stealth99

Hi, I Bought 98 Convert Last Week On Ebay. I Called The Vette Dealer / Expert Selling It A Few Of The Standard Questions Like Has It Been Hit, Does It Have All Orginal Panels And Paint, Suspension All Good , Tracking, Any Issues, Motor Stuff And So On , I DID CAR FAX IT. He Claimed To Be A Vette Dealer For Years And It Was His Specalty , Now I'm Finding Out He Doesn't Know His A-- From A Hole In The Ground And I Wouldn't Let Him Near Your Vette. The Car Shows Up In The Dark ,I Take It To The Local Gas Station For It's First Fill Up And Pop The Door And It Falls Off In My Hand, I Thought This Is Not A Good Sign. The Next Day I Found Things Part Bolted Or Hanging Off, Things Not Working Or Missing, This Is A Huge Nightmare Starting To Unwind. I Take It To A Shop , Put It Up On A Lift And There It Is , Frame Damage From A Hard Hit And Poorly Repaired ( Like A 12 Year Old With A Stick Welder And Torch Set) , So We Look A Little Further And Found Why The Turnsignals / Parking Lights Don't Work ( Would You Believe There Is No Wire Harness )? Continued On Next Thread

stealth99

This Car Had Been Hit In The R-f And Took Out The Suspension .the Cost To Repair Properly Is Over 8000.00 At A Minimum And That's Not The Other List Of Many Thing To Repair. The Expert Vette Dealer Claims He Didn't Know About It Having Any Frame Damage Or Repair's, But Claimed It Was A Nice Driver. I Guess As Long As It Was A Really Flat Road ( This Car Is All Over)and You Didn't Need To Use Turn Signals( THERE ARE NO WIRES). How Can Anyone Selling Vette's Not Know About The Damage Unless Your A Complete Idiot .yes I Have A Lawyer And Contacted All Nessessary Authoritys And Will Be Posting There Name All Over Every Site I Can Find So When Other Unsuspecting Buyers Look Them Up They Will Run The Other Way And Not Buy A Thing From Them , Hopefully Save A Fellow Vette Owner The Nightmare Experience I Had With Them. Please Pm Me And I'll Give You There Name And Send Pics Of The Weld Job Of The 12 Year Old. If You Have Any Other Idea's On Other Authoritys To Contact Let Me Know I'll Gladly Do It Just To Make Sure This Will Never Happen To Anyone Else.if Your In The Auto Business And KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THEM TO HELP WITH THE INVESTAGATION Pm Me , We Can Work Together To Stop This Fraud.I CAN TELL YOU MY EBAY LISTING # WAS 330230780249 TELL ME IF YOU CAN SEE WHERE THEY DISCLOSE ANY SO CALLED REPAIRED FRAME DAMAGE OR FRONT HIT/ REPAINT/REPAIR OTHER THAN TIRES AND FRONT COVER NEEDING PAINT, THIS WAS CLEARLY DECEPTION !!! I'LL POST PICS OF THE DAMAGE WHEN I GET IT BACK IN THE AIR.

STL94LT1

No Carfax before the purchase?

nextime

Carfax doesn't tell everything. My 1992 Mustang was in 3 accidents and not one was in the Carfax report when I sold it. Yep all accidents had the police involved, tickets were issued, doctor and hospital bills were paid and the car was in the body shop 3 times and no Carfax report.

TJB-VETTE

Sorry about your misfortune! I had to learn the hard way as well, never buy anything sight unseen! There are some good people out there, but for every trustworthy person there is atleast 2 crooks! Good luck on getting this resolved!

stealth99

Yes I Did, It Was Clear.ANY IDEA'S OR WEB SITES I CAN POST WOULD HELP

LiquidDI

Why would you ever give your money over before even looking over the car? I don't care if it was just for 5 minutes you could find that kind of damage.

MagneticRed1977

Never ever buy a car at night- never ever buy a car at night. Did as a kid and put a deposit down and said I would came back in the morning. Drove up, looked at the car and told the guy to keep the deposit.

