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We verbally agreed on the vehicle base price, winterization package, 3M protection, free winter tires, rustproofing and undercoating. When it was time to sign, they didn’t go over the paperwork with me. They didn’t verbally itemize anything on the bill of sales. They just watched in silence as I signed and initialed a stack of pages. When I was done signing, I asked for my copy of the paperwork. The answer was no. They didn’t give me a copy. Why was that? I found out six days later when I picked up the vehicle and finally had a chance to inspect the papers.
They had secretly shoved two add-ons to the bill of sales that I never wanted or asked for: something called "Etch" $1199 and "Tires & Rims Program" $999. When I was signing, I did not expect or notice these lines on the page, and they were never itemized to me verbally. This is an Unfair Practice as detailed in Section 6(4) of the Consumer Protection Act:
"(4) Without limiting subsections (2) and (3), the following are unfair practices if they are directed at one or more potential consumers:
(a) a supplier’s doing or saying anything that might reasonably deceive or mislead a consumer.”
https://www.amvic.org/unfair-practices/
Furthermore, this is what the Alberta government has to say about documentation: “Businesses are required to provide buyers with the comprehensive bill of sale document at the time of the vehicle sale.” This is exactly what West Side Mitsubishi failed to do.
https://www.alberta.ca/comprehensive-bill-sale
The paperwork was eventually handed to me with the vehicle. I looked at these two surprise items on the contract and I had absolutely no clue what they even meant. I had to Google to see what the word “etch” had to do with cars. (It’s the engraving of the serial number of the vehicle which, to the best of my knowledge, gets done at the factory, not at the dealership.) They refused to send me the detailed terms and conditions of this “Etch” add-on, so to this day I don’t exactly know what it is. Pure thin air, as far as I’m concerned. “Tires & Rims Program”? This one they did explain. It’s a thousand-dollar warranty for accidental tire and rim breakage. For 24 months. But this is beside the point. The point is that they added all this hogwash on the bill of sale without my informed consent.
In the normal world, when salesmen dupe a customer, the manager should step in and make it right. Not at West Side Mitsubishi. First, I called the dealership and asked these bogus add-ons to be removed from the bill of sales. Response was negative. Then I emailed the manager and explained, in detail, how exactly they had ripped me off. The manager attempted to make it right by offering “free lifetime oil changes.” Incredibly, this was yet another scam. I looked at the wording on this “free oil change” contract and asked the manager, repeatedly, what the small print means. He refused to explain, so I did my own research. The dealership service department was courteous enough to reveal that the deal is not actually free. To qualify for these oil changes, I would have to pay for a series of inspections and services over the years, including costly brake inspections, transmission service etc.
This entire episode has been beyond disappointing. I had no idea that any business could actually go to these lengths to deceive their customer.
West Side Mitsubishi owes me $2307.90 ("Etch" $1199 + "Tires & Rims" $999 + GST).