Email Campaign Thank You

We want to officially thank everyone who sent emails to Libertyville Lincoln Mercury during our campaign to get our down payment back on the Mercury Mariner that we ordered from them. Obviously Visa helped a lot by agreeing with us and refunding the money but we truly believe that it was the email campaign that convinced the dealership to not fight Visa and allow us to keep our money. We are truly grateful to you and sincerely appreciate you helping us out. Thank you so much!

This lesson teaches us one thing in particular besides the fact that Visa really will go to bat for what is right which is that there is power in numbers. People who stick together to fight an unjust cause will prevail over time. Time was on our side and the email campaign showed the dealership that we meant business and that the internet is a powerful thing.

So we want to make sure that everyone who helped us out knows how much we appreciate it. You truly did help and we want to thank you for all that you did.

Sorry

Hello there everyone. I've been a little busy and so haven't been blogging lately. Don't think that I'm stopping because I'm not, just took a break for awhile. So what's been happening...lots I suppose.

Julie's Aunt stayed with us for the last week. Grace had a wonderful time with her. We'll be heading out towards her house next week on vacation as we're driving to Colorado. We'll be staying at her house and then she'll be coming with us too! So Grace and I will have someone to sightsee with while Julie is busy stamping at the Stampin' Up convention.

My niece had a birthday and Grace got to go to her birthday party last Saturday. She had another birthday party for a friend of hers from gymnastics on Sunday so Grace was booked last weekend. We took Julie's Aunt up to the Milwaukee airport on Sunday also as she was going up to northern Wisconsin to see her son and grandchildren. Then we picked her back up on Wednesday. Tuesday was really busy; Grace had her gymnastics and then we went shopping for a little while and had lunch. Then she had a swimming party at a friends house. Then in the evening was our village's board meeting. Then on Friday Grace and I got adjustments at the chiropractor. Grace didn't hardly need any adjustments, but I did - mostly in my lower back which is not where I normally need adjustments.

We have been trying to decide what to buy so that Grace can watch movies in the car on our vacation next week. We were looking at the personal DVD players and had picked one out that had a super long battery life (12 hours) but before we could buy it, Julie says "what about a laptop?" So we stopped buying the DVD player and I started researching. We ended up getting a laptop for only $150 more than a DVD player. And this way I'll be able to check my email, surf and blog while we're away from home. The only problem we're having is deciding how to secure the laptop in the car as we're driving. We did find a laptop bag that attaches to the seat in the car, but it's only available online and we couldn't look at it before buying it. So when it comes this week we'll take a look at it and see if it's what we were looking for. The other option I found was an "extra" screen that attaches to the headrest. It's actually designed for the personal DVD players so that you would have two screens in the car, but I thought we could just hook the laptop up to the screen and then the laptop could be in the console or wherever. That'll be our second option I think if the bag we ordered isn't what we want.

Along with the laptop, we got a free printer, wireless router (that I'll use as a switch since we already have a wireless router), and anti-spyware software. The printer we got wasn't all that, so I took it back and "upgraded" to the next model which just happened to be on sale for the same price, so it didn't cost anything. So our office equipment is looking a little fresher and vacation will be so much easier! Thank you Circuit City!

Still no word on the new car. We were informed that it had been "submitted to plant" remember, but no updates since then, so I'm assuming it hasn't even made it to the assembly line yet. Darn that Mayor Bloomberg! As far as the Libertyville Lincoln Mercury deal; we are still waiting on the dealership to make a decision. Visa has decided to refund the money, but the dealership could refuse and that would put everything right back where we started.

I got the grass mowed this evening. Grace went for a sleep-over at her Aunt's house in Vernon Hills. She was over at our house picking up some stamping stuff and asked if we'd like that. We answered yes obviously. She's down right now because they laid her off at her job. Grace will be glad to cheer her up.

DirecTV activated the HD receiver my BIL ordered on eBay with no problems, so now my in-laws have hi-def DirecTV. I think they like it, but it's only been a day. I think they need more time to know for sure.

So now our focus turns to vacation and getting everything ready for that. It'll be a big undertaking, but it should also be a lot of fun. Our chiropractor said this morning that he's driven this trip and it's a pretty easy drive and quite beautiful after you get out of Nebraska (no offense Luvy!)

I'll need to make sure Julie's car is ready for the trip since we weren't planning to take it. We keep up with our routine maintenance, but this trip isn't routine so I'll have to be extra diligent with it before we go.

I've been eying some servers on eBay. Don't think Julie would like me buying anything like that, but if it's within my weekly "allowance" it'll be alright. I've found some older IBM servers that have been going for some pretty low amounts but will suit us just fine considering we only have 3-5 (depending on the day) computers in our house. And I've been buying Grace some games for her Leapster that we got her for our trip. Now I need to go through the house and find stuff to sell!

Alright, that's enough for now. We need to eat dinner. I will be blogging again tomorrow.

Hurray

As it stands right now, Visa has refunded our money from Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. Yea! The dispute representative at Visa is out of the office until next Tuesday so I can't confirm with her why they've done this. I'm not sure if the dealership has allowed this to happen or maybe they didn't file a rebuttal to the dispute in a timely fashion, or whether Visa just made this decision and the dealership had no choice. But as of now, we have our money and everything in the world is B-E-A-utiful!

