Learned The Hard Way

Test drove several new cars recently, including: the 2007 Nissan Murano, 2007 Honda Pilot and the 2007 Subaru B9 Tribeca. Of the group, the Subaru was my favorite, but this car wasn’t for me…. So, after several test drives, we settled on the Murano. The Pilot was the least pleasant of the group and rode the most like a truck. It also felt a bit dated compared with the two competitors and the styling was the least appealing. The B9 was very well thought out and made the interior of the other two look spartan. All had similar warranties and a few thousand separated the B9 and the Murano. After driving the Murano, the decision was made. The acceleration was beautiful and it hugged the ground like a go-cart. Braking was excellent and driving position/visibility was fantastic. Enough about the cars, let’s make a deal. This is where the fun began….

The first dealer we spoke with seemed like a very nice guy and was quite personable. We discussed the parameters of a purchase, but the deal wasn’t great. Then we discussed the lease deal I had seen in the paper that morning. The specifics were 39 months for $329 per month with $2300 at signing, 12,000 miles included. He proceeds to tell us that this is the deal for a Murano S, not the Murano SL which we had liked so much. I couldn’t remember this detail and asked what the price was for the one we wanted with 15,000 miles. Guess what happened then….? The answer- $429 per month with $5000 down. “Go to hell” was my first reaction.  He then starts with the manager bit where he has to talk to him and see what he can do. I hate this shit and say “get him to come out of the ivory tower and we’ll have a deal or we won’t, but there won’t be any games”.  He comes back a few minutes later with $390 per month, same down. I say “that’s not gonna work”. With that he continaully reassures me that the manager is 100% straight up and doesn’t play games. He tries to hold us there for some more time, but now I’m pretty upset at the games, so we go home, look up the offer I saw in the paper and call him back to say that your manager was incorrect, the deal is for the SL. He says that the manager made a mistake and quoted full retail and that the deal on the board was for an offer that expired. Come’ se dice… You’re full of shit! 

With that, we call another dealer who has the color we want and a better package who quotes us the price in the paper, plus a few bucks for 15k per year. No additional down! So, we go in and lease the truck and this part of the deal is painless. The finance guy reminded me of a guy from my childhood whom I detested, but he did a fine job. This Let me preface this by saying that the salesman was great. No-nonsense, right to the point.

Ok, back to the story… One of the options we want is Sirius radio. The car came with XM prewired and they say no problem, we’ll get it done for a few hundred bucks. We set an appointment, drop the car off and when my wife returns, guess what’s in the car?? XM, not Sirius. The service manager, George, tells her that Sirius isn’t available in the Murano and follows it up by lying about what we ordered. Well, “that’s not gonna fly”. I get the phone call… “they put the wrong radio in, told me it’s not available, blah, blah, blah. Well, by the time I reach the dealership, they are offering free tanks of gas, free rental car and will have it in before you know it. They wouldn’t even let me speak to George… The Supervisor did a great job intervening for it was going to get ugly. Having everything in writing made all the difference in the world. As the saying goes, what you don’t have in writing, means nothing.

Lessons:  a) know your product before going in and what you should expect to pay. This way, if they try to pull the wool over your eyes, it will be glaring and they won’t get away with it. b) hold people accountable. If they made a mistake, they should pay for your inconvenience and make the situation right. If they don’t, demand a refund on the vehicle and take your business elsewhere. c) How can you avoid this malarkey? Visit one of the best sites around: CarsDirect.com. You can research new cars, price options and even buy the car right there if you don’t want to deal with the crap above… I will on my next car for certain. Always an adventure!

We’ve all heard the horror stories about Rottweilers mauling children, other dogs and the like, so I’d like to share our experience with a big, strong, harmless female Rottweiler named Sasha.

We picked Sasha out as a 9 week-old puppy from a breeder called Kimbertal Kennels. They were great people and after hearing about the fact that we had to put down our previous male mix which we got at North Shore Animal League, they brought out this massive Male. Jolly Roger was his name. He was 151 lbs of muscle and scared me to death. Never judge the book is what I learned, for he was gentle and kind- the type of dog you want sitting next to you for hours with his head on your lap. Sasha was his daughter and thankfully, was a chip-off-the-old-block! The breeder said “go ahead, pet him.. ” which I did reluctantly, but Jolly Roger paid me no mind and I became more comfortable. They explained that you want a dog that you can do anything to(within reason of course) and it will not react negatively.. I sat in awe as they opened his mouth, flopped his ears, even covered his eyes. “Amazing”, I thought… But it was a function of breeding and training. This was a sound dog.

Sasha grew to be 125 lbs by the time she was a year old and we learned that Rottweilers don’t reach adulthood until about three. She had plenty of feist in her, but not a single time did she get out of line with a family member or friend. Sasha played with our oldest daughter so gently, you couldn’t believe it was possible and no matter what Sharon did to her, Sasha never so much as raised her voice. Sasha had this really deep growl that was her way of communicating with you. No teeth mind you, just a low growl. It was her way of getting our attention if we chose to ignore her and I miss it terribly. She contracted nose cancer of all things at age 7.5 and we had to put her down rather quickly. If cloning was around then, I would have paid $30,000 for another of her. She was that good. She made believers out of the worst skeptics with her big smile and warm heart. All Sasha needed to do was lean on you and you could just sense her power, yet she never abused it. God do I miss her.

