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One Illinois Dealer Group Must Pay $10 Million For Adding Illegal Fees And Services To Customer Contracts

The dealers allegedly added on thousands of dollars in fees and services to purposely long sales contracts.

By Lawrence Hodge
Today 2:00PM

Dealer fees are the easiest way to scam customers out of their money. Sales contracts are often long, and most people don’t actually read everything. The excitement of a new car has them just signing on the dotted line and looking for the keys. But charging those fees has caught up with some people, as CBS News reports that a dealer group based out of Illinois will have to pay $10 million to settle a case that alleged they were charging customers “junk fees.”

The dealer group, Napleton Automotive Group of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois runs dealerships in multiple states. In March, the group was hit with a deceptive practices complaint by the FTC. The complaint accuses the dealer of adding everything from GAP insurance to paint protection to customers’ sales contracts without their knowledge:

A survey cited in the complaint showed that 83 percent of buyers from the dealerships were charged junk fees for add-ons without authorization or as a result of deception. One consumer cited in the complaint reported that the dealership located in Arlington Heights, Ill., charged him for nearly $4,000 in add-on fees after he’d paid a similar amount in down payment.

How were they able to sneak these things in without customers knowing? Long service contracts and worn-out customers. After lengthy negotiations and customers declining whatever add-ons or services the dealer was trying to push — and confirming pricing without the crap they tried to sell — the dealers would sneak those very services back into the contracts. These contracts would run 60+ pages according to the FTC.

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Sad Crying Clown in an ILX > eomfd
4/05/22 3:03pm

There was just an article on Friday about a Nissan dealer in Phoenix getting fined $500,000 for hiding add-ons.

https://legalnewsline.com/stories/511403753-arizona-secures-130-000-for-consumers-victimized-by-online-auto-sales-fraud (1)

That same dealer was fined $130,000 in 2018 for the exact same thing.

https://legalnewsline.com/stories/511403753-arizona-secures-130-000-for-consumers-victimized-by-online-auto-sales-fraud

So it’s probably a safe bet that in this case the cost of the settlement is worth it and, within a year or two, they’ll be back up to the same tricks.