Now as far as our new car, still no word from the factory. Also Ford has dropped all incentives for 2008 Escape Hybrids. If you want any 2007 vehicle: 0% financing. 2008 vehicle, nothing; Lucky me.

Grace didn't sleep in this morning and "A" went swimming with a friend so it was just Grace and I until the afternoon when her friend from across the street came over to play. While they were playing I finished putting up the shelf I've been working on. I also touched up the walls a bit from wear-and-tear (read: Grace) over the last couple of years. I started getting things ready for Julie's Aunt whom Grace and I are picking up from the airport tomorrow. She'll be staying with us for a few days. She won't be surprised at how clean and organized our house is, that's for sure. But at least she'll have a bed to sleep in and a roof over her head.

We ate out tonight to "celebrate" getting our money back from the dealership. Hopefully it will stand as is; who knows what will happen considering how stubborn they were with this case for so long. Only time will tell.

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I called DirecTV again today because we bought a second HiDef receiver and need an access card to use in it. Come to find out that the HiDef receiver we have now will be deprecated sometime soon and we'll need to buy yet another HiDef receiver. Just so you know, our receiver model is the H10. So if you have a DirecTV Model H10 HiDef receiver, you will need to buy a new receiver in the next few months. This is because they are changing their HiDef channel lineup in the fall and they are switching to Mpeg-4 encoding and the H10 HiDef model won't process Mpeg-4 audio. So now more expenses for us and how many other customers.

Have any of you heard about what happened in the Boulder High School in Colorado a couple of months ago? Personally I find it appalling. Here is a link to an article about it. You won't find an article in ANY mainstream newspaper because they don't want you to know about it. I can't believe anything they said was presented to any child and I'm really surprised that there isn't more community outrage over what transpired. Here is a transcript of the entire panel. These alleged experts were telling this assembly of students (which had mandatory attendance) that you should experiment with drugs and sex and same-sex sex, etc. Absolutely astounding that this goes on in our own country and even worse that hardly anyone is complaining about it. I don't get it.

Mon, Tue, Wed/Fourth of July

I've been a little busy with projects around the house and so I haven't written lately. Monday was depressing because of what my last post said. I've been hearing from more and more people that tell me they've sent emails to Dan Marks the owner of Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. So that makes me feel a little better. Thank you to everyone whom has done that! We had dinner at our friend across the street's house Monday night. They made buffalo that they bought from a vendor at the Grayslake Farmers Market. Wow was it really good! Very lean and tasty. We drank some beer and a lot of wine though and so it was good our "commute" was short because I couldn't have driven home. :-)

Tuesday was gymnastics and since Grace was up late Monday night she was really dragging at class. But I think most of the girls in her class were dragging. Miss Debb, her teacher, was trying to get all of them into it but they weren't responding very well. Grace did seem to kind of wake up about half way through the class. After that we just hung out for a while and then a guy that lives down the street stopped by. He is a tile-guy and was stopping to give us an estimate for putting the new tile in our entryway. He recommended that we get smaller tile. The tile we bought was 18" x 18" and he thought that 12" x 12" would fit better considering the size of our entryway. He also thought the edge piece we picked up was too small and would be lost with the trim piece we'll put over the transition from the tile to the hardwood. So we'll have to return this tile and find something more appropriate. He was over for about a half-hour and explained everything very well. I've heard absolutely nothing but good things about him and about his work plus he has 29 years of experience. So no matter the cost I'm sure he's worth it. He called later to tell us the price and it was more than I expected which is what another neighbor said to expect. But like I said, quality is what we're after and since it's the entryway and the first thing you see when you enter our house, I'd like it to be perfect.

Today was the 4th of July and we didn't really do much. I had finished painting a shelf I wanted to hang in the dining room to put my cactus's on, but I had a few difficulties hanging it so I'll have to make a quick trip to the hardware store tomorrow. Lets just say that hanging shelves on drywall isn't the easiest combination. We went to Julie's sister's house for a picnic this afternoon. We had a really fun time and Grace wouldn't hardly get out of the pool. She's going to sleep good tonight! Our lawyer was there and so we talked about our "issue" and now we have a new line of offense to start implementing.

So that is the last three days in a nutshell. We got a whole inch of rain last night. And it was humid today; hot and humid. Now we're hearing the nightly barrage of mortar rounds outside. I'm so glad fireworks are illegal here or else we might have to hear mortar rounds outside every night, ha-ha. As a veteran, I feel very strongly about my country and I'm glad to live here and I'm very happy we are a free country, etc., etc., etc. However, fireworks just don't do anything for me. Especially when we are in a drought and fire is not our friend and since the larger fireworks are illegal here. I just don't get it. I'm tired of everyone in this country only caring about themselves and not about anyone else or our country.

Speaking of our country, did you hear about Al Gore's son getting arrested today for driving his Toyota Prius at about 100 mph on the highway in California? And then they found drugs both illegal and prescription (and he didn't have a prescription for them.) Oops! Daddy's not gonna like that one.

