My fianc and I purchased a commercial truck February from RANDALL AND JEFF CRAFT in Knoxville TN. At this time my fianc was 6 months pregnant, and this was to be what would support our family. I have a long background in the trucking industry dating back to 1989 and know the industry well. The truck was advertised as having a recent engine overhaul with documentation, and being "100%". We have a copy of this advertisement. This was the selling point to us for this truck. After signing the lease of this truck we discovered, after attempting many times, there was no documentation of the overhaul. As soon as we left the sales yard we went to sign on with a company and we were all but laughed out of there, after having gone through a thorough mechanical inspection. We returned to the sales yard to inquire why this company would have refused us since having bought what was suppose to be a road ready truck. The sales yard mechanic briefly looked the truck over and told us that those people were stupid and nothing was in fact wrong with the truck.
After having numerous mechanical failures we attempted many times to get copies of the overhaul that was to have been done prior to our purchasing the truck. We were then told that someone, not the previous owner, did the overhaul and surely had some receipts of parts purchased to perform the overhaul. When we tried to pursue who this person was we got no response. We were then told that the overhaul had been done at Peterbilt of Knoxville. We then spoke to the service manager at Peterbilt and he informed us this was in fact not true. That the truck engine was not rebuilt there.
For the past 16 months we have spent and borrowed everything possible to get this truck in road worthy condition and attempt to use it for what was intended, making a living. We are still pouring money in this truck to keep it on the road and legal. It is a lease with a dollar buy out. The amount of the lease at the time of us purchasing the truck was at least twice what the truck actually was worth, based on national and state averages for the same vehicle. I was aware it was a used truck when we purchased it, however its condition was misrepresented both verbally and in print. What I am most concerned about is the "lender" repossessing the truck after I have poured thousands of dollars into it and being able to resell it in much better condition at my expense. We would have been out of business completely long ago if I did not have a very strong background in heavy truck mechanics. Having done the majority of the repairs myself we saved several thousands of dollars that would have been spent at repair shops. As you can imagine we have lost significant time and wages that the truck would have otherwise produced. It is our estimate that our loss is around $40,000. Also, as a result of this our personal credit is completely destroyed as everything has been put second to keeping our truck running. We know that we have been taken advantage of and we seek relief for the losses we have had, and continue to have.
We have documentation showing the losses we have experienced including parts receipts, lost wages, photographs of repairs before and after, copies of estimates of work we have preformed, as well as other various documentation.
Bluewater
Seviervillle, Tennessee
U.S.A.
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