JohnB - With that steering wheel mounted upside down, it should be obvious to any at sharp dealer that your interior is amiss.

Seriously, at least from the low-res photos you posted, your car's finish does not show any signs of dull, oxidized paint.

 

John B -
For your car in that amazingly bad condition and that gross paint I will gladly trade my Sportomatic. If you want my tip black cab, then your're gonna have to come up with some boot!

 

John B.

'Looks like we're all sorry to hear about your experience with Schmidt and unfortunately, can empathize given our own torrid experiences.

Personally, I'm amazed at Schmidt's brazen attacks on you. It seems you have a fairly decent claim of defamation/libel against this business, solely on the Rennlist postings alone. However, you may fall down in damages, as your reputation has hardly been sullied; no one appears to believe a word written by this guy. You could probably file a claim in TN, given that he's attempting to reach buyers all over the country. After reading that article, wouldn't it be nice to reciprocate.

By the by, love that blue. I almost bought this exact car from the bay area. Hard to imagine it wouldn't have curb appeal.

OT: I'm always amazed at the dishonesty demonstrated by auto distributors. I'd settle for bad service. Why is it that this business attracts the dregs of society - with all due respect to the one or two decent dealerships I've found after two decades of avid buying?

 

Sorry, correction: It's 1000+ mile round trip Knoxville-St Louis-Knoxville.

John B

 

carschmitt:

I'm still curious about your eBay auctions. As I mentioned before, every single car is listed as having the "most desired" color. I'm aware that this is a sales tactic: make every car special. But it's also disturbing that many 928s (those are the ones I see, anyway) have high numbers of bids at inflated prices, yet the same cars repeatedly show up on eBay. I can only assume that you are ghost-bidding your own products, hoping that some unfortunate soul will place a real bid and get trapped by your "binding" terms.

Ever heard of "fraud in the inducement"? Ask your lawyers what it means. Then again, you're probably already familiar with the term.

I give you some credit for actually coming onto this forum, and I'm sure you're aware that you face a serious battle to gain any credibility. If you actually want to develop the honest reputation you so desire, I suggest adopting a more credible approach to the eBay auctions.

I'm a lawyer and my father sold cars for nearly 20 years. He told me a great number of stories about the car sales business and its tactics.

Your dealership needs to go the "extra mile" if it ever wants to establish that good reputation. This would include eating some costs in order to turn complaints into praises. Translation: reimburse John B. for his trip. It'll cost you some money now, but I bet John would be sure to tell us that you've done right by him. It'll be a lonnnng time before I ever feel comfortable telling anyone about a car you're offering, but you've got to start somewhere.

My $.02.

 

Kim - by all appearances you are correct. I like to think there are redeeming qualities, however, in everyone. This is a bad experience for sure. If nothing else it should be a lesson to have a written deal before making that 500 mile drive. I did read John's initial post about this last week and the collective "watch out" from the board.

Like Anir, I have also learned a few things about people in my practice of law (ever notice how all the doctors and lawyers out there are still practicing). There are always 2 sides to every story. The exact same facts can offer very different perceptions. As an example, my wife was telling me about her drive to work the other day when she was behind a Camaro in the fast lane. The Camaro was behind a truck that was passing another truck at about 1 MPH faster than the other truck. As soon as the truck cleared out of the fast lane, the Camaro sped up, but not fast enough for my wife. My wife waited for the Camaro to move over, but he did not, so she went to pass him (rather aggressively I would bet) on the right. As soon as she made her move, the Camaro got in the right lane and my wife almost rear-ended him. She was not happy and assumed the guy was being a jerk. I told her a story exactly the same as hers - except I was the person in front with someone on my tail. I assumed they would pass me on the right (as Californian's are won't to do) so I did not move over as he came flying up on me - there was no one in the right lane. He got on my tail, so I moved to the right - at the same time he decided to pass on the right. I bet he thought I was a jerk, but I was just trying to get out of his way without incident.

