Daniel's Post
Daniel Smith
1h ·
ATTENTION Venice Honda is
Exploiting the Elderly (my Mother-In-Law)
Service Advisor Joe Cordaro pressured my elderly mother-in-law into getting a recomended service on her 2016 Honda Pilot Touring that she owned since new because he said the motor would "Blow Up" if she didn't get it done. The service advised "pressured" was a timing belt, 4 new tires brake fluid change, A/C Filter, Windshield wipers and an oil change (which the oil change was the only thing she originally came in for on 7/21/23).
She clearly informed Joe that she could not afford all this, but Joe didn't give up and gave her a brochure for Koalifi financing and pushed her to apply for pre approval on her phone, which she got for a $5000 loan/lease.
She was scheduled to return on Monday, 7/24 and when she arrived they took her across the street to get a rental car while they performed the services.
She was told she wouldn't get to know the terms or amount of her bill until they completed what was necessary and submitted it to Koalifi (the finance company) when they were finished.
When they were done and submitted the $2968.46 (invoice #644159) she was then made aware of the horrific finance terms.
They were going to take $188.35 out of 52 paychecks starting 8/9/23 or she can pay $3,497.85 as of 8/2/23 (increasing daily) but she only has 90 days to pay off the daily increasing total, otherwise she will have to pay a total of 52 times 188.35 = $9,794.20‼
HOW CAN YOU CALL YOURSELF A TRUSTED SERVICE ADVISOR AND DO THIS TO SOMEONE?‼‼‼
This then leads us to 5 days later after my hard working mother-in-law was coming home from work and had a nail in her tire.
She drove to Venice Honda (who she trusted) to just get her tire fixed as she needed to get home to pack for her long awaited 3 night trip to Disney the next day with her Grandchildren and Family.
She was tired and vulnerable and unfortunately trusting of these employees.
Certified Honda Sales and Leasing Consultant Stephen Walczak saw my mother-in-law in service and approached her as he stated service was his sales territory‼
He pressured her while she was in a vulnerable state to sign a HORRIFIC contract for a smaller, used 2020 Honda Passport Touring with 29,717 miles on it. He got her to sign all under the guise of "helping her" because she needed to "get out of this situation".
Mind you the "this situation" is the situation she was in because her service advisor Joe Cordaro advised her to use Koalifi financing to pay for services she could have waited to do, but she believed him when he said her car would blow up if she didn't do her timing belt.
So let me backtrack and get to the HORRIFIC numbers of her new contract.
She ONLY had 10 payments left of approximately $550 to own her 2016 Honda Pilot Touring with all the fancy upgrades‼
She was concerned she couldn't afford the additional $188.35 every 2 weeks (that's out of every paycheck through Koalifi lease financing for her service) thus costing her about $927 a month (which would only have been for 10 months mind you as she would then have owned her car) and then she would have only had to pay just $188.35 each paycheck for the remaining about 32 of the 52 paychecks she would have left (Assuming I hadn't found out, which I have now so I would and will buy her financing out of Koalifi if they do the right thing and give her her car back)
Salesman Stephen with the help of finance manager Spencer Hibbins and sales manager Kyle Composto then persuaded my elderly, single, vulnerable Mother-In-Law to quickly sign a contract for $726.58 per month for 72 months for a merely 4 year newer, smaller, used Honda Passport Touring with 29,717 miles on it with a 13.54% APR.
THAT'S financing $35,377.25 for a 4 year old smaller vehicle that she doesn't like that after her trade in that they only gave her $13,000 for and she still owed $5,509.08 on it. They did include a check for $3,700 to pay off that Koalifi loan for the work done on her trade in Honda Pilot. So after the payoff and the money to buy her out of the lease on her trade in service work through Koalifi (so including the $7,490.92 down payment for her trade in) her total cost of purchase is $59,347.48 (well that's according to the paperwork that shows a 13.21% interest rate, but the other page shows a 13.54% APR so it will be more).
SHE WILL PAY OVER $60k for a USED PASSPORT UNTIL SHE IS 68 YEARS OLD‼
There is so much more to this story, from the way we were treated once myself and my wife were made aware of the coercion and mistreatment of my elderly Mother-In-Law, to us bringing back the vehicle on Tuesday 8/1/23 at 2:15pm as soon as we returned from vacation (which was about 89 hours after she had signed the contract) and... FULL POST ON FACEBOOK, VENICE FLORIDA'S FRIENDLY PEOPLE PAGE - LK UNDER NEW POSTS - DANIEL SMITH POSTED AUG 12, 2023 ABT 5 PM. read more
