Complaint Review: SUNWEST CARS TRUCKS & BOATS

My dad & I used to put a few cars on consignment at a dealership in Hesperia, Ca. Called Sunwest Cars Trucks & Boats FBN No. 2000-08512. 17129 Bear Valley Rd. Hesperia Owned by Gary W. Jesness. (760) 951-5610 .

The better Business Bureau list him as Sunwest Marine Sales and Service. Bureau ID 13154191 It gave my dad a little extra income since he was retired and I had just lost my job so we figured it would help tie me over until I was working again.

At first it was just a couple then we found a new place to buy cars that were a lot nicer & cheaper and Gary seemed to be selling well, and before we knew it, it turned into a full time job for both of us. My dad had congestive heart failure so I tried to do all the things he couldn't and then some.

It wasn't to long & Gary decided for some reason that he didn't like me & therefore he wouldn't deal with me. That's when I told my dad, who by the way was a policeman for 30 years, he's up to something.

My dad said don't worry about it, he would handle him, that as far as the cars on the lot he could deal with Gary, so my job then was to clean the cars, take pictures, and handle the paper work. First of all, he never paid us within the 20 days as per the consignment agreement and when he did pay us he never paid the full amount. Always short.

But money was still coming in so my dad kept buying cars. The cars we bought we gave him a set price & then what ever he sold it for above that was his. Then Gary started letting my dad go with him to the dealer auction Mostly because they would only accept cash from him because he had written them so many bad checks. The cars that were bought at the auction the deal was my dad was to get back the cost of the car & they would split the profit in half.

Well, to make a long story short my Dad passed away May 26th 2002. My dad had told me that if anything ever happened to him, I was to go and pick up anything we owned and take it off the lot.

That's when the trouble really started. As I started to try and figure out how many cars we had & what was the last car paid in full, I kept going back further & further, bottom line-hes only paid us in full for 2 cars out of about 40 over about a 2 year period. Basically there isn't a law or a stunt he hasn't pulled.

My Mom & I started asking him for paper work and he kept putting us off, So we asked my brother in law who is also a policeman if he would go and talk to him. Well, that was going fine for a little bit, except for Gary let it slip and admitted to padding the loans to the finance company to my brother in law, which I think scared the daylights out of him, he knew he blew it.

So he started acting real cagey and everyone looked like they had seen a ghost when we pulled up. The next thing he just flat out refused to show us any paper work. Then he hired an attorney, and said he didn't want any contact with us, we had to talk to his attorney. So we borrowed more money and got our own attorney.

We put I think 33 of the cars into our lawsuit or whatever you call it, basically to order him to produce records. I cant come up with a total of what he owes because I don't know what he sold them for. His response for the order to produce records was due as of March 7th 2003. He has refused.. (Piland vs. Jesness Case No. 028335) Now his attorney is asking to be removed because he hasn't paid him either.

He probably figures he won't need an attorney because he won't be here. My attorney didn't find any information about his business being closed until 2 weeks ago. His attorney was not able to be reached either by phone or by mail. I think his attorney was helping to buy him time. Another client told my attorney Sunwest had closed. Then he following day they did get a hold of his attorney who said he was withdrawing from the case for non-payment and that Gary refused to come up with any paper work on any of the cars.

Just so you have an idea Ill give you a few examples of what he's done on a few cars. Also let me throw in he was always CO-mingling the money after being asked several times to set up the proper accounts. In fact I think he feels pretty darn sure that he mixed up the money so much nobody would be able to figure it out. But I'm happy to announce after several months and with the help of my dad's notes, my notes, my brother in laws notes, bank statements & so on for the most part, I can tell you exactly what he did. My dad always said that the law really only applies to the law abiding. Case in point, he wasnt picky about what laws he broke or who he stole from. Here is a small sample...

