The tractor and trailer was sold as being in excellant shape in 2013. The Tractor was a 2009 and the trailer was a 2006 Reefer with a new engine. Buyer was charged $500.00 for the DOT Inspections and told if they delivered the tractor and trailer to his home in ID he would not have to pay the CA Sales Tax. His cost was $125,000.00 for both units.
He e had me do a 5 mile test drive. I was unable to shift clean with or without using the clutch. I had over 2,765,000 Accident free miles and had owned sevefral trucks of my own and had never been unable to shift any truck previously which I told my prospective employer. I then did an inspection on the trailer and told him he needed to take the tractor and trailer to Freightliner to get the Alternator, signal/flashers repaired and have the truck and trailer DOT Certified before I and my Co-driver picked up our first load.
They had to replace all the drums on the trailer + brake shoes and the front drive Axle Drums and Brakes before they could pass the DOT Inspection because the Drums were all out of Specs! The 5th wheel was missing bolts and was in such bad shape they had to install a new one. I have the bills from Freightliner yet and as I recall it cost the Owner $3,000.00 besides the frig he had installed. His bill all told was nearly $5,000.00. The truck still would not shift and it caused both of us problems in stop and go driving. So much for the Certified DOT Inspections prior to purchase.
The shifting got worse and the clutch/tranny was making alot of noises doing down the road that told me we has a serious problem so my co-driver laid his smart phone on the floor by the Shifter and recorded the noises which he sent to the owner who got very serious saying to take it in to Freightliner in Reno, NV, pick up a rental truck then continue with our 4 Stopper around San Franciscco finaling in San Jose, CA which we did. We reloaded with Produce out of Salinas, CA returned to Reno took the rental back and picked up our tractoer from Freightliner with a new Clutch and Pressure plate. While there I had them install new Cab Shocks as ours on the truck were shot.
We broke down several times with Steer tires wearing very badly and also on the trailer which ended up with having to rebuild the Suspension on the trailer as it was so worn it could not be aligned and they had to replace both door seals and the curbside door and recharge the reefer unit after which we could maintain temperature.
On the the tractor, it turned out the frame was twisted and the air suspension valve was not working and the shocks were also shot and I believe we ended up rebuilding the rear suspension (the bushings were shot) to finally keep the tractor in alignment and not eat up the tires. All aof these problems Arrow refused to even par half of the cost much less all of the Cost that should have b een done according to their Guarantee.
In plain words Arrow Truck Sales lied about the tractor and trailer because they could see the Buyer was not aware of the mechanical condition and was not allowed to drive it to have it checked out elsewhere and flat refused to be responsible for the original bill from Freightliner before it could even pass a Legitimate DOT Inspection. They totally ignored the Owner and I believe he was embarrassed to admit he had been scammed by ARROW Truck Sales.
In 2014 I read quite a few complaints on ripoff report that included several owners that had their truckd=s delivered out of state to avoid CA SAles Tax. I am sure everyone knew that was illegal but savedhundreds if not thousands of TAxes. Then when they had serious breakdowns they did not pursue this in Court as they felt they might be held liable for the unpaid tax even though it was offered by ARROW and told it was not illegal! There ia no way that Ryan Sherwood as Executive V President/Chief Financial Officer and Paul Stevens as Western Reginal Manager did not know what was going on after all the Complaints most of which they refused to address even though problems were within the Warrantee period as in this case. I fully intend to pursue this with the California Authorities and US DOT also due to their impertinence.
I gave Ryan a chance to settle this out of Court and I cannot repeat his answer. Paul acted totally uninformed and ignorant as the western manager and referred me to Ryan who obciously had been informed of my letter of intent sent to the French Camp Office where the Truck was purchased via Certified mail which was signed for but never answered.
They are guilty of several Federal and California violations and it is obvious their intentions were intentional and totally illegal, and I doubt any Judge or Jury would believe otherwise. I am going to do my best to close them down do to all the intentional infractions involving people who were totally unknowledgible and totally unaware of the potential scams until they learned the hard way after purchasing a vehicle from ARROW Truck Sales. In my mind there is no doubt they are at least guilty of Criminal Conspiracy and the intent to defraud Consumers out of their hard earned money.