F
FlyNLow
Guest
Time to tell a tale - partly on myself - and partly on Expo Motor Cars, Houston, TX. We decided to buy a Corvette. Found a nice looking 2002 Coupe on ebay. Here's the link, but it will expire in a month or so:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2485636536#ebayphotohosting
I decided to call to talk to the seller first - we'd never purchased anything on ebay before and were concerned. The salesman told us it was a great car - super shape. Their ad on ebay said the same. Everything was working.
We purchased the car directly - ebay was by-passed, and yes, I've told ebay that they skipped paying them the fees on our deal by selling it outside their agreement. Turns out that the car was not a "one owner car from Texas", and a "trade-in vehicle at one of the largest Franchise Dealerships in North America", as stated on ebay, but was in fact, a repo - and was bought and sold by several dealers before Expo Motor Cars ended up with it. Didn't know that until the title showed up in the mail 3 weeks later.
I flew to Houston from Colorado to get the car. When I checked it out in person, I noticed there were electrical problems with the driver's door - no sound from the speakers and the driver's control for the passenger window would only lower it, not raise it. Their ad said "Electrical: All power options are working". I pointed these problems out to the sales representative (he was in the passenger's seat when I discovered it). He said to "get a quote" and he'd take care of it.
The other issue I had was the rear brakes - but I didn't notice there was a problem until I got into the mountains in Colorado. Serious body shake, caused by the rear brakes. The local Chevy dealer said not to drive it further after they inspected the brakes because that would cause severe damage to the rotors - that's how bad they were. After $389.71, the brakes work great!
I spoke to the Expo Motor Cars sales rep who said send him the bill and they would cover it. Did that. No response. When I now call the sales rep, he hangs up or puts me on indefinite hold. I asked to speak to the manager, Lloyd Hudson. Busy, but he'll call me back, says the sweet receptionist. he never does, despite my repeated calls - he's always in a meeting with his other managers. They never answer their e-mail ("We get 150 a day, and don't have the time to reply" - convenient....but why publicize your e-mail address if you don't correspond with customers?) I sent letters - they don't answer them either.
Well, I finally did what I should have done earlier - checked with the Better Business Bureau. :eek Sure enough, Expo Motor Cars has a nice little history if dissatisfied customers. The company pins its "attitude" on a small note on the "sold as is" statement you sign before you go look at the car, and before the sales rep says that they will fix problems you discover. That statement says, "the dealer assumes no responsibility for any repairs regardless of any oral statements about the vehicle". Yup - I'm stupid!!
SWEET! What a racket. What an escape clause! It was stupid of me not to realize that the sales representative wasn't going to cover anything, despite him looking me in the eyes and smiling, then later going back to his buddies and told them what a (another?) goofball I was. :gap
Oh well.....the BBB now has one more complaint to add to their lengthening file. Interestingly, the ebay feedback was one of the things I relied on - VERY few complaints registered out of thousands of testimonials. An interesting dichotomy.
To make matters more interesting, after I took the car and headed home - in the middle of Houston's rush hour, bumper to bumper 20 mph maximum traffic and was about 20 miles away - I discovered that they had put 42 pounds of air in the front tires, and WAY over 50 pounds in the right rear - the DIC wouldn't even register it, the pressure was so high. Combine that with a 12 PSI left rear - a screw was firmly embedded in the Goodyear EMT and I apparently drove home 1200 miles like that - no - the DIC didn't say it was low until AFTER I got home - and the handling/ride was "interesting", to say the least. And these guys sell Ferraris, Aston Martins, Lamborghinis, and other exotic cars.
Would I buy this car again?? Yes - I do enjoy the car, and we paid a fair price.
IMHO, the salesman was not forthcoming, and their preparation of the car was sorely lacking. Would I buy this car from this dealer again? No way.
Would I recommend this dealer to others? Not a chance.
Caveat emptor, my friends, caveat emptor....yes, I was stupid to accept the dealer's word, after the handshake and check was cashed....but the car? Love it!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2485636536#ebayphotohosting
I decided to call to talk to the seller first - we'd never purchased anything on ebay before and were concerned. The salesman told us it was a great car - super shape. Their ad on ebay said the same. Everything was working.
We purchased the car directly - ebay was by-passed, and yes, I've told ebay that they skipped paying them the fees on our deal by selling it outside their agreement. Turns out that the car was not a "one owner car from Texas", and a "trade-in vehicle at one of the largest Franchise Dealerships in North America", as stated on ebay, but was in fact, a repo - and was bought and sold by several dealers before Expo Motor Cars ended up with it. Didn't know that until the title showed up in the mail 3 weeks later.
I flew to Houston from Colorado to get the car. When I checked it out in person, I noticed there were electrical problems with the driver's door - no sound from the speakers and the driver's control for the passenger window would only lower it, not raise it. Their ad said "Electrical: All power options are working". I pointed these problems out to the sales representative (he was in the passenger's seat when I discovered it). He said to "get a quote" and he'd take care of it.
The other issue I had was the rear brakes - but I didn't notice there was a problem until I got into the mountains in Colorado. Serious body shake, caused by the rear brakes. The local Chevy dealer said not to drive it further after they inspected the brakes because that would cause severe damage to the rotors - that's how bad they were. After $389.71, the brakes work great!
I spoke to the Expo Motor Cars sales rep who said send him the bill and they would cover it. Did that. No response. When I now call the sales rep, he hangs up or puts me on indefinite hold. I asked to speak to the manager, Lloyd Hudson. Busy, but he'll call me back, says the sweet receptionist. he never does, despite my repeated calls - he's always in a meeting with his other managers. They never answer their e-mail ("We get 150 a day, and don't have the time to reply" - convenient....but why publicize your e-mail address if you don't correspond with customers?) I sent letters - they don't answer them either.
Well, I finally did what I should have done earlier - checked with the Better Business Bureau. :eek Sure enough, Expo Motor Cars has a nice little history if dissatisfied customers. The company pins its "attitude" on a small note on the "sold as is" statement you sign before you go look at the car, and before the sales rep says that they will fix problems you discover. That statement says, "the dealer assumes no responsibility for any repairs regardless of any oral statements about the vehicle". Yup - I'm stupid!!
SWEET! What a racket. What an escape clause! It was stupid of me not to realize that the sales representative wasn't going to cover anything, despite him looking me in the eyes and smiling, then later going back to his buddies and told them what a (another?) goofball I was. :gap
Oh well.....the BBB now has one more complaint to add to their lengthening file. Interestingly, the ebay feedback was one of the things I relied on - VERY few complaints registered out of thousands of testimonials. An interesting dichotomy.
To make matters more interesting, after I took the car and headed home - in the middle of Houston's rush hour, bumper to bumper 20 mph maximum traffic and was about 20 miles away - I discovered that they had put 42 pounds of air in the front tires, and WAY over 50 pounds in the right rear - the DIC wouldn't even register it, the pressure was so high. Combine that with a 12 PSI left rear - a screw was firmly embedded in the Goodyear EMT and I apparently drove home 1200 miles like that - no - the DIC didn't say it was low until AFTER I got home - and the handling/ride was "interesting", to say the least. And these guys sell Ferraris, Aston Martins, Lamborghinis, and other exotic cars.
Would I buy this car again?? Yes - I do enjoy the car, and we paid a fair price.
IMHO, the salesman was not forthcoming, and their preparation of the car was sorely lacking. Would I buy this car from this dealer again? No way.
Would I recommend this dealer to others? Not a chance.
Caveat emptor, my friends, caveat emptor....yes, I was stupid to accept the dealer's word, after the handshake and check was cashed....but the car? Love it!