My 82 year old mom, who is in the early stages of dementia decided to buy herself a golf cart...this shop was open on the Saturday she went shopping. While I'm working on getting her diagnosed and treated (from across the country), she still has moments of clarity and reasoning. She presented herself well when she bought the cart, but mentioned to her sales guy, Craig (who was very nice) that her daughter (me) wouldn't be happy about her buying it. She didn't tell him that she purchased a $14k golf cart less than a year ago, moved it across country to be near me as she aged, hated the weather in my area of the country and after less than 2 months, high-tailed it back to AZ against my wishes.
I learned of her "purchase" when she tried liquidating assets from her investments....because of her condition, she forgot to put the amount of $ she wanted in her request. I called her and she told me she'd bought the cart, wrote a check and asked the company to hold the check until the following week, when she thought the cash would be deposited into her checking account. She couldn't remember where she bought it, so I started calling dealerships, and quickly found Redline. After speaking with Craig and explaining my mom's current state, I asked to speak to his manager. He gave me his number, so I called the GM, Greg, the next day. I once again explained the situation to Greg, and he immediately went into a tirade about how they had a legally signed contract that my mom had to honor. I said, "Greg, I'm working on figuring this out...what I'm asking you to do is NOT cash her check tomorrow, as the funds won't be there." His response was..."OH! She wrote a fraudulent check?! It's a good thing she didn't take that cart home on Saturday because this would be a different conversation!" I firmly reiterated that she was in the early stage of dementia, and she doesn't know what she's doing half the time. He responded with "the fact" that he has had lots of family members with dementia, so he's familiar with it. He said SHE would have to call and cancel the order, if those were her wishes. I told him that based on how he talked to me, I'd NEVER want my mom to call and speak to him...I can handle bully tactics easily, whereas my mother can not. I asked him once again to hold the check while I figured out the situation. He kept pushing back, saying he was familiar with how long it takes to liquidate funds from investments... so I then asked to speak to his boss. He said the owner of the company was in the store at that time, he'd talk to him about the situation and call me back.
He never called back, and the next day tried to cash the check.
Luckily, my mom had a moment of clarity, cancelled the order herself and stopped payment on the check. She agreed to wait for her $14k cart to be shipped to her home in AZ, rather than going through with purchasing another cart for $11k from Redline.
If you have elderly family members who may be susceptible to being taken advantage of, I STRONGLY caution you from going to Redline for a golf cart, as long as GREG is the GM. read more
