In May of this year, I was trying to sell my 2000 Volkswagen Jetta. I first put this vehicle on Autotrader.com to sell it and then added my own personal "4 Sale" sign to the vehicle.
After a month in Autotrader, I received a call from a company called One Stop Motors. A rep of theirs called me named Jim Burns and told me that he could easily sell my car much faster than Autotrader could if I paid him $450. For the money, he would put my vehicle on their website, promote my vehicle for sale on the internet by placing it with different vehicle sale websites and getting it to the top of their "hit" list for that website, meaning that my ad would be at the top of all listings. I was guaranteed at least 20-30 of these websites.
While in the process of creating the ad for Jim Burns and One Stop Motors, Jim informed me that my asking price of $12,500 was way too low and very vehemently suggested that we start out the bidding at approximatley $14,900 due to "the desperate nature of the customers of One Stop Motors", who will want a full package of financing, shipping and warranty from them. From the start, after having looked at the blue book price on this car, I should have known that this inflated price would most likely get no offers as I had very few at the original price of $12,500 that I put in Autotrader.
I was suspicious but really wanted to sell the car, and with the extreme sales pressure that Jim Burns put on me, he talked me into paying him and advertising with his company. Needless to say, after one day, I felt I had been ripped off and called to get a refund only to be put into contact with a representative named Elise or Alise, no last name given, and she proceeded to tout One Stop Motors as the best place to sell or buy a car. She claimed to be an honest mother of two who would never steer anybody in the wrong direction.
What a lie, this company has done nothing to sell my car, NOTHING! I continued to let them advertise my vehicle, what choice did I have, they already had my money and would not refund it.
Finally, I decided to report them to the Better Business Bureau of Southern Nevada requesting a refund through them. The response has been nothing less than typical of a company who takes your money and runs. Excuses, excuses, excuses. I have contacted the owner, Robert Wilder and Jim Burns his sales guy and Alise, his ripoff agent and best liar, but none of these idiots wants to help me get my money back or even own up to what they have done. I refiled my claim with the BBB of Southern Nevada and replied as "Unacceptable response" to the One Stop Motors response to my complaint.
These people use a stack of paper to try and tell the BBB that do nothing wrong when in fact, their methods of selling vehicles rely on predatory practices such as watching vehicles which are on Autotrader for a long period of time and then contacting the owner as if he were interested in purchasing your vehicle when One STop Motors only motive for contacting you is to pressure you with their more than dishonest claims about how they can sell your vehicle in a week when in fact they don't truly do anything to sell your vehicle other than to put it on some websites that you could have done for yourself for free.
They rely on your desparation to sell the car and claim that within days it will be gone. Then once you pay them, they take over two weeks to create your package and when I called customer service they told me that my ads would be done soon and that it would take at least 6-8 weeks for my vehicle to sell, quite the difference fromt he original 6-8 days that Jim Burns said it would take.
And it all goes downhill from there. After trying to get a refund with no success and then filing a report against One Stop Motors with the BBB, I went to the website and changed my ad for my car to read like a book about what a bunch of ripoffs One Stop Motors is. The ad lasted no more than a day before they removed it. Not only did they remove it, they cancelled it without refunding my money and now I am highly upset. I am talking to an attorney and they say I have a good case. I am trying to figure out if it is worth the $5000 retainer for this attorney, but each day that passes, I see that I should pay this and go after them in court, and I do believe that I will.
Erik
Signal Hill, California
U.S.A.
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