Imagine paying for your car, only to be told that it is being held hostage by the shipping company and there’s no telling when you might get it? That’s the case some 1,700 GM customers found themselves in, as hundreds of Camaros and pickups were locked away as a dispute between GM and Allied Systems Ltd. boiled over into litigation.
In this case though, we have a happy ending, as the Camaro News Blog reports that Allied has been ordered by a court to release the vehicles back to GM and their rightful owners.
The dispute stemmed from a 15% contract increase Allied requested from GM due to rising fuel prices and the failure of Allied management to win wage concessions from its union. Allied sent GM the new contract, which the automaker refused to sign. So Allied “held hostage” over 1,700 vehicles, at least until a judge from Michigan’s Eastern District Court ordered Allied to release all of GM’s property back to the automaker. Allied did just that, and hopefully these cars are finding their way to the people who paid for them. Meanwhile, Allied continues to insist that GM owes them $3.6 million in delivery fees. GM estimated the value of the vehicles at $47 million, meaning the average cost of the vehicles held hostage is around $27,000.
That’s another matter for the court’s to resolve, though from an outside perspective it seems like Allied has shot themselves in the foot over and over again. There’s a cardinal rule among men, and that is don’t mess with another man’s car. By holding hostage vehicles that had already been paid for, Allied not only made GM look like they can’t even deliver a car on time, but also brought themselves a whole lot of bad karma. Lesson learned, hopefully.
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