ps1

I purchased a vette from this guy, unlimitedvettes, his name is Michael Montrief. He lives in Huntington Beach CA. Listen very carefully, DO NOT WALK AWAY, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN FROM THIS GUY. The car I purchased was so completly misrepresented it is beyond fraud. I purchased the car for my wife for christmas, which he assured me I would have by 12/25/04. Not only did I not get it by christmas, but it was not until mid January that I was finally allowed access to my new wreck. And I do mean wreck. Do not ever, ever believe what you see in a picture. The interior did not look perfect in the picture but did not look noticiably bad, in real life it was trashed. Trashed with a capital T. Yes, I asked if I could have it appraised which he responded of course but then I would not get it in time for christmas because the person who watches his warehouse in Illinois was out of town for the holidays. But his trucking company had access to the warehouse (just a machine shed in the middle of farm land in Illinois) and I always had the 48 hours, right. The caretaker story turned out to be a lie, a lie that towards the end morphed into the caretakers mother dieing a slow death in Indiana and that is why it was taking so long for me to get the car. I eventually tracked down the caretaker who told me that he was never out of town and his mother was alive and doing well. I asked Mike Montrief what the rust condition of the frame rails was over the phone and he responded that they were only "a little rusty, nothing to worry about". I do not know what that means to most people, but when I went to pick up the car the frame rails were so rotted that the driver door would not open and close properly because the car was sagging so badly. Someone filled the rotted rail on the passenger side with foamafil. The window posts were also completly rotted out as well. He listed it with a rebuilt engine and transmission, I spoke to the previous owner who stated that when he bought the car the engine was in pieces and all he did was reassemble it and put it back in the car and luckily it ran. He also stated that he had no knowledge regarding the transmission's history. He also stated that he told this to Mr. Montrief when he sold him the car. Mr. Montrief convinced me to buy the car outside of ebay for a discounted price (this was my biggest mistake) but he would "of course honor the 48 hour clause in the listing". When I attempted to exercise my 48 hour right of recission (after seeing the condition of the frame rails) he re****ed on his oral agreement and stated that since I purchased it outside of ebay he would not honor the 48 hour right of recission. He originally told me that there was no door key, but that he would give me 200.00 off the price for a new one. Turns out there was no ignition key either. He refused to give me any compensation for the missing ignition key, instead I paid the local car dealer who received the car from him 250.00 to install a new ignition cylinder. Only then I found out that the car did not even run. The dealer told me it would cost another 500.00 just to get it running again. The short of it is I had to hire an attorney, threaten to sue him and I only got part of my money back. The car was being stored about two hours from my house when I bought it, but he charged me 1200.00 to have it shipped back to California and took 10 percent off the selling price on top of that. It ended up costing me about 3500.00 all said and done, but Mr. Montrief assured me I should not be upset over this, it was not personal only business. I spoke to someone else in the classic corvette business who says that I am somewhere around the twelveth or thirteenth person that he has talked to who has been ripped off by this guy. The problem is that when someone gets convinced to by a car outside of ebay you now have no recourse. Ebay is totally out of it. So just because he has a good feedback rating (he does have a number of serious negative comments if you look back far enough) does not tell the whole story of their true business nature. I actually have a much larger story with many more falsehoods and drama. I could write a small book about what happened with this guy. The lesson I learned from all of this is that I will never buy a car without an appraisal, and full free access to the vehicle. If anyone wants any more info on this please feel free to email me. I am trying to get the word out, because while buyers should beware, we should also try to look out for con artists to help out the otherwise honest people out there. p51@sbcglobal.net

jroutt

You need to look closely at the history of e-bay sellers. I have followed these guys for a good while and if you simply read their listings carefully you can see red flags all over the place. Consider the 3500. a cheap lesson that could have been a lot worse. Talk to the guys on the forum regarding what you are looking for in a car and you will get a lot of great information. If you are gun shy after your experience with UV then consider hiring someone to find you a car. Jim Gessner @www.vettefinderjim.com is a super nice guy with a good reputation who can help you.

JR

Double Aught

I have always wondered about those cars. The prices seemed to good to be true, based on the description. Thanks for the heads up. I never deal outside of ebay, because of the very reasons you stated. The guy is a thief, plain and simple.

WhichVette?

Thanks for the info. I'm getting ready to buy a vette, and was considering getting one from him. I'm only a couple of hours away, so I won't rule him out since I can check out the car first, but it's nice to know that the guy isn't on the up and up so I can go in with that in mind if something he has catches my eye.

I'd love to hear info from anyone else that has dealt with him...

shark food

I would. Everything I have seen advertised by him is junk for the most part. The 69 427 car on there now is supposedly a bb car but why does it have a small block tach? It actualy has a 350 hp tach and the car is an auto matic, which wasn't even available together. The door strikers are painted , the seat covers don't fit right etc. He is in the business of taking tired cars slapping a paint job on them etc and selling them. I have dealt with some reputable dealers and it gives them a bad name. The bottom line is Knowledge is power. Either know what you are looking at or hire someone to look at it for you. Good luck.

judge71

I shopped for over a year before purchasing and seen many UNLIMITEDVETTES on ebay.What turned me off was that most of his cars have very,very poorly installed seat covers,made me wonder about the rest of his workmanship.Glad I ran from this guy as you suggest.Good luck in finding the right car for your wife.