1. We had a 2000 Chevy Sierra put on consignment 5/11/01 for 19,000 . Gary decided he liked it and could pull his boats with it, and after my dad repeatedly telling him not to drive our cars, he put a minimum of 3,000 miles on it and when he finally sold it his wife who did their accounting, gave him 2 checks 1 for 15,000 & 1 for 4,000 written on the Sunwest Account which she signed. They both bounced. He apparently used 14,000 of our money to pay someone who was after his bond. Then my dad gave him a formal letter of demand. He started paying my dad back a little at a time, but he always mixed the money with something else.

On 10/24/01 he gave my dad a check from Fireside Thrift & loan in the amount of 6,000. He said 4,500 of it was toward the 4,800 on a 1997 Hyundai Elantra which left a 300.00 balance and 1,500 was toward payment of the bad checks. 10/25/01 he paid 64.00 more dollars in cash & gave my dad a check in the amount of 4, 160. 01/02/02 he paid 1017.00 My dad again gave him another copy of the letter of demand in the beginning of May giving him until 6-01-02 to finish paying on the 19,000. My dad passed away on May 26th 2002 . Gary claimed he never had that conversation.

My dad told me he was going down there & I asked if he wanted me to go with him. When he got home, he told my Mom exactly what he had said to Gary. But not according to Gary. He made another payment of 5,700 06/08/02. He claims that paid it in full. Once I had a chance to look at everything it only adds up to 12,441. He was just sure that it was paid in full Said over and over again oh no he paid Howard. (my dad)

2. When we were discussing what cars were ours on the lot I looked over into the garage & I said The 2 Sea Doo Jet ski's on the Zieman trailer were are ours. Gary said Hey you remember my 89 Arriva Boat, I had sold it, but the people brought it back, claimed it was cutting out above 4000 rpm, it's down at the beach getting repaired. My Mom said wait a minute, Gary you know that boat is ours, no he said it s mine and my Mom again said No, Gary you know very well that is our boat and he said well OK. My brother in law went the next day and picked it up in Huntington Beach. Otherwise he would have just kept it. he had it sold for about 8,000, Thank god they brought it back and he sliped and mentioned it.

3. In all my dad's notes they were referring to a 1995 Chevy Camero Z28. We paid 6, 170 for it though the dealer auction. In trying to figure all this out I started looking up the dates the cars were smogged by Vin #. Then I knew when to look for a payment. Come to find out the 1995 was a really a 1996. My dads notes show he was deducting a payment of 5511.00 4/13/02 from the amount of 7170 leaving a balance of 1659.

Per my brother in laws notes he sold it for 8990 which would have been 6170 the price of the car & 1/2 profit would be of 1410 for a total of 7580 due my dad. So 7, 580-5,511 = 2069. Gary in his conversation with mark is referring to the amount of 1659 which is not the correct amount-thats what he had my dad believing. Going by Mark's notes you see he's doing the math as gary gives it to him. He wrote down 7,580 minus 5150 amount of check dated 4/8/02 = 2,430 1,500 in cash he claimed he handed my dad (someday in may with no receipt) =930 then minus 500.00 for 1/2 of 1,000 in transmission work they said went out leaving a balance of 430.

And he still at no time brings up the fact that it's a 1996 not a 95. Blue book on it was 11,115 if it was a 95, but since it was a 96 model blue book was 12,370. So am I supposed to beleive he is selling a 12,000 car for less than 9,000. This car is a good example of why it leads me to believe that he has been pocketing the down payment and then claims to have sold it for the amount financed. Then he has something he can show if he has to verify his story.

4. 1997 Mercury Villager sold around Dec /2001. It was put on consignment for 10,000, blue book was above 12,000 he claimed he couldn't sell it talked my dad into changing it to 9,000. He finally goes to pay us 04/01/02 with 6777.23. He claims the balance he owes after my dad is gone is 677.00 which he paid on 6/14/02. 6777.23+ 677.00 =7454.23 not 9,000. Balance is 1545.77. Where is he coming up with those numbers? Swears it is paid in full.

