Can a Dealership do this??? (I didn't see this coming)

Do not think it is correct to call out the dealer at this point. If there was no contract just a 2k deposit handshake agreement the OP may not like it but waiting that long is too bad for him. No recourse really because he was duly notified and has even admitted it in writing here.

Have to be careful about libel to the emotional ones posting. Yes, it sucks but the OP just has himself to blame. Should have thought ahead to make a contingency plan should this situation arise.

Remember we are only getting one side of the story.
While I agree that it's not appropriate to call out the dealership at this point (until I talk to the sales manager), I don't agree that I'm to blame for this situation. Was it ideal? No. Did I have conflicts that prevented me from flying out of state to pick up the truck when it arrived a couple of weeks early? Yes, but I informed my salesman of those right away. I felt that I did my due diligence in contacting Ford multiple times after the truck was built to ensure when it would arrive at the dealership because I knew that I would have two military drill weekends near each other around the same time the truck would arrive (and that did happen). Ford kept saying that it would be around June 6-8th when the truck would arrive. I knew that I had a military drill weekend on June 11-12, so I told him that I'd have to wait until the next weekend to fly up and purchase the truck. After that I was ghosted and I couldn't get anybody in the dealership to respond to my emails or phone calls last week. Now looking back, I wish that I would've taken an unexcused absence from my drill weekend to fly up the previous weekend, but we know that hindsight is 20/20! The irony is that they sold it out from under me only a couple of days before I was to fly up to purchase the truck (likely because they could get $10k ADM and I had locked in the X-plan pricing discount)! My salesman even told me the previous week that I would have to put it into writing to cancel my contract so that they could refund my deposit, and then they'd be allowed to sell it to the next customer. Back in September, they had me digitally sign an order contract when they demanded the $2k deposit, as well as signing the DORA to lock in the X-plan price. I was good with that because I knew that was the truck I wanted and designed in my mind (after dozens of iterations). Unfortunately for me, none of this matters anymore as my "dream truck" is now gone! I'm sorry for venting! I do appreciate the advice and responses from so many knowledgeable folks! I hope that nobody else runs into this type of situation with their dealerships! I'll update as soon as I hear back from the sales manager. Enjoy your Tremors!
 
4th: decide on whether I will name the dealership here to warn others
Agree with this. Get your fact finding done first, that is the prudent way forward. I believe if/how they respond to you today will say much about the situation.
 
Handshake deals don't get deposits. Don't give a deposit without paperwork ever.
Thank You however, a verbal contract under US law is binding in the absence of a written one. It is just very had to prove in litigation. The correct term is not paperwork because that term means anything. The correct term is a Contract also one that is binding. Yes, I realize most here are not in this world however, if you are not sure of something find someone who is. Will save you a lot of potential peril in the long run..
 
That's a great response! This is my plan moving forward. 1st: talk to the sales manager on Monday to see if they even have any remorse for selling the truck. 2nd: take this to BBB. 3rd: Contact Ford to file a complaint. 4th: decide on whether I will name the dealership here to warn others.

The reality is that the truck is already gone, so I'm not expecting much out of this situation. The frustrating part is that I had already emailed the salesman last Monday informing him that I had sold the Ram and so I was planning on flying up on that Friday, but then when he ghosted me all week, I knew that something was up so I held onto the Ram. Then on Thursday night, I get an email telling me that my deposit was returned. I knew I was screwed at that point. He did mention many times that he wanted me to put it in writing that I was allowing them to sell my truck because the dealership was no longer accepting X-plan orders and he felt that he could get $10k over sticker by selling it on their lot (up to $15k more than what I would be paying for the truck with the X-plan).

I went with this out-of-state dealership because they offer a Lifetime Powertrain Warranty for free through CNA (they are a reputable 3rd party warranty company). Given that I kept my 2005 F250 6L PSD for 17 years, I had spent a lot of money on repairs over the years (>$10k) and so the warranty was very appealing as I was planning on keeping this truck for at least that many years.

