If I could give no stars, I would. I was looking for a trike to purchase and found a 1941Harley Davidson Service Car in the Cycle Trader for sale through Adamec Harley-Davidson in St. Augustine. I contacted the Sales Manager, Ted Pudlo about purchasing this trike. We had multiple conversations about the condition of the trike. He did explain that there were a few minor scratches in the paint, but they could be buffed out. I then asked him about the condition of the chrome, during one conversation he told me that he was actually stepping outside his office and looked directly at the trike and told me that the chrome was in "excellent shape". After discussing the details of the trike, he finally told me that it was coming out of a museum, and his exact words to me was "it was in damned near perfect condition".
After giving me the details on the trike's condition, I decided it was what I had been looking for, so we then discussed the price. They were asking $20,000. and I made an offer of $18,000. He then told me he would talk to the owner and get back to me regarding my offer. When he called me back, he told me that the owner had accepted my offer. I was then sent the paperwork for the transaction. In that paperwork it did say the transaction for the trike was in "as is" condition and I agreed to this SOLELY based on Mr. Pudlo's description of the trike's condition. I had to make this decision based on his description because I am in California and the trike was in Florida.
After the trike was shipped and arrived at my home, I found the condition to be nowhere near his described "damned near perfect condition" but unfortunately it was in fairly poor condition. The chrome was far from "excellent shape", it was so bad you could see the rusty steel showing through the cracked chrome on the fender trims. When I examined underneath the trike it was a "rust bomb". The wheel's rims and back sides of the mirror were rusted as well. In my opinion, in order to have brought this trike back into Mr. Pudlo's description of a "damned near perfect condition" it would have had to be re-chromed and painted.
Once I examined and saw the actual condition of the trike, I called Mr. Pudlo and left a message and told him that I extremely unhappy with the condition of the trike. He then returned my call and told me that I had two choices: #1 After he spoke with the owner, he told me that I could keep the trike and the owner would drop the price by $4,000 and the dealership would take off the $1200. in taxes that had been charged OR #2 He talked with the Store Manager, and she said that I could send it back and they would "refund every penny". At that point, in the conversation with Mr. Pudlo, I was so disappointed in the actual condition of the trike, that I told him I wanted to cancel the entire transaction and get my money back and they agreed.
I then had the trike shipped back to Adamec in St. Augustine. Several weeks later I received a check, but it was in the amount of $20,659.02 which was only for the purchase price plus tax. It did not include the cost of shipping that I had paid in the amount of $2,898.00.
So not only was my purchase based on false descriptions of the trike's condition but then I was left holding the bag for nearly $3,000 in shipping costs. I am very disappointed with Adamec's decision to not honor their end of the deal to "refund every penny" and then to use the "as is" description in the contract as an excuse to not pay for the shipping costs.
My advice: stay away from Adamec! read more