It seems like everywhere you look, a car dealer is trying some shady behavior, and today’s story comes by way of Ohio’s NBC 4 and features Lux Auto Depot, a luxury car dealership in Ohio.
The ordeal started when Florida realtor Stephen Jayne saw a 2019 Lamborghini Urus for sale on CarGurus. Jayne not only wanted to purchase the Urus; he was also interested in using it for a side hustle. “Some people in my real estate office actually rent their vehicles out — normally higher-end vehicles — and make money that way,” he told NBC 4. Things went south once he contacted the dealership:
Jayne contacted the dealership, listed as Lux Auto Depot in Powell. He spoke with a salesman, agreed on a price, and wired a $30,000 deposit. Jayne said he was told that the car would be transported from its location in California to his Orlando home.
That was six months ago. As of today, Jayne still doesn’t have the Urus. He says every time he’s contacted the dealership about the status of the car’s shipment, there’s always another excuse.
“Every day there was a different story. ‘The car’s coming from California,’ ‘The truck carrying it broke down,’ ‘The driver– we fired (them).’”
What’s worse is that when Jayne has tried to get a refund of his deposit back, he was met with demands for more money. He said the dealer claims that it’ll lose out on commission if it refunds him, so it asked for more money.
To add insult to injury, the dealer then offered Jayne the ability to buy another car but said it would cost an additional $10,000.
Jayne’s wife says that eventually, the dealer stopped communicating with them altogether. Worse yet, in an investigation with the help of a consumer attorney, NBC discovered that not only was the Urus listed for sale several times, but its VIN record showed it was going through several auction yards.
This is the grift of Ani Venkatakrishnan who identified himself as the owner of Lux Auto Depot to NBC 4. NBC also discovered the dealer has a BBB rating of F, with complaints ranging from “failing to fulfill contracts” to responding to consumer complaints in a manner against BBB standards. There have also been 31 complaints against the dealership filed with Ohio’s attorney general office. NBC also spoke with two other customers who had the same thing happen to them; only when they confronted Venkatakrishnan did they get their money back.
Venkatakrishnan wouldn’t answer any questions from NBC 4 either, instead directing his attorney, Charley Hess, to answer them. Hess blamed the Jaynes as the reason they hadn’t received their refund. He claims the couple had been “uncooperative” and suggested a check would be better than a wire transfer.
As CarGurus pointed out to NBC, there’s a whole host of things that should be done or taken into consideration before a single penny of money changes hands.