I hope the customer’s happy, because it turns out he was in the wrong
He should tell his friends, relatives, and fellow churchgoers that Mopar did right by him
But I suspect he won’t
There are 14 different models shown on the manufactures site, the Lone Star, Big Horn, Laramie and Limited come with the security alarm as standard equipment.
The truck in the story appears to be a “Sport” model. The security alarm is an option on the Sport model. The buyer should have used the Ram web site to see what was available on the trucks before he went to select one.
Part of the remote start package, right @Nevada_545 ? That’s quite a bit more than what he thought he had. His mistake all the way.
The guy buys a $38K truck and complains about a $100 alarm…what a loser…
Shame on you. This guy has a legitimate gripe. Disagree if you want but name calling? That’s is a bit juvenile.
Actually he doesn’t have a legitimate gripe. He didn’t pay for the option.
“Wow, if that alarm wasn’t on the car when I test drove it and made a deal, but was on it when I went to pick it up, I’d demand a full refund, leave, and never go there again! I want no aftermarket or dealer installed items on any of my cars.”
Actually, the dealerships stated they automatically install these alarms on all vehicles on their lot as soon as they get them. When you do a test drive and see the car for the first time the alarm is installed and active. When it comes time to talk turkey and price I was advised that in order to keep the alarm active I would need to pay them, otherwise they would deactivate it.
It turns out the deactivation is simple and requires physical removal of some sort of key from the control box or else the removal of the control box itself. Time was about 5 minutes to deactivate the alarm.
Hmm, I wonder could one then go on the aftermarket and purchase a key or control box at a much lower cost than the dealer wanted to charge, much the same way one can do your own scotch-guarding at home at a fraction of the dealers inflated charge?
Assuming bisbonian’s description of the dealer’s explanation is accurate, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, that’s “bait & switch”… illegal in NH. In NH this would be one for the AG’s office.
On the Chevy trucks, if you add driving lights they will not work unless they are turned on in the BCM. That’s a $100 dealer fee.
However, if they have them enabled during the test drive and then disable them during the purchase stage without telling the buyer… and then require an additional fee to reconnect them… that’s downright deceptive.
I think this is pretty common in the software industry. If you think about it as purchasing a bunch of smaller pieces of software vs. purchasing one large one with certain features disabled, it is a lot more straightforward. The truth is that all of these features take development and the only way the more advanced features can be created is if a premium is paid for them. The only reason it might seem unfair is because software features are more intangible than physical features of a car, but in so far as the software features provide value and require effort to create, they are no different than any other feature.
@justinshar: I agree with you, but if he drove a vehicle with an alarm, then purchased one where it had the capability but the dealer had just deactivated it, that sounds like the ol’ bait n’ switch scam to me. And I know demo software often gives you a full-featured package for x amount of time, then you purchase the features you want, but I doubt this was made clear at all in the case of the OP’s truck. I guess the best way to look at it is like satellite radio or “OnStar” on GM cars–usually you get a free subscription that you then have to pay for when your trial period is up.
At the risk of going off on a tangent here, unfortunately this is the way of the software industry these days where everything is becoming subscription-based, which is incredibly annoying to me, as I prefer to purchase something once and use it until it is no longer relevant or I’m sick of it.