OK. I've purchased too many vehicles in my lifetime and this is throwing me for a loop and my cynical nature is probably getting the best of me....but here goes:

I have waited a fairly long time and now that my vehicle is in transit - KZM status and yes I have a railcar number and have been tracking it - tonight at my doorstep I received a package with a check refunding my deposit from 6 months ago.

Obviously the dealership is closed and most of you are offline but I am worried that something has happened behind my back and that I will suddenly find that my vehicle has been sold to a higher bidder.

Anyone else experienced this? This is my first Chrysler "ordered" vehicle and have never seen a refund check just before taking delivery. Is this normal?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated - the wait has been killing me and I guess paranoia has set in!!

 

That doesn't sound like a normal process to me. I'll play on your cynicism for a minute here...perhaps they have someone willing to pay more than what you were, and they are trying to get you to back out of the deal?

I'd play it by ear and call them 1st thing this morning and feel it out as to why they refunded your deposit. Hopefully they are not trying to sell your Jeep to someone else, that would be terrible, especially considering how long you have been waiting.

Just curious, were they selling it to you at invoice or less, or a good discount off MSRP?

 

As for pricing - I offered a 50% split between their actual cost and invoice (including holdback). Yes, substantially lower than most but not the lowest I'm sure but I did my homework and went to the deal with acurate information for many sources.

 

All the more reason they might want you to back out...so they can sell it to someone else for MSRP and make another $2500+ on the deal.

 

They had Saharas on the lot $7000 over MSRP the last time I was there. Not certain if any were moving - I can't handle going there with my Rubi still in limbo!

I can't imagine they'd believe we'd be calling them to return from vacation just to pick up the vehicle - only to then back out.

Reading all the fine print now and not seeing anything that provides the ability of them to just back out but don't see anything that prohibits it either. Probably needed an attorney to review the document but never (this will be the 29th vehicle we've purchased !) have had this happen before!

 

As someone else who has been waiting almost 6 months now too, and like you, my Rubicon is finally in transit to the dealer....I was concerned about this too.

My original contract had the price/trade-in contract written out only good through December 31st (since it was ordered Oct 9th....we were thinking at that time the Jeep would have been in before then).

After that date, the "price" was not guaranteed anymore, and the refund could be refunded by the dealer, either based on me backing out of the deal, or the deal being no longer desired by the dealer.

As it went into January with no Jeep, I was in discussion with the dealer....and they were let's wait and see where things are in another week, then another week....until we hit February, and I had had enough, and went into sorry, but here are 5 Rubicons you can dealer trade for, or I will go buy one of them from that dealer....I am done waiting, and my Jeep had moved to D status that morning, so I ended up waiting.

At that point, I returned to the dealer, and had the sales manager write up a new price agreement/trade-in price to make sure just what you are having a nightmare envisioning happening could not happen to me.

That is NOT to say this IS what your dealer is doing to you, but CHECK your original price quote/agreement form, and it is quite possible that your dealer did have an expiration date point on there where that deal could become "void" for too much time passing, and that a new price agreement would need to be agreed upon to continue the transaction with that vehicle....and that they be in fact backing out of the deal.

OR, just as possible, they have some automatic system of deposit refund when a vehicle transaction has not taken place in X amount of time, and it is just coincidence that you got your deposit refunded now with the Jeep showing up, and in reality, it is nothing nefarious.

I would be concerned, but I would not hit the panic button until you talk to the dealer to find out the poop on what it happening.

 

Thanks for the input - the vehicle is now one state away and the dealer doesn't open for several more hours!

Also have verified that through all the paperwork, there are no expected termination dates or discussions of termination.

 

Good news....

The accounting department was cleaning up some items over the weekend and saw the deposit in the system from so long ago and tried to reach mt salesperson who was on vacation.

Unfortunately, they didn't connect with him and thought rather than question it - they just cut the check thinking maybe everyone forgot about it.

Fortunately - they also just told me to shred it!!!

First time I can remember being REALLY happy to hear I should shred a check!

Thanks to all for the words of encouragement and support --- a happy ending -- soon!

It is in New Mexico right now!!!

 

You might see yours before I will see mine. Mine is 3-3.5 hours away, unloaded from the rail car, but showing a week to get from there to my dealer.

Grats on it being nothing nefarious.

 

I've been lurking this thread, and following your saga... I too went through some fearful waiting while my dealership had "lost" my Jeep for several weeks in transit, and I too was afraid that they were going to try to back out of the sales contract and sell to someone willing to pay sticker or more. Luckily, it worked out for me in the end, and I'm glad to see that you're going to have the same happy ending.