Ok, I purchased a car on ebay,this was probably my first and last time doing this. I guess some people's word doesn't mean much. I was told the car "runs" and would run/drive on and off the trailer, which it didn't. So I got stuck paying an extra $100 to the shipping company. The guy said oh it didn't because the fuel pump went out when loading it. So I order a fuel pump and put it on when it arrives. Still doesn't run. Take the carb to a mechanic and the mechanic is like there's NO way it could have ran with this carb, it was so full of crud from sitting. On top of that the guy said it had been garaged since 1992 and that it had "no rust" . Which it isn't a total rust bucket, but definitely has some rust. I was just wondering if any of you guys have gone through this or have suggestions on where I should go with it. I know ebay does allow you to file claims for misrepresentation of an item. And i'm definitely considering filling one out. I appreciate any input. Thanks
Fill out a complaintabout it to ebay. Ive heared this story alot lately and maybe by giving this guy a bad rating others wont have the same misfortune as you. Alot of shady cats on ebay.
The E-Bay feedback is a joke...if someone does you over ....you neg them and they just turn around and neg you!!!!
In my opinion, if you buy a car without seing it in person, your setting your self up to be ****ed. To start with your putting trust in total stranger. You also have no choice but to trust his opinion,biased or not. Unfortunently your opinion of no rust may be totaly different than the next guy. And some times the next guy is out to make a buck no mater who gets screwed.I won't buy a car unless i see it or a person of trust checkes it out for me. Just my .02 cents.
Just let it go, the neg. feedback you will recieve is not worth it. Move on and learn from it. Your opinion and his opinion are not the same, your not going to get nowhere complaining, move forth and remember. It's tough to do but the best thing........................
I think contacting ebay and/or getting on the guys case should help you get your cash back. One more thing is make sure they didnt just bondo over the rust. On my driver side on the under carrige there is a huge amount of rust that just had bondo over it so that it was smoothed out and you couldnt see it.
You should file a not as described complaint after you have tried to resolve the problem with the seller. Make sure the car condition is significantly not as described in the auction. Your time is limited. If you used PayPal I believe they will cover you. If a money order, you are at the mercy of the lower than whale **** seller. Evidently the problem is the distance from the seller and the cost to get it back even if he agrees to take it and refund your money. Your taking it twice up the kazoo here. How much is the car worth as it sits. It may be better to take the loss and move on. In any event, if you can't resolve with the fraudulent seller, still give negative feedback and file the dispute with Ebay. They track these and a seller that gets them will be kicked off Ebay. You also might prevent him from doing this to someone else by leaving negative feedback. Don't be nice about it either. Did you check his feedback before bidding? I'm on Ebay frequently and have purchased three old cars without any problems. I guess I'm lucky. I have more problems with sellers when I buy items under $50.00 and have filed complaints about some. I win a few and get no results on others. Even if you are right, the ***holes will still leave negative feedback on you. Makes you want to splatter the dude...
I agree that i'll never buy something again without going to see it in person. My job didn't permit me the time I needed to do so, so that's kinda how I got where I'm at. Now if he said some rust, it'd be one thing, but I mean the fact that he said it's been garaged, and in the ad text puts "no rust" that is one of the main factors that leaned me towards buying the car, because I had to spend quite a bit of $$ for good rust repair/bodywork on my 69 camaro. And i'm sure nobody would be happy if they were told a car runs/drives, then it shows up and is about as mobile as a rolling ch***is. I do feel the owner should at least take some responsibility. I'm sure he won't, so it'll probably be just a lesson learned, but if ebay can help me get some kind of compensation for this misrepresentation on his part I'd be happy.
