Oh, OK, gosh darn it, you force it out of me...

I paid $2,000 more than the contract price for the vehicle.

Huh?

Yup. The credit manager who wrote up my contract after the hours of stomach-churning sleazeball tactics by the sales manager to wring more money out of me gave me a final price as I was writing my check. It was $2,000 more than it should have been.

Yeah, yeah, I know. But it was dark in his crummy little office, I had been there all afternoon simply trying to pay what had we agreed to and leave, and, most importantly, it was Thursday night and I was about to miss Survivor. So I didn't check every little thing. Like the price.

Weeks later, as I was balancing my checking account, I discovered the error. However, when I called the dealer and politely inquired (expecting, of course, to have to take him to small claims court), he said they already knew about it and the check had "probably been mailed out." Oh, yeah, right, "it's in the mail."

As it turned out, the check did arrive the next day. It was mailed several days before I discovered the error myself, but weeks after the sale. The dealership's bookkeeper found it.

Honest error? I'm never going back to find out.