Refund on cancelled order

[stevenmcdonald256]

Anyone have trouble getting a refund after cancelling an order. I left a deposit when I ordered three weeks ago and the order has still not been accepted. I found a Yukon XL I could live with and bought it however the dealer I ordered from told me no refund. What a load of crap.

 

[genestoy]

Get in touch with the general manager or owner of the dealership, bypass the sales dept completely.

 

[firsttimetahoe]

You must have signed something. Read the fine print.

 

[PaulGA]

I found that a ton of dealers I talked to were forcing non refundable deposits and blamed the fact that people were putting deposits on multiple vehicles and just buying whichever showed up first.

I call BS because all of the dealers kept saying “put a deposit down now or the car will sell immediately to someone else” if that’s the case, why would it matter if you refund our deposits?

I feel it’s just another racket to make them even more money on top of the “market adjustment“ and ”dealer add ons”

 

[todayusay]

ordered a Ram 3500 - out of state dealer that is heavily discounting them...required a $1k NON-refundable deposit, they've recently even changed their policies of not accepting the deposit by credit card as some buyers started contesting the charges when they wanted to back out. Ram will ding the dealer if they sell a pre sold vehicle to someone that isn't on the original order - which is the reason they are doing it...

All conversations with GM dealers over the past few months (both chevy and gmc) they either didn't have a required deposit or they were all refundable...and only recently have i heard that GM dealers may have their future allocations impacted if they don't sell the vehicle to the person on the order

I 100% would be in the camp of placing multiple orders - but to do it with the understanding you probably aren't going to be buying everything you roder so if they require a deposit - make sure you will be able to get your money back.

Hopefully you have something in writing

Its also likely they are trying to keep their order numbers up and try and keep you in their order bank...

granted this isn't the same situation, but back to the Ram dealer...there are numerous people that actually agreed to forfeit $1-2K in deposits at their local dealer selling at MSRP in order to place an order at another dealer selling at $8-10K off

 

[PaulGA]

I had to sign a form stating my deposit was non-refundable. Ironically, the dealer forgot to apply this deposit to my purchase and they wound up refunding my credit card deposit anyway.

Out of the ten or so dealers I called, I only found 2 GMC dealers in Virginia that didn’t require deposits, others that I called in the Carolinas or Georgia or Arkansas (where I wound up getting it from) required non-refundable deposits.

 

[stevenmcdonald256]

Low and behold they reversed the charge a few minutes after I posted this. If the order was actually accepted I would have maybe understood but bottom line they will sell whatever hits the dealership….

 

[Cryptocap]

Low and behold they reversed the charge a few minutes after I posted this. If the order was actually accepted I would have maybe understood but bottom line they will sell whatever hits the dealership….

Glad they did that. I had to go in and talk to someone to get my deposit back. I made sure at the beginning to ask if it was refundable, since the would be able to sell it anyway. If they didn’t I would have disputed the charge on my credit card.

 

[firsttimetahoe]

All conversations with GM dealers over the past few months (both chevy and gmc) they either didn't have a required deposit or they were all refundable...and only recently have i heard that GM dealers may have their future allocations impacted if they don't sell the vehicle to the person on the order

I 100% would be in the camp of placing multiple orders - but to do it with the understanding you probably aren't going to be buying everything you roder so if they require a deposit - make sure you will be able to get your money back.

You’re endorsing what is exactly part of the problem.

If everyone places multiple orders, that’ll leave at least 1 dealer penalized during every transaction.

So rather the dealer hopes they are the buyer’s only order or will be able to get them their order faster than any other dealer, they’re just going to eventually do what’s in their best interest and sell the car immediately to someone as soon as it comes in.

At that point they may have 2 phone calls to make….

1. Hello buyer, your car came in. You have until tomorrow to sign or It’ll hit the lot and I can’t guarantee it’ll be there the next day for you. Im sorry but people have been ordering multiple cars through multiple dealers and I have to do what’s in my best interest because I didn’t know if you still were willing to go through with the deal.

2. Hello buyer, your car came in. Oh you’re no longer interested? And you want your refund back? May I ask why? Oh you already got the car from XYZ. Oh okay. Well I’ll be sure to process your refund.

If I’ve been fleeced by numerous buyers and i’m a dealer, why wouldn’t I do that? I did my part, I accepted your order, I submitted it when I could. It’s out of my hands.

Frankly - if you’re custom ordering a car you should have some sort of commitment to purchasing that car. I understand things change. Obviously if there are delays and you want to back out, you should be able to. But to submit multiple orders and then back out…it adds to the issue.

 

[todayusay]

You’re endorsing what is exactly part of the problem.