And then in Wichita Kansas a woman was stabbed in a convenience store and people were stepping over her and taking photos with their cell phones instead of calling for help. She later died at the hospital. What is this country coming too? Do we care about ourselves so much that a person can lay dying and we'll stop to take a picture while picking up some Gatorade, and not help them? This is absolute disregard for human life. I guess I'm just old-fashioned since I believe in the old adage that you treat others how you'd like to be treated. That's what we try to teach Grace. That's what my parents taught me and that's also what the bible says. So why doesn't anyone do this any more? Are these the same people that are "horrified" at the number of civilians being killed in Iraq?

That's another issue I'm just sick of hearing about. U.S. troops are not killing civilians, and if they happen too it's not intentional, it's Al-Qaeda and the insurgents that are doing that along with killing our troops too. Does everyone really want Iraq to become another Vietnam just to prove how "wrong" President Bush was about this war? He won't be in office for much longer and I don't think "proving" anything about him, right or wrong, is going to improve our situation in Iraq or help us to select our next president. I don't blame President Bush at all for what has transpired and I think he did the right thing. Whether we should be there or not right now is no longer the point. The point now is what will happen if we just walk away without stability in the country. Granted the other side of the story is that stability will never come while we are there. But I personally feel it will be much worse without our presence.

Alright, that's enough ranting. Tomorrow will be here before long and I need some rest.

Illinos Attorney General Lisa Madigan

You hear on the news all the time about how Lisa Madigan goes after big business for the little guy. Well not in our case. I finally was able to talk to the representative from her Chicago office and she said the case has been closed and that there is nothing they can do.

Obviously I'm not so happy about this newest development, but I'm not about to give up either. I'll need to contact my lawyer now and see if she feels we have a case. I'm working diligently on the website I was going to create to help bring defamation to their business's name. I will also start placing ads in local papers telling people not to buy from them. Julie and I were also planning to go to the dealership with the last letter we sent to the Attorney General and have him read it and talk to us man-to-man. I'm not certain if the Attorney General ever forwarded it to the dealership and so we aren't sure if he's even read it. Plus he never responded to the first letter we sent him. So we're going to confront him face to face and see what happens. Anyone else have any ideas? Any help is appreciated.

Please keep my email campaign going. Please forward this text to everyone in your address book so they can email the dealership too. Have them email it to llmdan@aol.com - here is the text again:

I have recently been made aware of how a friend of mine, Mr. Steve Serres, was treated at your dealership Libertyville Lincoln Mercury Mr. Marks. I wanted to let you know that I am appalled at how my friend was treated and unless you return the $1,500 to him I plan to never do business with your dealership. Furthermore, I will make sure all of my family members, co-workers and friends are made aware of how you treated Mr. Serres and recommend that they never do business with you either. Please keep track of how many of these emails you receive and multiply it by how many family members, co-workers and friends you think each person might have. When you add all those numbers up, this will be how many customers at a minimum that will never do business with you; these are lost customers and lost revenue. And the more people that know the more your dealerships image will be tarnished. I look forward to hearing from Mr. Serres that his money has been returned.

Another Week

This week just flew by for some reason. I guess when you're busy those kinds of things happen. Julie actually took a half day at work today but wasn't home much sooner than normal because she went shopping on her way home. Unfortunately she wasn't too successful as she only came home with a new swimming suit and she's been wanting work clothes.

Grace slept until 9:15 this morning so we obviously didn't do much of anything this morning. We went to blockbuster today to get our free rentals for returning our Blockbuster Total Access rentals. After that we had some lunch at McDonalds. Can you believe they actually told me they don't have double-cheeseburger meals anymore? You have to order everything separately. Anyway, then we ran over to my Aunt's work and dropped off our carpet cleaner. They are having company over the weekend and wanted to clean their carpets prior to the party. After that we ran to Target to get a few things including dinner for today. I just ended up getting some sirloin steaks to grill up and some mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.

I grilled the steak before heading over to the in-laws. It turned out pretty good, but the juice from the steak leaked in the car. I'll have to clean that up tomorrow. I've got so many things to do this weekend it's just crazy. I need to mow the lawn, paint some exterior trim pieces and replace them, pull weeds (just never ends), prime the shelves for the bookcases I made here in the office and another shelf I want to hang up in the dining room. Then there's cleaning (also never ending) and just general getting rid of junk. We plain have too much of it or I have too much. Julie doesn't save much, I'm the saver and boy do I do my part. I've also got so many unfinished projects. I guess I should make a list and start working on completing a few of them. Lists help me a lot. If it's not on a list I generally just forget about it.

I'm going to need to water the lawn on Sunday I guess. We have watering restrictions and can only water on odd days since our house number is an odd number. The other day I said that we got about a quarter inch of rain but we actually got a half an inch. That's not enough so I'll need to water since it isn't supposed to rain now for another week.

I've been getting good responses to my email campaign against Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. Thanks to everyone that has helped already. Please forward to anyone you know!

