Legal Question in Consumer Law in Florida

return of purchase deposit

We placed a $1000 deposit to order a new car.

Before visiting the dealer and placing the deposit, we asked if the deposit was refundable and the dealer said ''yes of course the deposit is refundable because we know we are going to sell the car'' (the car we ordered is in high demand). We specifically asked the refundability question because two other dealers stated that their deposits were non-refundable.

We wrote ''refundable deposit for G35 coupe'' on our deposit check.

There was no written contract for this transaction and I've never been shown a copy of the order.

I have a hand-written receipt for our check from the dealership.

We've had to cancel the order due to the imminent possibility of my layoff.

The salesman and his salesmanager now say the deposit is refundable, but that they won't pay it until the car arrives and until they sell it - neither condition was stipulated at the time we placed the deposit on the car.

The salesman says that he usually tells people this condition - but admits he can't for sure say he told us - but neither I nor my wife ever heard this condition during the transaction.

What recourse do we have?

1 Answer from Attorneys

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