Complaint Review: Naples Motorsports - Naples Florida

I've wanted to write this post for a long time now, about 3 weeks. I held back on the post to make sure the check cut to me by Naples Motorsports cleared, and wasn't stopped because of what I'm writing. This post will be factual, with no editorializing because my wish is not to discredit anyone. This post exists simply to chronicle my TOTAL experience with Naples Motorsport so that others might hear about my experience.

An edited copy of this post, along with all documentation, and pictures will sent to Florida DMV, Florida Dept of Agriculture (Consumer Affairs), and the Better Business Bureau. In addition a re written version of this will be sent to The Federal Trade Commission, because in my opinion I was a victim of false and deceptive trade practices, as well as misleading advertising. My attorney gets a copy too. We'll let these organizations judge for themselves. If Naples decides to sue me, those docs will be scanned, posted, and sent to the aforementioned organizations. The best defense against charges of defamation is the truth, and in this case the truth in pictures was provided to me by the company in question. I didn't even need the pictures I took.

On or about Dec 24, 2005, I contacted Naples Motorsport about a Ferrari I saw on their site. It was an '03 Spider, double red, with the black top. I was told by Rob Oteri, who is listed on their website as the General Manager, that this car was spoken for. I saw that they had a Grigio Ingrid (Champagne) colored car on their website too. It looked beautiful in the pictures, and I asked Rob about the car. He told me about the mileage, as well as all the other features of this car. I asked him about the condition of the car and he said it was Perfect.

Now, Naples Motorsports has been around for quite a few years, and they are a high profile Internet Company. If their GM tells me their car is perfect, that's good enough for me. It seems that It's also good enough for the Federal Trade Commission, as documented under their Unfair or Deceptive Practice Laws I quote: Unfair or Deceptive Practice Laws are the FTC's way to protect consumers against conduct that offends public policy as established by statute, common law or other means that are immoral, unethical, troublesome, or corrupt, and substancially injures consumers, competitors, or other business people. It gives consumers an opportunity to demand relief for even unintentional deception on the part of the seller.

I bought the Ferrari from Naples, on Dec. 28, 2005. Wired the down payment, and the balance was paid by the bank. The car was delivered on the 29th of Dec.

This car was delivered a quart of oil short. On the Naples website they describe the checklist that a car goes through before they deliver it. This car needed oil, which was a bad sign. I called GM Rob Oteri on Monday morning, and he told me he would be glad to take the car back to have the fluids changed for me, and to buff out a scratch or two that I put on it myself, first night in my driveway. At no time did they offer to pay for this fluid change, even though their site specifically stated that fluids were part of the deal.

I'm a pretty easy going guy, and thanked Rob with an email, which I gave Naples permission to post on their website. Paying for the fluid change was way easier then getting an appointment at Shelton, here in Ft Lauderdale. At any rate the car was shipped back to me a couple of days later and I decided to detail it. I washed it, and pulled it into the garage for a couple coats of Zaino. That's when it all hit the fan. Upon close inspection I noticed that the front bumper didn't align up with the body. As I investigated further I noticed that there were paint droplets hanging from the metal above the bumper, and below the trunk. I decided to pull off the clear bra, and realized that the bra had hidden a paint job on the bumper. It was two toned. When I opened the trunk there was evidence of Bondo under one of the screws, and a very uneven tape line all around the inner part of the trunk. I don't have the expertise to say that this car was in an accident, and to say that would be a guess. This post is about verifiable facts.

I was pretty upset. I figured for almost 200K this car should be perfect. The law says it was incumbent upon Rob Oteri to tell me about all paintwork that might have been done to this car. When I asked Rob about the paint, his answer was that all Ferrari's have paintwork on their bumpers. My previous three did not. He additionally told me that I never asked was there any paintwork done on this car. The law says it's his job to disclose any and all paintwork that was done.

The FTC documents that ignorance of the problem is not a defense in this situation. I asked to speak with Todd Rosenthal, the owner of this Co. and he asked to see the car. I removed my belongings, and my tag, and once again flatbedded the Ferrari back to Naples. The next morning Todd took it to his mechanic for an inspection. His mechanic, along with Todd not only deemed this car accident free, but said that the poor taping, and the paint droplets were from the Ferrari factory. He admitted to the bumper being repainted.

I told Todd that I didn't want the car, as it had been painted at the least, and as per his Ebay ads If I was dissatisfied in any way with my purchase I had the right to return the car, and pay shipping only. Todd proceeded to tell me that this wasn't the case with this car, as I had bought it a week ago. I explained in a cordial way that although I bought the car a week ago, it was back in Naples for a few days, and I only had it in my possession for a day or two. I continued by informing him that if there wasn't a clear bra on the car concealing the paintwork, this car would have been sent back in a NY minute. His stance was firm. He wasn't going to take this car back unless I paid him.

He told me he normally charged 10% to take a car back, but felt badly taking 19K from me. He said he'd take 8%. Or a total of $16,154.40. I had a choice to make here. Let him have the 16K FOR NOTHING, or fight. The right play was to let him have the money. I felt that a lawsuit would cost more then he was asking for, and contrary to popular belief, nobody ever gets their fees in a situation like this. In addition, keeping this car meant I owned a greatly devalued automobile due to the paintwork that was done to it. To obtain the refund from Naples I had to sign an agreement that I was satisfied with the outcome of this situation and that I wouldn't defame the Company, it's cars, or it's employees. I also signed a General Release, relinquishing my right to bring any claims against Naples for this transaction. It was made abundantly clear to me that without my signatures there would be NO refund, and they wouldn't take the car back. All these documents are available to anyone upon request.

Please feel free to email me. This post isn't meant to strong arm Naples into returning the money they took from me for no reason. I'm the worst kind of disgruntled customer, as I don't care about the cash they took. I'd much rather post my experience all over the net to help anyone else who might be on the fence about purchasing a car from these folks, and to alert the proper authorities about what they did to me. Yes, I gave up my right to sue them for a good reason, but I never gave up the right to factually relate my story to the public.

Frank

West Palm Beach, Florida
U.S.A.