Beware of Laura GMC.

NoOne65 · July 7, 2023

I deposited $1000.00 on June 16th with Laura GMC to secure a new truck that I purchased on June 17th. At the closing I was assured that my credit card would be promptly refunded the $1000.00. When I received my credit card statement on July 1st I noticed that the charge was still there. I contacted my salesman regarding this matter and was assured it would be refunded that day.

The next day it wasn't refunded and I contacted my salesman once again. He stated that he went straight to the finance guy to get it refunded, and he would go to his office to get it taken care of. On July 5th the charge was still there and I contacted my salesman once again to get this refunded. He stated that the finance guy was on vacation and he was going to go to someone else to get this refunded.

It's now July, 7th and still no refund. I had to contact my credit card company and go through the hassle of disputing this charge. I'm not a happy camper, and will not be purchasing any more trucks from this dealership. I know there are alot of Laura Fanboys here that are going to say how great they are, but I wanted to warn anyone of considering purchasing a vehicle from this dealership what I had to deal with regarding my deposit.

newdude · July 7, 2023

Are you sure they just didn't roll the deposit into the truck? Did you explicitly ask for the deposit back?

I can see them refunding you if you backed out of the deal, but you bought the truck so did they just roll that $1000 into the deal towards the truck?

Might want to double check your paperwork.

Edited July 7, 2023 by newdude

Dirk13 · July 7, 2023

14 minutes ago, newdude said:

Are you sure they just didn't roll the deposit into the truck? Did you explicitly ask for the deposit back?

I can see them refunding you if you backed out of the deal, but you bought the truck so did they just roll that $1000 into the deal towards the truck?

Might want to double check your paperwork.

Definitely need to look at your paperwork since this is typically how it goes.

NoOne65 · July 7, 2023

I specifically stated during closing that I wanted the $1000.00 refunded back to my credit card.

BB68 · July 7, 2023

With as many vehicles they sell, if this was a routine strategy we would have seen someone report it way before this.

Even with losing 1k its a better deal than I received locally. I would have went there but NHT were out of stock everywhere

Anacortes Army Guy · July 8, 2023

17 hours ago, NoOne65 said:

I specifically stated during closing that I wanted the $1000.00 refunded back to my credit card.

For what it's worth, in over fifty years of buying vehicles, I've never seen a deposit, regardless of how it's paid for (cash/check, or credit card), refunded back to the buyer as a part of the transaction, but as others have said, it's always been applied to the overall purchase agreement/contract. Why would you want it refunded?

Edited July 8, 2023 by Anacortes Army Guy
Correction

bdallas · July 8, 2023

15 hours ago, Anacortes Army Guy said:

For what it's worth, in over fifty years of buying vehicles, I've never seen a deposit, regardless of how it's paid for (cash/check, or credit card), refunded back to the buyer as a part of the transaction, but as others have said, it's always been applied to the overall purchase agreement/contract. Why would you want it refunded?

This exact situation played out for me last weekend. Put $1K deposit with my credit card on a used car (for my son) on Saturday to hold until Monday. In all honesty, the salesman did offer to refund the card or apply to the purchase. I said, "I'll keep the credit card points and apply that deposit to the purchase, thank you very much!"

NoOne65 · July 8, 2023

I wanted it refunded because 0.9% financing is cheap money. I even finance the sales tax at that rate.

BB68 · July 8, 2023

8 hours ago, bdallas said:

This exact situation played out for me last weekend. Put $1K deposit with my credit card on a used car (for my son) on Saturday to hold until Monday. In all honesty, the salesman did offer to refund the card or apply to the purchase. I said, "I'll keep the credit card points and apply that deposit to the purchase, thank you very much!"

I've bought my kids cars on my GM card because the rewards were worth more than the CC fee

TxTruckMan · July 9, 2023

People make the biggest deals over the stupidest stuff. One mistake over a refund and you’re warning people against using a dealership? By your logic every store in the country should be out of business. Geesh.

dieselfan1 · July 9, 2023

4 minutes ago, TxTruckMan said:

People make the biggest deals over the stupidest stuff. One mistake over a refund and you’re warning people against using a dealership? By your logic every store in the country should be out of business. Geesh.

No $hit. Big deal a thousand bucks. Get over yourself.

Z45 · July 9, 2023

I am surprised they would accept a credit card at all on a motor vehicle even for a deposit, due to possible charge-back. I tried that once in Michigan but they would not take a credit card. This almost always results in a fee to the merchant by CC company. Chargeback if often used to defraud the merchant as they have discovered, some CC issue it without substantiation. I know, I accept CC and been warned by my service provider on chargebacks.

Quote

When a customer decides to dispute a charge made to their debit or credit card, it is referred to as a chargeback. The chargeback initially results in the debit or credit card charge being reversed and the funds that you received for the payment being returned to the customer.

NoOne65 · July 9, 2023

Posted 7 hours ago

People make the biggest deals over the stupidest stuff. One mistake over a refund and you’re warning people against using a dealership? By your logic every store in the country should be out of business. Geesh.

Really? I've contacted them three times over a two week period requesting that my credit card be refunded. Each time I was assured that it would be done promptly. Do I believe they do this to everyone that deposits for a new vehicle? No. Do I think this may have happened in the past to someone who has purchased a vehicle here and then overlooked their credit card statement and paid an extra $1000.00 for their vehicle? Possibly.

They sell 700 new GMC's per month. They have great deals. I'm not warning people against using them. Just a word of caution if you do. I guess your expectations of professionalism in expensive transactions differ from mine.

TxTruckMan · July 10, 2023

4 hours ago, NoOne65 said:

Posted 7 hours ago

People make the biggest deals over the stupidest stuff. One mistake over a refund and you’re warning people against using a dealership? By your logic every store in the country should be out of business. Geesh.

Really? I've contacted them three times over a two week period requesting that my credit card be refunded. Each time I was assured that it would be done promptly. Do I believe they do this to everyone that deposits for a new vehicle? No. Do I think this may have happened in the past to someone who has purchased a vehicle here and then overlooked their credit card statement and paid an extra $1000.00 for their vehicle? Possibly.

They sell 700 new GMC's per month. They have great deals. I'm not warning people against using them. Just a word of caution if you do. I guess your expectations of professionalism in expensive transactions differ from mine.

You went to the Walmart of car dealerships and you had expectations of professionalism? Lol. Another example of you get what you pay for. Best of luck!

Mshawn · July 17, 2023

On 7/9/2023 at 11:23 AM, TxTruckMan said:

People make the biggest deals over the stupidest stuff. One mistake over a refund and you’re warning people against using a dealership? By your logic every store in the country should be out of business. Geesh.

Yeah!! Car salesman never lie!!!!!!! What is that wimp whining about!!!!