Did we all let one get away? JH4NA21693T000128

[pmartjr]

Don't know if anyone else saw this or not, but sure seems like a great price if the car is what it appears. Anyone close enough to this to know something about this deal?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...0413476216&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWAX:IT

If the ad can be believed, this car sold for $40,950.

 

[Jetpilot3]

Re: Did we all let one get away?

That's a great deal if in fact someone won it!

 

[TTHardtimes]

Re: Did we all let one get away?

I bid up to 40850 then the last second someone beat me. I called today and the car is still there. It looks like the dealer themselves outbid me.
Too bad you cant trust anyone with no reserve auctions anymore.

 

[Malibu Rapper]

Re: Did we all let one get away?

The biggest surprise of all is that there is an ancient plastic relic inserted into the radio.

 

[pmartjr]

Re: Did we all let one get away?

I bid up to 40850 then the last second someone beat me. I called today and the car is still there. It looks like the dealer themselves outbid me.
Too bad you cant trust anyone with no reserve auctions anymore.

Thanks for the first hand info. At least now we know the scoop on this car. I guess the dealer wasn't going to give it away. I'm surprised it didn't get higher bids as this price was well below book.

 

[TTHardtimes]

no worries. I truely never really expected to win at that price anyway. When I called, they did say they would sell it for 59950.00. (for all those still interested)

 

[Jetpilot3]

When I called, they did say they would sell it for 59950.00.

The dealership is dreaming...

 

[supra2nv]

that car looks abused...

 

[Aiken Drum]

Something's fishy:

- It's a dealership, but they have zero feedback. You'd think a dealership would have sold a car or two on ebay in the past. They've got 300 current listings. They've never competed a transaction?

- The thing with faking the "winning" bid and then trying to sell over the phone to the real high bidder. Those are both suspicious moves. I wonder if they do that with every single auction... it would explain the lack of feedback. Blowing the $120 listing fee for ten days of national advertising seems like a good deal for them.

Never trust a dealership...

 

[Tom239]

I find Ebay motors appalling. If you bid, you're supposed to be on the hook: binding contract and all that. But the seller is not equally responsible. The seller is allowed to sell to someone else locally before the auction ends.. It just stinks. Ebay's rules favor the seller, which is no surprise as the seller pays for the listing.

 

[NathanMT01]

Something's fishy:

- It's a dealership, but they have zero feedback. You'd think a dealership would have sold a car or two on ebay in the past. They've got 300 current listings. They've never competed a transaction?

- The thing with faking the "winning" bid and then trying to sell over the phone to the real high bidder. Those are both suspicious moves. I wonder if they do that with every single auction... it would explain the lack of feedback. Blowing the $120 listing fee for ten days of national advertising seems like a good deal for them.

Never trust a dealership...

I won't say that I'm backing up this dealer, or that they're NOT suspicious, but I can certainly add some insight, and maybe some understanding.
I work at a dealership, and I'm in charge of our Ebay sales, even though I do not work in retail sales. We've been at it for a while as well, but we've also got minimal feedback. I'll let you in on the secret...
We by no means want the customer(s) to actually "purchase" through Ebay. We only want their attention, get them on the phone or in the store, and we want the sale completed solely through the store. And actually, with all emails that I receive through Ebay, we even try hard to NOT answer the questions, and only to get them to call the store, or give up their contact information. That in turn allows the window to contact away from Ebay. This does a few good things for us...
It allows us to charge the doc fees, title fees, and work with the financing which in turn makes the price flexible depending on the customer. Also, once we registered as a motor vehicle dealer, Ebay charges a fixed price for the listing, but we have to pay more if the sale is completed. Therefore, yes, feedback is good. But from the dealer standpoint, it's better for us to get the customer away from the site, and complete the sale directly through the store. It does create suspicions, but the determined customer matched with the right salesman will quickly drop their guard when we get in direct contact with them.
Hope I cleared that up!

 

[Big_D]

I won't say that I'm backing up this dealer, or that they're NOT suspicious, but I can certainly add some insight, and maybe some understanding.
I work at a dealership, and I'm in charge of our Ebay sales, even though I do not work in retail sales. We've been at it for a while as well, but we've also got minimal feedback. I'll let you in on the secret...
We by no means want the customer(s) to actually "purchase" through Ebay. We only want their attention, get them on the phone or in the store, and we want the sale completed solely through the store. And actually, with all emails that I receive through Ebay, we even try hard to NOT answer the questions, and only to get them to call the store, or give up their contact information. That in turn allows the window to contact away from Ebay. This does a few good things for us...
It allows us to charge the doc fees, title fees, and work with the financing which in turn makes the price flexible depending on the customer. Also, once we registered as a motor vehicle dealer, Ebay charges a fixed price for the listing, but we have to pay more if the sale is completed. Therefore, yes, feedback is good. But from the dealer standpoint, it's better for us to get the customer away from the site, and complete the sale directly through the store. It does create suspicions, but the determined customer matched with the right salesman will quickly drop their guard when we get in direct contact with them.
Hope I cleared that up!

