Did you hear about David Stanley Chrysler Jeep Dodge getting hit with that record fine for airing deceptive and misleading commercials?
What’s that? You get most of your news from the Oklahoma City media, plus you’ve gone deaf from listening to all the obnoxious David Stanley commercials they play night and day? Oops. Sorry about that. Should have known.
In what appears to be a TLO exclusive, we’ve learned via the Ogle Mole Network that David Stanley Chrysler Jeep Dodge agreed to pay a $350,000 fine in March of 2014 for allegedly violating eight state regulations designed to protect consumers from misleading advertising practices.
According to this document, the violations include deceptive, inaccurate and bait-and-switch forms of advertising.
The commercials in question ran in January 2014 and offered eye rolling, too-good-to-be-true deals that offered to pay $18,000 in the car buyer’s credit card debt if they bought a car.
I forwarded the settlement agreement to one of my lawyer friends, Attorney Jacob Rowe, and this is what he had to say:
These ads together make it look to the layman that David Stanley was going to take $12k off the sticker price of a truck and pay $18K worth of credit cards to boot. They also made it appear that the $18k deal was for all new vehicles. It also looks like they only had two vehicles that were subject to the promo.
I checked YouTube for the commercials, but they’re gone. I did find a similar promotion offering to pay off $20,000 in credit card debt. Here it is:
Whenever I watch a David Stanley commercial, I kind of want hang out with the ghost of Lynn Hickey in a van atop a crane and cry like a girl. If that sounds strange, it’s sure beats the alternative of smashing up my TV like it’s a car at The Key.
The apparent reason for the steep $350,000 fine is the Motor Vehicle Commission, which is basically comprised of auto dealers, has allegedly had a long, ongoing problem with David Stanley regarding their advertising.
According to a source, Stanley was totally content with pushing the envelope and paying small fines each month because the ads brought in so much in new revenue. They are perhaps the top-selling auto group in the state, and high volume, gimmicky specials like paying off your credit card is a big reason why.
Now that they’ve been busted, I assume that may change. According to the Ogle Mole Network, the commission has threatened to revoke or suspend David Stanley’s new auto license if the deceptive ads continue. That would be like Braum’s doing away with crinkle-cut fries, or a strip club requiring its dancers stay fully clothed. It would destroy the business.
As a result, David Stanley has agreed to have all future advertising approved by the company’s general counsel, Toby Flowers. I’m sure that will keep them in line <sarcasm>. Also, I guess we now know who has the worst job in Oklahoma City.
“What do you do for a living?”
“Oh, I watch Rob Stanley run around with the guy from Duck Dynasty and think of suicide.”
From what I can tell, this story has not appeared anywhere in the local media. Repeat: Anywhere. I’ve performed several Google searches, and although the settlement occurred in March, everything turns up empty. I can’t find a report from any newspaper, radio station or television news channel.
Obviously, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. David Stanley Auto Group is one of the largest media buyers in town. According to an Ogle Mole that works in the advertising industry, they can spend anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 per month on local web, print, radio and TV advertising. I’ll do the math for you. That’s $3.6-million to $6-million a year… on advertising… that may or may not be predatory and deceptive. It’s even more if you get the clear coat finish.
That’s actually some delicious irony right there. While our TV news channels send their “In Your Corners,” “I-Teams” and “Consumer Watchers” to track down the contractor who didn’t finish a flooring job and ran away with some old lady’s hard-earned $1,000, the car dealership that advertises during the commercial break is using bait-and-switch advertising gimmicks and other deceptive tactics to lure consumers into high interest, ripoff, life-ruining auto purchases and loans. I guess never forget who the for-profit media really serves.
Of course, you can’t blame the media for not reporting any of this. If someone sent me pics of Jonathan Fowler selling Patricia’s products at Tapwerks, I’d find a way to overlook that email. That’s how the advertiser-media relationship is supposed to work in this town, right? You support me and I ignore you. Well, unless you need good PR. Then I’ll help you out.
Plus, all car dealerships get fined for some advertising violation. It’s like the holding penalty for auto dealers. You can probably find a violation in every ad. Check out some of the punishments levied at recent Department of Motor Vehicle meetings:
If a $500 slap on the wrist is a holding penalty, the $350,000 fine would be like running into the stands and attacking a fan. Seriously, the settlement David Stanley reached with the Motor Vehicle Commission ($325,000) is 17,500-percent larger than the fine they levied on Jim Norton Toyota ($2000). At least I think that’s the right number. Let me step away and ask my manager…
What amazes me is that people actually believed they would knock $12,000 off a vehicle AND/OR pay $18k toward their credit cards. There’s a sucker born every minute.
David Stanley leads the way!
I see what you did there. Sweet.
Maybe that is why David Stanley no longer has a Ford dealership. Ford will not tolerate the kind of nonsense he tries to pull. Dodge dealerships have always been the shady dealers.
I hear he is buying that one back next month.
