Mazda Likes To Screw Us

[misbehave]

subbing

 

[takk]

Why do you think he is entitled to something that IS NOT standard equipment, IS NOT listed on anything other than the (typo'd) window sticker, and IS NOT installed into any sport model MS3 unless the customer PAYS extra for it (this gets rid of the potential "well it was in the one we test drove" arguement).

I just bought my MS3 on Monday and because I needed a car right away (my vehicle had just died unexpectedly) and I had NO time, I had not done ANY of the research I would have normally done prior to this kind of purchase. The sales person sat down with me, with a list of specs on the different models and explained to me what each model had going for it. That's their JOB! Otherwise, why have them at all? Every customer would just choose their car, and pay at a cashier on the way out of the lot. If this salesperson had done his job, this customer would have known his car wasn't going to have the CD-changer. Even if it was only a typo, it doesn't matter -- typos can be significant, and people are supposed to proof-read their work carefully for precisely this reason. The salesperson is the last part of that process of making sure everything is as it should be.

For what it's worth, my MS3 is a GS -- a "Sport" (same as his by the sounds of it) -- and it DOES HAVE a 6-CD-changer (no Bose speakers though). So maybe, just maybe, it wasn't a typo and his car WAS supposed to have the CD-changer! The point is that it was a selling feature for him that turned out to be non-existent. I had no idea what was standard equipment for my GS and what was extra when I bought it -- the salesperson just told me this was a GS and here's what's on it in terms of features... I was happy and I signed on the dotted line. When we went out to the car to check it over, we whizzed through the list of specs because it was sooo frickin freezing out there... so for all I know, I missed something too!

This was not an attempt by Mazda or the dealer to screw someone over "by suckering them into a MS3 with a Bose stereo".

No - but I find it hard to believe that his was the only car on their lot with that "typo" and that they didn't know about it. The best case scenario is they forgot to mention it. But if they get away with this again and again, what's to stop them throwing a few more incorrect specs on the sheet to lure unwary consumers into buying a particular car... "Just look at this spec sheet! It's got A and B and C and D... wow, what a car!" then later claiming "oops, typos -- well you shoulda checked! Not our problem, suckerrrr!"

But now on the other hand, just about every person in this thread thinks that this kid should now basically screw over Mazda because "he can't live without a CD changer", and "Mazda is the one who ****** up". Yeah, they made a typographical error on one piece of paper, big whoop... now why exactly should they hand over a $1500+ stereo system to someone who didn't pay for it?

All I see here is a bunch of kids who are so selfish that they find something to b**** about when their parents buy them a TWENTY TWO THOUSAND dollar car. God knows we can't just listen to that nice motor like I do.

Nobody's talking about "screwing Mazda over". I presume the thread is titled "Mazda likes to screw us" because the guy was so exasperated at getting nowhere in his efforts to deal with them. When this kind of error happens we hope the company says, "oops -- not sure how that happened -- but here, let's fix it now." I bought a vacuum cleaner 2 yrs ago and on the receipt the salesperson had checked off and initialled "2 yrs parts and labour warranty". Two months ago, it broke and I took it in - the manager/owner of the store told me that particular model only has a one-year warranty (and showed me a sticker to that effect inside the bag compartment that I'd never even noticed before) -- but, he honoured my receipt anyway and fixed the vacuum for free. I'll definitely go back there again AND I'll tell my friends how wonderful the owner/manager is to deal with. I really don't understand why mazda isn't doing the same thing here -- giving the kid his stereo isn't going to bankrupt them! And when all his friends see his car and hear his stereo, they may all decide to buy mazdas too.

But anyway, I suspect that all of the points people are debating in this thread are irrelevant when you see the person who's got the beef with mazda as some whiny, ungrateful, spoiled teenager who doesn't know the value of a dollar... (when I read that part of your comment, it turned my stomach that someone could rush to judgment like that -- you don't know anything about this kid's circumstances!). If it was a 70-yr-old widow who had just scraped together her last savings to buy this car and had been thrilled at the idea of the 6-CD-changer because changing CDs is so difficult for her painful arthritic hands and it meant she could load it up with her music and leave it, would you feel the same way? Or would you maybe see things a bit differently?

 

[dcomiskey]

Well, I don't know about you but I think a 600+ dollar sound system is a major reason to be pissed. And like my last post, THEY CAN change options at any time. So yes it could have come with the sound system.

No, it's not. He didn't PAY an extra $600 for it!! He paid msrp for a Sport. End of story! He should be pissed at himslef for not knowing what he was buying.

 

[takk]

I hope you never get near any lawyers... The MS3 is CLEARLY advertised with TWO options packages: Sport and GT. End of story. Like other people, I did my homework before buying the car. I knew specifically why I wanted the GT over the Sport and the Bose/6CD was a major reason..

