Complaint Review: Troyf978 TROY FINKELSTEIN - Glen Head New York

Purchased a vehicle from this seller through his e-bay (ebay) ad. I sent a deposit though paypal. Two days later I picked up the vehicle which he didn't yet have a title for.

The seller was operating his "business" in NY with a Glen Head address however wanted me to take delivery of the vehicle on a corner on the LIE in Dix Hills, NY which was actually more convenient for me so I agreed.

According to a vehicle history report, the car was recently purchased at an auto auction, and had originated locally in NY state. When I took delivery the seller issued me a bill of sale from a Lancaster, PA based used car dealership, which he is supposedely a dealer for. He also issued me a temporary NJ license plate and registration through a different NJ based dealership becuase he didn't yet have the title. Meanwhile all of this is taking place in NY where he is doing business.

He had my address from both the paypal deposit payment and from the NJ temp tag and told me he'd mail the title to me within the next two days. It turns out later that he didn't even file for a PA title until 2 days after I picked up the car.

When I met him to pick it up it was on a dark corner and the seller sat in the car filling out the paperwork so I couldn't really take a good look at it. Once he handed me the keys and stuck on the temp plate he walked off into the night. By the time I got in and found the faceplate for the radio had been removed rendering it useless (it was there in the listing photos) and that the onboard computer was reporting a failure of the rear lights (the listing said "Our technicians found no electrical problems.") he was already well out of sight.

At this point I drive the car home, wanting to take a better look at it in the daylight the following morning. When I did I found that the damage to the fenders was more significant than described but I could have dealt with that. The radio antenna had been snapped off. The liftgate wouldn't stay up by itself, and the trailer hitch receiver was so rusted and corroded I could even slide a hitch in. I also found rust at the bottom of all the doors, and the front drivers wheel was making a funny sound.

The following day my father was in town to together we took an even closer look and found the transmission had no fluid, and there seemed to be not one but two leaks. There was also a tapping valve sound coming from the engine. The allignment was also way off and the tires unevenly worn.

Now that I had a pretty good idea of the real condition of this this vehicle I e-mailed the seller to see what he had to say. None of these issues had been mentioned in the listing and if he's really a car dealer and he really had techs look at most of these things would have been obvious.

He responsed back asking me what I expected from a car with close to 130k miles and asked what it was I wanted. I informed him that this car is not what was described and that I'd like my depsoit back and I'll gladly deliver the vehicle back to him.

Apparently he didn't like that idea, and he didn't feel that he had been negligent in his description. I offered to have either his or my mechanic do up an estimate for repairs for the undisclosed problems and he could refund that money, and he didn't agree to that, I then offered to just settle for $1000 refund and he declined that, the repairs will end up costing me well more than that.

At this point I filed a claim with paypal for my deposit and with ebay and square trade. Paypal ended up denying my claim, I still don't know why. Ebay wouldn't do anything becuase I paid the balance in cash. Square trade won't do anything unless the buyer pays for arbitration.

At this point it's been about 2 weeks and still no title. I e-mailed him to see where it is and he tells me that I never gave him my address. I reminded him that he has it in two places. At this point the temporary plate has expired and I can't even drive the vehicle. A few days later I followed up and he said he was still waiting for my address so I sent it this time, still reminding him he's had it for weeks. He then tells me it will go out overnight. It didn't. I waited a day and wrote again, then I finally got a response saying that it went out a day later. The next day though I still didn't have it, this time he gave me a tracking number. It was being held at FedEx because he put the wrong address on it. When I went to FedEx to pick it up the title itself had the right address so I don't know how he screwed that up.

Once I had the title in hand and registered the vehicle I left him feedback on ebay. Of course negative after all the trouble I had and zero cooperation or compensation. He then replied with false negative feedback of his own, and then went and bought another dozen e-books so he could push my feedback to the second page.

Today I got an e-mail from him offering to refund me the $250 paypal deposit as a settlement so that we could mutually withdraw the negative feedback. I accepted it because in the last week alone I've spent $250 just to replace the unusable radio, replace the antenna, and replace the liftgate supports and that's the easy stuff I can do myself.

Based on his feedback I'd say it is hit or miss buying cars from him, definatley insist on seeing it before hand, and make sure he has the title before you make a deal. He has no integrity about what he sells so it's totally up to the buyer to make sure that the car they're buying is actually a good deal.

Victim

Long Island, New York
U.S.A.