So which dealer do you work for? Seems like you registered just to chime in on this subject. I'll be sure NOT to buy a car from you. LOL :biggrin:

I wouldn't buy an NSX from a dealer anyway. :tongue: They typically do not pass along service records which are HUGE for this type of car.

 

[tbck2793]

I won't say that I'm backing up this dealer, or that they're NOT suspicious, but I can certainly add some insight, and maybe some understanding.
I work at a dealership, and I'm in charge of our Ebay sales, even though I do not work in retail sales. We've been at it for a while as well, but we've also got minimal feedback. I'll let you in on the secret...
We by no means want the customer(s) to actually "purchase" through Ebay. We only want their attention, get them on the phone or in the store, and we want the sale completed solely through the store. And actually, with all emails that I receive through Ebay, we even try hard to NOT answer the questions, and only to get them to call the store, or give up their contact information. That in turn allows the window to contact away from Ebay. This does a few good things for us...
It allows us to charge the doc fees, title fees, and work with the financing which in turn makes the price flexible depending on the customer. Also, once we registered as a motor vehicle dealer, Ebay charges a fixed price for the listing, but we have to pay more if the sale is completed. Therefore, yes, feedback is good. But from the dealer standpoint, it's better for us to get the customer away from the site, and complete the sale directly through the store. It does create suspicions, but the determined customer matched with the right salesman will quickly drop their guard when we get in direct contact with them.
Hope I cleared that up!

Yes, BUT bidding on your OWN item is against Ebays TOS. If somebody reports them for doing that, their account will be suspended for at least 30 days.

 

[TTHardtimes]

The only reason I even bid on this car was that I remembered it being for sale from the same dealer a few months back. Dealers normally have to turn their inventory within a certain timeframe so I thought this might be a chance to get a car at a reasonable price from a desperate dealer.

What the previous "ebay sales" guy said seems to jive. I received a phone call from them less than 30 minutes after I placed my first bid. I actually understand and appreciate that dealers need to make money. However, setting up a phony no reserve auction goes against what I consider to be ethical. To me, a buy it now auction with a best offer option would still generate enough of a customer base to call back and hopefully work out a deal from there.

 

[tbromley]

When I see stuff like this I report it. Everyone should. It's not that hard to do. If they are breaking the rules and bidding on their own cars that's almost freud and at the minimum is misrepresentation. GO GET EM!

I didn't like the looks of the car anyway. A small dealership is just the kind of place to stay away from anyway. Obviously nobody missed anything. It's just a ruse to generate business and they are creeps.

 

[docjohn]

Well thats the internet, and why should it surprise me that dealers are using it as a new advert tool rather than what it was intended for.I should bid on 50 cars and when I'm out bid by the dealer and called 30 minutes later I can simply say "eat me"!

 

[Jack High]

I wouldn't buy an NSX from a dealer anyway. :tongue: They typically do not pass along service records which are HUGE for this type of car.[/QUOTE]

I bought from a dealer a couple of weeks ago. As Big D says, they did not have any service records. They did offer a one month warranty on everything and a two month warranty the drive train. As soon as I got the car, I took it to Charlie, the local NSX expert mechanic for a detailed inspection. He gave it a clean bill of health (except for moisture in the tail lights), so I'm breathing easier. I've put 800 miles on the car and it drives great.

Still, I would like to have the service records. I went to the local acura dealer to see if they could access a national database, but they couldn't; maintenance records are only kept locally, I guess, even for dealers.

I'll keep you posted, but so far buying from a dealer has worked well. The salesman (a woman, actually) and the dealership have been very responsive to questions and requests. They honored the warranty for the tail lights with no hassles.

 

[Aiken Drum]

I work at a dealership, and I'm in charge of our Ebay sales, even though I do not work in retail sales. We've been at it for a while as well, but we've also got minimal feedback. I'll let you in on the secret...

...

Hope I cleared that up!

Isn't that exactly what I said might be happening?