5. I have the copy of a money order #7810343 that paid for a 1995 Honda Civic on 4/4/02 - I called the Dealer Auction and verified that my dads money order paid for the car and they gave me the license number & vin or I wouldnt have any information on it. Lic #3NOT858 VIN # 2HGEJ112XSH572279. My dads notes he refers to it as 100 late charge on 95 Honda Civic and makes reference that it was just sold money due this week. Funniest thing he has this one smogged on 6/4/02. Gary refused to even discuss it Would not talk about it. Just stole this one from what I can see.

6. 1995 Nissan Pathfinder I had very little info on . I asked Gary about it I said if it was 2 wheel drive it was worth 9,000 & 4 wheel drive 10,000. He told my mom & I that it was 2 wheel drive and that it was rough he was lucky to have sold it. I went to my moms house and brought my dads computer home. My dad didn't buy junk for one thing and at towards the end only cars that didn't need any work done on them because he wasn't able to work on them the way he used to.

My dad had it on his computer & I found out it was 4 wheel drive & how many miles it had on it, and it had almost every option that it could have come with. Hard to sell I dont think so!! One day he said he sold it for 7995 then his wife told us the next day that it was sold for 5995. Neither one of those statements is true. By the time I had it figured out he had gotten an attorney and we were not supposed to talk to him.

7. 1997 Chevy Cheyenne , he let the guy take it without it being smogged Claimed he sold it for I think 7995. Told my brother in law he sold it for 9995 & he took 3,000 down. We accidentally got a print out from the finance company shows he took 2,000 down and the total it was sold for was 10,893. This is the one he accidentally let it slip that he was padding the loans. I dont know how that works, but I'm sure its some kind of fraud to the finance company.

Anyway Mark (my brother in law) told Gary it was to be repossessed if the guy didn't bring it back to get the smog & I think they were having trouble with his financing. Mark called Gary on 6-10-02 asked if everything was taken care of. He said it was, that they were waiting for funding from the finance company. He called on 6-21 said he would pay my Mom as soon as he got the check. He sent Mike his salesman AKA thief in training to hand deliver a check to my Mom for 5660.00. We paid 5720.00

But he promised it was smogged & so it didn't need to be repossessed. Another lie it wasn't done until July 2nd. We should have gotten our Truck back. Regardless he owes us 2,646.50. Typical he has us 60.00 and who knows how much hes really ahead since he isnt telling the truth to the finance company either.

8. We had a 1997 Chevy C2500 Van with the extended wheel base. Blue book on it was above 14,000.. He called my dad one day and said he thought he had a buyer would he have me bring it down for the guy to look at. So I took it down there and was going to wait while they looked at it. He insisted that I take a different car and that he would call my dad if they were interested. Next thing I know the van is gone.

Gary just told my dad he sold it for about 8,000. blue book at the time was 13,625. And acted like there was nothing we could do about it, it was just to bad. He didn't even have a consignment sheet on this one. This was in Feb. 2002. It was not smogged until July 10th, 2002.lic# 6S50365 Vin # 1GCFG29M0V1067920. How are records getting changed without a smog certificate?

Back to the storyThen 2 weeks later they claimed the transmission went out. It only had 62,000 miles on it-which is another one of his tricks.

He was told over and over again not to sell extended warranties on any of our cars they were as is I've got a collection of his window stickers that show he sold everything with one. Except for the ones the transmission supposedly went out on. Then hed claim he didn't sell it with one and made my dad split the cost of the repair They claimed there was no fluid in the transmission. I checked all the fluids in it 3 days before he sold it. I don't think any such work was ever done and if it was it would have been covered on one of his extended warranties.

Of course I don't know how he did that either because he didnt have a consignment sheet on it and never got authorization to sell it in the first place. I have a collection of his Warranties that he was not authorized to give. He did that on a couple of them, but we would never show us any receipts for anything. I think he just put another 500.00 in his pocket. He was told repeatedly that they were to be sold as is. He did what ever he wanted.

