now an update on an investigation the
news for Jax i-team has been working on
for weeks today we learned Riverside
Chevrolet on Philips Highway is being
sold the sale comes after the i-team
reported on dozens of customer
complaints and potential violations the
dealership was repeatedly accused of
failing to pay off loans on trading
vehicles causing customers credit scores
to plummet as the state agency
investigates multiple sources tell I
team reporter Vik Mecca lucci the
dealerships owners are cashing out Vic
is joining us live outside Riverside
Chevrolet with what else he's learned
Vic well Tom five different sources tell
me that this deal has been made and
they're gonna change hands and ownership
this Wednesday so just two days from now
I have also learned that there is a
startling history of the same thing a
former general manager for another
dealership in Louisiana told me that he
was at the helm of a dealership where
they left and they left many people high
and dry Kendall bossy does not mince
words talking about his former employers
the Ferguson family
these people are not belonging costs the
Ferguson's have owned Riverside
Chevrolet in Jacksonville since 2016
before that they owned a dealership in
st. Augustine Orange Park and - in
Louisiana they didn't care about
customers it was all about just a dollar
for themselves
Buffy who's been in the car business for
three decades after playing in the NFL
was the general manager at two of the
family's former dealerships Nissan and
Cadillac of New Orleans his stories like
the coming locations and buying sales
tourists he promised that that's not
what they were doing if they were trying
to find a home and come to find out
that's exactly what they did they came
in kind of ruined the reputation of the
of the city
definitely put a bad stain on the
dealership he now works for another
dealership in Mississippi
he says the Ferguson's still owe him
$35,000 paychecks from his final months
before he resigned he's in a lawsuit
with them right now but he says he is
more concerned about the hundreds of
customers who have been ripped off
people see in the grocery
church members that you so cause to
customers that you've been known for 15
20 years you know is very very
embarrassing plus he points out the
owners have been using these same
tactics for years buying a dealership
cheap cutting costs not paying off trade
ins and vendors then selling for a big
profit do you think the employees from
Riverside Chevrolet are ever gonna get
the money that they're owed if they're
old money they're never going to get it
or you can try to fight them and it's
going to cost you a lot of attorney
bills to fight them you know the people
that they hurt I feel very bad for them
I'll make sure i keeping my prayers and
you know hope that someone to do
something to stop this kind of action
now I have been trying to reach out to
the Ferguson's
every single day since we have been
doing this story for the past
two-and-a-half weeks have not heard back
from them besides two brief statements I
did not hear anything from them today
nor from anyone at the Morgan Automotive
Group which is based in the Tampa area
we reached out to their CEO their CFO as
well as their media relations person
have not heard anything about the
potential sale there I also did speak
with some employees inside this
dealership they did not want to give
their names or their titles but they
said the upper managers and the owners
were not here today as of noon we're
live in South Metro Vic McHale uchi
channel 4 the local station I think in
your previous stories we heard from
people who said they're going to file
legal action against this dealership
can they still pursue their claims even
after the sale
[Applause]
well I reached out to Jim Kowalski he's
in charge of the Jacksonville area legal
aid we've talked to him about this story
before Tom and he said yes for the most
part they can still continue to try to
get back what they feel that they
deserve they can continue to file legal
action here remember there's an
arbitration clause so this has to be
settled out of state court he said that
the florida state law does allow them to
continue to go after though the old
owners unless there's some sort of
agreement with the new owners where they
take the responsibilities and they take
the cases of course we're gonna be
waiting we're gonna be pulling that
paperwork and we're gonna see exactly
the terms of this deal between the old
owners and the new owners pickwickle
uchi reporting live from South Metro
Thank You Vic we have much more from
Vic's i-team investigation on our
website including interviews from some
of the customers of Riverside Chevrolet
who say their credit scores were knocked
down just head to the homepage of news
for Jax comm you'll find the links
inside this article