I'll call Ford marketing to look for a truck, but I only want a Tremor in certain colors. I do need a 40/20/40 front seat that is quite rare and I'm not willing to pay $10k ADM when I had a truck at an X-plan price that I had already waited 9 months for it to arrive. It's looking like I'll have to keep the Cummins Mega Cab since I'll have to wait to order a MY23, but I'm truly a Ford guy and was super stoked for my Tremor this summer!!
Don't get caught up on the 40/20/40 option as they can only be ordered that way. So it would be a long shot to get one like that from a lot.

However you can remove the center console easily and install the center seat. There are many center seats available since they are often removed in favor of custom consoles being installed in XL/XLT work trucks and emergency vehicles. You will just need to have it reupholster in a matching leather. There are posts on the forum about the swap.
 
Good info on here with some valuable options proposed. Unfortunately i hail from back in the day when handshake agreements were rock solid and litigation was a serious option hut seldom used. Now our word means nothing, lies are considered truth, and if you haven’t sued someone for something there must be something seriously wrong with you. I hope you can at least put this slimey dealer on record so others dont get screwed like you did.
 
There are a few things that you might have in your favor and I would look to exploit if needed.
1. did you get the email from ford about your build, vin etc, if so this would be valuable info to have to contest the sale with Ford and another way to use to put the dealer on blast.
2. get a copy of your orders and speak to a jag, in regards to military service and unable to get to pick up the truck due to mandatory military service. This maybe helpful as well To have when you put them on blast.
3. blast, contact local news agency who does fraud in your area and see if they would like a story of a veteran who ordered a vehicle and was performing military service and the dealership sold it under him for a big profit To someone else.
4. use the news agency in his area.
just a few thoughts, as a current serving member of the army, the bad PR maybe worth its weight in gold and may not only get others to not buy from them but could help you get some attention from ford corporate or another dealership that maybe able to assist you.
shape the narrative of the story, what does or should the OE look like.
 
Yeah to sell a truck that someone had a deposit on out from underneath someone at mandatory training for the extra profit is inexcusable, you can probably put enough pressure on them to get your the same deal you had on the next available tremor. Cash was exchanged and there are email records, that’s a clear deal that was made.
 
There are a few things that you might have in your favor and I would look to exploit if needed.
1. did you get the email from ford about your build, vin etc, if so this would be valuable info to have to contest the sale with Ford and another way to use to put the dealer on blast.
2. get a copy of your orders and speak to a jag, in regards to military service and unable to get to pick up the truck due to mandatory military service. This maybe helpful as well To have when you put them on blast.
3. blast, contact local news agency who does fraud in your area and see if they would like a story of a veteran who ordered a vehicle and was performing military service and the dealership sold it under him for a big profit To someone else.
4. use the news agency in his area.
just a few thoughts, as a current serving member of the army, the bad PR maybe worth its weight in gold and may not only get others to not buy from them but could help you get some attention from ford corporate or another dealership that maybe able to assist you.
shape the narrative of the story, what does or should the OE look like.
Good thoughts! The JAG will not get involved in this. Personal business matter not related to Uncle lol. There was also a week the OP could not go because of another personal commitment. Not a smart thing to do really as reserve drill can be rescheduled normally because things do come up so, was any attempt made to reschedule? Maybe it had already been rescheduled previously and could not I do not know. There is so much that is not known and these things can backfire once other parties start doing the due diligence on the background.

Best option to move forward is to document what happened with all of the discrete detail being careful to only list the facts no silly threats to "blast" driven by emotion and submit this to Ford and ask for their assistance. Hopefully, the facts will support your position enough that as a courtesy Ford will get involved. Unfortunately the odds of this are pretty slim however the way you frame this situation is key.
 
Pretty sad of the dealership to go this route. Keep us updated when you hear from them today. Not sure there is any good or reasonable explanation for their actions. Well, plenty of good reason$ on their side of the deal, but still burns you in the end.
 
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This sucks, you seem to be doing well to keep a level head to see where it goes before releasing the dealer name.

Having a signed contract and deposit may be helpful in this situation. As others have stated see how the dealer handles your push back on breaking the contact you had signed. If that goes south then I would do as others suggested by going to BBB and Ford with your documentation. Hopefully someone will if not at least make it right by you hold the dealer accountable for what they did.
 
