Purchased a car on EBay from Sergey; I've bought 4 cars on EBay over the last 8 years for myself and others; all of which still run. This guy was local and has another lot only 7 blocks from my home; so I felt comfortable dealing with him. Knew I was buying a used car and expected the normal wear and tear. Had my 3 YO daughter with me when I went to look at the truck; explained to Sergey that I wanted something safe to transport her in... Didn't care if it was not an eye catcher. Sergey assured me this was a good truck that he spent some money on to make it right. When filling out the DOC's I called my mechanic to set up a safety and emissions inspection right away; Sergey said don't worry about that I'll pay for it and have it done. This was on a Saturday; Monday took the truck to his guy that slapped a set of stickers on the truck. I said this can't be stickered as safe, it needs a tire which had the side wall gouged out, and a water pump which was leaking. Again Sergey said he would take care of it and sent me to yet another one of his guys. I spent 6 hours at this shop waiting for the water pump to be completed and at 6PM was told they couldn't get it done; pick it up tomorrow. The nexy day picked up the truck in which they replaced the tire with an old dry rotted one and the water pump completed.
The problem now is Sergeys' 72 hour guarantee has expired. I took the truck to my own mechanic who took the tires off and showed me the disater that was waiting to happen; bad brakes and calipers, no emergency brake, upper control arms and ball joints wasted away to nothing. Quote from 2 mechanics, 'If you'd have hit a bad bump your wheels could have fallen off." Called Sergey and aksed him to make it right; he said my 72 hours is up and he doesn't have to do anything. I told him I was reporting him to the State Police for selling a car that could not pass a Pennsylvania safety inspection; his response, "I'm calling the police on you for harrassing me." The nice guy from the previous Saturday who assured me my daughter would be in a safe vehicle had totally disappeared. I did report this to State Police who is taking this violation of the law extremely serious; as well as the inspection station that placed safety stickers on a car that was on the verge of falling apart. I'm not mad at making a bad deal for myself; happens. I'm not mad at being inconvenienced for work and getting my daughter to preschool.
What I'm most angry about is having a MAN, if that's what he is, putting my daughters life in danger to make a couple bucks on a used car. Some simple honesty and saying, look this car needs a lot of work to be safe let me show you something that costs a little more but is in better shape. I would have gladly coughed up the extra dough and I wouldn't be writing this. I'm glad a had a father who worked on cars and was a mechanic his whole life teach me to never trust anyone you don't know with your brakes... I took that advice and went to a reputable mechanic in order to protect my child and I'm so glad I did. This guy is a heartless business person and should be in jail for selling the vehicles he does. I will follow up on this post and report what happens going forward.
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