Auto Grant For Loss Of Use

[Bound4heaven]

Dear Rich,

I have ran into a little problem with my dealer for my van. They will not release the van to me until the VA has paid them. I financed the remaining balance and the van is sitting and I cannot use it. The dealership says they would work with the VA and took off all the prices (ie power steering, brakes, windows, ext which was $8,000.00 on top of the VA grant), but they do not trust the VA as far a remaining payment. I contacted our local VARO and they informaed me it might take another 6-8 weeks in real time that might be 6-8 months.

Have you ever heard of this? how did your process work? thank and God bless.

Bound4Heaven

[buickx]

Do you have returned paperwork Stamped from the va stating how much they will be giving you. If you have, just give it to the dealer....takes about 2 weeks for the dealer to receive the check...just went thru this in november....took 3 months to get the stamped letter from the va....

[Bound4heaven]

Greetings,

Thanks for your response. Yes I have the award letter, along with stamped signed form that the VA sent me. I had to give all originals to dealer (I did make copies) and then the dealer submitted it to my RO. Thats where it stands.

Did your dealer allow you to take delivery of your van, while they awaited payment from the RO? Thank you and God bless you.

Bound4Heaven

[buickx]

Yes, the dealer allowed me to take delivery....He made up several loan papers in case it didn't come thru, so when it did , he used the loan with the money down from the va...He had never done a deal with the va involved, now he advertises it..

Edited April 10, 2008 by buickx

[Rich T]

Bound, Sorry about the problems. I have always been reimbursed by the VAMC for the standard adaptive equipment. Any special adaptive equipment is done by a after market van modifier. That is pretty good of the dealer to allow the standard equipment to be deducted for the selling price. Make sure he submits a sticker price for each item, or the VAMC will use their standard item list and you may get less than what you would get for the actual sticker price on each item. It is a shame that the dealer won't take a purchase order from the VA to act as the same as cash from you. That is the way my original dealer worked it for the $8K. even the secondary temporary loan idea sounds good. I would hope they can do that for you. I would say, I know who I'm dealing with and the next purchase would do me better some place else. Then I would ask for some type of loaner for the interim, but would also ask to speak to the top gun, or owner. Salesman, and sales managers only have so much authority, but the owner may be more interested in customer satisfaction, especially for a veteran with special needs.

Best of luck and Lord Blessings to you.

Rich

[luvHIM]

Could it be the difference in dealers? Can you go to another dealer in the area who has worked with the VA before? This is not a situation for me yet. But I'm curious because it could be an issue one day, as my legs (especially the left) are not working like they use to.

[Guest Vietnam Tanker]

I think that I would have to think twice before using this dealer in the future