Legal advice regarding Warranty ripoff?

Please read my story and tell me if you have any advice about what I should do about suing this car dealer.

I bought a VW Passat from a dealer and was offered a warranty, I paid $1000 for this warranty and was given a service contract, two months later, I had some problems with the car(the rear window motor stopped working and the CV joints wore out) and called the warranty company about fixing the problem, I was told that I had no warranty at all, despite the contract I had from the dealer saying I had a warranty, I called the dealer and was given some shady story about the dealer forgetting to send in the money for the warranty. Three days later, after repeat calls to the dealer, he somehow managed to get the Warranty company to pay to fix the car's problem and I was given a different contract number.

Soon after this, I had another and more serious problem with the car, the O2 sensor and Mass Air flow sensor went bad, the car started spewing a lot of thick black gas when I drove it and was burning gas at a rate of 9 miles per gallon bcuz it was running very rich. I called the Warranty company and was told that the dealer still had not sent in the money for my warranty and they had fixed the previous problem bcuz the dealer had promised to send the money in, but this time they would not fix it unless they got their money. I went thru three more weeks of driving the car like this before the warranty company agreed to fix it based on another promise from the dealer. During this three weeks I still had to drive the car, it was miserable bcuz you could smell the thick exhaust smoke inside the car, I had a pregnant wife and my baby son in the car also. At the VW dealership I was advised not to drive the car bcuz of the toxic smoke, I was told driving the car was the same thing as locking yourself in a garage with the car running. During this period I also went to talk to a lawyer who advised me that he could write a letter to the dealer but he didn't think the case was worth taking to court. Later on the car was totalled in an accident, on the warranty contract it was stated that if for any reason the warranty was cancelled before it expired you would get some of your money back but when I called the warranty company, I was told they never got any of the money, the dealer had simply given me a contract that was worthless and stuck my money in his pocket.

I have decided to take the dealer to small claims court even though I've been told this is a waste of time I will not get anything out of it, I don't want the dealer to be able to do this to someone else again and from speaking to the lawyer I was told this is something that happens a lot, I also can never forget or forgive the dealer for what I had to go thru which is my family breathing in that thick smoke while he kept my money for his own personal use. It's fraud and I'm not gonna let him get away with it.

[el presidente]

Best advice....contact Clark Howard.

Then the Governor's Office for Consumer Affairs. They may both be able to offer some low-cost advice on how to best handle your individual situation.

Hope this helps!

What I need from my fellow Mercedes shop posters is advice on how to go about suing the dealer, I am going thru the process of finding out who owns the dealership since this is who I have to sue, and I have also got the documents I need for small claims court. I also have the bill of sale showing where I paid $1000 for the warranty and the invalid contract.

What else do I need before I send the documents back to the small claims court. Any advice you can give me is appreciated. I will be suing to get part of the warranty money back since the dealer kept it for himself, I also want to be compensated for my family having to ride around in a muffler, and hopefully be able to bring some kind of attention to this scam that dealers perpetrate on customers.

Thank you, any advice will help

Thanks Steve, I intend to contact Clark Howard, the Governor's office hasn't exactly been helpful but it might just be the person I spoke to, I'll try them again.

[Ashman]

contact the local tv stations, and tell them your story, I have seen this action get better results.

I would definately raise hell myself, contact the BBB, local media, and the governors office as well reporting your complaint.

As far as legal advice, I would suggest you make sure you have all of the evidence, and I would speak to the warranty company and ask them to confirm in wirting that they never received the money from the dealer for the warranty.

Alon

[engatwork]

Wow Van - make sure you only mail out photocopies of any documentation associated with this ordeal. You do not want to lose any of it. I have to agree - get in touch with one of the local tv stations that expose this kind of stuff. Also, do you have letters/documentation from the warrenty company saying they never received the $$$.

I don't want to hijack the post but I stopped and helped a lady and her daughter this week in a VW Jetta - looked like a fairly new car. She said it had made a noise and stopped. I told her it sounded like a timing belt (the car was showing 75k miles). Anyway, she called a towing service and had it towed to the local VW dealer who told her it would take a new $3500 engine (it was the timing belt) - wowzer. You would not happen to have the engine from that totaled car available would you?

Call the Police he committed fraud. The prosecuter will get his attention. Not doing what is promised is one thing, but taking ones money in a transaction and not paying another party as agreed in the contract is fraud over 1k is a felony for sure. Email me if you would like to know a dirty little trick that stops A-holes in thier tracks.

Hello Alon,

That's a good idea, I will ask the warranty company to mail me something saying they never got the money, they are out of town and not so cooperative but I will try.

Hello Jim,
I will hold on to the original copies, the car was wrecked a couple of months ago and now belongs to a salvage company, VWs are expensive cars to fix despite how cheap they are. Most parts are expensive.

I will see about getting some documents from the warranty company.

Thanks for the advice, keep it coming

I plan to notify the tv stations or any media outlet that will listen after I file the lawsuit, this happened almost a year ago but I've been too busy to pursue the lawsuit angle but every time I think about it, I get pissed that this guy screwed me over and got away with it.

He acted like he was doing me a favor during the whole ordeal, no apologies or taking responsibility, he kept telling me there's nothing more he could do and that this wasn't his problem, till I told him he would be hearing from my lawyer.

I'm very sure I'm not the only one this has happened to but I want to make sure I'm one of the last ones, he picked the wrong person to rip off.

As pissed as I am, I don't want to see him arrested--I'll feel guilty--but I'll make sure he doesn't do this again.

I'll keep you guys informed on the case

[Bob I]

I'd have this crook arrested if you want to improve the odds of him not doing it again.

If you go the lawsuit route you might see if the following option is available. Many years ago I had to use the small claims court system to get an insurance company to properly settle a claim. For an additional fee, the sheriff would serve the supoena in person. I had them serve both the insurance company adjustor and the head of the local office. That seemed to get their attention and I figured even if it only slightly embarrassed them it was worth it!

[tjohn]

I don't know if it's different in Georgia small claims court than in Virginia (it may well be), but when I sued a car dealer I needed to subpoena the people in for live testimony - in other words, I had to call the dealer as my witness and show him the contract, get him to admit that it was his, and he'd received the money, and that he'd sold the car. Then I had to call the mechanic who found that the the car hadn't been properly repaired, and so on. The judge wouldn't consider the written documents without the live witnesses because he said they were hearsay. Stay with it, I won a $15,000 judgment in my case. (Of course getting the money is a whole different story...)

Good Luck

Hello Bob,

Even though I dislike the dealer, I don't like the idea of putting someone in jail but on the other hand, you made a good point that putting him in jail will teach him not to do this again. I will probably have the sheriff give him the subpeona even though I would miss the pleasure of seeing his face when he gets it.

Hi John,

From what I heard, most of the time you never get the money if you win your case but in Georgia, I believe you can put some kind of lien on the business if they don't pay up. The only witness I have is the mechanic, the warranty company is located in another state and to subpeona them to come down to Georgia would probably require me getting a lawyer.

OK

Tell him you want the money and he refuses you will notify the police of fraud.

Let him have a chance to annie up before he goes to jail. I bet he will choose to pay.