What a difference a day makes

It's been hot and so humid here for some time now it was a real shock today to go outside. I forgot what nice weather was like - it actually felt cold to me and that's scary because this is my ideal temperature. The high today was 74° and a nice cool breeze. I should have changed from shorts to jeans, that would have helped. But that's just crazy talk for this time of year.

After Julie left for work today Rosco (our dog) decided it was time to get up. I usually sleep until Grace wakes up but not today as he had to go out. So I was up at 6:20 this morning and it was nice to relax and read before Grace got up, but I'm really tired! I'm not used to getting up early any more. Grace got up around 8:00 and she didn't want breakfast until 10:00 or so I think. But she did eat a good breakfast when we finally had it and then "A" came over. Julie's sister called and wanted to have lunch with us today so we all went to Panera Bread for lunch. There was a little "excitement" there as we were eating the police came and ticketed a car that was parked in a handicapped spot without a placard in the window or a plate. It was interesting to watch. There were two squad cars one parked behind the "offending" vehicle and another was writing the ticket out. Once they were done the one that was parked behind took a picture of the back of the car aiming at what looked like the license plate.

We tried to stick around long enough to see who's car it was, but Grace was getting tired of waiting so we left. Interestingly most of the people that were in the restaurant while we were eating had left so who knows who's car it was. They might not have even been there. After that we ran over to Office Depot and got some self-stick fasteners for file folders. I couldn't believe that the smallest package you could buy them in was 100 pieces. I'll have those for the rest of my life. Also picked up an optical mouse for my experimental "server" for only $5. And I grabbed the smallest package they had of DVD-RW's so I could experiment with them in my DVD recorder. Not sure how well those really work.

After that we came back home and Grace wanted to play outside but like I said it actually felt cold with the wind, so "A" wasn't too keen on the whole idea. After Julie came home I convinced her to go out to eat for dinner at Culvers. One of her other sisters called and mentioned that portions of their proceeds today were going to the Relay for Life/American Cancer Society. So we were just doing our part and helping out. We actually met Julie's sister and her family there, and our neighbors from across the street met us there later for dessert.

We were going to watch the movie "Citizen Kane" tonight as it's due at Blockbuster tomorrow but Grace wasn't cooperating too well to get in bed easily for Julie tonight, so we didn't really have time. Not sure what I should do; just be late since there aren't any "late fees" any more or just take it back. We can always rent it again.

So as you can see from my other post today I haven't heard anything from Libertyville Lincoln Mercury or Lisa Madigan's office about our complaint and I'm tired of waiting. I did finally hear from our credit card company yesterday or the day before that they are still reviewing the case and haven't made any determinations. I called the representative from Lisa Madigan's office again today and her voice mail again said she was out of the office. Maybe I should leave a message every time I call, but I don't want to be a pest they are helping me after all; at least I think they are.

I talked to the Ford store where we ordered our Escape from and our salesperson said that she thinks she knows why our order is taking so long. Apparently taxi companies in New York are using the Escape Hybrids and they've ordered a boatload of them. So of course these taxi companies take precedence over the "average consumer." Which really sucks because we really wanted to take this new car on vacation because it'll have a navigation system and it gets great fuel mileage (not as good on the highway as the city, but still better than any other car we've owned recently.) She said to pretty much plan on taking Julie's car to Colorado and if this one is in before we leave it will be a pleasant surprise. So that's what I'm going to do and that is usually my philosophy, but we've just been waiting so long for this darn car that I'm tired of waiting.

I asked if there was a way I could pick up the car from the factory and avoid the whole delivery time frame after the car has been built. She said absolutely not. But I know I've read somewhere before that some customers have done that. I'm thinking there is a way around that. Maybe it's more of a dealership policy that they want to take physical possession of the car so they can sell it, like they wouldn't trust me with it until I've paid for it or something; who knows. Obviously I'd be willing to do all the paperwork before I actually took possession.

On a lighter note, a blog reader suggested I look into myfantasyleague.com as an option for our Fantasy Football league this year. We have looked into that site in previous years when we were considering changing, but we weren't impressed at that time. I have to say after creating our league today on their site I'm very impressed with the number of customization options available. Thanks for telling me to check them out again. I'll bring it to every one else's attention in our league and see which one they prefer.

Libertyville Lincoln Mercury Email Campaign

Please help me send a message to Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. Just copy the text below and paste it into an email to the owner of the dealership Dan Marks. His email address is llmdan@aol.com - feel free to change the text anyway you like just make sure you are still mentioning my name in the email. Please send this to everyone you know so that I can get as many messages to him as I can so that he knows the power of the internet and how it can affect his business.

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I have recently been made aware of how a friend of mine, Mr. Steve Serres, was treated at your dealership Libertyville Lincoln Mercury Mr. Marks. I wanted to let you know that I am appalled at how my friend was treated and unless you return the $1,500 to him I plan to never do business with your dealership. Furthermore, I will make sure all of my family members, co-workers and friends are made aware of how you treated Mr. Serres and recommend that they never do business with you either. Please keep track of how many of these emails you receive and multiply it by how many family members, co-workers and friends you think each person might have. When you add all those numbers up, this will be how many customers at a minimum that will never do business with you; these are lost customers and lost revenue. And the more people that know the more your dealerships image will be tarnished. I look forward to hearing from Mr. Serres that his money has been returned.

