Similar Issue with Dealership breach of contract
I have a similar issue as posted above. My husband and I purchased a vehicle from a major car dealership. We had secured our own financing prior to purchasing the vehicle and had signed all of the purchase documents, provided the down payment, and provided the finance approval documentation as well as signed the financing agreement on the sale date. The only item we had pending was the actual blank check issued by our finance company which was in the mail and had not yet arrived.
At the time of purchase, we had a print out of the loan approval with all necessary details including terms, payment and approval amount. Just after signing all of the documentation, the dealership advised us that because my husband did not have a hard copy of his driver's license, they could not release the car to us even though I had mine. So they told us to bring the hard copy when we brought back the blank check we were awaiting from the finance company which we advised them would be within 3 days, 4 days max as the financing bank had confirmed that the check had already been mailed.
Over the 2 days, my husband went to the DMV to get a replacement driver's license when he was advised that a hold had been placed on it by the child support agency which we later were able to clear; however, not without a procesing delay by the DMV as the clearance would take anywhere from 1 week to a month to finalize.
On day number 3 when we realized that the license issue could in no way be rectified that quickly despite all of our efforts, my husband phoned the dealership and let them know the situation with his license and was advised that we could not purchase the car without his license and that it was a "deal breaker". I believed this to be false as the dealership had told us that it is the finance company's policy to request both driver's on title be licensed which therefore meant that it was a financing issue and not a sales issue and we had already supplied all required items to the finance company and had secured financing. So I immediately made a call to my finance company with the information in order to verify this information as well as the mailing date of the check and my finance company stated that it was not an issue for them as we had already submitted al requirements and needed to supply nothing further to secure the financing and the check had been mailed as previously inquired. Additinally, the finance company told me that the check would not have been mailed if any additional documentation was required to secure the financing.
Approximately an hour after my husband's call to the dealership and immediately after my speaking with our finance company, I phoned the dealership and requested to speak with the sales manager. before advising him of the situation, I inquired as to the whether both parties needed to have a valid license to purchase a vehicle if financing had already been secured outside of their dealership. his response was no that only the person driving the car off of the lot need be licensed. At that point I advised him of the situation and he then placed me on hold for approximately 5-7 minutes. When he got back on the line he responded that he would like to check with the finance company to verify the loan approval nd he would call me right back. When he phoned back after having verified the financing approval and check mailing date, he stated that the finance company told him that they still needed to verify income and that they would be phoning my in the morning to confirm and that after they did that that the finance company would phone him to further validate the loan. He stated that he would wait until 12 noon to receive the call and that once he received the call that everything would be fine and we could go ahead and come to could pick up our car.
By this time, I am leary of the information and rephoned my finance company to see if they did in fact need to verify income as upon my prior inquiries thay had stated that all income and other requirements had been satisfied. When i spoke tot he finance company, they advised me that no such issue was pending and that everything was ok and I should just wait until I got the check in the mail the following day and go pick up our car.
The following day after the mail had come, I spoke with the dealership advising them that we were on our way down to with the check. Approximately a half hour later, we received phone call from the dealership from yet another manager stating that they had sold our car. Needlesstosay I was extremely upset and spoke with the General Manger who only offered to try and place us in a comparable car which happened to be 2 years newer and quite a bit more money as there was nothing comparable to the equipment or sales price as the one we had purchased.
I am confused as to how this is possible being information we have been given reflects that we should have been able to leave with our car the day we purchased it. Additionally, we never received a phone call stating that the car was being placed back out on the lot for sale or to even check to see what the status was of our situation prior to the sale to the other customer.
My question is do my husband and I have a valid lawsuit given we did not lose our down payment? Ultimately we left without a evhicle as they refused to sell us what was comparable on their lot for the same price and we therefore had to go elsewhere where we spent more money as a result.
I'd appreciate any guidance as this issue disturbs me being I believe there to be discrimination issues within this case as my husband and I are African-American who purchased this car from a dealership in a high-profile area of town and found the car having been sold so quickly after being listed on the internet for over 2 weeks.
Thank you in advance for your time and assistance. It is greatly appreciated.