I’ve had a dislike for David Stanley since 2009, when I bought my car at the MWC shithole. Now that they’ve found their slimy way down to Norman (and proudly feature shotguns in those annoying commercials – I’m not anti-gun, but…really?), I’m going to use that four-letter word: HATE, HATE, HATE!!
OKC media won’t report it because David Stanley advertises with them and it doesn’t involve a puppy.
A few years back, they wouldn’t sell my wife (who had/has a 780 credit score – mine is in that neighborhood as well) a new car. Instead, they told her the best they could do was a used (5 year old) car. So, we went down the highway to another dealership, where she got exactly what she wanted with no problems whatsoever. The experience was frustrating and really puzzling, to say the least.
As a former David Stanley Dodge employee, I can fill you in on a lot of things.
1) The store was very misleading with these types of deals once you arrived at the store. The goal was to get the customer in the door, then do whatever they could to avoid price, and get the customer focused only on monthly payment. They would even try to hurry them through the finance office and to drive the car off the lot so they couldn’t back out of the deal once they got home and finally poured over the paperwork. Why would the customer not read it when they got home? They were so pissed off and tired by the time they got to the finance office, they just wanted to sign the paperwork and get the hell out of there with their new vehicle.
2) The local media makes a killing off advertising from DS Dodge. When I was there, I was told the advertising budget was $40,000 per month. Not per year. PER MONTH. I didn’t believe it until I remember sitting at a bar and watching several TVs on their respective commercial breaks all playing DSD commercials, way more than any other dealer in town. Then open the local paper and its also DSD ads everywhere. Turn on the local radio station, DSD ads every break (the “voice of Satan” ads, as my dad calls them).
3) I had a sales manager tell the salesman what to do when a customer threatened to “get the local news” to report on dealership shenanigans: tell the angry customer to make sure the reporter turns in the keys to their demo car when they finally decide to do that expose of the dealership. Meaning, the local TV station was getting bribery money from all the advertising they spent.
4) It’s not just the customer getting screwed on their business operation. The salesmen got screwed on deals too because the dealership front-loaded every deal with a minimum $2500 “pack” as they called it. It was a guarantee that all dealer fees (commercials, biz office, property expenses) were paid before the salesman made any commission.
It’s pure hell for everyone, including the sales managers. The only person who seemed to enjoy it was the general manager of the store mentioned in that lawsuit. One time he tried to get a sales manager to lie in court so he could deny a health insurance claim for an employee’s hernia surgery.
Well done putting this out there. Don’t think that all news outlets are in their pocket. I happen to know of one in one of their backyards that is getting ready to go after them in a big way. Should be fun to watch.
Thanks for reporting this. Many years ago, I interned at KWTV and our consumer reporter, Barnie Harris, had a story on a shady car dealership that offended the sales manager, Jacques Delier. Delier refused to run it and half the news team quit in protest.
Another dealer told me he moves 450 units a month and is the largest single dealer in the state. Who the hell is his ad agency and why haven’t they been fined too?
Great. Now if they could just go after that fucking Jim Norton Toyota for the incessant phone calls from their salespeople telling you that they have a buyer for that (formerly) new car that you (foolishly) bought from them and if you could just bring it down they’d make you a great deal on a trade-in…
I swear, literally dozens of phone calls, followed by dozens of requests to please top calling, dozens of angry conversations with “managers” who swear it won’t happen again, only to have the phone ring three hours later. Now it’s fake hand-written letters mailed to you showing you that your car is on the list of highly desirable cars the dealership is looking for, etc. etc.
Does David Stanley pull that crap, too? If so, can you fine them for that?
Put your number on the do not call list and if they keep calling, report them to the AG.
The Oklahoma AG? His staff couldn’t find their own rear ends with detailed maps and personal guides. Every time I’ve filed a complaint with them, the reply is basically “eh, doing anything about this would take effort, so no”.
I’ve used Bob Moore a couple of times and had no complaints about their vehicles.
They do tend to go on and on with their commercials involving that one girl who is apparently a relative.
The ‘relative’ is Megan Moore (pronounced MeeGan, not MayGan) who is Bob Moore’s daughter-in-law.
OK
I once tweeted to David Stanley “could your commercials be any more annoying” and their reply was “sorry, it’s not our intent”. I would never buy a vehicle from them EVER!!!
SO GLAD TLO ran this! The best way to get IN Your Corner off of your porch is to buy advertising from Channel 4.
Bravo!!! Not a political fan but always a good and entertaining read. Good job Scoop!!
David Stanley is a very shady dealer. I went to their Norman store and they tell me there’s no way they could build a car the way I wanted even though the manufacturer’s own website says that you can. I went to their Del City store and the new car manager says sure they can order the car the way I want it but it would be a non-refundable deposit of $5000 and a 8 month wait. I told him that he’s crazy because no other times we’ve ordered a car did we have to put that much down and wait that long. He starts putting me down saying I don’t know how it works and that I’ve never bought a car before, even though I was thinking about trading in the car I drove onto their lot that I ordered and bought a year before. I ended up ordering, paying $500 deposit, and waiting only two months before picking up my car at a dealer in El Reno.
I will never again set foot in a David Stanley dealership.