Think Trouble: Red Rock’s proprietary USB key-style thumb drive that they use to hand people their documents
Since Red Rock dealerships’ shady sales tactics were first exposed in this blog, people have been digging out documents from their vehicle purchases at Red Rock, examining them and continuing to discover expensive extras added to their contracts that they didn’t know about and signatures on them that people say are not theirs.
One of these people is Natasha Bury-Wilder, a hard-working single mother of three employed in home care, who says she got taken twice by Red Rock Nissan and ended up in a deep financial hole as a result.
Natasha’s contract for the 8/22/2022 purchase of her Mazda, containing $5,200 in unapproved charges for “Resistall,” “Portfolio” (an extended warranty), $700 for a “Drive-Pur” detail package she says she never would have bought, and a “Buyer” signature she says is forged.
Natasha’s first purchase at Red Rock Nissan was in March of 2021, for a 2018 Hyundai Tucson. A few weeks ago she dug out the USB key that contained her documents from that sale and found over $4,800 worth of charges on her contract that she never saw and did not approve. The charges were $990 for “Resistall,” a coating treatment that often makes windows smeary, $3,495 for “Portfolio” (Red Rock Auto’s proprietary extended warranty) and $320 for “Portfolio Carefree Maintenance,” for a total of $4,805 in unapproved charges. There are no signatures on any of the documents she got from the dealership from the purchase of her Tucson. All the signature lines in her paperwork are blank. In addition, the financial manager who handled her purchase of the Mazda, Caleb Stillman, wrote Natasha’s address wrong throughout the paperwork. He put the name of her street as “Glenwood St.” instead of “Lynwood St.” on all of the documents, but Natasha was unable to correct it because she did not get to see the documents before they were completed and saved to the USB key. She would have caught the errors and all the extras she didn’t want, she says, if she had been able to see the full contract at the time of purchase.
“I would never sign like that.”
Natasha’s second purchase from Red Rock Nissan came when she traded in the Tucson for a 2018 Mazda CX-5 in August of 2022. Her financial manager for that purchase was Benson West. The contract for her Mazda contains extra, unapproved charges of $1,000 for “ResistAll,” $700 for a “DrivePur-3 yr” detailing package that Natasha said she never would have bought, and $3,500 for a Portfolio extended warranty she didn’t want, for a total of $5,200 in unapproved charges on this sale. All these charges were tacked onto her loan, so she has been paying interest on $5,200 in extra, unwanted charges in her monthly car payments. The $4,805 in unwanted charges from her first deal with Red Rock were also rolled into the second loan she got on the Mazda, compounding her debt problems.
This is the contract Natasha says has the forgeries on it.
Natasha volunteered three samples of her real signature to compare to the signatures on her contract:
Natasha Bury-Wilder’s real signature, signed in front of the author
Natasha’s signature from the purchase of her home
2
Natasha’s signature from a Court filing
Below are the signatures on Natasha’s Red Rock Nissan documents that she says are forgeries:
Natasha’s signature from her purchase contract for her Mazda
“I would never sign like that,” Natasha says, explaining that she always hyphenates and spells out her last name in full, completely and clearly.
The signature on Natasha’s contract for the $1,000 Resistall coating, which she wasn’t told about, and didn’t want. The “Authorized Dealer Signature” is that of Red Rock Nissan Financial Manager Benson West. The $1,000 ResistAll charge, along with the other unapproved extra charges, were rolled into her overall contract and Natasha has been stuck paying interest on these extra charges in her monthly car payments.
The signature that appears on Natasha’s contract for the “Drive-Pur” detail package she wasn’t told about and didn’t want. Natasha says this signature was forged.
Between the two sales, Red Rock Nissan tacked $10,000 worth of additional unwanted charges onto the two contracts that Natasha had to finance, and on which she has been paying interest. This has made her financial situation much harder and more precarious. Her credit has been damaged as well, making it even harder for her to get out of the financial hole Red Rock helped dig for her. Natasha makes only $16/hour at her job, and her loan payments are $500/month for seven years, on a used car. And she has three kids to support.
Natasha filled out a Grand Junction Police Department Fraud Packet (pdf) for reporting financial crimes. She completed a sworn affidavit laying out the facts of her case, as the form requires, and had it notarized. She also contacted her lender to notify them of the problems she found with her contract(s) and obtain possible additional evidence for her case.
And one more…
In another case discovered in the last few weeks, Aldahir Ayon of Rifle bought a car from Red Rock Honda on May 20, 2023, and after digging out his documents found an unwanted, multi-thousand dollar extended warranty tacked onto his contract without his knowledge or approval, and found what is also likely a forged signature on his documents :
This is his real signature, Aldahir says:
Aldahir’s real signature on his purchase contract
Aldahir’s real signature on a credit application
…and this is the signature on the contract for a unwanted $3,500 extended service agreement:
Red Rock Honda took Aldahir’s car back and paid off his loan in full. Aldahir then went to the Honda dealership in Glenwood Springs and bought a similar car.
could you direct me to filing against rr nissan for the same issues
Dear Joseph,
At this point I would recommend two actions for you to take:
1) File a Financial Crimes/fraud packet online directly with the Grand Junction Police Department, since they can refer the case to the Mesa County D.A. for prosecution. Here’s the link to the fraud packet: https://www.gjcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/1209/Fraud-Packet-PDF
–The fraud packet requires you to fill out an affidavit explaining what happened, and have it notarized. That form can be useful to a private attorney if you decide to pursue a legal case against them personally, and
2) fill out an online complaint to the Colorado Attorney General online at the following link, and at the top of the body of your complaint, put that it is to the attention of Ruben Fragoso: https://complaints.coag.gov/s/?varCFT=2
Have all of your documents from the sale ready to upload.
3) If you are hoping to get some money back, you can file a small claims suit against Red Rock, but that is only good for claims of up to $10,000. The good part is you don’t need a lawyer to pursue a small claims case. You can file yourself and have the documents served on the other party, all for under about $100.
What is worrisome for GJ folks is Redrock has a virtual monopoly of car dealerships here.
There’s still Western Slope Auto (Toyota, Ford), which has been very honest to me, and Bozarth (Chevy) and G.J. Jeep Chrysler Dodge, all of which have no complaints against them by customers to the Auto Industry Division in the last two years, vs. Red Rock, which at best estimate has had close to 20, if you count the complaints that were sent to the Attorney General as well.
Has anyone forensically examined the USB that is given to customers?
Given the shady dealings going on here, I would not be surprised if there is software that is covertly being installed.
It’s too late for everyone who’s connected the USB, but I would urge them to do virus, malware and spyware scans on their computers.
Anne,
Proofread your post. For the first example, the date should read 8/22/22 not 8/22/23.
These are perfect examples of reading the fine print!
I do hope that everyone gets there money back at the very least!
Good catch, Linda. Thanks!