I'm guessing he had poured some gas down the carb and it fired and ran a few seconds so he ***umed it would run, not realizing you would depend on ot to drive on a trailer or stretching thye truth. He might be a total s***bag and I am not here to defend him,BUT. Half of what you read is usually someone elses judgement call and sellers almost always grade up one. (scale of one to five they will call a five a four ect.) I have drove hours to look at something described as "cherry" or perfect to find obviious flaws. just part of the old car game, it happens to all of us because to some white trash welfare hillbilly it really is about as cherry as he ever had his hands on, relative. Now I am on the other end of one of these deals. I sold a 36 Ford hood on ebay and described it as restorable (we work with worse stuff all the time) I also said it had rust, the latches are frozen and the hinges are balky. It had a few pinholes in one corner. The guy gets it and tells me it isn't restorable and is a totally worthless piece of junk. I offered his money back for the puchase price, made him even madder to think he would have to eat the shipping (standard ebay policy for most people who will even offer to take something back on an "as is" auction with no returns) So I offered if he would send me back the nive V8 emblems I would give him back his money. I haven't hear any more.
I recently watched an early Ford sell on ebay. The car originated from a local estate sale around here and I took the opportunity to view it personally about a week before the estate auction. A local reseller picked it up for what I considered PLENTY. (Yea ebay has made everybody a ****ing dealer). A week later I see the same car on ebay and was a little shocked at the description, the mental image that I drew from the description, really did not match the car that I had looked at with my own eyes. I've built four cars of this series and believe I kind of know what I'm looking at. Yes the car brought damn near twice what it should have. If I were the seller, I would not want to face the buyer when he comes to pick it up. Maybe the seller is depending on the buyer prepaying for the car and hiring a shipping company so he will never have to face the buyer. Ebay brings out the worst in people. Yea ebay ****s!
I also bid and bought a car on ebay sight unseen guy said rust free, I drove 600 miles to pick it up get there see that I have been had, no rust right he had cut it out or it had all fell out, I told him no deal see ya. Had neg. feedback before I got home, only bad feedback I have. NEVER bid on a car sight unseen unless its cheap.
Well..... here's what I do ...... I use the "fellow pages " from the NSRA ( WORTH the price of joining ALONE !!) .... I call somebody local to the car and have them give it a look ..... they usually do a better job than I would and are HAPPY to do it ...of course we NOW HAVE the HAMBER list courtsey of Denise ..... I'll use that next ...... ain't NOTHIN' like havin' a fellow rodder check out a car BEFORE you buy sight-unseen ....... it works bro'... try it next time ... jersey Skip
If there's a car for sale around here (NE Wisconsin) and a HAMBer is interested in buying it but can't come and look at it, I would be happy to go and inspect it for them. If I am ever interested in a car that I can't go and look at first, I'll ask HAMB members if anyone's in the area to go and check it out. I'm surprised I don't see those requests all the time. I'd be happy to do it for someone else, I like going to look at old cars. As far as getting your money back through Ebay, since you technically accepted the car when it was picked up (even though it wasn't you in person) I doubt they'll do anything for you. You might try asking your seller (politely, if you haven't already gone off on him) that since the car would not drive up on the trailer, if he would refund the $100, and that you'll leave him positive feedback if he does. That'd be about the best you could ask for. If you're prepared to pay the shipping both ways on the car, you could try getting a refund, but that'd get pricey, especially on a cheap car. I'd very much like to see this eBay description, if you're not comfortable posting it here, could you PM me the auction number? I'll be a "neutral" third party and I'll tell you what I get out of the description. As much as sellers often "talk up" their cars/parts, I think buyers often "hear what they want to hear". What kind of car and what kind of money are we talking here? If you've got some big money tied up here, it's worth pursuing, if it's a $500 car, it might be time to let it go.
No different than the newspaper....either do a visual inspection or buy it like it was a "worst scenario" -then you know you bought it cheap enough to justify the needed repairs.
hi luke, i think your getting off easy. my neighbor down the street bought a 65 mustang coupe for 4500 then spent 1000 to have it shipped to find its a 1000 p.o.s. , not one panel on that car is good. the guy around the corner from my shop bought this 40 coupe for 10,500 plus shipping from texas. the owner ***ured him it was a great car. no mention that the top was crushed, the frame is rotted so bad the body is sinking into the outriggers causing the doors to hit the door frames on both doors,the p***. driprail literally fell off when i put my hand on it, the decklid was filled with 10 lbs. of bondo and the worst "metalwork" you ever saw and the car needs every patchpanel including floors. but this car looked great in pics. , i saw the car on e-bay and thought it was a cool car (this car photographs great) . so like i said luke consider yourself lucky only to lose a hundred dollars, you could be like my neighbor and own a 11,700 dollar piece of **** thats worth about 3500.
