Victim Location 90292
Total money lost $500
Type of a scam Worthless Problem-solving Service Scam
I bought a car from Nissani Bros Nissan over in Playa Vista / Culver City Area in early February 2020. Ended up agreeing to a price, they ran my credit and said 3.9% interest was the best they could do. And included in the deal was an anti-theft tracker, which I didn’t want but they said it was already installed (on every car on the lot) and it would cost more to uninstall it. I signed the contract and received a strange call a few days later that I would be getting the car for 2.9% interest instead if I came into the dealership to sign the updated papers. It didn’t make sense to me and they continued to push / call for me to come in. When I asked for answers, nobody seemed to be able to provide any reasoning as to why I was getting a better deal, so I didn’t go in. 9 days after signing my original contract, I received a text from an unknown number that my contract was being cancelled and I must return the car. Immediately texted the sender back, but didn’t hear anything in return.
Furious, I came into the dealership within that week to speak to management about what was going on and get some answers. They gave me the runaround, told me I’d have to sign new paperwork, but that it would be for a 2.9% interest rate. Their finance manager wasn’t there that night so rather than sign anything, I had them print off the revised contract. Went through it line-by-line and couldn’t catch any differences between that and the original contract other than the interest terms. When I went to sign the contract with the finance department the next day, I asked him about it (they have to re-explain all of the contract details) and the part about the anti-theft tracking system came up again. Skeptical, I asked him and the Internet Sales Manager about that charge, which was an additional $500-$600 on top of the car. They both told me once again that the technology was already installed on the car, and that it would cost more to remove it so I mine as well just get it. Begrudgingly, I signed the revised contract and went away with my car. A couple months later, I get a call from someone to install the system that was supposedly already on my car according to the dealership. They deceived me and persuaded me with fraudulent information. Rather than deal with it immediately with a busy work schedule & Covid, I waited a few months before attempting to contact the salesman / management. Came across an article about lawsuits against the dealership and other people coming forward about their fraudulent sales tactics and the City Attorney was investigating this back in June. They are now out of business and I will be speaking with the attorney / Nissan soon. There goes the free oil changes and car washes that I was guaranteed.