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AKBigDaddy t1_j0ztfup wrote

Reply to comment by smallboxofcrayons in Dan O'Brien Kia to pay $1.25M in settlement over accusations of deceptive practices by Beneficial-Hand4310

Right? Been waiting for years for this. They offered me a role repeatedly despite my refusal- even after telling them its because I value my reputation too much.

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Dollhousefurniture t1_j10c3xx wrote

I knew people who worked there and left very shortly after

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AKBigDaddy t1_j10zfwn wrote

Any dealer that doesn't have in house F&I people should be avoided at all costs. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of bad f&I people that will take advantage of uneducated buyers. But on the whole, most of them take the compliance aspect of their career VERY seriously.

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icedcornholio t1_j11lfpy wrote

I thought all dealers had inside f&i - mainly because selling the loan to a bank can give them a 2-5% bonus

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AKBigDaddy t1_j127psb wrote

Oh it absolutely can, even the local CU's pay 2-3% of the amount financed, while giving the customer the same rate as if they had walked in the door and picked up a check.

Dan O'brien tried to get rid of the entire F&I department, have the salespeople/sales managers sell the extended warranties and place the loan, and have a centralized location (manchester) do the paperwork via videochat with the customers in an office- ie; Come sit in this office in front of this monitor mister customer, you're going to be videoconferencing with so and so to finalize your paperwork.

The problem with this is an F&I Professional has 3 main priorities, in order of importance: 1: Protect the dealership 2: Ensure all contracts are 'bankable' (ie; you have all of the required stipulations, the contract is properly written, and all required signatures are present) 3: Sell ancillary products (Extended warranty, gap, etc).

Sales Managers only have 1: Sell cars.

So when you have people that come in on a car who have an 850FICO, and are good to go at the quoted $600+ car payment but maybe are on a fixed income of $2000/mo, a sales manager is incentivized to give them a raise. $4000/mo will carry that car payment, they're an 850 so the bank is unlikely to require proof of income, and the customer isn't being misled about what his car payment will be, so why not?

An F&I person who takes their job seriously will catch that, put a stop to it, and ensure that it never happens again. A "loan closing specialist" who's only job is to sign paperwork, not only won't catch that, they're likely inexperienced enough that they don't even know to look for it. An F&I job is easily 6 figures, I've been doing it about 5 years, and my first year, which was also my worst year, was $165,000. So short sighted dealers will start to question if that role is really worth it, because hell, a good salesman can convince someone to take a warranty along with the car, so why am I paying this guy tons of money to do that? Dealers with more years in operation or who have been burned by overly aggressive/fraudulent sales managers never question it. Because yeah, I'm expensive. But not having someone like me is even more expensive.

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schoolbusserman t1_j10ciqi wrote

What else do they do that’s shady

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AKBigDaddy t1_j10z7pp wrote

Had more than one customer come to the dealership I work at with a story about how the dealer convinced them to sign for a payment several hundred more per month than they could afford, but don't worry because if they stop on on their due date every month they'll give them a voucher for the difference.

Those were always heartbreaking because they were desperate for help but more often than not there's nothing I could do.

Don't get me wrong I am a firm believer in people taking responsibility for their own actions, but holy shit you've got to be a special kind of scumbag to lie like that.

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bossman118242 t1_j11fo0a wrote

they screwed my 64 year old mom out of thousands of dollars as recently as this year. verbally agreed to 1 price and once paperwork came out it was $200 more a month and only way she knew was reading the paperwork they never said a word about the change. at this time they had already taken her down payment and she wanted to stop before signing anything and they claimed her money was already in the vault and they would have to send her a check because they cant open the vault twice which is bull shit. she had signed nothing at this point. this dealership is a complete scam and needs to be shut down. she paid $19k+ for a 2016 kia soul. also not even leaving the lot with the car, they held her car for 15 days even though they had her down payment and everything signed. told her to lie to the bank and say she had possession of the car because the dealership said she had taken the car home already.

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