Don't forget you can also sue the jerk. But DO complain to ebay & call it "fraud" - if they get enough complaints on someone they will kick them off. Of course they can then sign up under another name... ~ Paul aka "Tha Driver" How many of you believe in telekinesis? Raise my hand...
I make my living selling hot rods on ebay and have shipped over 400 in three yrs, one this morning from okla to m***. I can tell you if you get ahold of a hamber in the area of the car or an inspector in the area it is worth 50 bucks or so to have another pair of eyes on the car. if the seller has good feedback read about him and go from there that tells you a lot and if there is a neg and he has left one before he got his from the same guy be ***ured it was just retaliation. it is against ebay rules but people dont play by the rules . I buy cars nearly every week and have them shipped all over and I can honestly say I have only had 2 bad cars and i actually just bit the bullit and came out on them buy doing a little too them and reselling them later. If you are looking at one in the okla city area let me know ill look it over for you ...............bid on sam
maybe its me, but im the guy that has such a guilty? maybe concience that i usually end up talking the seller OUT of buything my stuff haha. i never make anything sound more than what it is......most of my dealings people say "its better than you described" haha. i have bought a motorcycle, cars, etc. on ebay with no problems.......1 time i had a problem with some really expensive motorcycle parts (3kish) and turned out the frame was tweaked but the seller made good on it no problems. I think im this way out of fear of getting my *** kicked.............i think thats whats missing now-a-days. my father always taught me, if ya screw someone over your going to get screwed........and if someone screws you over, they need to get beaten. sounds cavemanish/simple/stupid. so yeah...my answer is that ****heads should be beaten up more often. screw ebay/complaints/FBI/etc. etc. just beat the guy up. or if it was partially your fault for being stupid....yet he still screwed ya............send him a box of dog **** and chalk it up for experience.
I've got two rides (misnomer as they actually didn't run) and have had good and bad. First was my Rambler and the lady selling it represented it as acutally worse than it was. Great deal and smooth transaction. The last was indeed my last I'll ever buy without seeing myself or having a trusted friend look at it. I could stick my fingers through the rot in the frame it was so bad. I'll leave the details of this screwing to linger in my "Shame on me" department, but no more blind purchases. As for the guy that screwed me, I let it go. What goes around comes around. Besides, I don't have the time to devote to revenge although I did consider mailing him a dead carp via 4th cl*** parcel post. That should have taekn about 3 weeks to get to Jersey....
Any time I put a car on there I put all kinds of pictures on, if it has frame rot or whatever I try to show it. Which means I sell them a lot slower. That stupid woodie is on now with about 20 pictures, about all I missed is the actual rot in the frame. Figure this, a guy just sold a '51 in the same shape with no underneath pictures. I know the guy and I saw the car. The whole top stamping of the frame is rotted away around the forward spring shackles, it has body rot in all the same places as mine... but it sold, it went for $1500 or so. Mine, all I get is nasty note after nasty note from these whiny "restorer" clowns about the rust on it. Of course, they're just playing the "get them to part it out" game - I basically tell them all to put it where the sun doesn't shine. Part of it is because it's a Ford, it's amazing how easily the Chevy stuff sells without all these clowns whining to me about the car. Bottom line, if you need a photo of a specific spot from a specific angle I'm happy to show it. I had one guy refuse a car because the frame was **** - never again. I don't want to hide a single thing because I wouldn't want to get stuck with a piece of junk myself either. Which I know what it's like since the frame on that Rambler turned out to be so bad - I could have looked it over, too, and didn't... bright side is I didn't spend much and I found out an 80's Gran Prix or Monte Carlo frame should fit under it fine (same wheelbase, track about the same).
I really appreciate all your guys suggestions and comments. Sorry I didn't list this at the top, but some of you asked for the ad/ad text so here is a link to the actual auction. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4564688774&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:US:6
The Jalopy Journal