It's Hot - and did I mention Humid?

Today was gymnastics and of course Grace wanted to sleep in. I woke her up and we made it to gymnastics only a few minutes late. While she was there I ran to the Super Wal-Mart in Antioch to look for a birthday present for a friend of Grace's for her birthday party tomorrow. I didn't find that gift there, but I found something we wanted to get Grace for our trip to Colorado. We got her a Leapfrog Leapster; it'll give her something to do in the car on our trip. Plus if it's something new it'll take her at least 10 minutes to figure out how to use it.

So then I ran to the post office to mail a package to my Mom and came back to get Grace. We had to take the Edge back to the Ford store today and I got my cursory Taurus. It's not pretty, but it's free and it gets us places. Can't complain too loudly. After that we went to pick up the wallpaper for the lower portion of the walls down in the family room. Also we went to Best Buy to get the gift for her friend. Actually what we got will end up being Grace's birthday present; so we'll have to get something else tomorrow for her friend.

Funny thing actually, her friends Dad called tonight to see if we've heard anything about the whole issue with Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. I've been worried about that myselth (the spelling is for Ella) so I called again today to Lisa Madigan's office in Chicago and the message again said they were out of the office. I then called her office down in Springfield and they said that the office in Chicago is where the file is and they couldn't provide any more information. So I guess I'll just have to keep calling or wait for her to call me back since I left a message yesterday.

After that we just took it easy; Grace's friend from across the street came over for a while and then they both went across the street for a while to swim in the little pool they have. Then after Julie made it home we had dinner and I ran out to the Hainesville Village Board Meeting. Good thing I wasn't late as the mayor started 2 minutes early. The big discussion tonight was about the budget. Basically it will be unchanged from last year, with a few exceptions of course. There will be a commercial development at the entrance to our subdivision on Rte. 120. I wondered because a week or so ago they surveyed and marked it so it seemed logical. They talked about the bike path that they are going to put on Hainesville Road from Washington Street down to Rte. 120. Apparently the portion of the path that will go from Washington Street down to the old "Softball City" location will be started in the fall and the portion south of there won't be started until next year.

HainesvilleFest '07 is sounding exciting as there seems to be more activities planned for this year but they need more volunteers. Also August 7th is National Night Out - more info to come later. Apparently IDOT is publishing results of a field test on July 5th and 12th with bidding beginning on July 26th and tentative approval by the board on August 21st (I'm guessing it's repaving.) Also there was a wetlands meeting last Wednesday with little attendance and another is scheduled for Thursday at 7 pm. Trustee Walkington is hoping for more attendance. Personally I had no idea.

By the way, the high here today was 89° with 95% humidity and the dew point is all the way up at 70°.

DirecTV Version 2.0

Grace slept in today again and so we didn't go out today like I thought we might. I was considering going on a bike ride, but we ended up not having time anyway. Right after breakfast the DirecTV installer called and asked if he could come early. I said no problem and he showed up before lunch.

We got our new receiver (DVR Plus Model R15) and to some extent I'm not all that disappointed, but it's not as good overall as the old receiver. Tivo really is the best in my opinion. It's called a dual-tuner receiver and indeed you can record two things at once, but you can't switch between the two shows like you could on the old receiver (Hughes model DVR80.) So unless you're recording at least one thing you can't watch two shows. That's irritating! I read online that allegedly they plan to have a software upgrade in the future that will change this, but until or even IF that happens we're stuck without it. One good thing is that you can rewind for 90 minutes instead of only 30 minutes. But like I just said that's only for one show, you don't have two buffers for the two tuners, only one.

Another irritation is that the remote works on the same frequency as the High-Definition receiver and so whenever I turn it off or on or change a channel, etc. it does the same thing on both receivers. I'm certain there is a way around this, but I haven't figured this out yet and the instructions don't tell you anything.

I called the office of Lisa Madigan - the Illinois Attorney General - today to find out the status of our complaint with Libertyville Lincoln Mercury but the person handling it was out. Hopefully they will call back tomorrow. I also called the Ford store today and they need their Edge back, so I'll be dropping it off tomorrow after gymnastics; and yes, I'm getting a Taurus.

On the fun side, a friend of mine called me today and we talked Fantasy Football! I'm so ready for football to start. Bears training camp starts July 27. Unfortunately we'll be in Colorado at that time. But maybe I can convince Julie to stop there on the way home. We'll be practically driving right by it! Anyway, my friend and I were talking about getting things started for this year and possibly using a different server this year to host our league. We've used RTSports for the last two or three years I think and it's not all that special. I think we're going to revert to a site we've used in the past called fanstar. I think my Dad is going to join the league this year, but we still will need at least one more franchise owner.

Libertyville Lincoln Mercury

Libertyville Lincoln Mercury - and why to not do business with them.

I've decided to create a web site with all the information related to this experience with the Sales Department and Owner of Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. I'll add this at a later date obviously, but want to get started here with our horrible attempt to purchase a car from this dealership. Please do not do business with Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. They have unfair business practices and try to take as much of your money as they can whether they deserve it or not.

