The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: solon on November 06, 2014, 01:31:22 PM
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Did you know there is no 3-day cooling off period (aka, grace period, return period, etc) on the purchase of an automobile?
http://www.usa.gov/topics/consumer/smart-shopping/home-shopping/3day-rule.shtml
It turns out there IS a 3 day period, but it only applies in very limited situations - so limited it almost never applies to what you are buying, and NEVER to the purchase of a car.
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Ok?
I would assume that you would have put quite a bit of thought into such a purchase before ever making it to a lot (private seller?) and actually committing. A hell of a lot more than 3 days.
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The three day grace period is spoken of by a lot of people as if it was fact. I was just surprised to find it's not true.
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When I bought my car, I believe I had to sign something acknowledging that there is no cooling off period. I never thought there was, but it must be a common misconception to justify making everyone sign that.
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My uncle had early on set Alzheimer's and bought a brand new $40,000 truck. His wife tried to take it back and they refused. Think it was pretty crappy of them. I can't imagine that they didn't nurse him through that contract. I don't know if they thought he was high or something, but that's a shitty circumstance and they didn't care. He rode off on his bike one afternoon and came back with the truck:(
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I thought the rule existed for high-pressure sales pitches, and I would certainly consider car sales to be high-pressure. Thanks for the education and the info.
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From Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet...
Lingk: But we have to before Monday. To get our money back.
Roma: Three business days. They mean three business days.
Lingk: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Roma: I don't understand.
Lingk: That's what they are. Three business if I wait till Monday, my time limit runs out.
Roma: You don't count Saturday.
Lingk: I'm not.
Roma: No, I'm saying you don't include Saturday in your three days. It's not a business day.
Lingk: But I'm not counting it. (Pause.) Wednesday. Thursday. Friday. So it would have elapsed.
Roma: What would have elapsed?
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I posted this link to an article by a Lemon Law lawyer on this subject in another thread the other day:
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/when-you-buy-a-car-the-three-day-cool-off-period-is-a-1616831555
If your contract with the seller explicitly mentions returns, that's one thing. But there is no law for returning something within three days. The "Lemon Law" for cars requires a certain amount of issues with the vehicle before it can be declared a lemon.
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It varies by state. In Washington, there specific conditions wehn you do have a certain amount of time to cancel a contract:
Timeshares
Under the state’s Timeshare Regulation (RCW 64.36), the buyer of any kind of time share has the right to cancel within seven days after signing the contract or seven days after receiving the disclosures about the time share which are required by law, whichever comes later.
http://www.atg.wa.gov/consumerissues/cancellationrights.aspx#.VF-dBIfVnB8