Complaint Review: Larry Brown

In the spring of 2018 I contacted Larry Brown about several MGA roadsters he had advertised on his website www.collectorcars.fotki.com.  After serveral phone calls and emails that included photos of the MGAs he had available I agreed to send him a check as a deposit to hold a 1960 MGA roadster that looked like what I was looking for. I told him I wanted to see the car and examine it for rust, soundness, etc. before I bought it. He required a $1,500 deposit to hold the car (asking price of $4,500). I sent him the deposit via a personal check and he sent me an email saying he recieved the deposit and would hold the car until I had a chance to travel there and look at it.

In late May of 2018 my husband and I traveled from our home in Massachusetts to the car's physical location in Quincy, IL to see the car and meet Larry Brown. We examined the car closely and Larry showed us around the warehouse to see all of the other vintage vehicles he had for sale as well as the hundreds of parts he had stored there. He told us he was working for an elderly man who owned the cars and was selling almost all of what was in the warehouse. He also took us to another warehouse located outside of Quincy that held numerous other vintage autos in various conditions. It all looked very legitamate and Larry was very accomodating and personable. 

We told him at the time of our visit that we needed to think about it for a few days and would notify him the first week of June (in about 4 days) to let him know our decision. He said that would be fine. We asked him about transporting the car and he recommeded a transport company that he had used in the past. I said that I would need to do some research on transport companies if we bought the car.

We returned home to Massachusetts on June 2, 2018 and by June 4 we had decided to purchase the car so I phoned Larry Brown and told him so. He told me not to arrange transport for the car until he had had a chance to collect all of the parts that were supposed to be included with the car. I mailed him a check on June 6, 2018 for the balance of the negotiated price of $4,000 ($2,500) along with a letter that listed all of the parts that we had agreed needed to be gathered up and packed wtih the body (the car was supposedly being sold as complete but when we saw it, it was missing many items of which Larry assurred us he would find amongst the parts in his warehouse). Having seen many of these parts in the warehouse we had no reason to doubt that he would do this. Larry sent me an email several days later saying that he had recieved the check. He said that the car would be ready in to go in a week or two.

After a couple of weeks I called Larry about arranging transport to my mechanic in Keene, NH. He said he had been sick and unable to get the car ready but would get to it that week. I called him about a week later and he still hadn't had a chance to prepare the car for transport and not to arrange for transport until he had it ready. This went on for several weeks, sometimes he would not return my calls but if he did he would always have some excuse for not having the car ready yet. The last time the excuse was that he had fallen off a ladder while trying to retrieve some of the parts for the car but he was getting help from his brother in law the next day to get it ready. That was mid July. I have heard nothing from him since then. By late July I was beginning to realize that I was being scammed for $4,000. I send him several emails and called him several times but those went unanswered. The latest attempt in early August was an email I sent to him that requested he return my money or I would pursue legal action. I have received no response from him to date.