As I said before, my MS3 Sport has a 6-CD-changer (but factory speakers). So they are not ALL alike, obviously.

 

[Hughes412]

No, it's not. He didn't PAY an extra $600 for it!! He paid msrp for a Sport. End of story! He should be pissed at himslef for not knowing what he was buying.

God man, he didn't have to pay extra for it. It was listed as a STADARD EQUIPMENT!!!! There for he wan't supposed to pay extra for it.

Kind of like this, it comes with an LSD. But how do you know for sure it has one? Unless you take apart the diff. or burn the tires to see if they both spin you can't. You have to go by the STICKER!!!

 

[dcomiskey]

God man, he didn't have to pay extra for it. It was listed as a STADARD EQUIPMENT!!!! There for he wan't supposed to pay extra for it.

Kind of like this, it comes with an LSD. But how do you know for sure it has one? Unless you take apart the diff. or burn the tires to see if they both spin you can't. You have to go by the STICKER!!!

Again, if the guy actually did his homework, he would have known better. People no longer want to accept responsibility anymore, so the easy thing to do is sue or whatever. The kid should eat his pride here and move on. We can do "ifs" all day, but we're talking about this particular incident.

 

[Hughes412]

Where on this sticker is the quote? While this sticker is cut off, you can see the important part. NO DISCLAIMER on this one.

 

[Hughes412]

Again, if the guy actually did his homework, he would have known better. People no longer want to accept responsibility anymore, so the easy thing to do is sue or whatever. The kid should eat his pride here and move on. We can do "ifs" all day, but we're talking about this particular incident.

Ass you can see, he did pay for it. The options cost 22+.

 

[dcomiskey]

Ass you can see, he did pay for it. The options cost 22+.

What?? MSRP is $22,835. That's what he paid.

 

[Kansei]

Hughes .. there's definitely another page to the sticker, the one with the EPA gas mileage ratings and such

 

[quiet desperado]

I really appreciate your honesty. *^_^*



I think it's unfortunate that some of us feel very strongly about the typo and feel that Mazda is "screwing" people, and it maybe hard to disagree with someone who says, "but I'm entitled to get everything on the sticker."

I, just like the most of the car enthusiasts, read the spec sheet + every single magazine reviews many times over and know exactly what I should expect to see when I have my MS3 GT delivered in two weeks. It might be wrong of me to assume that the most people on the forum are Mazda enthusiasts (but I think so anyway). If I recall correctly, the sport trim does not come with the upgraded stereo. Would I be concerned if my GT comes without the Bose? Definitely, but would I care if my Sport didn't come with one regardless of what the sticker says? No... since it's not supposed to have it in the first place. Just my two cents. ^_^ (I'm really bummed out about the lack of mp3 CDs and heated seats, however)

Off topic here's an interesting stat I read the other day:

The ratio of engineers vs. lawyers here in the U.S. - 1: 10

The ratio of engineers vs. lawyers in Japan - 10: 1

They also have a heavy-handed govt., like most other industrial nations. Who needs lawyers when the govt. takes care of everything for you? What a wonderful world that would be for us, too. Yeah, right.

 

[Hikaru9]

They also have a heavy-handed govt., like most other industrial nations. Who needs lawyers when the govt. takes care of everything for you? What a wonderful world that would be for us, too. Yeah, right.

I think our world will be a better place if we didn't have lawyers. lol~ j/k =p

You have to admit it though. We (in the U.S.) have a lot more ridiculous law suits that foreigners just love to laugh at.

On topic, I don't think Mazda is out to screw anyone. If they really wanted to [screw us], they'd sell the cars on Cougar Ace (the ship that flopped) as brand new.

 

[ZoomVT]

Wow, this is pretty ridiculous.
I cann see both points of view on here and i would like to disclaim that i am ll against sue happy people and the sue happy culture in this country. Where i am from, people take responsibility for their actions.

Having said that, i can understand the frustration of the OP and i do believe he deserves the issue to be fixed at MNAO cost. For most of us, we go to incredible lengths of research and learning before we buy a car. Other people dont, they either do not understand or do not have the time or whatever the hell they cant spend the time to research and learn. Even worse, maybe he was shopping a different car, drove past the mazda lot and the car called his attention. He stopped, talked to the salesman and went through the sticker...
"oh it has a Bose system, awesome!... and for that price... s*** is a great deal... better get it now before it flies off the lot..."
He expected a bose system to be installed, thats what it said in the sticker and that what i would expect as well. Like hughes says, if the sticker says it comes with airbags then it has to come with airbags. How can you check? pop open the steering wheel? crash the car. You cannot, you have to go by it.
I do understand that this is not a life threatening component, and a minimal add on to the car; but it is something that is missing. He cannot be blamed for expecting the car to have what it said it had. It was a mistake by Mazda and they should take responsibility for it.
Those of you that are accusing the guy of being sue happy should read a couple of pages back where he clearly said that since the delaership owner was taking care of him he was going to settle for that. I believe he truly wanted the stereo he thought he had; he was not just jumping on the sue bandwagon, or going after a free car from MNAO.