If everyone places multiple orders, that’ll leave at least 1 dealer penalized during every transaction.

So rather the dealer hopes they are the buyer’s only order or will be able to get them their order faster than any other dealer, they’re just going to eventually do what’s in their best interest and sell the car immediately to someone as soon as it comes in.

At that point they may have 2 phone calls to make….

1. Hello buyer, your car came in. You have until tomorrow to sign or It’ll hit the lot and I can’t guarantee it’ll be there the next day for you. Im sorry but people have been ordering multiple cars through multiple dealers and I have to do what’s in my best interest because I didn’t know if you still were willing to go through with the deal.

2. Hello buyer, your car came in. Oh you’re no longer interested? And you want your refund back? May I ask why? Oh you already got the car from XYZ. Oh okay. Well I’ll be sure to process your refund.

If I’ve been fleeced by numerous buyers and i’m a dealer, why wouldn’t I do that? I did my part, I accepted your order, I submitted it when I could. It’s out of my hands.

Frankly - if you’re custom ordering a car you should have some sort of commitment to purchasing that car. I understand things change. Obviously if there are delays and you want to back out, you should be able to. But to submit multiple orders and then back out…it adds to the issue.

yeah not sure someone “backing out” of an order is even a minimal factor in the fact GM doesn’t have their ordering process worked out

Ordered an AT4 with the tech package and RSE the first week of December. I didn't even know that RSE was on constraint when we ordered. After a month of research, I asked the dealer in mid-Jan where we were at on the build. They said that RSE wasn't going to be available for the rest of 22MY and that it would either never be built or they'd try and process it as a 2023 model.

Ordered a basic Z71 tahoe 15 mins after they told me this. That Tahoe still hasn't been accepted 2.5 months later.

Also placed an identical Z71 order (that same day) with a different dealership an hour away and it was built last week.

I can be as committed to buying one as the next guy, but if a dealer can't even give a possible timeline of when to expect the vehicle when the order is placed, how committed can I actually be? I'm committed to buying it sometime in the next 3 - 15 months? Or maybe never if I'm like 99% of the rest of the population that doesn't understand constraints, allocations and TPWs so I don't know the right questions to ask?

First world problems for sure, but we have a 2021 AT4 that has been in the shop 17x over the past year. About 2 months past ready to get rid of it.

Until GM dealers are actually "harmed" by not selling to the person on the original order, I'd imagine that most dealers would PREFER the buyer to back out since most charge a market adjustment for Tahoes/Yukons on the lot...maybe the tide is changing in that regard. It I haven’t really seen any atahoes in the lot being sold for sticker. If/when GM starts to ding dealers for not selling to the person that placed the order, then dealers will need to place stipulations to protect themselves.

Ultimately it's GM's ordering process that is causing this mess; why in the world would they have it set up where customers can place orders that may not be accepted for months?

Ram's ordering system wouldn’t allow the dealer to place an order that has a constrained item. When ordering last year, my build was accepted in less than a minute and the dealer said they were telling customers to expect 16-20 weeks...some had been sooner and some later but that was the timeframe they were giving. My truck showed up in 12 weeks. Don't know what the other brands are doing but my local Honda dealer said that Honda doesn't accommodate customer orders.

End of the day, if you're wanting to order, unless your dealer can guarantee they have a current allocation, your just hoping you hit the perverbial "allocation lottery" by not placing multiple orders...just my opinion

 

[todayusay]

as far as a dealer requesting prompt payment, a day is a little short, but most won’t allow it to sit for more than several days. Was required to complete my paperwork in four days on the Ram 3500 in order to keep the price quoted at the initial order date (price protection)… MSRP went up $2800 during the 12 weeks which didn’t come in play…some dealers either didn’t want to or didn’t know how to even apply this program in order to protect the buyer

 

[firsttimetahoe]

Ultimately it's GM's ordering process that is causing this mess; why in the world would they have it set up where customers can place orders that may not be accepted for months?

Ram's ordering system wouldn’t allow the dealer to place an order that has a constrained item.

The majority of times this happens is because the ordering manager never actually submits your order, because they know something something the customer ordered is on constraint. They’re not going to waste an allocation on something GM won’t accept. The ordering manager really should be the only
person who you talk to when you go to buy a car. But that’s not how the dealership model is set up for the most part. You may build an entire car with your salesman, he has no idea what on constraint and at the end of the week the ordering manager is entering everything into their system and he gets to your order, enters everything, notices what on constraint and he just doesn’t do anything else.

And I agree with you that dealers aren’t helping most customers themselves either. They don’t always provide key info, like what’s on constraint, that may cause a delay for months. If that’s what is holding you up from being in their next allocation when it’s your turn, they should tell you ASAP to make that decision - do you want to drop it or do you want to leave it.

