Odd dealer request after sale: can you send in an additional payment....
12-11-2008, 06:09 PM
#1
Drifting
Thread Starter
Odd dealer request after sale: can you send in an additional payment....
This is strange...
Car purchased and paid for. Now, 3 weeks later, I get a letter from the Porsche dealer stating something along the lines of :" we do our best to estimate but got the licensing/registration cost wrong, could you send in an additional $60 with the enclosed envelope".
I'm not familiar with the intricacies of car transfer laws, but given I just purchased a $100k+ car, should not the dealer just take the less than $100 difference out of their profit on the car (which was purchased at 3% off of MSRP) ?
Or is there some legal reason that they could not do this?
I guess, I'm a bit insulted by the request by the dealer.
Car purchased and paid for. Now, 3 weeks later, I get a letter from the Porsche dealer stating something along the lines of :" we do our best to estimate but got the licensing/registration cost wrong, could you send in an additional $60 with the enclosed envelope".
I'm not familiar with the intricacies of car transfer laws, but given I just purchased a $100k+ car, should not the dealer just take the less than $100 difference out of their profit on the car (which was purchased at 3% off of MSRP) ?
Or is there some legal reason that they could not do this?
I guess, I'm a bit insulted by the request by the dealer.
12-11-2008, 09:07 PM
#2
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I'd call the salesman and ask him "WTF?" as long as there was no caveat on the sales documents that the licensing/registration was an estimate, and final price was subject to change. Could be some fool in their business office is just being stupid and the salesman will take care of it.
Assuming you've already got your permanent tags then you can tell them to eat it. But do it nicely so you don't have any warranty/service issues with them later.
Assuming you've already got your permanent tags then you can tell them to eat it. But do it nicely so you don't have any warranty/service issues with them later.
12-12-2008, 04:55 PM
#3
Drifting
Thread Starter
I've got the permanent tags on the car, the documents were signed and the full payment per the sales contract made weeks ago. There were the usual documents in there that indicate: nothing agreed to in writing is owed by the dealership and no fixes/other issues are promised as part of this deal.
I'll have to go back and look at the exact figures on the contract,.. my suspicion is they got the license/registration fees wrong... and it would then have been wrong an a slew of price updates I requested over the 4-5 months of the ordering process I suspect.
Its a matter of principle I think.
I'll have to go back and look at the exact figures on the contract,.. my suspicion is they got the license/registration fees wrong... and it would then have been wrong an a slew of price updates I requested over the 4-5 months of the ordering process I suspect.
Its a matter of principle I think.
12-19-2008, 09:24 AM
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It could be someone made an honest mistake too. I'd check my paperwork and if they're claim is legitimate ( they thought it was $60 but it was $120) I'd give it to them. Sometimes states change the cost of registrations quickly, if they didn't pad it I'd pay it.
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01-01-2009, 05:31 PM
#8
Drifting
Thread Starter
Resolution
Just to close the loop. I did contact the salesman about this, asking what caused the difference, and he replied that I should just ignore the request. I'm assuming he took care of it at the dealership.
Part of me indeed wanted to pay the difference if it was the result of a mistake in the registration/licensing line item of the bill; the other parts were opposed, as the $60 is such a tiny amount in the profit margin on the $105k car, it just seemed odd that they even send such a request. That and the various documents that were signed on the purchase date that the deal was the deal and nothing not in writing on this paperwork would need to be honored, etc, etc etc (all CYA for the dealership... which I do quite understand as being necessary.. but it cuts both ways).
In the end, I think the dealer salesman, I'm guessing, covered the $60 from the thousands in commission he earned or from the sales depts profit. I'd imagine the back office group doing the registration needs their books squared and so someone needed to give them the $60, be it the buyer (me) or the sales dept.
The theory of getting coffee on the way to work is a nice thought, but the dealership is about an hour and a half out of the way (one way) from my home to my office.. and would add 3 1/2 hours total to my morning commute. Now if the speed limit on the interstate was similar to autobahn driving, ... then that might not be a bad thing.
Part of me indeed wanted to pay the difference if it was the result of a mistake in the registration/licensing line item of the bill; the other parts were opposed, as the $60 is such a tiny amount in the profit margin on the $105k car, it just seemed odd that they even send such a request. That and the various documents that were signed on the purchase date that the deal was the deal and nothing not in writing on this paperwork would need to be honored, etc, etc etc (all CYA for the dealership... which I do quite understand as being necessary.. but it cuts both ways).
In the end, I think the dealer salesman, I'm guessing, covered the $60 from the thousands in commission he earned or from the sales depts profit. I'd imagine the back office group doing the registration needs their books squared and so someone needed to give them the $60, be it the buyer (me) or the sales dept.
The theory of getting coffee on the way to work is a nice thought, but the dealership is about an hour and a half out of the way (one way) from my home to my office.. and would add 3 1/2 hours total to my morning commute. Now if the speed limit on the interstate was similar to autobahn driving, ... then that might not be a bad thing.
01-08-2009, 01:16 AM
#10
Drifting
I could understand the dealership making a mistake.
If it was profit driven, they should just waive it.
But if it's an expense where they have nothing to gain or lose from it, then I would probably go ahead and pay it.
In other words, the dealership isn't charging you registration and licensing, they are just facilitating it. As such, they're not giving up a profit but realizing a loss.
it would be different, say for example, they didn't charge you for floor mats but they gave them to you anyway. That's a Porsche part, Porsche expense.
The registration license fee is not something they make a profit on and if there was a miscalculation I see nothing wrong with asking the purchaser to take care of that sort of expense..
Am I making sense here?
If it was profit driven, they should just waive it.
But if it's an expense where they have nothing to gain or lose from it, then I would probably go ahead and pay it.
In other words, the dealership isn't charging you registration and licensing, they are just facilitating it. As such, they're not giving up a profit but realizing a loss.
it would be different, say for example, they didn't charge you for floor mats but they gave them to you anyway. That's a Porsche part, Porsche expense.
The registration license fee is not something they make a profit on and if there was a miscalculation I see nothing wrong with asking the purchaser to take care of that sort of expense..
Am I making sense here?
