ComplaintsforB&B Auto Sales

• Initial Complaint

  06/30/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Purchased vehicle from B&B Auto with an extended warranty. The dealer called me in the following week saying he needed a signature. He swapped the warranties - backdating his signature (I did NOT date mine), and giving us a different warranty. I still have both of those warranties in my possession. Van developed/had an electrical issue soon after purchase. Dealer was unwilling/unable to fix, and the electrical issue has gotten steadily worse over the past several years to the point where it was putting us in danger to drive this vehicle. Had asked repeatedly for the issue to be resolved to no effect - he became irate and told us to just accept that it wouldn't be fixed. He wanted to sign off on this repair - we refused as it wasn't repaired. On further research it appears as though the dealer never submitted and of our claims to the warranty administrator. The initial warranty we signed was never registered with the warranty provider. We just want our vehicle to work safely/reliably for our family and small children. Thanks.

  Business response

  08/01/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2022/07/12) */ As far as the warranty being switched the problem was the initial one was done on the wrong form so we had them re sign on the correct form. I have never gotten irrate over this issue as the misunderstanding was the warranty was for 7 years but in the paperwork and explained by my F & I person it was 7 years from original purchase date so they misunderstood that. We had them take it to the local ******** dealer and according to the ****** was in Febuary of 2017 to try and figure out the electrical issues which they could not duplicate or find any codes either. The warranty time ran out but they came in 12/5/2019 for some issues on the van, 1. rear hatch issue, issue with instrument cluster, bumper clips broke. We checked codes and didn't find any, checked wiring and could not find an issue. We never said there wasn't an issue but neither us or the ******** dealer could duplicate. We put new clips in bumper and I believe new hatch struts at no charge to the customer. That was the last time we have heard from them so did not know they were having continued issues. We tried to resolve the issue as best we could. They bought the van in December of 2015 and according to the ****** sold it in July of 2021. SO the last time they contacted us about an issue was 3 years ago and we did work on it. I believe we went over the top trying to find the issues by having the ******** dealer look at it and us also with no cost to the customer. Consumer Response /* (3000, 10, 2022/07/13) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) The warranty he originally sold us (I have it in my possession) was a 5 year warranty for Premium Vehicles. It was to expire 5 years after the date signed (it was signed 12-31-15) or when the vehicle reached 112,000 miles. This is the warranty we reviewed at the sale, the warranty we signed the date of purchase and brought home - so of course I understood that we had 5 years of coverage. Why else would I have this signed legal document in my possession? The week following our purchase, my husband received a call from the dealer stating that he needed to sign something because there was a mistake with a date in the paperwork. (Note: I have a pink post-it in my file folder from this vehicle purchase that states, "Had wrong service contract. Needs to sign correct one." I can provide a photo of this is necessary). There is a date missing behind my husband's signature on both the original Premium Vehicle Warranty and the Powertrain Warranty, so he trusted them and didn't question the request. When he went in, the dealership had him sign an entirely new warranty - HOWEVER the date he signed this warranty was the week following the sale on 12/31/2015. I don't recall that exact date - but it would have been in the first week or 2 in January of the year 2016. He signed it - but he did NOT date it as it would have been backdated. There are signatures for my husband and the receptionist on that New Vehicle Warranty but if you compare the dates written behind each signature you can easily see that both dates are written in the same handwriting - and it's NOT my husband's handwriting. The new warranty was for New Vehicles (again, this van was purchased used), and the coverage lasted 7 years from the inservice date of 6/24/10. The expiration would have been 6/24/2017 giving us just under 1 year and 6 months of coverage - quite a difference from the original 5 year warranty sold and given to us. Let me just state this clearly - I DIDN'T MISUNDERSTAND ANYTHING. Clearly the person making mistakes, misunderstanding or purposely misleading was not me - as I did not have access to the new contracts to do any of the revising. Why would I have this signed Premium Vehicle Warranty contract in my possession if it wasn't for the coverage I was sold? I contacted the warranty company because I was unsure of which warranty was the active warranty. The first warranty we signed should have provided coverage for 5 years but according to the Warranty companty, it didn't exist. The second warranty we signed had been registered - however it is specifically for New Vehicles and we purchased this van used. This didn't make any sense. I went into the dealership to request a copy of the warranty they had on file and an explanation of why repairs weren't being covered and completed. His receptionist was not able to produce a copy of any warranties. Dirk approached us at the front desk and immediately his demeanor and words were disrespectful and aggressive. The receptionist and I were both in tears - why would we both have been in tears if he was acting like a rational person? At one