Chattanooga
Florence,#2Author of original report
Sat, October 27, 2012
I wish this was a hoax! Let me detail it out. The day of the purchase I told the salesman the AC was not working and there was smoke coming out of the exhaust. He put 2 cans of Freon in and said that was all it needed and it would be fine. He said the mechanic had told him that AC was working but forgot to charge the system. The salesman took me to Don Baskins office about the smoke. Don said smoke was not coming from the engine but was coming from oil in the turbo they replaced. It would burn off in 100 miles or so. I asked if it was a new turbo. Don said no they took it off another engine.
The salesman and I went back out to the truck. AC was still cold and smoke from the Oil in turbo was still smoking. Im not a mechanic and dont know if these explanations are plausible or not. My gut feeling is to just pass on the truck and take one of the other two petes I looked at or call my wife to drive three hours to come get me.
At this very moment my wife calls and tells me an employee has accidently set our building on fire using a blow torch and the fire department is trying to put it out. My head is now spinning. I need to get home. Im there without transportation because my wife drove me up the day before and returned home.
Feeling uncomfortable with this truck I considered buying one of the petes so I asked if they take credit cards? If they do Ill take one of the petes and put the difference on my credit card. That would be my best option since I wont be able to get my wife to wire more funds at this point. When the salesman said they did not take credit cards my gut feeling sank even lower. Ive made my living for 17 year as a Visa/MC rep. Any business that doesnt take them throws a red flag to me because of the consumer protection against fraud etc. credit card have. Nothing is going my way.
At this point, Im left with believing Don Baskin story of oil in the turbo and the salesman promise that the AC will be fine or hitchhike home. I turned to the salesman and said, If the AC is not fixed or the smoke does not go away in 100 miles will you take the truck back? His exact words to me were, YES, Don knows about it!
On his word I got in the truck and headed home. 100 miles later the AC was blowing hot and the smoke was far worse so I called the salesman. I made him an offer I thought he couldnt refuse. That was, if they would take back the truck as promised, I would buy BOTH petes not just one. I thought that was more than fair. He said he would talk to Don about it and call me back. No one ever called back or return a dozen of my other phone calls. Never calling me back speaks volumes to me as to the integrity of Don Baskin Company. I gave up calling and repaired the truck. The Cat engine was $16,000 with warranties and complete AC system was over $4,000 it all came to around $22,000 to get the truck on the road. Yea, I wish it was a hoax.
I know what AS-IS NO WARRANTY means. Every truck I buy comes that way. I also know what a mans word should be worth. Its a question of integrity. Let me give you an example of a truck company with integrity. I bought a Volvo 780 from a Volvo dealer in Elisabeth, NJ. The AC was not cooling similar to the Baskin truck. The mechanic charged and said that all it needed. I said to the salesman, What it I get home 700 miles away and it doesnt work. He said call me and we will take care of it. You guessed it. I called him and said its blowing hot air. He called me back and told me to take to nearest Volvo dealer and they would pay for it. They paid for a new compressor! AS-IS-NO WARRANTY vs A MANS WORDS thats the test of integrity. In my option, Volvo showed integrity and Baskin did not.
Had Don Baskin been straightforward with me at the start or taken my two for one offer or returned my calls I would have bought other trucks from him. I often see trucks I like but as soon as I see Don Baskin name on it I just move on. AS-IS-NO WARRANT should never trump a man's word like it did with me at Don Baskin.
Baskin
Covington, TN,#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Fri, March 02, 2012
I feel that this report is a HOAX. There is not enough information on this report for me to figure out which customer this is coming from. If someone contacts us after purchasing a truck and states the A/C is no longer working we offer to fix it for them or to send them the parts in order to fix it although they purchases the USED truck AS-IS NO WARRANTY. This is a minor problem with little money involved. As far as a truck smoking, I would assume if you were worried about something being wrong with the truck because it was smoking, you wouldn't have purchased it. Rebuilding a motor in any truck doesn't cost 22,000.00
We do take trades in from customers and on some instances a truck will be traded in and before we can even list it on the internet a drive up customer looks at it and wants to purchase it.
I know that truck dealers within 500 miles aren't saying "bad stuff" about us because we deal with most truck dealers all over the United States. We have a large operation here and have been in business for 57 years. Obviously we have a good reputation because we have over 3000 repeat customers each year plus an additional 2000 customers per year that all make purchases. We are not out here to beat anyone. These are USED trucks, they are going to have problems from time to time.
Our motto is NOT "There is a sucker born every minute and it's Don Baskins job is to find them" We do not have to go look for customers, they come to us because we have a great selection of trucks at a resonable price. We allow our customer to have mechanics of there choice to come onto our lot and do FULL inspections on the trucks, test drive them etc. before they make the purchase.
If you would like to speak to me with concerns to this report please contact Lia at 901-476-9990. We would love to do business with you. Please don't let something petty like this change your mind!Thank you!