Here is our complaint dated 4 May 2007 to the Better Business Bureau
My wife Julie and I ordered a new car (Black 2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid 4WD VIN# 4M2CU39H58KJ09107) through Libertyville Lincoln Mercury on 3 March 2007. When ordering this vehicle we specifically asked what would happen if we didn't buy the car for some unforeseen reason and they didn't answer the question, instead stating that I'm sure we won't have to worry about that. While we were provided a copy of the order worksheet that we signed, we were not provided a copy of the back of this document where allegedly it states that if we don't take deliver of the vehicle after having special ordered it that we will forfeit the money we put down as a down payment which was $1500, keeping in mind we asked this specific question and were told it was nothing to worry about. Along the course of the vehicle being built and delivered to the dealership, several things happened that made us not want to do business with this dealership anymore and we were pushed beyond our limits for dealing with this business when told we would have to come to pick up the vehicle earlier than expected. The car should have taken about six weeks from the order date to come in and we had a verbal agreement that they were honoring for the dealership to retain said vehicle on their lot for 30 days after arrival from the factory. We were informed on 13 April that the vehicle had arrived (in my mind one day early) and we would need to pick it up by 7 May. When I questioned why we were only being given three weeks to pick up the vehicle I was told by the sales representative that they didn't know the car was on their lot for seven days and that they were informing me as soon as they knew. We weren't prepared with sufficient financing by the date they required us to pick up the car (7 May 2007) and when I asked if we could pick it up on 15 May instead, I was told that no, I'd have to come in on 7 May. Then the sales representative said that they didn't work on the 7th and that I could therefore come in on 8 May to get the vehicle. I approached the sales representative yesterday (2 May 2007) and stated that I wasn't happy with how I'd been treated, didn't wish to take possession of the vehicle any longer and wanted my money back. I was then referred to the sales manager and was basically told that they keep a lawyer on retainer and that fighting me won't cost them anything, that I'm wasting my time and that they have no intention of returning my money to me. I said you have the ability to tear up the document I signed and he replied that he only works there and doesn't own the walls. I said there is an owner (Dan Marks) that owns the walls that is capable of doing that. His reply was that the owner wasn't willing to do that.

This was assigned case number: 94119981
Here is their initial response dated 14 May 2007:
Contact Name and Title: Dan Marks, president
Contact Phone: 847-367-1700
Contact Email: llmdan@aol.com
In response to Mr. and mrs Serres complaint, The serres did order a vehicle from Libertyville L-M on March 3 2007. This vehicle was a special order 2008 Mariner Hybrid. All Paperwork was signed including a Buyers Order, Vehicle confirmation sheet, and credit apps. They also gave a $1500 non-refundable deposit. When the vehicle arrived from the factory in April, the customer stated he did not want to pickup the vehicle until May because he had one remaining payment on his other vehicle. The dealership said no problem and scheduled a date of May 8th. The first week of May Mr serres came in and stated he did not want the vehicle and wanted his money back. Bill Baroud, the sales manager, asked him why he was backing out, the vehicle was exactly as ordered and the price did not change. Mr serres first said he wanted to pick the car up on May 14th, Mr Baroud said fine But then Mr serres told Bill Baroud he had bought another vehicle the other day and just wanted his money back. The dealership now has a vehicle we ordered special, that was not intended for inventory and that we are paying 9 1/2 % interest carrying costs. The deposit is non-refundable however according to the Illinois Attorney General and previous cases regarding this matter, the deposit can be used in the future as credit toward another vehicle purchase less the current carrying costs. The dealership did everything it could to keep this sale however we should not be penalized because the Serres decided to buy another car two months after ordering the 2008 Mariner Hybrid.

Our response posted 15 May 2007
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Let me start by stating that when we ordered this vehicle from the dealership, we specifically asked the sales rep if for some unforeseen reason we had to back out of this deal if we would get our money back and she said not to worry about it. Also please note that it states nowhere on any documentation we received at the time we ordered the vehicle that the deposit is not refundable. Why would I cancel an order if I believed I would not receive the down payment back considering I received no product from this business?

While the dealership may classify this vehicle as a special order, they will have absolutely no problem selling it as the only thing not on this vehicle is a sunroof. It has every other option available. In fact the reason the dealership didn't want to come down on the price of this vehicle is because it is in such high demand. The sales rep stated this many times and also said after the vehicle arrived at the dealership that many people were looking at it because they wanted one and this was the only one they had in stock. So the fact that this was a factory order should have absolutely nothing to do with this discussion. Why don't we wait and see when the vehicle sells as it was readded to their regular inventory this week.

