Long story short....if you don't have it in writing that the soft top was supposed to be included in the deal, then you're pretty much out of luck, brother. Having previously worked at dealerships writing service and also being the service writer that was in charge of having all the accessories added to vehicles, if there's no supporting documentation, generally it's not getting put on there. As far as them offering to pay half the cost of a factory soft top.....it's still a bum deal. Take your lumps and go buy a Bestop TrekTop NX. Promise you'll love it more than the factory soft top anyway! After buying mine, I didn't put my hard top back on for a little over a year and ended up selling it as a result. Haven't looked back since.

But yeah....social media is a big player these days, especially in industries where word-of-mouth advertising generates a lot of business. So if you feel like they verbally lied to you, then stick it to 'em where ya' can. Maybe you can score a couple of free services (oil changes, etc.) out of it.

 

Everyone's advise sounds pretty good. I myself had a pretty terrible experience with the dealer where I got my JK. I won't go into details b/c I don't need to write a novel here, but it was BAD. So bad I had the DMV on my back, among other things, and it made me seriously regret buying my Jeep. And we Jeepers know how hard that is to do. The dealer was Lustine, in Woodbridge VA. I couldn't get those jokers to return my calls , ever, and finally went online to DealerRater.com, and reviewed them with most of the sordid details. I got a call from the GM within the week. He apologized up one side and down the other, and offered to give me $1000 toward a lifetime warranty on my Jeep. Not the most impressive of offers, eh? He said he needed to call his warranty guy to get it at cost so I would have less to pay for my part. I told him that I would think on it in the meantime . I haven't heard from him since. That was two months ago .

So I feel for you and your situation. The most I can do is make sure I tell everyone never to buy from them. And I made sure that all the Lustine stickers and crap were removed like they'd never existed, so if you haven't taken yours off, you might want to. And if you didn't review on DealerRater.com, you should. Its a valuable resource for people to turn to to find out about dealerships. Had I gone on there before buying , I would have seriously thought twice, (Lustine has lots of uglies on there) and at the very least been prepared. Also, I called Chrysler directly about the whole thing, and they 'fined' Lustine 3 grand for what they'd done to me. So while I doubt I'll ever hear from them again, especially after that, at least I stood up for myself and rattled some windows.

Keep at 'em, and good luck to you.

 

Unfortunately, this is an ugly case of "buyer beware". A learning experience.

My biggest concern is that they sold you a new vehicle and you never saw, or were supplied with a window sticker, and now you have questions about whether a soft top was included as part of the vehicle price. You did buy the vehicle anyway, but you might have something here.

The window sticker has a name, it is called "The Monroney Sticker." It's a federally required sticker that protects the consumer in situations like this, and it's required to be affixed to the vehicle and nobody is legally permitted to remove the sticker except for the vehicle buyer. Auditors will sometimes show up incognito on dealer lots and start writing up new cars without window stickers. Used cars require a sticker as well, but it's more of a disclosure form about the presence of a warranty and some other legalese. The dealer can be fined up to $10,000 PER VEHICLE in either case if the sticker is missing.

Soft complaints ala the BBB and social media, letters to the dealership explaining your situation sound like they haven't gotten you where you want to be, i.e. at a resolution.

On one hand, this is supposed to be a good experience for you. You spent damn near $50k on a new vehicle, so the whole thing should be happy and trouble-free as possible. The value of the top, as you discovered, is $1500-ish as purchased through a dealer. In reality, you can pick up a used top off a factory new vehicle ala craigslist usually for $600-$1000 with all the parts. A lot of people get them home and throw the tops in the garage, never to use them and then they sell them. Depending on the amount of energy you're willing to defend your case, $1000 or even $1500 might be worth letting slide. Only you can make that determination. You may also discover that just buying an aftermarket top (Trextop or whatever makes a nice deal) is a better option anyhow.

Plan B, if you're not going to let this go...if I was in your shoes and I wanted to make a point, I'd forward the whole thing up to the State Attorney General. Most states generally have a pre-defined complaint process, sometimes with online submission forms. The lack of a window sticker on a new vehicle might get their attention, or maybe not. It's hard to say.

Good luck!