Paul72

Sorry to say that I feel for you and fell into the same trap with him. He listed a 72 coupe on ebay, gave me a discount for purchasing it by closing the auction early and the rest sounds like the above deal. My exception was he sent me the title after I sent the cash, it was not signed properly , not by him and not clear. He wouldn't let me refuse to receive the car first.I was concerned about having a worthless piece of paper and no car so he shipped it anyhow. My attorney advised me to at least get the car up here first. Now I have the car but no transferable title. I ended up going back to the orginal seller of the car to Montrieff , who kept it in his garage for 2 years - while the brakes and carb etc went bad. Now I am working with the orginal owner who sold it to Montrieff to get the title straightened out.He works as a thrid party so he never takes posession of these cars and never has to pay tax in CA for them. Also it is cearly not matching or correct, not represented as he said etc. The Attorney General of California, the IRS and anyone else I can think of is getting a letter about him. When I first talked to him I had this bad feeling but went though with it anyhow. I knew better than to ever buy a car without laying my hands and eyes on it first so I hope everyone else out there can learn from my mistakes. Ebay is clearly the wrong way to go in buying a car unless you can sit in it and drive it first. Paul

LemansBlueStingray

I lost an auction on ebay to him for a 69 350/350 coupe that needed work. The auction closed at $8500, so i emailed him and asked if he would be interested in selling me the car for $9000 or even $9500. He said he would sell it for no less than $11,000 or I could what until he painted it and buy it for $16,500.

joco

I am sad to say I bought a car from Michael. I also encountered the same problems. Hopefully, with the help of this group I can get a lawyer and get some of my money back.

Thanks

rojoco82@yahoo.com
203 484 9689 CT

I would greatly appricate any advice and help :

WhichVette?

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. Luckily I live close enough that I would be able to check out anything before buying from this guy, but after hearing so many problems including title stuff, I'll definately be looking elsewhere. Sad, because he seems to have a decent inventory on a regular basis...

roblinds

yea i know this dude too-- I was lucky . i sold a car to him and it was ok. UNTILL i saw if for sale again. he said it was numbers match IT WAS NOT he said the paint was nice it was falling off the car. he totally lied about this car i was flabbergaseted. I called him and said ya know thats not cool dude I know you know this isnt what the car is like and he said well its my car now and i can do what i want-- he is really giving the corvette hobby a bad name. here is an idea. go on ebay and search his actions and when you see bids on a car he has then you can contact the bidders and clue them in to the scam. its will stop the car from selling. he will change his user name soon but at least we can save some people from the pain of being Robbed and lied too...some one who has gotten burned needs to work with ebay to to get him banned from ebay..

Edzred72

Too late to do this cause ALL his auctions currently on Ebay are private listing...bidders identity protected. RATS!!! I would be happy to email a warning to bidders....
Eddie

hansenisu

Could we post questions on his auctions to warn bidders? Or is that going to far?

Jclgodale3

he has the choice as to whether "questions" and "replies" to his auctions are listed on the auction listing or not, when he replies. He will never list the questions...imo

Vette Dent

How about if everyone who reads this thread just goes to E-Bay and asks him one legitimate question about his auction and asks for more pictures. He could become a very busy boy. Or would that be wrong? Mamma always said I had problems telling right from wrong. It may leave him with less time to con people. And I don't think(but I could be wrong) that it violates any E-bay rule.

ps1

Everyone who reads these posts please leave a reply if you had dealings or who are involved currently with "The Jipper". I have received email from many ripped off individuals, which I am sharing information with, but who are not leaving comments. Everyone needs to leave public comments as well so we can get the word out. This is one of the best ways to affect this guy. Also I really like the idea of inundating this guy with bogus emails. I discovered he is a very busy individual and this may distract him from unsuspecting potential buyers. You only have to registar with the administrator to get an account and it is free and only takes a few days. I am even receiving emails from buyers in other countrys. Also anyone contacting me please use my email address because I check it daily, but I do not get on corvetteforum.com daily.
p51@sbcglobal.net

john roth

My dad did what some of you describe. He was lured out of the e-bay "sanctuary" and bought a 69 convertible. All i will say is that it is a shame we didn't google montrief's name earlier (thats how we found this forum). Just a side note about the feedback, notice a lot of recurring and private names. In cyberland it isnt too hard to have multiple personalities, and also, notice the negative feedback always lists a specific (ie, transmission shot). Anyways, rather than be turned off corvettes (dad has owned 2 before a 90, then a 98) he is going to make a project out of this, cause no matter how you slice it, he still has a 69 corvette. Oh yeah, i am also posting under dad's handle, as he signed up here, but i do this alot more than he does.

Vince Roth

LLang

Hi me again: I posted on the other tread most of the basic problems I had with my car. Here I will address the title and body. I got the title and it was an IL title. strange getting a car from CA with a IL.title The title had 2 VINs I had to get some friends downtown at DMV to help get it straight. Here is what it was. The car was stolen in 1980 and recovered, then the state of IL issued a second VIN. (This was attached to driver side door jam) I took pics of the org VIN and sent to TN to get the correct VIN on the title. When the car was stolen the org motor and trans were taken. The body has taken a hit on the driver side front fender. Wile i was under the car i saw a Business card laminated onto the fender. J&DCORVETTE. I'am sure they fixed or painted the car for the other guy. Other than the fact that I have 20,000 in a 10,000 car I guess I'am OK I work on cars, Mostly camaros I owne 3 1967 1969 1997. I can fix my owne stuff. I hate it for people who can not work on there cars. This guy NEEDS TO BE STOPED
Thanks Larry

john roth

I was kind of surprised at my dad taking it on the chin from unlimited vettes and being so calm about it but he has been busy.He belongs to a club that has almost 300 members in montriefs neigborhood and payday is coming.
Vince Roth

Miljoe

i wish i saw this string 1st. i just bid on a 72 coupe from this guy. i hope i don't win.