The next item Mr. Marks mentions is that we set a date of May 8 for pickup. This is true, but only after great discussion with Mrs. Benkiel. Our original agreement was that they would retain this vehicle on their lot for 30 days after it arrived from the factory. Mrs. Benkiel called us on the 13th and said it had arrived. She then stated we would need to come in by the 7th to pick it up. When I questioned the timing, she said that it had actually arrived on the 7th and that she just learned it was there one week later. How does an employee not notice a customer's car on the lot for a week? Their lot isn't all that large to begin with. I asked her at that time if we couldn't come in and pick it up on the 15th especially since this would be about 30 days after she called to inform us of the vehicles arrival. She said no, that we would have to come in on the 7th - no wait the 8th would be better because she doesn't work on Mondays and the 7th was a Monday. When Mr. Marks mentions that Mr. Baroud agreed easily that I could pick up the vehicle on the 14th, this was only after I said I no longer wanted the vehicle and they were trying to do everything they could to prevent the sale from being terminated. I have no intention of ever purchasing a vehicle from this dealership. The level of customer service is basically non-existent. Everything we asked for was denied until we stated we no longer wanted the vehicle and wanted our down payment returned.

Final response from the business on 21 May 2007:
THE BASIC FACTS ARE THAT THE SERRES ORDERED A VEHICLE SPECIAL AND THEN TWO MONTHS LATER THEY BOUGHT ANOTHER VEHICLE WITHOUT CONSIDERING THE BUSINESS RAMIFICATIONS OF THERE DECISION. LIBERTYVILLE L-M SHOULD NOT BE PENALIZED. THE DEALERSHIP NOW HAS A VEHICLE IN STOCK WE DID NOT ORDER AND ARE PAYING INTEREST TO HOLD THAT VEHICLE. WE GAVE THE SERRES ONE MONTH AFTER THE VEHICLE ARRIVED TO PICK IT UP SO I BELIEVE WE WERE TRYING TO BE CUSTOMER FRIENDLY. THE VEHICLE WAS EXACTLY AS THEY ORDERED IT AND THE PRICE WAS EXACTLY AS WHEN THEY ORDERED IT. WHEN YOU SIGN AND GIVE A DEPOSIT FOR AN ORDER, THE DEALER CANNOT RETURN A $30,000 VEHICLE TO THE FACTORY. THE DEPOSIT IS TO PREVENT CUSTOMERS FROM CHANGING THERE MIND TWO MONTHS AFTER ORDERING A VEHICLE.
I AM SORRY THAT THE SERRES ARE NOT HAPPY BUT WE WOULD HAVE PREFERRED THEM TO TAKE THE CAR AS AGREED AND NOT STICK US WITH A VEHICLE WE DID NOT ORDER. AS FAR AS THE DEALERSHIP IS CONCERNED THE DEPOSIT IS NOT GOING TO BE REFUNDED AND THIS CASE IS CLOSED

So as you can see this led nowhere except that the dealership now has an unresolved complaint on their Better Business Bureau record for the next 36 months. We also were smart enough to put this down payment on our credit card and are disputing the charge with Visa. After this we sent a personal letter to the owner Mr. Dan Marks via certified mail with return receipt whom never gave us the courtesy to write back or call us as a result of this.

Our next line of defense is the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Since we received the nasty response that closed the whole BBB complaint, I immediately mailed the complaint to Lisa Madigan. I'll put this letter up on the website once I get the site created, which will hopefully be this weekend. She is doing the same thing as the BBB website and basically moderating our exchange of why I feel I deserve my money back and why they want to keep it. I spent several hours last night authoring our rebuttal letter to mail in and I think it's a good one. Hopefully they will see the light and just give me my money back. This is ridiculous. I'm not giving up until that money is back in my hands. This is only the beginning as I've got many more avenues to pursue and many more resources to pour into this.

So this is where it stands as of now. I just checked the USPS website and here were the results:
Your item arrived at 1:49 PM on June 8, 2007 in CHICAGO, IL 60604. So Lisa Madigan's office has my letter. Hopefully the dealership will get it soon. I will obviously keep you apprised of any changes in this "case" and I may even be asking for your help if the owner continues to be uncooperative--this is one of the avenues I can pursue.

Sorry for the long post. Hopefully it wasn't too boring. Comment if you feel this isn't or even if you feel it is fair, just please comment! I'd like to know if you feel we're justified. Just from the people I've talked to, many of which have much more experience in this type of situation than I do - including the law profession, agree completely with me.

The Storms are a Coming

Today was busy as usual. But the real story was last night. After I wrote my blog last night, I stayed up until 4:00am writing a rebuttal letter to the Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan about Libertyville Lincoln Mercury. I think this is the first time I've actually mentioned them and if you remember a few days ago I said I would at some point explain this whole issue with ordering a new car and canceling the order. I'll get to that later after I write about the day today.

Obviously I had a difficult time getting up since I only got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep, but Grace also slept in until 9:00am which is when we're supposed to leave for dance class. So I got her ready real quick and thankfully she was in a pretty good mood. I gave her a quick snack and we "hit the road" as Aunt Connie would say. Unfortunately we were about 5 minutes late to dance class. It was the last week for dance class before summer break as our recital is on Sunday so a lot of extra people were there like parents that are normally working or grandparents that maybe wanted a preview of the dance before Sunday. Grace's friends Mom works for the Lake County Sherriff's Department and I brought the letter I stayed up most of the night writing for her to review. Julie and her said pretty much the same thing that it sounded very professional and that I had really done a good job. So anyway, Grace got her costume today to bring home and our friends that are moving out of the country were there and we were all saying goodbye. We're going to see them tomorrow for a dinner at another friends house and then Saturday for Stage Rehearsal and then Sunday for the Recital. Then on Monday they leave for Minnesota to visit family for the summer before heading overseas. So that was pretty sad. I don't think Grace really understands but she has asked when she'll see her friend again and I said I don't know if we ever will and she gets pretty sad, so maybe she does understand.

