Can dealerships lie about credit score?

I had this crazy experience with a large Toyota dealership. I was looking to lease Prius III for 3yr/45k miles.

I visited a few dealerships and they all gave me quotes in the range of $270 to $300 per month (including tax) . I knew from a post here that someone got Prius III for $236 with 12k miles/yr including tax with $680 down(including 1st month payment).

So I called one I had visited and told them I got a deal for $500 down and $236 a month (including taxes) for Prius III with 15k miles/yr and asked them if they could match/beat that. Saleslady told me she would ask her sales manager and call me back..... I get a call in 10 mins that they would match it just for that day. So after confirming that they had one in stock in color I wanted, I went there.

She makes me sign some paper saying I agree to $500 down plus first month payment of $236 (this is not what was discussed on phone), she says her manager is giving me a really good deal and that they wouldn't budge. I could only get them to come down to $400 down plus 1st month.

Now comes the weird part...after pulling my credit they say my score is low to qualify for Tier1 (to get price I asked for and instead quote me $284 a month). I was shocked, I had my credit report in hand from 3 weeks ago with all 3 credit scores above 700 and I am thinking what could have changed. I check my credit report on my iphone with experian and get a credit score of 721, but sales manager says my score is 651. My friends who are with me argue with the sales manager and make me log-on to my credit monitoring account in his office and we give him a printout of my scores. He says he will talk to Toyota and get back to me the next day (this was around 8pm).

Next day he calls me and says that they are going to move me to Tier II from Tier III and that my payment would now be $266. I put $400 more as down payment from my trade in to bring the monthly amount to $247 and sign the papers that evening.

[FONT=&quot]Has anyone had any similar experience?[/FONT]

 

I did walk away that night...but next morning I was thinking that it was still not a bad deal on Prius III and I did some math and figured it was worth it. Its just that I could have gotten even sweeter deal.

 

I gave him a printout of credit scores from all 3 bureaus (dated Mar 3rd) and all above 700. I subscribe to truecredit dot com and monitor all 3 credit reports.

What really got me thinking was
bankrate.com/finance/auto/top-11-dealer-tricks-1.aspx