I went to the local Mazda dealer in my area and after looking at several vehicles for my wife the salesman sucked me into putting a $500 deposit on a car even though he knew that my wife needed to approve the deal. I was tired and fed up with all the looking and succumbed to his tactics. My wife decided not to get the car however the salesman and the sales manager refuse to return my deposit, and even suggested that I will have to purchase the car. They claim I wasted their time and even made a rude slighted comment when I left the dealership.
Can a dealer do this and what recourse do I have?

 

That's the whole point of deposit....
Deposit = money for pre-order/partial payment, yada, yada...
Sorry you have to learn it the hard way.

 

There is "refundable deposit" and "non-refundable deposit". And they are just like they sound.

That being said, as long as you didn't sign a contract of some sort that agreed to the non-refundable deposit, then if you put the deposit down with a credit card or a check, contact the financial institution and cancel it. If you paid cash, you are SOL.

They are just trying to take your money (obviously).

 

I would demand it back and if they refused then they would show up to work the next day to see the smoldering remains of the dealership.

 

if you didn't sign a "non refundable" deposit agreement then call the CC company and explain to them the situation and have them do a chargeback.

 

He gave them $500, not his red stapler

 

for some people it is the principle.

it gets tiring when wherever you turn these days companies are trying to nickel and dime you to death. for most people that is still nearly a week's pay after taxes to hand to someone who is knowingly just going to pocket it if you don't buy something.

 

That's probably your best post ever

 

100% agree Karack, it's a dealership trying to take his money without much justification for it.

My comment was to 9k's "burn it down" comment, which i figured was an Office Space reference

 

No....... No man........ **** no man. I believe you'd get your *** kicked saying something like that man.

 

Your 500 "bought" time. While you were deciding on buying the car or not, the dealership could not sell it to someone else. They keep the deposit if you pass on the car. It is unreasonable to expect them to refund the deposit when they could have sold the car if you hadn't bought that time. Now they may end up sitting on the car for months, costing them money in maintenance and taking up showroom/lot space. Your deposit helps them recoup lost income due to not being able to sell the car while you decided.

Never put a deposit on something unless you are 100% certain you want it.

 

Did you reach an agreement on price before you gave them the deposit? If not, you might go back as if you're going to buy it but stick to a price too low for them to agree to. Then the deal is off.

There is, of course, always the risk that they really need to get rid of that car and you'll wind up with a bargain you don't like.

It does come down to what the agreement was when you gave the deposit. I've only given deposits twice. Once was at a dealer that wouldn't even talk price unless there was a deposit. We didn't come to an agreement on price, and I got the deposit back. The other was when I was deciding to buy my 8. The deposit was to fix the date so I'd be eligible for a weekend incentive if I didn't buy on the spot. That would have been refundable, but I came back Tuesday and closed the deal.

As far as the concept of the $500 buying time goes, that's on the dealer's head. A lot of their sales tehniques are based on wasting a customer's time until the customer gives in from fatigue. An honest dealer (is there one?) would simply make sure you had to come back in to retrieve it, so they'd have another shot at talking you into a sale.

Ken

 

As a former car salesman and finance officer of a dealership.... They MUST return your money..

The only way they can keep the money is if they special ordered you something.. Otherwise they are scamming you...

Demand your money and contract the better business bureau... Deals fall through on car sales all the time..

They take you for a sucker...

 

+1 to go get your money back.
I've gotten my deposit back before, without much hassle. At a Mazda dealer actually.

 

Unless u signed something, they HAVE TO give u ur money back

It could take a while, and i hope u didnt pay them cash.

Always pay any deposit with a credit card

 

Exactly.. Car deals fall throughall the time... They're trying to get free 500$ gross profit this month... Or you pissed off the salesman and he's getting even a bit... B

 

I thought that's what a deposit was for

Best of luck

 

and this time talk to the general manager(in most cases, sometimes the owner is the GM) and not the sales manager, he is the second in command of the dealership and will be the most sympathetic of seeing pissed off people on the lot and the potential for losing more than just a single customer.

if they are wise they will return it, word of mouth is gold in any business. if they don't then they are obviously in trouble(red numbers across the board and trying to scrape up money however they can, or they're just crooks, in any event they always wind up failing) and probably won't even last 'til this time next year.

 

When you see the general manager, try to have the conversation out on the sales floor, in front of other customers, rather than in the privacy of his office.

Ken

 

So that other people know they are really a stealership... lol