Now that Bill Heard’s Chevy-heavy dealership chain has entered Chapter 11, thanks to gas prices the consumer credit squeeze the economic meltdown increased floorplan costs the owner’s greed, avarice and criminal business practices, you’d think it was time for the pain to stop. As if. The Georgia Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs has issued a postmortem Consumer Alert. As much-missed tipster Frank Williams puts it, “apparently, Bill heard is screwing over some customers when it comes to paying off their trade-ins.” More technically, “If you are a consumer who has recently purchased a vehicle from one of these dealerships, and traded in a car or truck as part of this purchase, but the dealership has failed to pay off your trade-in, you may have some recourse under what is known as the Federal Trade Commission’s “holder” rule, 16 CFR 433.” How screwed are these people? How would you like to be looking at the following advice?
“First, contact the company that is financing your trade-in, and explain the circumstances, that the car you are financing with them should have been paid off by Bill Heard, and that the car is physically in Bill Heard’s possession. Provide any documentation to this effect (such as any contracts you have signed with Bill Heard) to the finance company, and be able to provide the street address and phone number of the dealership. Ask them to work with you so that the situation does not negatively impact your credit, if, for instance, there are outstanding payments owed on the trade-in vehicle due to Heard’s failure to make the pay-off. Remember that you are still legally, contractually bound to make payments to the finance company on your trade-in, even though Bill Heard has taken possession of it. You are also legally responsible to maintain insurance on the vehicle.”
Question: do you think Honda or Toyota would have knowingly allowed their dealers to get away with this shit? Do you think GM execs were oblivious to the lawsuits, judgements and penalties against “Mr Volume?” Once again, I smell a class action lawsuit against GM on this one.
This is the kind of stuff which can make a normally mild mannered consumer spitting mad, and for good reason. For all the Detroit fanboys pleading for good patriotic Americans to give the home team another chance, you only need to look at the depressingly common stories like this to know why for many the chant has become: burn, baby, burn.
Question: do you think Honda or Toyota would have knowingly allowed their dealers to get away with this shit?
I have bought from three different Honda dealers, and I doubt they’re any more honest then other dealers I’ve worked with. The first one I’d never do business with them ever again!
Airhen :
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve vowed never to darken my (Warwick, RI) Honda dealer’s door again, as long as I live.
But Bill Heard was little more than a criminal enterprise, with thousands of consumer complaints, lawsuits and numerous regulatory actions against it (which is saying something, considering Ole Bill’s political pull).
I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that GM received hundreds of letters from screwed customers asking them to intervene.
They never did.
The dealer is the weak link in the auto sales chain. Import or domestic – there are no shortage of examples.
I was even once sued my a dealer for not paying enough months after I bought the car! Really.
Bill Heard Enterprises file for bankuptcy, which will make extracting money for them even more difficult.
To add insult to injury, several of the employess’ final paychecks were made out of rubber.
I really feel sorry for anyone who got the shaft by this outfit.
Interestingly, another dealer has started advertising that they are have the “largest Chevy inventory within 100 miles”.
The thing about Honda is that the car is good enough that you’ll put up with a certain amount of dealer abuse in order to get one. GM doesn’t have that advantage.
Of course Honda and Toyota would let their dealers get away with this shit. Both Japanese companies are terrified of the US legal system and will do anything to avoid litigation or any semblance of legal conflict.
Read the book, “Arrogance and Accords”. American Honda was involved in the largest commercial corruption case in US history. The book was written by an American Honda executive who had direct, personal knowledge of the corrupt actions.
Someone at GM needs to learn from the Saturn (or Lexus) experience. Both brands have customer-satisfaction ratings well above the industry average (and in Saturn’s case, well above their product’s performance) and a lot of that is due to their dealer/customer policies.
First off, what rock have these people been living under to have dealt with Bill Heard in the first place? I never stepped foot in any of his dealerships due to the rotten practices of this criminal. They were well-publicized. And yes, of course GM knew about it. They did nothing. They even gave them an award or two for being a top dealer of some sort if I remember right.
The antiquated relationship of dealer and vehicle manufacturer to consumer is one where only the consumer loses. GM will, of course, indirectly lose some business due to people who get screwed by a Heard dealership. They need to lose a lot more than just future business. They are as much to blame as Heard. Look out or he’ll be selling Volts in the future under a different name.
@UncleBo: I had forgotten about Arrogance and Accords. That was a really good book. A lot of what Honda did was “burning warranty cards” by counting vehicles as sold before the vehicle was actually sold to inflate sales number, which was probably more widespread through the industry than just Honda.
One irony in all this is that the domestic and import dealers – the Dealer Principals that is – are all the same guys.
…these are the men (mostly) or women that actually own the business.
When Honda, Toyota et al began importing cars to the US, they didn’t import dealers with them.
They gave franchises to existing good ol’ boy ‘Merican dealers who had Big 3 franchises. In some cases – well, at least one that that I know of firsthand – they gave franchises to guys running used car lots.
Regarding the comment above about the Honda scandal. At the center of that was Rick Hendrick, he of NASCAR royalty and longtime owner of a high volume (and no doubt high pressure) Chevy store in Charlotte. He is/was one of, if not the, biggest Honda dealer in the country.
Why a perceived difference then b/w treatment at import and domestic dealerships? My bet is that the imports have strict dealer sales and service agreements (the contract b/w the OE and the dealer operator) that they actually enforce.
The domestics all have strongly worded agreements … they just don’t enforce them.
Of course the imports have the advantage of having profitable, in-demand franchises which give them all the leverage they need w/the dealer.
What Regional Sales Mgr at GM (or Ford or ChryCo)is going to threaten a a dealer who’s CSI is a bit low* but moves the metal when your overall market share is in free fall.
Or put another way; imagine you’re an OEM’s Regional Sales Mgr:
Defining Career Moment Option #1: Terminate a high volume/low CSI dealer; watch your region’s share fall; and prepare for your next career move supervising parts pickers at the Abilene parts warehouse.
Defining Career Moment Optoin #2:
Take offending dealer to lunch and, over shrimp cocktail, make a joke about the CSI and ask him to ease off the hammer a little… but just a little. Not too much; must keep metal moving! … and prepare for your next promotion.
* I understand Heard’s was a case of a lot more than sort of low CSI.
It would be great if the Bill Heard family lost their personal millions. Sadly, they won’t.
Similar situation here in Metro Detroit with a Lincoln-Mercury dealer (sadly that I was a customer of!). Not of the same scale, but widely touted as Metro Detroit’s #1 dealer – generations of family business ruined by one man’s greed. Over 400K in unpaid trade-in loans, of which he was only held personally responsible for about 120K!! I WANT to help the American auto industry, but these stories & the current state of decline/demise make it near impossible….
Payton-Wells (Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Kia) did this in Anderson, IN, a few years ago. They defaulted on a huge loan, the bank came in and took over one day. If your trade wasn’t paid, you were screwed until your day in court. Since the bank came at lunch, there were a lot of cars in the service garage that were locked up for weeks until the owners were finally able to get them back.
Uncle Bo:
Read the book, “Arrogance and Accords”.
That there were kickbacks and corruption because Accords and Civics were in demand is a ‘good’ problem. Much different than outright fraud.
Besides, given state franchise laws, yanking dealer chains over ‘extra$’ will always be problematic.