my dashboard or I would switch dealers.

They finally got their act together. I don't really begrudge them their $500 deposit. They want to see ernest buyers, not looky-loos.

bigtlb: What seems to be consistent in our dealings with Libertyville is that they are, or pretend to be, confused about the online ordering process and want you to come into the dealership in person to make the order happen. Getting customers into the dealership and keeping them there until they are ready to deal with them is what car salesmen are trained to do because it strengthens their negotiating position. And since their product is inferior to that of the competition ($500 deposit) they need to do that in order to make the sale. That is why I suspect that the confusion part is intentional. Just my 2 cents.
 
My $0.02... I would not do business with a dealer like that. Fortunately, I do not live in that neighborhood! :?
 
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