Updated, re-reposted yet again on 5/29/12:
This car dealer has tried to squelch this review multiple times, after responding to my original review with misinformation. It's almost comical at this point. He has been working so hard to get my review taken down and has convinced Yelp to remove my review a couple of times, but I'll just keep re-posting the review every time he gets it pulled. Too bad he never made a tiny fraction of the effort to make it right to begin with.
My daughter-in-law was scared of their threats to ruin her credit rating and ultimately declined to pursue this in small claims court against my recommendation, so they effectively got $600 for a one day car rental. Feel free to contact me via e-mail at the address below. Unlike the owner, I'm not afraid to post my real name and a working e-mail address.
In his response to my original review, he wrote "As Mr. Arnold said we do sell Salvage title cars... What Mr. Arnold didn't mention was he was offered to take the car overnight to have it inspected at no charge. He refused stating he didn't have the time."
That is an outright lie. I was there. Only my son, my daughter-in-law, their salesman (name redacted), and I were in the room when this was discussed, so there is no way the owner could have known what transpired (now over a year ago!) and what we agreed to.
The salesman called my daughter-in-law on the phone to threaten to ruin her credit if she didn't pay an additional $450 on top of the $150 she paid when she picked up the car to have it checked out. I advised her against giving him way too much money for what amounted to a one day car rental after our mechanic checked the car out and told us it would be unsafe in a crash. She returned the car the next day, but she was scared by his threats and gave him the money anyway. If he was truly interested in fair dealing, the firm should not have responded by threatening to ruin my daughter-in-law's credit if she didn't pay the additional $450 fee.
Hey Mr. "Owner who objects to posting his name": it's just common business sense: you'd be way better off owning up to what you did and be reasonable instead of threats, lies and working so very hard to get my review pulled.
I still stand by my review, and I am re-posting the original review below to help others avoid what happened to us. The owner has convinced Yelp to remove my entire review (*twice* so far) because he claimed it contained "private information," making it subject to removal. In reality it was the business entity ownership information in the public record that *anyone* can obtain. So I have removed that so-called "private information" that was in the review and reposted the original review below. If you get the impression I'm even more ticked off by these guys and their continuing, repetitive dodgy behavior now than I was when I wrote the original review, then you'd be right.
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Original Review:
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Be Forewarned and Prepared: The cars for sale here are "salvaged" which means they've been in an accident, so the price is less than one would otherwise pay. That is not the problem. When we purchased a vehicle, the salesman lied outright to us about the extent of the damage to the vehicle, saying the crash damage was only cosmetic. Fortunately we paid the $150 fee to be able to cancel the sale within 72 hours if it failed inspection when we took the vehicle to a trusted mechanic. When our mechanic put it up on the jack, he immediately identified that it had sustained extensive and unrepairable damage that would render it unsafe to the occupants in the event of another crash. The car was returned well within the 72 hour limit. He then began harassing and threatening my duaghter-in-law to pay an additional $450+ or he would "send it to collection to ruin our credit record." I suspect most people never have a mechanic inspect the vehicle for safety issues, so they are unknowingly driving around in an unsafe vehicle. We have maintained all the documentation supporting our claims, and are prepared to take it to small claims court if it should be necessary. I have no relationship with any of their competitors, and unlike other reviewers (or the owner of this car dealer) I use my real name and a working e-mail address.
- Ken Arnold kenyelp@hte.com read more