You have learned a very expensive lesson and I hope you can get some money back. Sounds like you had corvette fever and had to have it.

nextime

Well at least he didnt buy a GTO instead!

fireman591

Always always always put the car on a lift and have a bodyshop guy and mechanic inspect it for you.

I bought mine in Jan of 2008 and Draper chevy in Saginaw checked it out with a fine tooth comb for free!


You must do your homework and be skeptical.

Just keep in mind that your job is to pay as little as possible for a great car and that It is not personal it is business.

Hope things work out and keep us posted.
Fireman591

Mr.Bill

Sorry about your deal, Never trust anyone when dealing with that kind of money, Not sure why you paid for it sight unseen.

Whiteonrice

Sorry this happened to you. Hope you learned a thing or two. This is partly your fault for not doing your homework. You could have had it inspected or have a forum member check it out. I would NEVER buy a used car I haven't seen in person. Good luck...

Rick

C5Vette168

Oh man. This is a hard lesson to learn. Best of luck getting this resolved.

EDenney

(sorry, had to do it ). Seriously, that really sucks and I hope you're able to get some sort of satisfactory resolution but the odds are long and hard against it. Even if you managed to win a civil case against him, that's the easy part, collecting is the hard part. It could be years if ever that you ever see a dime from him, and to be honest the odds are against it.

with almost everything everyone else has posted about the situation. Never buy a car at night, never buy a car sight-unseen, and never buy a used car without having it thoroughly inspected by a good mechanic, preferably one that specializes in that type of vehicle. If the deal is so good that you're afraid someone else is going to buy it while you're goofing around trying to get the seller to let you have it inspected, then the odds are that it was too good to be true. If the seller won't let you have it inspected for any reason, then keep your money and move on.

I know none of this helps you now and I'm sorry, the comments from myself and others are more for the benefit of someone else who might otherwise make the same mistake, and so that you won't make the same mistake again (though I doubt you ever will after this expensive lesson). Unfortunately, your only/best leverage against this guy would be his reputation, but if he's selling cars on E-Bay, especially junkers like he sold you, I don't think he's going to be worried about his reputation. I really hope you beat the odds and manage to get your money back, good luck!

DefenderC5

Are they not letting you return your car? I would read up on the lemon laws for your state. You certainly have a case to return this car as it was NOT as advertised. If everything is as you described, you have a case to sue. File a complaint with the better business bureau. Tell him you'll be doing all this and still see if he refused the return.

Did he actually say this? You don't need to use airbags either but I would certainly want them to work!

C5naples

I have been on this forum since 2004 and am always amazed at how many people buy a car sight unseen.

troy144

vetter79

I agree w/ Defender C5 -Get hold of thr BBB as well as your states Attorney Generals Office.

RLYSLO

document everything. get the mechanics who looked over the car and noticed the problems to document and sign about what they found.

If the guy really is a dealer, then you should have multiple ways of going after him.

But I would never buy a car I haven't seen, driven and had checked by a mechanice I trusted before purchasing.

I'm not sure where your location is since that isn't on your profile, but alot of people on here will go and check out a car for you if you are interested in one in their local area. Just post up on here and you'll likely get a few people who will drive over there and check it out.

good luck, hopefully you don't end up learning a very big lesson.

95ttoplt1

Little personal caveat here. I did this and got screwed pretty good.

I was told that the car was nice and the seller was very honest from a 3rd party. The car was also taken to a dealer just before I bought it for some minor repairs where it was "given a clean bill of health" and "wants for nothing". Yet when it arrived at my house clear across the country (it was shipped on a transport) it has a pile of problems like :

2 bad tie rods
Broken rear knuckle
Bad clutch
Bad Slave
Alignment is a mess
Second gear synchro is junk
Right rear control arm bushings are junk
Blown speakers
12 disc cartridge missing
Cover missing off one of the headlights.

And this came from a "well respected" forum member.

I would take any forum member advice with a huge grain of salt. Even if they seem like a 3rd party.