Problem with Chevy Dealer Concerning Incentive

[94SS]

Hi,

I just picked up a 2008 Malibu LTZ 4 cyl with 6 speed on June 20th. They salesman and his approving manager gave me 1000.00 bonus cash for owning a 1999 or newer GM product. I told them there was only Conquest cash but I needed the car price to come down and they wanted a sale. Today I get a call from the head guy at the dealer saying there was a mistake and asked if I had a 1999 or newer 'non-GM' product listed for my address. I said I do not and told him the salesman was aware of this. I actually had to drive in Saturday to let them make a copy of my 2003 Tahoe registration.

What the heck is going on here? I do not believe this is my problem. Do they have any recourse as all paperwork was signed on June 2oth. They are a friendly dealer obviously trying to cover their butts with GM but I am worried they will try something. What if anything should I be worried about. I have to actually go their tomorrow anyway to drop off a USAA check since I am refinancing with a better rate.

Cheers,

Jeff

[espo19047]

Originally Posted by 94SS

Hi,

I just picked up a 2008 Malibu LTZ 4 cyl with 6 speed on June 20th. They salesman and his approving manager gave me 1000.00 bonus cash for owning a 1999 or newer GM product. I told them there was only Conquest cash but I needed the car price to come down and they wanted a sale. Today I get a call from the head guy at the dealer saying there was a mistake and asked if I had a 1999 or newer 'non-GM' product listed for my address. I said I do not and told him the salesman was aware of this. I actually had to drive in Saturday to let them make a copy of my 2003 Tahoe registration.

What the heck is going on here? I do not believe this is my problem. Do they have any recourse as all paperwork was signed on June 2oth. They are a friendly dealer obviously trying to cover their butts with GM but I am worried they will try something. What if anything should I be worried about. I have to actually go their tomorrow anyway to drop off a USAA check since I am refinancing with a better rate.

Cheers,

Jeff

You should worry that they may ask for $1000. They probably wont though.
I believe you took advantage of them but that is their own fault. You should not be proud of what you did.
If you knew it was not right how can you be suprised? The dealer made a mistake if they did know about it they are probably doing it at a calculated risk. If they get audited they will pay the charge back. You then made it harder for them not using their financing. They now have less profit to cover the potential charge back. You where in on it and then threw the salesman under the bus. Will you give them a good survey?

[Canyonaro]

As I see it, if the dealership knew that you didn't have a non-GM and they gave you the bonus anyway, it's their fault. It stinks that they obviously will loose money on you. They wont be able to charge you the extra $1000, but they are in a vice right now because of it.

[solman98]

Maybe I miss read the OP post, but I don't see what the issue is. You stated you got $1,000 for already owning a '99 up GM (03 Tahoe). So what was "done wrong"?

But I have no idea what

Originally Posted by 94SS

Conquest cash

is. What differance does it make if you also own a non GM vehicle if you own the 99 or newer?

[94SS]

Hi,

Obviously, you did not read this line of my post

"They salesman and his approving manager gave me 1000.00 bonus cash for owning a 1999 or newer GM product. I told them there was only Conquest cash but I needed the car price to come down and they wanted a sale."

Originally Posted by espo19047

You should worry that they may ask for $1000. They probably wont though.
I believe you took advantage of them but that is their own fault. You should not be proud of what you did.
If you knew it was not right how can you be suprised? The dealer made a mistake if they did know about it they are probably doing it at a calculated risk. If they get audited they will pay the charge back. You then made it harder for them not using their financing. They now have less profit to cover the potential charge back. You where in on it and then threw the salesman under the bus. Will you give them a good survey?

To add to this, I talk to my sales man at LENGTH while my car was being prepped and asked how he was able to get the 1,000.00 and he said 'don't worry about it.' I was happy as a clam. How am I misleading this dealership when I TOLD THEM there was no Loyalty cash for the BU available?

The dealership was running a inside sales goal of 7 cars per salesman. If all sold 7 cars, then each salesman got $1,000.00. If the whole team did not, then only the sales guys with 7 solds would get $500.00. My car was my salesmans 7th cars for the 3 day period and it was 8:00pm before I got out of there.

Now you tell me who is at fault?

