I recently purchased a boat from Mark Falke on an Ebay auction. The winning bid was 5200 dollars. I paid 500 down via Paypal and paid the remaining 4700 in cash when I picked the boat up on June 7th. I live in Doswell, VA. I traveled to Cleveland, OH to pick the boat up and returned to VA on June 8th. The first time I tried to use the boat it would not start. I had to replace the starter (200 dollars).
I tried to use the boat again. It ran about 20 minutes then stalled. I had to be towed in. The marina mechanic looked at it and had to fix the choke and the kill switch which cost me 180 dollars. I tried to use the boat a third time and had to be towed in a second time due to another breakdown. Upon advice from mechanic I replaced ignition module and sensor.
Still did not fix problem. I have also had to replace the windlass, which was advertised to just be stuck, and turned out to be unrepairable and had to be replaced (another 700 dollars). I had to replace the radio which was supposedly just not hooked up. I hooked it up and it did not work at all and had to be replaced (another 200 dollars). The boat is now with a third mechanic who tells me that it will probably cost as much to find and fix the problem as it would to put a new motor in it (4000 dollars).
I have had the boat two months and all I have done is work on it and spend money. Since it took more than 30 days to reach the 1500 dollar repair amount (the level that ebays buyer protection plan requires), ebay says they can't help me. I believe the seller knew what he was doing and used my trust of ebay to sell me the boat fraudulently. What do you think? And is the ebay buyer protection plan satisfactory when it comes to boats and lemons in general? I don't think so.
How about you?
John
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