I was finally able to talk with the Sales Manager today and I'm glad that I had a whole list of questions prepared so that I could stay on track and not allow my emotions to get pulled in too much. It was quickly apparent that a sales manager is a salesman that was so good at his job, that they promoted him to SM as he was smooth and professional. That being said, I did catch him in quite a few inaccuracies as he kept trying to take things that I had emailed or texted 'out of context' to make this my fault. I know this sounds silly now, but calmer heads have prevailed as I realized that no matter what I said or did, I wasn't getting my truck. The craziest part is that I finally asked what day last week they had sold my truck because I had emailed the salesman Tuesday night saying that I had a buyer for the Ram so I would be flying up on the weekend, and he said that they had actually sold it on June 2nd!!! I'm just glad that I didn't sell my Ram last week to free up the cash for the purchase of a truck that was already long gone! Of course, the sales manager pointed the finger at me saying that they've never had an ordered vehicle come in that wasn't picked up within 3-7 days of it arriving and so they assumed that I no longer wanted it. The only real hang up and delay on the transaction was their lowball offer for trading in the 2018 Ram and I had told the salesman that I needed more time to sell it private party because I didn't want to take a $10k bath on. He said that a deposit is only a "right of refusal", to which I said that I never refused the truck, but was rather impatiently waiting for my truck to be built for the past 8+ months. I reminded him that I had texted the salesman that I had prior obligations and Ford had told me twice that it wouldn't even arrive until June 8th. He said that their only obligation with a deposit is to hold the truck for a week (like another member had previously said here) and so they posted it on their website shortly after to sell it. I asked why this was never mentioned to me and he said that they didn't have to because it had been on their lot more than a week and Ford was pressuring them to sell it (???). He did mention that they were able to sell it with an ADM, instead of selling it for X-plan to me! It's funny that I didn't even bring that part up, but that was my biggest suspicion!! Anyways, I couldn't get anywhere because he kept talking in circles about me not jumping on the truck within the first week of it arriving (even though it was 18 days earlier than Ford had told me that it would arrive) and then kept coming back to the point that they were doing me a favor by allowing me to have X-plan pricing and "you can't get that in the 20 western United States now"...so I should've acted faster! I calmly vented my frustration that I had waited almost 9 months for my dream truck to arrive, but then I realized that the truck was long gone and there was nothing anybody could do at this point. He was apologetic when he realized that I was at Army Drill weekend two of those weekends that I "didn't drop everything to get the truck" and he felt bad that he couldn't do anything to remedy this situation since the truck was already long gone and there's no other trucks like what I want to be had. I even called Ford Marketing today and they could only find 8 Lariats in the US that have a 40/20/40 split bench seat in the colors I like, but they had nowhere near the options that I had in my build and I wouldn't get X-plan pricing.

I did file a dealer complaint with Ford today and the lady who took the complaint was VERY apologetic on behalf of Ford. She mentioned what others have said on here about possibly affecting their future allocations, but she said that is kept confidential and I likely wouldn't hear anything else from Ford. As for taking a legal stance, I did reach out to a good friend that's an attorney and he said that he could file a lawsuit against the dealership to sue for damages and cost difference on the MY23 since I did have a contract and a deposit. But honestly, that's not who I am and not worth the hassle. This is a truck, not someone's life or livelihood (at least not mine), so I would never go that far! I do have a 2018 Ram Mega Cab that I can drive until I decide what to do next. I'm thinking that there's some life lesson to be learned, but I can only think that I need to have a 'drop everything' mentality when my long-awaited truck arrives! The situation does suck, but there's just not much else that I can do now. I am grateful that the SM was very professional and even apologetic when he had to be, and not confrontational like I was expecting. Is he a trained salesman? Yes. But at least he had the courtesy to be very reasonable and polite, even when I did vent my frustrations. I'm sorry for turning this into a long post! I'd just say that when order banks do open back up, be careful to read through the contract carefully if you're placing an order and don't expect that deposit to hold much leverage with an unknown dealership when there is an ADM to be made because they can simply refund it! I do appreciate everyone's help and suggestions on how to deal with this situation!! This Tremor Forum is a great community! Thank you!
 
