Anonymous Poster
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- Sep 27, 2005
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I recently have had a weird experience with a dealer from whom I was buying a tractor and wanted your input. The dealer is 20 minutes from my home near New Orleans, Louisiana. The dealer is in Picayune, Mississippi.
Knowing nothing about tractors I went in to this dealership Tractors Plus and told them what I needed. They had 4 or 5 Yanmars there. The saleswoman “Pat” gave me a price of $9650 for a YM 2000 BD with a new FEL and a new 5' finish mower (king cutter) and a new box blade. Although the machine had only surface rust, they offered to paint it for $375. I placed a $500 deposit on my credit card. Delivery was to take place on 9 days later. I maintained contact and asked about the price of an additional set of wheels with turf tires (but the dealership could not locate any). Two days prior to the delivery date. I called to inquire about pickup of the tractor. I was told that there was no way that the tractor would be ready for delivery as promised. The individual I spoke with now told me that it would be 5 days later.
5 days later I called and was told that it wouldn’t be ready for several more days. Today (after the several days had elapsed) I went to pick up the tractor, but it was not ready. The dealer has offered a variety of excuses why the tractor was not ready (I am not sure that these are really pertinent), but eventually indicated that there was no way that he could have ever lived up to the commitment the saleswoman made. After some discussion, the dealer offered to “refund” the deposit, but tried to keep 20%.
I did contact the dealer again this afternoon to try to work this agreement out. He agreed to have the tractor ready this afternoon. He asked how I would be paying and I indicated that I would place the transaction on my credit card or pay by check. He stated this would be acceptable. Once again I went to his place of business (about a 20 minute drive). Once I arrived he said he was “uncomfortable” selling me the tractor and refused to complete the transaction unless I brought a certified check (a new condition). I offered a personal check and he refused (a method of payment that we had discussed as acceptable before).
It is unclear to me what the problem is with this dealership. I have tried to purchase and pay for a tractor.
The behavior of this dealership makes me wonder if there is some known defect with this tractor or if perhaps it is stolen. I know it is a grey market tractor (although it is unclear if the dealer knows that I know). I know that its was made in 1979 (even though the dealer said late 80's). I guess that the most likely event is that he is somehow misprepresenting the tractor and doesn't want anything to come back to haunt him.
What do you guys think? Am I being paranoid? Or is this an untrustworthy dealer?
Knowing nothing about tractors I went in to this dealership Tractors Plus and told them what I needed. They had 4 or 5 Yanmars there. The saleswoman “Pat” gave me a price of $9650 for a YM 2000 BD with a new FEL and a new 5' finish mower (king cutter) and a new box blade. Although the machine had only surface rust, they offered to paint it for $375. I placed a $500 deposit on my credit card. Delivery was to take place on 9 days later. I maintained contact and asked about the price of an additional set of wheels with turf tires (but the dealership could not locate any). Two days prior to the delivery date. I called to inquire about pickup of the tractor. I was told that there was no way that the tractor would be ready for delivery as promised. The individual I spoke with now told me that it would be 5 days later.
5 days later I called and was told that it wouldn’t be ready for several more days. Today (after the several days had elapsed) I went to pick up the tractor, but it was not ready. The dealer has offered a variety of excuses why the tractor was not ready (I am not sure that these are really pertinent), but eventually indicated that there was no way that he could have ever lived up to the commitment the saleswoman made. After some discussion, the dealer offered to “refund” the deposit, but tried to keep 20%.
I did contact the dealer again this afternoon to try to work this agreement out. He agreed to have the tractor ready this afternoon. He asked how I would be paying and I indicated that I would place the transaction on my credit card or pay by check. He stated this would be acceptable. Once again I went to his place of business (about a 20 minute drive). Once I arrived he said he was “uncomfortable” selling me the tractor and refused to complete the transaction unless I brought a certified check (a new condition). I offered a personal check and he refused (a method of payment that we had discussed as acceptable before).
It is unclear to me what the problem is with this dealership. I have tried to purchase and pay for a tractor.
The behavior of this dealership makes me wonder if there is some known defect with this tractor or if perhaps it is stolen. I know it is a grey market tractor (although it is unclear if the dealer knows that I know). I know that its was made in 1979 (even though the dealer said late 80's). I guess that the most likely event is that he is somehow misprepresenting the tractor and doesn't want anything to come back to haunt him.
What do you guys think? Am I being paranoid? Or is this an untrustworthy dealer?