So what do you do to avoid actually selling a car through ebay? Bid your own lot sticker price at the last second, that way ensuring that the car either sells back to you or that you push the winning bid up to what you want? Frankly, I think what you or they are doing is fraudulent. If you don't put up a reserve price, you have no business not completing a valid auction.

I think eBay needs to go back to the percentage commission on the final bid if people like you are abusing the system like this. If you push the bid up from $40,000 to $60,000 at the last second to fake or inflate the sale, it costs you $1600. If they don't do that, then at some point, your tactics will make people start ignoring eBay motors, and eBay can't afford that.

 

[Silver F16]

In this case, the dealer is just using EBAY to go fishing. The ethics behind this is questionable.

Don't you get more traffic and more serious customer by placing an ad in cars.com?

 

[NathanMT01]

So which dealer do you work for? Seems like you registered just to chime in on this subject. I'll be sure NOT to buy a car from you. LOL :biggrin:

I wouldn't buy an NSX from a dealer anyway. :tongue: They typically do not pass along service records which are HUGE for this type of car.

I don't work for a car dealer, I work for a motorcycle dealer. But all of the basics are virtually the same. Incentive programs, customer bonuses, and floor plan options are typically a little bit different, but other than that the businesses are close to identical. The car dealers do have a one up on us, though. They get more customers when times are bad, and they get more customers financed. Why? Because everybody NEEDS a car. NOBODY needs a motorcycle.

 

[NathanMT01]

Isn't that exactly what I said might be happening?

So what do you do to avoid actually selling a car through ebay? Bid your own lot sticker price at the last second, that way ensuring that the car either sells back to you or that you push the winning bid up to what you want? Frankly, I think what you or they are doing is fraudulent. If you don't put up a reserve price, you have no business not completing a valid auction.

I think eBay needs to go back to the percentage commission on the final bid if people like you are abusing the system like this. If you push the bid up from $40,000 to $60,000 at the last second to fake or inflate the sale, it costs you $1600. If they don't do that, then at some point, your tactics will make people start ignoring eBay motors, and eBay can't afford that.

We don't bid on our own items, because I'll agree with you that it's not right. However, it's very common, and not just for dealers. And actually we stopped doing auctions on Ebay, now we just post for seven day fixed price sales. It seems to work a little bit better. But when you look into the fees for posting items on Ebay, it is very comparative to other types of advertising, and you get a large customer base. The fees after the sale through PayPal are what drive the system out of whack, and create problems.

But to answer two questions with one answer, yes, dealers are using Ebay to go "fishing". It's an advertisement, and we will sell the unit for the price listed. But as I said, more and more are bidding up their own items, and many, many, many personal sellers do the same thing. We don't do it because we think it's wrong, and we'd rather keep things honest and straight. It tends to give back a larger customer percentage, and some dealers just can't understand that.

But then again...with the amount of people in this country, using the internet everyday...I guess they can do what they want.

 

[curtsr]

... If you don't put up a reserve price, you have no business not completing a valid auction.

I think eBay needs to go back to the percentage commission on the final bid if people like you are abusing the system like this. If you push the bid up from $40,000 to $60,000 at the last second to fake or inflate the sale, it costs you $1600. If they don't do that, then at some point, your tactics will make people start ignoring eBay motors, and eBay can't afford that.

I sold one of my SVO's on eBay last Friday. I appreciated the fact that the final value fee percentage no longer applied and that I had a good idea pre-sale what the cost would be selling there. The flip-side is that a sliding scale might prevent the practice of bidding on your own cars. I had people offer to bid it up and I declined.

That having been said, eBay definately favors it's revenue stream in disputes and complaints. eBay realizes a steady stream of revenue from this seller and their MO is indeed transparent- seller since Oct. 2008, 307 NR auctions currently offered this date, 0 feedback. 0 feedback... not even one miscue. They pay the successful transaction fee of $100.00 per car though, but we would hope that eBay as an organization would have the integrity to walk away from this crook. Don't hold your breath.

 

[usafdarkhorse]

Well thats the internet, and why should it surprise me that dealers are using it as a new advert tool rather than what it was intended for.I should bid on 50 cars and when I'm out bid by the dealer and called 30 minutes later I can simply say "eat me"!

I wouldn't do that. You'd end up winning 7 or 8 cars and then have to pay for them! :biggrin::tongue:

 

[docjohn]

I wouldn't do that. You'd end up winning 7 or 8 cars and then have to pay for them! :biggrin::tongue:

maybe so ,but at least I get to say "eat me" 42 times!:wink:

 

[SouthFloridaCarFan]

Is this the same car at a different dealer with a 10K reduction in asking price?? hummm


Ebay #110423568510