One of our cars he didnt like so he used it to block his back gate with. A ford taurus we had he just loaned out. My dad saw it with some people picking up their kids from school . They had no intentions of buying it.. Gary just let them borrow it. I cant begin to tell all the damage he did to our cars. One we had just dropped off the day before and the next day it had a flat tire. He told my dad I must have done something to it on the way there, Gary didnt know my dad drove that one and was an expert in accident reconstruction. I can go on & on.

There isnt a scam he hasnt pulled I know there is something with the smog certificates How can he sell a car in lets say January and it doesnt get a smog certificate until July. He sold our 1991 Lexus over a year ago lic # 4dec701 vin # JT8UF11E5M0047853 and the last I checked it still didnt have a smog certificate . One day when my mom & I were at AAA I asked the girl if she could tell me if it was still in my dads name.

And she said it wasnt. So how then did the records get changed. There is no way it didnt need one. Somebody shot the windows out of this one, mad at Gary. And he took his time getting it fixed. I called a random car dealer out of the phone book and I said I know the law requires a smog certificate when a car is sold by a private party. Does the same law apply to car dealers or how does that work. He said its the same, that all cars were required to have a smog certificate before they could leave the lot.

So whats going on there. They meaning Gary & his wife Tamera wrote us a total of 34,700.00 in bad checks. He has only paid back from what I can come up with 28,141.00. His wife wrote 19,000 of it. My dad wrote a note Withdraw my funds around 3 P.M. & gave me checks around 3: 30 P.M. Sept 27th 2001. B of A Branch #2463. Shows intent to defraud. She (Tammy) made out checks & he gave them to me . (uttering) Tammy said she was just doing what he told her she knew there was no money left Anyway I have all the paper work of what I could get my hands on, all my dads notes, copies of the lies he told my brother in law, copies of consignment sheet, his warranties, And I have pictures of almost every car inside and out. I know I missed a couple, but thats about it My dad was a great man.

I was so lucky. Bless his heart , we got into to this mess because he was trying to help me & he tried as hard as he could to keep up with Gary, but it was clear he just wasnt able to. He spent hours down at the lot so he could try to figure out what he was doing. When I told Gary my dad wasnt doing very well and not to drag him down there for the checks that didnt ever seem to show up, he just did it even more, Had my dad worried all weekend thinking he was going to have to bring his motor home down and park it next to the lot to help him do paperwork he claimed he couldnt keep up with. Thank god that did'nt happen & besides he had no intentions of letting anybody see any paper work, because then we would see what he was doing.

We still owe quite a bit, because my dad used a line of credit against their house. Had Gary done things the correct way we would have been ahead of the game, but I honestly dont think that thought ever occurred to him. Its no telling how much he really owes us. From what I can figure out he got us before, during and after the sale. I think his usual mode of operation was he just pocketed the down payment right off the bat.

Then claimed he sold it for the amount that was financed and then months later when he paid us it was never the full amount. My dad was telling me to take a couple of more cars down there and I told him no. I said it doesnt matter how many cars Gary sells because we dont get paid.. So I just started promising tomorrow, and then the next day & the next day. And I thank God I did.

We had waited to turn him into DMV hoping to get some money out of him first, but at this point I just want him stopped. Hes has either sold the business or is just leasing it out. The house where he rents 13876 Driftwood Spring Valley Lake Ca. is sold & escrow is due to close any day, and hes getting ready to take off for who knows where.

Me and my dad one day were talking and I said well at least hes not just stealing from us. He steals from everyone. Some consolation.! They acted like my dad was Grandpa to their little girl, they cared so much they couldnt make it to his funeral. When we told him my dad passed away, He started running around yelling "F***" He wasn' sorry my dad was gone he was sorry his money was. He stole from everybody & I do mean everybody, he didn't leave anybody out.

We just turned him in to DMV since it looks like he going to try and run. I just hope that somebody, anybody will get to him before it's to late. He needs to be stopped. Any help would be greatly appreicated ..........

Susan Hesperia, California
U.S.A.