You stated, "You where in on it and then threw the salesman under the bus. Will you give them a good survey?"

These guys knew exactly what they were doing. It went through all the checks and balances before I signed the paperwork. As for the salesguy, he is a cool dude and we discussed alot of upcoming Chevy product and the problems with the current offerings (AVEO, Cobalt). I have a neighbor who likes the Malibu I picked up and I am sending him to this salesguy. Since the ALL IMPORTANT SURVEY is what dealers seem to always worry about, I will give them all outstanding because it is directly related to my sales guy and he was just fine.

Regards,

Jeff

[solman98]

Originally Posted by 94SS

Hi,

Obviously, you did not read this line of my post

"They salesman and his approving manager gave me 1000.00 bonus cash for owning a 1999 or newer GM product. I told them there was only Conquest cash but I needed the car price to come down and they wanted a sale."

No, I read that, and since you had to drive down there to let them copy your 03 Tahoe registration..... Seems that covers the bonus back.

Did you get additional bonus cash?

[94SS]

Solman,

The the message above was directed towards "espo19047"...not you. Just wanted to clarify. No other Bonus cash was given. Basically they got me the GM promotion GM loyalty cash when it really isn't available from GM at this time which I told them. And the Conquest cash is only if you can prove that you have a non-GM vehicle registered at my address which I do not have. So they wanted to make the sale and somebody thats checking the books caught it.

Jeff

[solman98]

Originally Posted by 94SS

Solman,

The the message above was directed towards "espo19047"...not you. Just wanted to clarify. No other Bonus cash was given. Basically they got me the GM promotion GM loyalty cash when it really isn't available from GM at this time which I told them. And the Conquest cash is only if you can prove that you have a non-GM vehicle registered at my address which I do not have. So they wanted to make the sale and somebody thats checking the books caught it.

Jeff

Ahhhh, got cha. I though it if you owned a 99 or newer GM, not something else.

Confusion gone.....

In that case, as long as what you told was true, I would not worry about it. They wanted the sale bad enough. They could have just as easy said no. But sounds like they "oops".

[BryceStrong]

I think they'll eat the grand rather than lose the sale. If you signed the rebate to the dealership, I doubt you'll have an issue.

[bondscheated]

You should give the guy a good survey for his efforts.

[MR2GTO]

Is Conquest Cash still available? I hate the lack of public disclosure....

[macars]

The dealer is ultimately responsible for proving qualification for rebates on an audit. You are absolutely correct - one of the office staff caught the mistake while processing the deal. Chances are good the dealer will get audited and have to eat the loss.

On the other hand, you did all you needed to do to let them know you didn't think you qualified for the rebate. You shouldn't be surprised that they are asking for the money back, but y'all made a deal and it's done. You will both have to live with it.

I would, however, still give them a good survey. It's the least you can do for the $1,000 free gift.

As an aside to this topic - GM makes it incredibly difficult during every rebate period for a dealer to clearly understand all the programs involved in the rebate, bonus and financing incentives. This month's summary, alone, is 14 pages of fine, single spaced print. If you copied all the actual programs from the Messenger, you would have about a hundred pages of documents. It seems GM is trying to make it hard for us to accurately report these deliveries and incentives. Sometimes, it feels like you need a lawyer and a CPA to figure them all out.

[tirediron]

Originally Posted by macars

As and aside to this topic - GM makes it incredibly difficult during every rebate period for a dealer to clearly understand all the programs involved in the rebate, bonus and financing incentives. This month's summary, alone, is 14 pages of fine, single spaced print. If you copied all the actual programs from the Messenger, you would have about a hundred pages of documents. It seems GM is trying to make it hard for us to accurately report these deliveries and incentives. Sometimes, it feels like you need a lawyer and a CPA to figure them all out.

Speaking as another salesman, this is right the programs are confusing as all he//. GM I believe encourages and hopes that we screw up their convolutled incentives so we have to pay them money. That being said, the staff should know exactly what "Conquest" and "Loyalty" programs are. That one is pretty simple.

Enjoy your car! That's awesome.

[linton23]

The dealer can always run a vin incentive search on the car you are buying it dosent take long to do and you get an uptodate incentive report at that time.