Back to the "stupid dealer tricks" portion of today's entertainment.
I forgot my all time favorite. About ten years ago I found a new travel trailer at a large volume "wholesaler" dealer about five hours from home. They had what I wanted, it was currently being built, and was to arrive in a few weeks, at the dealer's lot, as part of their inventory. This thing was a true economy model, and needed a few 'upgrades" to make it usable, like a spare tire. This is where things fell down the rabbit hole, and "really weird" didn't quite cover it. First, my salesperson talked like a hippy chick and was likely tripping while working the phones, as she was so slow, it often too half a minute for her to process anything I said, and start on a response. Her end was full of all kinds of delights at meaningless points in the conversation, and lots of flower child comments about random things. This led to issues, as she was either incompetent, or lied her ass off, or both. She first told me that changing several things at the factory was no issue, so a spare tire, bigger propane tanks, etc.... were no problem, and were being done for low cost, at the factory. All total bullshit to close the deal, none of this was possible. Second, she failed to explain that they expected payment in full, within a few days of getting the deposit, and that they would be issuing a title for the unit before it left the factory. This led to a major blow-up for many reasons. First, she never disclosed this before taking a ten percent, non-refundable deposit. Second, had she done so, I would of laughed and moved on, since there is no way any intelligent person would do this. Third, they based this game on the fact that their rigs were "custom ordered" and paying in full assured that they would not be stuck with somebody's highly custom RV. The last one is bullshit on so many levels including the fact that there is no way to really end up with a highly individualized rig in this case. You pick a few colors and options from a limited list, and your done. You can't get a pink exterior and an orange interior, it's all slightly different variations of the same crap. The biggest reason however was that this unit was inbound to sit on their lot. I didn't order it.
This led to a stalemate with management that lasted a few days. MY position was not negotiable. I will never pay for, and title a vehicle in my name, prior to inspecting it in person, end of story. They then tried to tell me that I had to do it this way, since the state will not issue a temporary transit tag to let the vehicle leave the state unless the transaction had been processed at least 24 hours earlier. I then revealed that I had been a repeat customer of a large truck dealer in their state, where I regularly bought trucks for my business, and magically left the dealership a few hours after I arrived, with the very tag that they claim couldn't be issued. We finally moved past that point, but only after the hippy called to tell me that I was wrong, basically called me a liar, and that she HAD informed me that I would be paying in full, and titling an RV before it left the factory. When I called her on her bullshit, she told me that I was "creating a lot of negative energy, and she wasn't comfortable with the vibe". Poor little princess, I hope she has recovered. I can't imagine how she managed to stay employed, as her performance was too bizarre to tolerate by any semi-professional standards.
When the thing finally arrived, I was jerked around a few days while they fit me into their schedule. It was dead of winter, at the Canadian border, and the dealership was so dead that they looked like they had folded up shop. But whatever game the manager needed to play was OK by me. I got there mid-week. He was being a dick and couldn't fit me in until then since he was "slammed with new customer deliveries". The shop guys said it was the first thing they did all week. The next issue is that, since I want's a big enough idiot to pay for the thing weeks before, they refused to accept any kind of payment offered. WTF? Cash? Nope, we will not handle $11K in cash. Certified check? Nope, we won't risk getting a bogus check and some out of state buyer driving our stolen rig off into the sunset. OK, I got it. There is a branch of my bank a few blocks from your dealership. I will drive an employee there, have them observe the banker generating a legitimate check, then have the bank hand it to your employee? Nope, we can't tell you why we won't do this, but no. Finally I told them that they could either accept a wire transfer, or I would be contacting my CC company and getting my deposit refunded, since I was tired of their games. We then arranged a deal where I would inspect the RV, call my banker, authorize him to wire funds to their account, and they would give me the title when they were sure the transfer had occurred. This was acceptable.
As I was about to leave with the RV, they had the balls to ask for $25 since they had issued a temporary paper license plate. I went to the back of the trailer, tore it off, installed a metal trailer plate I had from another trailer, and dropped the paper tag off at desk. When the clerk told me I couldn't leave without paying for it, I asked to speak to the manager, who magically wasn't anywhere to be found. They got him on the phone, and he tried to tell me how he went out of his way to get me that plate. I told him to fuck off, and left.
The trailer was great. We used it hard, and often for four years, and sold it for a few thousand less.