Complaint Review: Stephen Daniel Usana - Mansfield Texas

I bought a Limo From Mr. Stephen Daniel In December Of 2009 for $16,500. The limo was listed on Ebay with pictures and a description that was written that made it look and seem to be a really great deal. I messaged Mr. Daniel using the ebay messaging board and asked him questions about the the car in which he replied to instantly showing very good customer service. Becoming interested I asked some more specific questions on the condition of the frame and underside of the body since limo's are notorious for getting rust in those areas. His reply was good condition and that it looked really good.

At this point it seemed like it was a really good deal so I asked him if he had any more pictures since there were very few pictures of the limo posted on ebay to look at. He said he had more pics and sent me several to my email address. The pictures Daniel sent me looked like a car that was in almost new if not new condition. Obviously by the pictures there was no body damage, flaws in the paint or most important RUST! After looking at the pictures I was pretty much hooked and asked him for his phone number. From this point our business was conducted by phone. As we talked on the phone about the the limo and of course on the condition of the limo I began asking him questions, mainly about the condition of the body and he was very clear of my concern for any rust. He said there was definitely no rust and that the body was in very good if not almost perfect condition.

I then proceeded to ask him about all the electronics and several other things to see if there was anything we missed. He said that all the electronics worked but then he did add that the only thing wrong with the electronics that he forgot to say was that the car was broken into and that the radio in the front seat was stolen out of the car and that it needed a new radio. To me that didn't seem to be a very big deal and at this point I must say I thought that Mr. Stephen Daniel was a very honest person and professional business man. I was very excited at this point and made the decision to buy what I thought to be the deal of the century and sent a deposit of $1,000.00. As you will see, this decision would later prove to be a decision I would regret dearly. Stephen asked me to send him a wire for the balance of $15,500 stating he did not trust money orders or cashier checks. This made me a little nervous that he did not trust people, especially me since I have spent quite a bit of money on ebay over a two year period and have a perfect ebay score. My wife handles all the business transactions in the house so I let him know she would call him in the morning to discuss everything. The next day my wife called Mr. Stephen Daniel and told him our driver would bring a certified cashiers check and arranged a pick up time all the way in Texas.

After getting home later that night I asked my wife how everything went with Mr. Daniel and she said fine but added she felt it was strange that he wanted to talk to her for a long time about who he was and his history as a prominent business man. He told her about all of his worldly travels and that he was a christian and his family were missionaries that traveled all over the world on very large scale mission trips. There was also a lot said about his business status and that he was very high up in a company that was rated very high in the business world and was in charge of thousands of people. My wife was really thrown off by why he would want to tell her about all of this and spend so much time talking about himself. What was the point of it all? I said to her, he's just a really nice guy and was just being friendly, so we went ahead and arranged for a driver to fly out and meet Mr. Daniel and pick up the limo.  We spent around $1500 transporting the limo all the way to Virginia.

This is where the story takes a turn for the worse. Upon looking at the limo, I immediately noticed that this was not the condition of the limo in the pictures i saw nor was it anything like he had described. This thing was a total rust bucket. Rust bubbles all over the roof. Rust bubbles all under the paint in front of the rear doors. There was damage to the doors where they were hyper extended forward. There was stress cracks in the paint from the limo flexing up and down due to the body completely rusting out. I inspected under the limo only to find more rust all down the rocker panels and holes going through the panels. It was so bad you could push your fingers through the metal. This thing was a complete loss. My wife was so angry at me for not telling the driver to inspect the limo after she expressed her concerns I thought she was going to blow a gasket. It gets even worse. Non of the tvs worked nor did the radio in the rear. The blinkers did not work and the interior lights were stuck on. The mileage was off by 4000 miles and the car pulled so hard to the right that if you took your hands off the wheel, it would have driven right off the road.

Amazingly enough, the engine ran like a top. I called Stephen Daniel and explained everything and he acted like he was unaware of everything. He then said he had not even used the car himself, but that they used it to entertain handicapped children around so they could have fun. I told him I was going to drive it back to him and demanded my money back. He then said well look I'm very sorry, I have not seen this limo in a while and he thought there was someone that would buy it that was bidding on it before I outbid him. He said I will give you his number to call and that I could sell it to him and probably make a profit. I told him that I really didn't feel comfortable doing that so he said he would arrange everything. Sure enough he did but this guy would only pay him $15,500. He tried to get me to take the loss saying that I bought it and there was no warranty. I said no way, so then he said ok, I will cover the difference. The guy shows up at my house with a 15,000 check, not $15,500,  saying that was the price they had agreed on. I tried calling Mr. Daniel to see what was going on but I could not reach him.

I tried several times and the guy said he had to go, so I took the check and he left. He as well did not inspect the limo and eventually called me later saying he was fooled and was not very happy. I let him know I was just delivering it for Mr. Stephen Daniel. What a horrible position I was in. I then tried to call and call and call Stephen Daniel. I left emails, messages both through ebay and his phone with no reply. After several days, here I sat, out $2500 and had a guilty conscience for passing the car to someone else for Mr. Daniel and no response from Mr. Daniel. I then became very angry and left him negative feedback on ebay and called to let him know that I would do everything I could do to expose him, but also said that if this was a misunderstanding and he would send me the money he owed, I would remove the feedback, and ironically enough he texted me immediately saying all sorts of things about me and how I was treating him badly and proceeded to say since I said that he would not send me the money he owed me and that I actually I owed him and all sorts of nutty crazy things.  It was truly like being in the twilight zone.  He said he had a friend who was a DA and would take care of things that way like I had done something wrong to him that was illegal.

All I can say is - DO NOT buy anything from this man!! He will rip you off and cause you tons of time and heart ache. If anyone is interested, I have saved all my text messages between us and all the Messages from ebay to show he is a total scam artist. My email is (((ROR redacted))) and my number is (((ROR redacted))). Or if you have been scammed too, you can post your story too.  I really don't understand all of this, but maybe this was meant to help someone somehow. Hopefully he will not steal your time and money the way he has stolen mine.