point in this interaction he threw his arms in the air and loudly said, "I made a mistake. What do you want from me - coverage for life?" And I replied that, "No - I just wanted the coverage he sold and I paid for." I realize this is a "he said - she said" situation, but he definitely made it an uncomfortable environment and situation whenever we requested information or warranty repairs which is why we eventually got service elsewhere (even service that should have been covered under warranty) because it was not worth going through the stress - especially since the repairs weren't being completed anyway. The repair facilities may not have been able to reproduce the issues - but I had photos and video showing the electrical issues that I shared with the dealer. I would have gladly shared those directly with the warranty company, but it was our understanding that we were to bring warranty issues directly to the local dealer. The service engine light was almost always on, and the alert lights in the dash would all engage from time to time, most often during the changes of the season. Often all these issues would happen and then the vehicle wouldn't start. The dealer said they couldn't find the issue, so they couldn't repair it, and we'd just have to accept it and stay calm knowing that the service engine light would always be on. My husband struggled with this as the "service engine light" is needed to indicate engine issues. The dealer told my husband he wouldn't be able to fix this issue and he'd need to sign off that the repair was completed - my husband refused to sign off. I don't recall the exact date we first reported the electrical issues, but the dealer in question tried to diagnose the issues and failed (I don't recall how many attempts they made) and they had us bring the vehicle to a local ******** dealer. My records from the ******** dealer show dates of 1/3/2017 and 7/24/17 with notes on this issue - so regardless of which warranty is in question we were well within the active warranty period for repairs for either warranty. The last note stated that they needed the vehicle to act up to continue diagnosing - that left us pretty stuck as this was our family vehicle. Usually when the vehicle acted up, we were left temporarily stranded (when it refused to start) or it would have issues while we were cruising down the interstate - I wasn't exactly able to teleport to the dealership to show them my car was acting up - which is why I made videos. This spring these same issues became even more frequent, especially issues with the starter. We brought our vehicle to our trusted mechanic to have the starter inspected, and he couldn't find anything wrong with the starter, butn he noticed a loose connection to the battery which he repaired in hopes it would help. The intermittent issues with the alert lights and the starter continued. Then we started having problems with our brake lights and blinkers - obviously a very serious safety issue that we couldn't "just ignore" like a service engine light. The brake lights and blinkers would only work intermittently, and we brought the vehicle back to our trusted mechanic. I have his report - he believes ALL these electrical issues are related, and he bypassed the problematic system and ran a separate connection directly to the brake lights and blinkers so we could at least drive the vehicle safely. He also stated that electrical issues like this require 1 of 2 things: 1: replace the electrical harness 2: a mechanic can go through every wire in the system to find a short or a broken wire - it's very labor intense process but it can be done. It was his opinion that the dealership just didn't want to take on that labor as it can be both extensive and expensive. My verbiage may not be perfect in this explanation, but I do have the documentation from that mechanic as well. I called the warranty company hoping that since the original issue had been reported while our warranty was active, maybe we'd still have coverage for that issue. According to the warranty company, none of our claims were ever turned in to them. This was interesting as we had paid the $*** deductible on several repairs (I have at least 1 receipt for $****** dated 9/29/17). He brought up the ****** stating our van was sold in July of 2021. We paid off the loan on our van on January 13, 2021 and it is sitting in the street in front of our home presently. It was NOT sold in July of 2021 - we still own it and I'll gladly provide a copy of the title as his comment there is both inaccurate and irrelevant. It should also be noted that in the ********* that was provided for us when we purchased the van, there is a report of an accident involving the left front corner prior to our ownership. There was no salvage title on this van, and no detail of repair in any other documents but I do wonder if this accident may be related to these electrical issues. The owner of the dealership stated in his rebuttal that he hadn't heard from us in 3 years - I actually have a record on my husband's phone about a call placed to them on December 3rd of 2020 that lasted 4 minutes, so that's false as well. The owner of the dealership also conveniently left out all the times my husband called and was told by the receptionist that the owner "was unavailable but would call right back" - and he would never return the call. We knew he'd fall right back on, "Well your warranty expired" - so we tried to move on. I recently shared our frustrations with a family member who owns a dealership and does F & I and they stated that we absolutely shouldn't let it go because his altering of the warranties was illegal which is why I'm sitting here right now pursuing this to prevent anyone else having this same headache. I'll gladly produce any documentation requested as proof.

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