Just my 2 cents.... and for those of you calling people names, it really is unneccessary, if you cant argue your point without insulting or callling names then just shut up.

 

[505zoom]

I just bought my MS3 on Monday and because I needed a car right away (my vehicle had just died unexpectedly) and I had NO time, I had not done ANY of the research I would have normally done prior to this kind of purchase. The sales person sat down with me, with a list of specs on the different models and explained to me what each model had going for it. That's their JOB!

Ok, and YOUR job as a car buyer is to AT LEAST look over the ******* car you are buying. Say you are going to buy your girl a diamond ring, do you look at some spec sheet and then buy a boxed up ring that you never look at until you hand it over? No. Do you go buy a new plasma screen TV and just look at some spec sheet saying how good it is and never even look at it's picture until it's in your living room? No. I could go on and on... you guys are trying to cop out and have mazda give you something YOU DID NOT PAY FOR just because it was on ONE PIECE OF PAPER out of hundreds. Suck it up, they don't owe anyone s*** for this one.

If this salesperson had done his job, this customer would have known his car wasn't going to have the CD-changer.

If the customer had done HIS job, he would have noticed and said something, preferably BEFORE TWO MONTHS.

Even if it was only a typo, it doesn't matter -- typos can be significant, and people are supposed to proof-read their work carefully for precisely this reason. The salesperson is the last part of that process of making sure everything is as it should be.

Yes yes, lets all go around suing everyone for every little typo in this world... it makes it such a better place. I think I'll go sue walmart because their add said they were getting 20 nintendos and they only got 18 and I missed out.

For what it's worth, my MS3 is a GS -- a "Sport" (same as his by the sounds of it) -- and it DOES HAVE a 6-CD-changer (no Bose speakers though). So maybe, just maybe, it wasn't a typo and his car WAS supposed to have the CD-changer!

Wrong. It would have been listed in the OPTIONAL EQUIPMENT section if his car was SUPPOSED to come with it... this is because as we all know, the SPORT MS3 does NOT come with a Bose stereo as STANDARD EQUIPMENT.

I had no idea what was standard equipment for my GS and what was extra when I bought it -- the salesperson just told me this was a GS and here's what's on it in terms of features... I was happy and I signed on the dotted line. When we went out to the car to check it over, we whizzed through the list of specs because it was sooo frickin freezing out there... so for all I know, I missed something too!

Good work.(ughdance)

No - but I find it hard to believe that his was the only car on their lot with that "typo" and that they didn't know about it. The best case scenario is they forgot to mention it. But if they get away with this again and again, what's to stop them throwing a few more incorrect specs on the sheet to lure unwary consumers into buying a particular car... "Just look at this spec sheet! It's got A and B and C and D... wow, what a car!" then later claiming "oops, typos -- well you shoulda checked! Not our problem, suckerrrr!"

Hmmm... what's to stop them... hmm lets see... oh yeah, it would be called MORALITY... something that NONE of you who are arguing against me here on this have any of.

Nobody's talking about "screwing Mazda over".

EVERY single one of you are. Making Mazda give you a stereo that YOU DID NOT PAY FOR is in fact, screwing them over.

When this kind of error happens we hope the company says, "oops -- not sure how that happened -- but here, let's fix it now."

And there it is... you are a selfish consumer who thinks that the old "the customer is always right" s*** still works. See that was all fine and dandy even 5 years ago, but greedy, abusive consumers have changed all that. Businesses have to protect themselves against s*** like this, which costs them money for lawyers, extra paperwork, and in the end only drives up the cost of the product for everyone. Thanks.

I bought a vacuum cleaner 2 yrs ago and on the receipt the salesperson had checked off and initialled "2 yrs parts and labour warranty". Two months ago, it broke and I took it in - the manager/owner of the store told me that particular model only has a one-year warranty (and showed me a sticker to that effect inside the bag compartment that I'd never even noticed before) -- but, he honoured my receipt anyway and fixed the vacuum for free. I'll definitely go back there again AND I'll tell my friends how wonderful the owner/manager is to deal with. I really don't understand why mazda isn't doing the same thing here -- giving the kid his stereo isn't going to bankrupt them! And when all his friends see his car and hear his stereo, they may all decide to buy mazdas too.

Why is it that people need free s*** before they will reccomend anything to their friends? The car itself isn't enough? Should he now go and tell his friends to NOT buy Mazdas since he didn't get his FREE stereo?