So if you’re considering a Rottweiler, I would say this to you:

1. never buy a puppy unless you can meet the parents and see for your self what their temperament is like- for this is paramount. My brother had a Rottie that had to be put down after biting several people and we saw the father first-hand… he was absolutely insane and would have ripped us apart if he could have gotten out of the cage. IF the sign was anymore obvious, it would have bitten us. Shame on us. Backyard breeders should be avoided at all costs unless you can meet the parents and have a chance to see for yourself!
2. Do not kid yourself- a Rottweiler is a strong, incredibly powerful dog with Jaws that can crush your skull. If you are a weak person by nature, do not get a Rottweiler. I don’t mean physically weak althought that plays into it as well… I mean mentally weak. Followers need not apply! A Rottweiler will take over your house if you are not in full control at all times. Ask any Rottie owner. Sasha used to chew rocks into little pieces and these huge muscles would bulge from the top of her head.. a testament to the jaw power she possessed.
3. GET A TRAINER! I cannot stress this enough. A trainer who understands Rotties is essential. We were fortunate to meet a fellow named Tony Filippone who was an incredible trainer. He trained three of our dogs and had such a presence that the animals dared not disobey him.
4. NEVER TAKE A ROTTIE TO THE LOCAL DOG RUN where others run loose. You are asking for a disaster here even if your dog is as good as Sasha. Dogs are pack animals and the last thing you want is three of them teaming up on a yellow lab who is sweet. It happens all the time
5. Never leave a child alone with a Rottweiler. NEVER
6. Socialize your Rottweiler from the moment it has receive all of its shots and is cleared by the Vet. The more people, dogs, cats and uniformed people he meets, the better your life will be.
7. You are responsible for all of his actions, so teach him well and be a strong leader.
8. If you cannot spend a lot of time with your Rottweiler, do not get one. They love their masters and are pained by long separations. They need plenty of exercise.
9. Do not buy them Soccer balls. They last about 4 seconds… :o)

There are many facets to buying a house. I am not a professional home buyer, nor do I pretend to be. Back in 1999, we decided to purchase a new home, so, in good faith, we contacted the agent who sold us our prior home and said we’d like his assistance finding a new home. He immediately pushed for the listing on the current house and since he was so helpful during the purchase of it, we had no problem with that. We’ll call him Jim, because that’s his real first name! After a few questions, Jim put together a list of properties to see. All of them were just above our range and nice enough homes. None really fit our needs. One had a yard that was entirely a pool, another had three baths that needed to be redone and we just finished a year of work on the existing house. In short, we were in no mood to rip out all of the bathrooms. This house however, had 4 fireplaces in the basement. Something I had never seen before and three years later had doubled in price. Should have bought it.. but that’s not the lesson here.

 The lesson begins with the next house. It’s a beautiful Tudor owned by a doctor and is out of our range. When I say beautiful, I mean old-world beautiful, with redone everything. We go into the house and my wife just about passes out. Talk about the lack of a poker face..  :0) . They’re not ready to move and an open house is scheduled for the following weekend. We love the house, so we call the agent and tell him we’d like to make an offer. We meet at his office and sign a binder and provide the customary good faith check.  We are to meet at the house later that evening and the agent is to present the offer- this is his duty.

Fast forward a few hours… Jim meets us at the house and we begin discussing the offer and really hit it off with the owners. They agree to the price and didn’t really want an open house anyway, so this saves them strangers walking through their house. Here’s where the fun begins. Jim states, “ok, you have a verbal binder”. Well boys and girls, there is no such thing as a verbal binder in the sale of real property and I state this to the owner and Jim. The owner looks to Jim and believe-it-or-not lies stating this is incorrect. I inform him of the law classes I have taken and bet him an obscene amount of money that he is lying. He says he left the binder at the office along with our check. I say “go get it or pull out another one and I’ll give cash with it”.  Jim causes a scene, then calls an assistant at the office and tells her to bring over another one. We fill it out and they sign along with $100 in cash. We leave the house feeling uneasy because the greedy agent is pushing for the open house the following weekend. ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR GUT INSTINCT. IF YOU FEEL UNEASY ABOUT SOMETHING, ACT ON IT.

You can probably guess what happens next. We get a call after the open house with some bad news…. There have been 4 full price offers and two over full price- all cash. The owner of the house has been persuaded by the agent (and the extra cash) to terminate our binder- showing a great deal of bad faith- and take one of the higher amounts. I threaten to sue them both and call my attorney. We wanted the house and were approved for the mortgage and ready to set a closing date before the damn open house even happened. I found out later that once it went to contract, backing out would be much harder for them. Then they question our ability to purchase the house and this was at the beginning of the internet boom and we certainly had the ability to purchase it. I am livid to say the least. They say that karma has a way of working things out and the owner calls a few days later to state that the deal fell through and that he wants us to have the house. We are relieved to say the least. Given the fact that Jim had the listings for both houses, we were in no way going to let him keep our listing after pulling this crap. This is where it gets really ugly. Jim states that if we don’t allow him to keep the listing on our house, he will kill the other deal. One call to my attorney and that was put down fast. Being new to this kind of crap, I wasn’t going to take any chances and paid for the big dogs to take care of him. The entire conversation was relayed to the owner of the new house in writing and he assured us that would not happen. He wanted us to have the house. We got the house, but not without losing some sleep and a few bouts of high blood pressure.

The lessons: there is no such thing as a verbal binder on real property in NY; do your homework before buying a house- have all of your finances in order so that you are assured that when you make an offer you can close; if you feel uncomfortable with your agent, get a new one! Seven years later, it still feels like yesterday and I can see his smug face telling me I have a verbal binder. Karma got him too as the agency he owned failed… Funny how things work.

Over time, we all learn a number of things the hard way. Many are worth passing on and I have decided to begin posting them as they arise or I recall them.