P.S. John - your car looks great. I am sure you will find an equal or better deal given time.

 

So Big Dave...You are on to something. I just did a 5 min search on all of the auction hosted by our friend Schmitty. I simply viewed the first few acutions, drilled into the bidders and before long I noticed that

islero400gt(1)
corvette-world(4)

Have bid on a few cars...sure this could be a coincidence, OR, these are the 'friends' of Schmitty that bid on his cars.

I am simply offering this up to the board as a coincidence!!! You make you own conclusion. I do not want to be held laible for anything Schmittys lawyers could conjure up.

Here are the listings that had these bidders:

1997 Porsche : 911 Carrera 2 doors
islero400gt(1)
1979 Porsche : 930 *14K MILES*
islero400gt(1)
corvette-world(4)
1988 Chevrolet : Corvette SPECTACULAR!
corvette-world(4)

Like I said, this could be a coincidence. These may in fact be avid eBay car buyers...but with only 5 'feedback' between the two of them, I doubt it. Most of the bidders on his cars have fewer than 5 feedbacks'.

Interesting...I am sure my numerous friend at ebay would like this...should I tell them to investigate? Naw...I do not want to get in someones way of free enterprise!

 

The aution ID's are

ID# 2409729179
1997 Porsche : 911 Carrera 2 doors
islero400gt(1)

ID# 2409693452
1979 Porsche : 930 *14K MILES*
islero400gt(1)
corvette-world(4)

ID# 2409720554
1988 Chevrolet : Corvette SPECTACULAR!
corvette-world(4)

 

Another Auction with:
corvette-world(4)

Auction ID#
2410201685

This time our Corvette person has his eye on a 2000 SL600...good taste! he not only likes the classics, he also likes the new front engine 12's!

This guy get's more and more crroked the more you peel the onion.

 

And some more by: corvette-world(4)

1999 Mercedes Benz : SL Class
2410107889)
corvette-world(4)

1990 Chevrolet
2410194602)
corvette-world(4)

1996 Mercedes Benz
2410197869)
corvette-world(4)

All this activity/bids and only 4 'feedbacks'...

Another multiple bidder: tudorthall123(7)

1997 Porsche : 911
tudorthall123(7)
2410494125)

1998 Porsche
2410108196)
tudorthall123(7)

At least these are both 993's, this could be legit.

One more multiple bidder: kenmaur@itis.com(34)

1990 Jaguar : XJS
2410107706)
kenmaur@itis.com(34)

Jaguar : XJS
2409863821)
kenmaur@itis.com(34)

Again, the same type of car...I have trouble giving Schmitty the benifit of the doubt!

Schmitty...Please answer this question for the board...DO YOU KNOW, or have any affiliation with corvette-world(4)?

 

hmmmmmmm. corvette-world has only won a single auction in 2002, and 2 in 2001. Now all of a sudden, this person is actively bidding on 5 cars at one time. Guess they decided to come out of their shell. Now when you look at the time of their bids, I counted 4 auctions bid within a 20 minute time period on April 6th.

 

acastell you might want to bring this to the attention of Ebay...They frown upon this rather highly. With all the "Cautions" we have seen on Rennlist lately about Ebay fraud this might help out several legit buyers out there..

 

To be fair, Corvette-World could be a used car dealer looking for cheap inventory. Since most dealers get their stock from real-world auctions, it makes sense for them to use online auctions.

Carsschmidt is trouble, that I'm convinced of, but I haven't yet been persuaded that they are shill bidding on eBay.

 

I agree Mark this guy could be legit..but it doesnt hurt to inform them and let them take a look.

 

Agreed...this may all be legit. I am sure eBay can run a report and determine if Corvette-World has a prolific history of bidding on cars (4 in 20 min). This is easy to determine.

I just submitted this to eBay. I am also friends with 2 of eBay's Sr Marketing folks.