After dance class was over Grace was in no hurry to leave as usual, so she was coloring and I was making phone calls for some things I needed to follow up on. Then we went to lunch with my SIL. That was really nice and relaxing and Grace ate her whole lunch today. Plus she had two snacks and a sucker after dance class plus the snacks she had on the way to dance class, so she was filling up. Then we came home and I needed to fax my letter to the husband of the person who read my letter at dance class. He also works for the Lake County Sherriff's Department, is also a car dealership owner and works with arbitration so his opinion of my letter was very important to me. Unfortunately, my fax wasn't working right and it took some time for me to get it working. Grace when we first got home wanted to play outside and I told her she could for a few minutes, but that was it because it was just too hot. She didn't even pursue the 10 minutes for some reason and instead asked to play a preschool "game" on the computer. They are programs that are like games to her, but she's really learning things like patterns, same or different, does it belong, etc. So while she was occupied with that I finally got the fax working and sent the letter to my friend. He called me back and said that first of all he was sorry we had to go through all of this. He said we were right on the money with the letter and gave me some more ideas to follow up with if this letter wasn't successful in getting our money returned. He also basically said that the dealership is just playing hardball and want to keep our money.

I also got a call from another local newspaper today, the Daily Herald. I'm becoming famous! They are also writing an article for Father's Day but are taking a different angle and it sounds really interesting. The reporter said they did this for Mother's Day and had a good response so they're pursuing doing this for Father's Day also. She's contacting Father's from all different walks and trying to get a snapshot or glimpse into the Father/Child bond that exists in each situation. She did a much better job of explaining it, but trust me, it sounded very cool and interesting. I can't wait to read it. She called me back this evening and conducted the interview over the phone and is sending a camera crew out on Tuesday morning to take some shots of Grace and I doing our normal morning routine.

Speaking of newspapers, the reporter from the News-Sun called back today and said he wanted to come out on Monday and interview me and would also be bringing a camera crew and a video crew to shoot some video for their website. We didn't set up a time yet as when I returned his phone call he said he was in the middle of something (his phone was cutting in and out) and that he'd call later. I'm guessing he'll call back tomorrow.

Grace got to play at her friend across the street's house this afternoon and she was excited about that, but her friend was a little sleepy or didn't feel well or something. She had gone to the zoo this morning with her dad and since we had dance class, we couldn't go. So her dad said that she was exhausted when they got back. Maybe her nap wasn't enough to keep her going for the rest of the day. Then her friends mom's train was delayed for I believe mechanical reasons so she was really late getting home tonight. She's leaving for a business trip tomorrow overseas, so I'm sure that's the last thing she wanted tonight as she won't see her family for a week.

Then Julie went over to the friend that read my letter this morning's house and practiced her dances for the recital on Sunday. She took Grace with her so that her and her friend could play together and so I could get a little free time. I ate some leftovers and worked in the garden. I think it's too late to plant a garden now, but it looks horrible and we could still plant a few things that don't take a long time to grow. I've got to tell you though that the strawberries look GREAT! I had one that was ripe and it sure was yummy! So I need to get the netting out there TOMORROW so the birds and other varmints don't take them all like they did last year. I'm going to get a crop of strawberries if it kills me! The garden needs some general maintenance too as the posts aren't looking so great. I think they need some new toppers as the ones I have look very worn. The birds are always landing there en route to the bird feeders and they of course leave their muck/fertilizer right on my posts. Sounds like it's time for a trip to Menards!

After that, I just watched the Cubs game and talked to my cousin on the phone. I forgot to mention that my great-Uncle Chuck who was, I believe, my Grandmothers Brother passed away yesterday. Almost all of the older generation in our family has passed. There aren't too many left. It's very sad. Unfortunately we aren't going to be able to go to the wake and probably not the funeral either. The wake is Sunday and that's recital and I'm not being selfish in that I want to see my daughter and my wife dance, it's that I also shoot video for the dance studio and I believe I'll be taking and selling tickets this year as well. Which reminds me, I need to see about renting an HD video camera tomorrow. I just wrote that down, or I WOULD forget. But I only remember meeting my Uncle Chuck one time and that was just a few years ago when we went out to see my Aunt Annabel. They lived out in Seattle I believe for what seemed like forever to me, and then they've been living out west of here now for quite a while too.

So I think that about covers today. The title of the post is in reference to the approaching storms we have right now complete with tornado warnings. It's supposed to really storm tonight and it's a cool front so tomorrow should thankfully be much cooler than today - it was 92 degrees and VERY humid. The thunder is starting already. I'll post a second blog about Libertyville Lincoln Mercury.