Someone likely saw your tremor on their website as incoming inventory that matched what they wanted. Called the dealer and offered them big money and they decided to sell and take the profit.
 
I was finally able to talk with the Sales Manager today and I'm glad that I had a whole list of questions prepared so that I could stay on track and not allow my emotions to get pulled in too much. It was quickly apparent that a sales manager is a salesman that was so good at his job, that they promoted him to SM as he was smooth and professional. That being said, I did catch him in quite a few inaccuracies as he kept trying to take things that I had emailed or texted 'out of context' to make this my fault. I know this sounds silly now, but calmer heads have prevailed as I realized that no matter what I said or did, I wasn't getting my truck. The craziest part is that I finally asked what day last week they had sold my truck because I had emailed the salesman Tuesday night saying that I had a buyer for the Ram so I would be flying up on the weekend, and he said that they had actually sold it on June 2nd!!! I'm just glad that I didn't sell my Ram last week to free up the cash for the purchase of a truck that was already long gone! Of course, the sales manager pointed the finger at me saying that they've never had an ordered vehicle come in that wasn't picked up within 3-7 days of it arriving and so they assumed that I no longer wanted it. The only real hang up and delay on the transaction was their lowball offer for trading in the 2018 Ram and I had told the salesman that I needed more time to sell it private party because I didn't want to take a $10k bath on. He said that a deposit is only a "right of refusal", to which I said that I never refused the truck, but was rather impatiently waiting for my truck to be built for the past 8+ months. I reminded him that I had texted the salesman that I had prior obligations and Ford had told me twice that it wouldn't even arrive until June 8th. He said that their only obligation with a deposit is to hold the truck for a week (like another member had previously said here) and so they posted it on their website shortly after to sell it. I asked why this was never mentioned to me and he said that they didn't have to because it had been on their lot more than a week and Ford was pressuring them to sell it (???). He did mention that they were able to sell it with an ADM, instead of selling it for X-plan to me! It's funny that I didn't even bring that part up, but that was my biggest suspicion!! Anyways, I couldn't get anywhere because he kept talking in circles about me not jumping on the truck within the first week of it arriving (even though it was 18 days earlier than Ford had told me that it would arrive) and then kept coming back to the point that they were doing me a favor by allowing me to have X-plan pricing and "you can't get that in the 20 western United States now"...so I should've acted faster! I calmly vented my frustration that I had waited almost 9 months for my dream truck to arrive, but then I realized that the truck was long gone and there was nothing anybody could do at this point. He was apologetic when he realized that I was at Army Drill weekend two of those weekends that I "didn't drop everything to get the truck" and he felt bad that he couldn't do anything to remedy this situation since the truck was already long gone and there's no other trucks like what I want to be had. I even called Ford Marketing today and they could only find 8 Lariats in the US that have a 40/20/40 split bench seat in the colors I like, but they had nowhere near the options that I had in my build and I wouldn't get X-plan pricing.

I did file a dealer complaint with Ford today and the lady who took the complaint was VERY apologetic on behalf of Ford. She mentioned what others have said on here about possibly affecting their future allocations, but she said that is kept confidential and I likely wouldn't hear anything else from Ford. As for taking a legal stance, I did reach out to a good friend that's an attorney and he said that he could file a lawsuit against the dealership to sue for damages and cost difference on the MY23 since I did have a contract and a deposit. But honestly, that's not who I am and not worth the hassle. This is a truck, not someone's life or livelihood (at least not mine), so I would never go that far! I do have a 2018 Ram Mega Cab that I can drive until I decide what to do next. I'm thinking that there's some life lesson to be learned, but I can only think that I need to have a 'drop everything' mentality when my long-awaited truck arrives! The situation does suck, but there's just not much else that I can do now. I am grateful that the SM was very professional and even apologetic when he had to be, and not confrontational like I was expecting. Is he a trained salesman? Yes. But at least he had the courtesy to be very reasonable and polite, even when I did vent my frustrations. I'm sorry for turning this into a long post! I'd just say that when order banks do open back up, be careful to read through the contract carefully if you're placing an order and don't expect that deposit to hold much leverage with an unknown dealership when there is an ADM to be made because they can simply refund it! I do appreciate everyone's help and suggestions on how to deal with this situation!! This Tremor Forum is a great community! Thank you!
Please call Chip at Granger and have a conversation. They will treat you right.
 
