One of the joys of having an old car is those times when you leave work, turn the key and realize that it’s going to be a long evening as your car refuses to start. Such was the case on the evening of the 9th of January when I was headed home from a long day at the lab. After two and half hours, AAA managed to get my ’95 Integra up to an Express Oil that I’ve been a loyal customer of for over a year. The next day I walked to Express Oil to have them take a look. Unfortunately, the diagnostic results showed that the car had no compression in the 3rd and 4th cylinders. This is a very bad sign, and I knew what I had to do. I talked to the guys at the shop and asked them if anyone wanted to buy it. The car was still in decent shape (besides the motor), and the parts were probably worth somewhere close to $2k. One of the guys immediately said he’d take it for $400, and I said I would take the offer. Then, I made arrangements to have my brother give me a ride to a dealership because there were some pretty good deals on leases going on.
Just before I left, the guy that was going to buy it informed me that he didn’t have my money right then, but he would on Friday (4 days away.) I told him I’d be out of town till Monday and asked what I should do with the car till then. He said that they would keep it there and look after it–no problem. I was concerned about any cost of storage that might be incurred, but he assured me there would be no cost since he was buying the car. I didn’t think much of it and left with my brother to go look at leases.
Monday rolled around, and I called the shop to speak to the guy that wanted to buy my car. He told me over the phone that a big bill came up that he had to pay or he would have been thrown in jail. At this point, I was skeptical. He said that he would still be able to buy it in two weeks after getting paid again. Then, he asked me if he could go ahead and put a new motor in it to have it ready to go when he pays me. Red flags started going off at this point, and I told him I’d have to think about it and hung up. I determined that it was probably wise to call up a salvage company, so I did. I had them meet me at the shop.
At the shop, the guy who wanted to buy the car started giving me a hard time because he felt like I was selling the car out from under him–I guess. I told him our deal was that he was going to buy it Monday, and he went against that deal. He tried to make some argument about how letting him buy the car was more cost effective since I wouldn’t be charged for storage and other fees. I said I wasn’t paying any storage fee because I never would have left the car there if he wasn’t going to buy it on the stated date. I would have just called the salvage company from day 1. That was my big mistake. Note: just call the damn salvage company.
He told me that I needed to come to the register and settle the payment. I noticed that the storage fee of $45 was still on the $130 invoice, so I demanded that he take it off. He refused. Meanwhile, the salvage company tow truck driver was getting pissed because he wanted to beat traffic. I told the autoshop guys to open the garage and let the car go, and I would work the payment details out with them. They refused multiple times, so I realized that the only way to get my car back from them was to let them charge my credit card. Since then, I’ve disputed the storage fee part of the charge with my credit card company.
Now, I’m going to offer up a theory I have as to what was going on here. I’m not stating it as fact–just a possibility. I think what they were trying to do was run up the cost of service–for example, two additional weeks of storage and a new motor. Then, they were going to low-ball me on the offer for the car and say that if I didn’t accept it that I would be charged for 17 days of storage and a new motor which could have been well over $1000. I certainly hope that wasn’t the case, but I believe I may have headed them off at the pass. That could be why they were so stand-offish. Things may have been much worse if I hadn’t acted quickly.
I’ve written this story here in hopes that other people avoid scams like this. I hope it was helpful and entertaining to read.