At best, shady business practices. At worst, straight up scam. Below is my experience with a…read moretimeline of date(s) to help give context.
I understand and admit that this is my version of the story based on my experience and understanding of the situation(s) and that the dealer may very will disagree with the following and offer their side of the story as well. Use your best judgement.
08/28/2025: Dealer offered the opportunity to hold a vehicle for two (2) days to complete independant financing, etc. $500 via Venmo, although they did offer other methods of payment. I signed a very clear and concise contract that leaves no room for interpretation on my rights to a refund. They ultimately created their own rules, interpretations, and "additional terms & conditions" that were not supplied to me so that they could refuse to issue me my refund at a later date.
08/29/2025: After my deposit was paid, my financing was in order, and I returned to the dealership I noticed the vehicle of interest in my case had a cracked windshield and TPMS warning lights on. I informed the dealer that I had concerns about Rhode Island's Safety Inspection upon my return home should I decide to purchase.
After some back-and-forth, pulling teeth, making no progress because "it wasn't a Massachusetts inspection requirement," I ultimately opted to leave without finalizing the deal. On my drive home, I received a phone call where the dealership stated they would replace the windshield. I stated I would re-evaluate the vehicle and the purchase once that work was complete. There were no additional contracts signed, emails/texts exchanged, or written agreements documented that the repairs/replacements would be used against me at a later date.
***NO COMMUNICATION IN EITHER DIRECTION UNTIL 09/02/2025***
09/02/2025: After hearing nothing back from the dealer about the state of the vehicle repairs, I submitted a Venmo Request for my $500 deposit to be refunded. This request was either ignored or denied by the dealership. They did attempt to contact me via phone call shortly after. They made 3 phone calls, in a span of about 2 hours, without leaving a voicemail, sending a text, or sending an email. No context to the phone calls was given, and admittedly I did not return the phone calls.
09/05/2025: I cancelled/voided out the financing check I obtained from my bank even though the dealership did not have possession of the check, better safe than sorry.
09/10/2025: A second Venmo Request for my $500 deposit refunded was submitted and either ignored or denied. An email was sent to their listed email address for clarification of the denial/ignoring of the requests.
09/11/2025. Several emails were exchanged where the dealership stated that because the windshield repairs were made and I did not purchase the vehicle, I forfeited my deposit to them and was not entitled to a refund.
They could not provide proof that I had requested the repairs be made to the vehicle and that I had agreed I would purchase the vehicle if they provided the repairs necessary for inspection in my state.
They could not provide proof that the work was ever ACTUALLY completed, other than a claim it cost $270.
They could not provide proof that they had attempted to contact me after the work they claim was done and "their end of the deal" was fulfilled. Their only contact was after my refund request.
They could not provide proof that the REQUEST for the deposit to be refunded expired in 2-Days like they were claiming, and that I had passed my time-limit to request the refund in addition to costing them money on repairs that "I demanded."
They could not provide a location or source of the language they were quoting to deny my requests for a refunded deposit.
They stated "Since the vehicle was held for you, the deposit secured it beyond the two-day window, and additional work was completed at your request that we did not have to do, we are unable to refund the deposit." With no explaination of why the deposit secured the vehicle longer than 2-Days as signed upon by both parties.
