It is part of human nature to commit folly and fall astray. Since the inception of time, good and bad have walked parallel; whenever there’s a chance a good, there’s an equal chance of bad as well.
Our society today is gradually becoming depleted of goodness, honesty and fair play. Therefore, we see incidents of fraud, scam, and dishonesty every other day.
The question arises: why have we become so greedy as to fool others for our vested interests, not realizing the repercussions of our acts? Why do we worship money and prefer it over relationships? Why are we not empathetic enough towards people’s emotions? Do we have answers to these questions? I don’t think so!
In New York, on July 9th,2017, a simple woman who ran a juice company was scammed by a car dealership as she just wanted to buy a car for personal and business use. She required a car with a portable electric freezer in the back. She went to 2286 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY, and it was her first experience in buying a car. She went with her husband. She also took along her mother as a guarantor and investor. Perhaps with little technical knowledge, the innocent customers went with the flow of the process, not reckoning upon how inappropriate it could be.
Although they became a little skeptical about all the speedy procedures that the sales agent (Julio) was carrying out but with no prior knowledge about cars and documentation, those women had to watch whatever was happening. With only a learner’s permit and no driver’s license, they completed all the paperwork and became the owner of 2017 Jeep Renegade. It is incumbent to mention the recklessness of the company that the woman’s name was misspelled in the documents.
Also, she wanted to purchase the car and not to take on lease, but with an unmentioned reason, the financing agent (Katty) denied it. All this added to the woman’s suspicion. Anyways, everything went fast, and a lease of a monthly fee of $796.30 was decided without any down-payment.
Earlier, the car seemed to work fine, but just after ten days the car stopped at the highway all of a sudden while the computer said ‘check again.’ The car became out of control and unresponsive to the buttons. It was a surprising and disappointing situation. A car bought so dearly with so many dreams related to personal and commercial use, stopping function in a few days is heart-wrenching indeed.
The woman called the nearby service on 54th Manhattan, NYC. She also called the sales agent (Julio) suggested fixing the car, and the woman disagreed as she leased a brand-new car for almost $800 a month. It didn’t seem a fair solution, so she demanded a replacement of the vehicle. Her demand was accepted. This time too she asked that she wanted to purchase the car, but was told that she could do so after three months of on-time payments.
The new car was arranged, that seemed the same as the previous one, but it was very different from the inside, e.g., seat material and it was not as digital and easy to operate. There were also a few changes in the contract related to the price.
Nothing good came out of the replacements, and the issues with the car continued. Not only that the car was downgraded to 2016 Jeep Renegade; It was very upsetting and an alarming situation.
The woman was using the car for an extreme necessity. It helped massively in her business. Problems in the car meant a loss to her business. But nobody cared!
The woman visited the business owner (Zach) who again suggested a replacement. More issues erupted and even worse ones. The woman felt so agonized and helpless. She called several times to the manufacturer, sales manager, and agents who had no solution. The woman felt like being in the middle of nowhere. She ended up dealing with the store manager (Jeff) who got her in contact with the business owner who was not responding to her previously. To make things worse, she got a bunch of violation claims for not getting an original registration sticker which the sales agent failed to get on time.
She mentioned this to Jeff, and he took care of it, but as far as the non-working car was concerned, he kept offering to fix it which she denied.
He called after many intents of getting her problem fixed and requested her to meet with one of his sales agents who told her that for her to get the right car, she will have to put down $8,000. She replied that she didn’t have them, and that was not the deal.
It was such a crushing situation for her. One of the sales representatives made an insulting and demoralizing suggestion that sounded so unbelievable. He said that either she should pay or otherwise go and crash the car to a wall and claim it to the insurance.
She kept calling Jeep Manufacture, Chrysler Capital several times, visited many dealerships as well but unfortunately, there was no solution to her problem.
Ten months passed since she leased a defective car, did her best to report it and find a solution. All she got was a phone call from the Jeep manufacture (Patricia Johnson) agent requesting her to take the car to a dealership, get it fixed and continue with her life.
She refused to get the car fixed for the sole reason that she wanted a brand-new car with all the features, requested by her from day one and for which she had been paying $747.55 every single month. This was just one incident. There are millions such as stories-unheard, unnoticed, unmentioned, unaddressed.
The conscience of people has slept, which doesn’t seem to be awakened by any alarm. Nobody cares to feel or even apologize for the loss they cause to others. Things like courtesy and ethics in the community seem to have died!!!
Just imagine how tormented you would have felt if you had to go through the same situation.
You might forget this after a while, but the people who actually get into such situations remain affected even for all their lives.
The whole company should have been ashamed for dealing with a customer and that too a respected woman in this manner. All the loss she faced in business, not to mention the waste of energy, time and peace of mind.
This distressing situation serves more like a lesson for all the people who might indulge in some situation. It is always prudent to wisely tackle such situations – be sure of what is being offered, especially when you are going to buy something.
It is quite a pity that with the advancements of technology that aims to provide ease and relief, people today have become so stone-headed and hard-hearted as not to realize that their dual or unfair dealings can cost people their lives.
It is the need of the hour to awaken the long, lost humanity in humans, to reinvent the spirit of empathy and to indulge in fair and just dealings. If both the parties stand on one ground of honesty, only then such scam incidents can be avoided.