u/soulsurfer3

Found some on Alibaba for 20% of US prices. Have heard a lot of the factories make the wheels for US companies. Too risky?

I had pre approval letter from a bank and bought a car this weekend. I told the dealer specifically not to run my credit bc I didn't want a credit ding. They assured me they needed my social to verify my identity and that they would not pull my credit.

They pulled my credit anyways and it seems they re-originated the loan through themselves in spite of me saying not to do this. I found out today and called them. Their explanation was that I had been misinformed by their own sales person (I verified with the sales person twice that they wouldn't do this and once with once with another sales person present) . They said they needed to do this to verify identity, but it seems they actually did this to originate the loan. I found out today as it seems they re-originated the loan as I had been suspicious they would do this. The bank was the same from my pre-approval letter and my guess is they assumed I wouldn't notice.

The bigger issue is the loan was pre-approved through my business and by re-originating the loan, it's no longer through my business.

What can I do?

UPDATE 2:

I talked with dealership and they're claiming there wasn't a loan and that they didn't re-originate the loan because there wasn't one to begin with (pre-approval is just a letter). It seems that they didn't get or use my pre-approval letter or number from B of A. Also, I called B of A and they said that there wasn't a loan under my name or associated with my pre-approval number. The rep thought that the loan could have gone through the dealer network. The dealer didn't have a good answer as to why the sales person said they wouldn't run my credit, but they still claimed this to be a part of the standard process.

UPDATE:

Thanks for everyone's input. Seems there's mixed opinions about whether they needed to run my credit again. Note, I asked specifically for them NOT TO RUN MY CREDIT and they did anyways.

Finally, when I called this AM, the manager was super argumentative and claimed this was part of their process to run credit and every deal requires a credit check. Web search shows this is absolutely NOT THE CASE. They didn't have an answer as to why they re-originated the loan. I suspect they didn't think I would notice since it's through the same bank.

Big concern was that it would ding my credit, but one commenter noted that for auto loans, all inquiries within 30 days count as one.

Bigger issue is that the loan was originally through my business (verified by my credit score). It seems they re-originated the loan and now means that it's just through me instead of my business.

I did sign the sales contract which had the bank name (Bank of America) and the rate (which was 0.05% different than the pre-approval letter). Since I saw B of A, I assumed the loan was the same. I had no reason to think otherwise. Apr difference was so small I attributed to fluctuations in the rate.

It was shocking that they would first do this and then when I called today try to undermine my argument by saying they got me a better loan rate and that I had been misinformed especially after I had requested them not to. It seems that it was done with the intention of re-originating the loan so it was for them.

It's also a BMW dealer and you would have expected that they wouldn't have tried to misrepresent their actions or act in way that could be perceived as unethical. I don't know that it's unlawful, but it feels suspicous.

The dealer is BMW of Palm Springs

https://www.bmwpalmsprings.com/