I even called Ford Marketing today and they could only find 8 Lariats in the US that have a 40/20/40 split bench seat in the colors I like, but they had nowhere near the options that I had in my build and I wouldn't get X-plan pricing

Thank you for the detailed follow-up! It was mentioned before, but there are posts on here regarding swapping the front console configuration for a bench. If you don't want to wait for the next model year I would not let the seat configuration be the only consideration. Maybe Ford can find you one with the options you want except the bench??
 
After waiting 9 months and having this outcome, I give you credit for the way you’re handling this. I guess this is a lesson for all of us about the potential outcome. Sounds like you did everything that most of us have done on these custom orders…. Deposit, covp, contracts, good communication along the way, etc. I’m just shaking my head at this. WTF. Do we need our own contracts when we roll into the dealerships now and place these orders to protect ourselves from this happening?

At the end of the day, this dealership knew exactly what they were doing. They saw an opportunity to make an extra 10-15k and took it. That is absolute BS and everyone here should stay away from this dealer. I do hope you name them. I have a suspicion that @amclaen is exactly right. Serious props to you @dc3655 for letting cooler heads prevail and moving on. I might have lost my mind.
 
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After waiting 9 months and having this outcome, I give you credit for the way you’re handling this. I guess this is a lesson for all of us about the potential outcome. Sounds like you did everything that most of us have done on these custom orders…. Deposit, covp, contracts, good communication along the way, etc. I’m just shaking my head at this. WTF. Do we need our own contracts when we roll into the dealerships now and place these orders to protect ourselves from this happening?

At the end of the day, this dealership knew exactly what they were doing. They saw an opportunity to make an extra 10-15k and took it. That is absolute BS and everyone here should stay away from this dealer. I do hope you name them. I have a suspicion that @amclaen is exactly right. Serious props to you @dc3655 for letting cooler heads prevail and moving on. I might have lost my mind.
My thoughts exactly. And I think you are doing a disservice to this community by not naming them, because that is not a dealership I would personally want to go through. It seems you painted the picture fairly well, and for those who want to make a call to stay away from that dealership, they should be able to.
 
You guys are right and by not naming this dealership, I could potentially put others at risk of ending up in the same situation. Of course, this SM would refute that statement and express that as long as you pick up your ordered truck within the first week, you're okay. I must say that when I heard last Saturday that they had sold the truck to someone else, I was holding out hope that I could somehow stop that sale of that truck (as if it were still on the lot) and keep the door open for getting my truck. Once I found out that the truck left their lot on June 2nd, I knew that hope was gone and I figured that there was nothing left to do. Had the SM not freely stated (without any inquiry in the matter) that they sold my ordered truck with an ADM instead of selling it to me for X-plan price, I might've let the whole thing go. But they definitely pulled a fast one on me to make more money of this truck. So the dealership is Tim Dahle Ford. I'm sure most have never heard of it because it is a small dealership in Utah and I went with them mainly because I felt that I could potentially keep the truck for 20+ years (especially if I got 17 years out of my 6.0L PSD) and so I was especially interested in their Lifetime Powertrain Warranty. Now I have no truck.....and no need for a warranty to go with it! I'll go back to driving the Ram and being jealous of every Tremor that I see out on the road! Those Tremors are great looking trucks! Thank you again for your help!
 
I think I would be taking my lawyer buddy up on filing a lawsuit...

My lawyer buddy likes to do stuff like that for free for friends when he see's people getting fucked over.

That is, if all ducks are in a row, signed printed sales contracts, receipt for deposit, etc...
 
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