My story is as follows-
Having recently moved from Atlanta to Harlem, Georgia, I moved to a much bigger rural home. I needed a pickup to haul and help remodel the home. I bid on and won a 1994 Dodge Ram 1500. Before bidding I asked the seller about everything I could think of, mostly mechanical. I didn't care about the appearance. He told me the truck was cosmetically imperfect (which was true) but mechanically it was fine. He advertised in the listing that you could "drive it to California" (the pick up was in Woodstock, just outside Atlanta). He told me it had a gauge problem with the oil pressure. A gauge is no problem, so I bid and won. When I went to pick it up, the gauge showed low oil pressure. It bounced around, up and down, so nothing was definite there. I asked again about the oil pressure, and they said they changed the oil and filter and it was definitely a gauge problem. They specifically told me it "was fixed". I drove it several miles with no problem and paid the money in cash. Once at the outskirts of Atlanta, less than 50 miles, the engine seized. I called the seller repeatedly from the side of the road with no answer. I had it towed to my home (150 miles) at my expense. Once I pulled the oil pan I found extensive metal shavings from the bottom bearings in the motor. Unmistakable. I had a mechanic look at it and he said we were done, it needed a new motor or possibly a rebuild. After weeks of attempts, I finally got in contact with the seller, but he wasn't interested in any resolution. I offered to have a mechanic fix it, but he wasn't interested. I offered to change the motor myself, and split the cost of the used motor. Not interested. I offered to rebuild it myself (as a project, I'm not a mechanic) and split just cost of the parts, but he wasn't interested. I filed a complaint with Ebay, and left negative feedback. Their rep said he would not respond. He just ignored them. After some heated calls Ebay refused to do anything, and said he probably didn't have the resources to go after him so it wasn't worth pursuing. They closed the file and took off my negative feedback on his profile. This was after he ignored them and then appealed the feedback. The let him get away with it! He slipped out of every protection, and in the end I got negative feedback from the seller and had to replace the motor (and related expenses) completely out of pocket. And guess who's negative comment they did not remove? This guy got away with it, in a big way. I didn't get burned as badly as some did, but I got burned and he was successfully arrogant all the way.
I applaud anyone for going after this guy. He is a bad business person, has low (if any) morals, and so far has skated on all of it. He and Ebay should pony up for their practices. As for me, I don't stand any gain from this. I don't have the time or resources to put into it. If anyone else can, I wish you Godspeed and will help any way I can.
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