But it’s also not always in their control since it changes week to week. So unless your order is being submitted ASAP because they have an immediate allocation, they have no way of knowing what may be on constraint by the time you’re in their next allocation.

It’s a complete mess. But it works both ways because when you get a bunch of customers placing simultaneous orders, it’s not shocking that dealers are going to tell customers your car isn’t guaranteed to be yours unless you buy it immediately.

 

[smokey_mountain]

Process is broken on many fronts - once the order is placed with the dealer, months go by and all GM tells the customer that "your dealer placed the order but GM did not accept it..." what does it even mean? What is the ETA? Dealer tells me that they do not know, GM says they do not know... We (the customers) are now left to self serve even the order placing, many already service their vehicle as they are afraid that dealers will mess things up during the routine maintenance. Perhaps, direct to customer model is not that surreal anymore.

 

[todayusay]

From the dealers’ persepctive, I wouldnt want to take a bunch of random orders that I know won’t be filled anytime soon, but there are a lot out there doing it. Of course who knows if having their order bank chock full of orders may impact allocations….as in why give a dealer an allocation if it‘s possible it may not get filled?

 

[Randy2876]

Anyone have trouble getting a refund after cancelling an order. I left a deposit when I ordered three weeks ago and the order has still not been accepted. I found a Yukon XL I could live with and bought it however the dealer I ordered from told me no refund. What a load of crap.

I cancelled my order after waiting 5 months and still at 1100. It took several emails and phone calls, but I did finally receive a refund on my deposit.

 

[OR VietVet]

Low and behold they reversed the charge a few minutes after I posted this. If the order was actually accepted I would have maybe understood but bottom line they will sell whatever hits the dealership….

You did not answer the question. Did you sign anything and did it say "non-refundable"?

 

[chevylade]

It’s questionable if you have a valid contract if GM hasn’t accepted the order. They can’t keep the deposit if you don’t have a valid contract.

 

[firsttimetahoe]

It’s questionable if you have a valid contract if GM hasn’t accepted the order. They can’t keep the deposit if you don’t have a valid contract.

True, but if a dealer officially submitted your order to GM with one of their allocations, and it just so happens something you ordered is on constraint (which is why GM didn’t accept the order)….the dealer is losing out by not ordering something else that’s not on constraint that they could actually get accepted and sell….

So it works both ways.

I think it’s crazy you can actually custom order a car where there is a refundable deposit and you can backout whenever. And do it at multiple dealerships

But if it’s non-refundable- I agree there should be some sort of stipulation that allows a customer to cancel and get A refund, Like for example the order is never accepted by GM after X amount of time

 

[todayusay]

True, but if a dealer officially submitted your order to GM with one of their allocations, and it just so happens something you ordered is on constraint (which is why GM didn’t accept the order)….the dealer is losing out by not ordering something else that’s not on constraint that they could actually get accepted and sell….

So it works both ways.

I think it’s crazy you can actually custom order a car where there is a refundable deposit and you can backout whenever. And do it at multiple dealerships

But if it’s non-refundable- I agree there should be some sort of stipulation that allows a customer to cancel and get A refund, Like for example the order is never accepted by GM after X amount of time

If there was a true commitment to buy (contractually), then there wouldn’t be the additional opportunities of being given the ole run-a-round….

of course if there was the contractual commitment on the buyers side, then there (should) be a similar contractual commitment to sell on the dealer‘s side as well. Which as others have experienced, dealers are enforcing stipulations that either aren’t documented or what most would consider unreasonable…

in what instance should a dealer be requiring a buyer to fully purchase a vehicle before it even arrives at the dealership…or when it arrives tell the buyer they have x amount of time to “buy it” or they’ll sell it to someone else?

buyers are abiding by these dealers’ demands because they know if they don’t, then they’ll miss out on that vehicle and their next opportunity to buy one/order one may be 6 months down the road.

 

[firsttimetahoe]

in what instance should a dealer be requiring a buyer to fully purchase a vehicle before it even arrives at the dealership…or when it arrives tell the buyer they have x amount of time to “buy it” or they’ll sell it to someone else?

Never. That should be illegal. You should be able to inspect the car before you sign. Never make payments and take ownership for something that won’t be in your possession.

There should be a reasonable time for you to complete the paperwork once the car arrives at the dealer. Obviously 24-48 hours is ridiculous. But unless you’re on vacation or have an emergency, you shouldn’t be given more than a week

I think most car salesman and dealers are awful. And too many people have bad experiences. And yes, they lie to you. But placing all of these orders at different dealers because you’re trying to get the car made the quickest Certaintly adds fuel to the fire.