Saturday, August 02, 2008

Unfair advertising - Update

Back in April, I posted this entry about a local car dealer who was running unfair ads. The ads resulted in multiple law suits (reportedly 14) and customers who could not afford the cars. They purchased a car with very low payments, that soon escalated. In one report, the payments started at $47/month, then escalated to over $700. Over 50 complaints were filed with the BBB.

Well, the lawsuits have taken their toll on the dealer. The dealership filed for bankruptcy a few weeks ago. He owes hundreds of creditors and dozens of employees have lost their job. (see here for details). Now, the dealership has closed down completely.

My initial reaction is that it couldn't happen to a nicer guy (sarcasm). The guy doesn't deserve to run a car dealership. Some of the creditors who lost money are the TV stations that ran the ads and the advertising agency who created the ads. These are the folks that I identified back in April that I thought should share the burden.

However, a lot of individuals lost money too. They thought they were getting a good deal, then got stiffed. Now, I'm a believer in "Buyer Beware", and I think these people shouldn't be made 100% whole, (even though I said that in April), but this deceptive deal has cost them more than it should have.

Remember, if you see a deal that's too good to be true, it probably isn't true.

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