But anyway, I suspect that all of the points people are debating in this thread are irrelevant when you see the person who's got the beef with mazda as some whiny, ungrateful, spoiled teenager who doesn't know the value of a dollar... (when I read that part of your comment, it turned my stomach that someone could rush to judgment like that -- you don't know anything about this kid's circumstances!).

Read my post again please. You will see that I was not only refering to the thread starter, but to ALL of the people in this thread. All I see here is a bunch of whiney bitches.

If it was a 70-yr-old widow who had just scraped together her last savings to buy this car and had been thrilled at the idea of the 6-CD-changer because changing CDs is so difficult for her painful arthritic hands and it meant she could load it up with her music and leave it, would you feel the same way? Or would you maybe see things a bit differently?

I would see it the exact same way bud... if the b**** doesn't realize when she gets in the car that the stereo isn't what she wants, and she drives the car off the lot, too bad so sad. Why is it SO damn hard for the customer to look at the car they are buying and see if it is in fact something they want to purchase? Furthermore, if she then went and got a 150 dollar compensation, and then a 500 dollar compensation, and STILL bitched about not having the stereo, I would say that SHE is the childish one.

 

[AKYellow]

On topic, I don't think Mazda is out to screw anyone. If they really wanted to [screw us], they'd sell the cars on Cougar Ace (the ship that flopped) as brand new.

They are selling 110 vehicles off that vessel, either that or they misplaced them somewhere. Why are they only scrapping 4703 vice 4813??

Anyway sorry to thread jack. I hope you get this resolved since there is such a debate about this issue. I would like to see the second page that kansei is talking about..........................

 

[Kansei]

They are selling 110 vehicles off that vessel, either that or they misplaced them somewhere. Why are they only scrapping 4703 vice 4813??

Anyway sorry to thread jack. I hope you get this resolved since there is such a debate about this issue. I would like to see the second page that kansei is talking about..........................

They said they inspected cars from the cougar ace to come to the decision to scrap them... that would be my guess of where the 110 went.

 

[Rotus8]

They said they inspected cars from the cougar ace to come to the decision to scrap them... that would be my guess of where the 110 went.

There is list of all the VIN numbers here:
http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/displayPage.action?pageParameter=aboutPress

 

[takk]

Ok, and YOUR job as a car buyer is to AT LEAST look over the ******* car you are buying.

Right - I agree. And I'm sure he did look it over, but for whatever reason, he didn't get right down and inspect the speakers and CD-changer so, as far as you're concerned, he's now SOL.

So what you're saying is:

• never trust a mazda dealer to be honest and forthcoming with important details, like the fact that the spec sheet is wrong, if you don't happen to notice yourself
  
• don't believe what's on the spec sheet because mazda obviously can't be trusted to make sure their spec sheets are correct and no moral person would ever hold them accountable for any mistakes they make (so check out every last detail carefully yourself no matter what -- you have to b/c if they made a mistake, it's your problem, not theirs)
  
• don't expect them to take any responsibility for their error if they can pin it on you, the buyer (after all, they're not responsible for some dumbass customer not catching their mistakes)

And what are all those car salespersons at the dealership there for again? I forget.

I DO, however, agree with you that two months is a long time to wait to bring this up to Mazda -- although I was under the impression (perhaps the wrong impression) that he went back to the dealership to find out about the stereo long before he posted about it here.

This thread is a really a big eye-opener. I checked over my car before I drove it off the lot, but I wasn't concerned that there would be any problem if something wasn't as they said it should be. The people at the dealership were all really nice and helpful when I was buying my car -- I figured if there was a problem, I'd take it back and they'd correct it for me like any decent business would do if it was a result of their mistake. This whole notion that they're not responsible if I don't catch their mistakes is really kind of a bummer. For some reason, I figured that kind of paranoia was only really necessary with used car salesmen on shady lots. But from what you're saying, it also applies to mazda. Man that sucks.

 

[elderlycoffee]

my sport has the bose 6 speaker( 4 door speakers and two tweeters)

not bose.

 

[highwaypizza]

I will bet 100.00 dollars that this is cause for a law suite. It doesn't matter what you put on a web site or anything ells. It's all about the invoice! If the invoice says you have bose then that car better have bose! Any one that has ran a buisness will tell you, if they do a service or have a product and you pay for it but don't get it the company OWES you that product or service.

No where on mazdas site does it say that a car CAN NOT be a sport and have the bose ordered.

I also know grown men that are so ignorant when it comes to cars that they don't know were to even start to look for options.

The guys that think there is not a problem here, I've got one thing to say.

I have ocean front property here in Austin that I'll sell you for 100 bucks!

Hughes - I'm going to sue you now for your typos! See how rediculous it sounds...



BTW - the window sticker IS NOT an invoice.