By Katherine Chew, Staff Attorney, Seniors Unit
Ms. Hoang (fictitious name) is a 71 year old whose primary language is Vietnamese. As a retired senior, she seldom uses her ten year old vehicle for anything more than running errands to places that are within a ten mile radius from her home, driving at slow speeds and only on city streets. Not well-experienced dealing with car maintenance and repairs, Ms. Hoang took her vehicle to a nearby car dealership when she got a mailer coupon for an oil change.
The service representative at the dealership took her car keys and assured her the simple routine maintenance oil change would take about one hour. However, after waiting in the lobby for three hours, Ms. Hoang was in shock after he presented her with the bill. To her dismay, what was expected to be a straightforward transaction for an oil change on a special for $44.95, had suddenly ballooned into an exorbitant charge of $990.00 for a bevy of auto repair services she never authorized.
Deceived
Without her knowledge, the technicians performed work on the brakes, transmission, air filter, and replaced the shock absorbers. When Ms. Hoang tried to question the bill, she was met with dismissive treatment, avoidance, confusing explanations, and rambling double-talk. She left the dealership in tears, because she felt pressured and obligated to pay for the work even though it was done without her consent. Upset, flustered, and tired, she wondered how she would pay such an enormous bill on her fixed income.
A few days later, she tried to speak with the service director to contest the bill. He justified the bill by claiming his dealership sold brand name vehicles, and parts and labor for brand name vehicles were expensive. Ms. Hoang tried to point out the work was never requested nor authorized. At that point, another sales representative “interrupted” their conversation, urging the director to end the discussion immediately because otherwise he would be late for a scheduled meeting. The director abruptly left without addressing any of Ms. Hoang’s concerns.
Securing legal support and remedy
I met Ms. Hoang when she came to the Senior Center in Garden Grove, hoping that the visiting attorney from CLA SoCal’s Senior Unit might be able to help. As she explained her predicament, she started to cry, saying she felt intimidated when trying to speak up for herself at the dealership, particularly because Vietnamese was her native language, and no one seemed to take her seriously.
We stepped in and wrote a pre-litigation letter to both the dealership and corporate office, describing the outrageous, dismissive, and unfair business practices. We demanded the dealership immediately remedy the situation to avoid the necessity of further legal action and were successful in securing a full refund for all the unauthorized auto repairs. This allowed a greatly relieved Ms. Hoang to pay what she had intended all along—a simple routine maintenance oil change.
