bought a 93 GMC Sierra 3500 work truck on ebay with supposed 60k miles; took it straight to mechanic who found $5000 worth of engine damamge; seller refuses to refund; ebay wants me to spend $1500 to tear engine down and prove it’s a bad engine; what else can I do?
$5000 worth of engine damage? Does this shop have a vested interest in doing $5000 worth of supposed work for you?
What did the ebay auction say about the truck? You can actually post a direct link to the auction if it’s still on their website. Then we can look at it. What it says has a great bearing on what you may or may not be able to do.
One more reason why you should never buy a vehicle sight-unseen. You, or someone you trust, should have inspected the vehicle before you bid on it.
You could probably buy a rebuilt engine for less than $5,000. How much did you pay for this 14-year-old truck?
Yeah–I don’t want to seem unsympathetic, but you did, apparently, buy a 14 year-old vehicle without inspecting it yourself and/or having your own mechanic inspect it prior to purchase. I hate to shock you, but there are people out there who are quite willing to scam others out of their hard-earned money, and it sounds like the seller of this vehicle is one of those individuals. Your experience is a perfect example of why someone should not purchase a vehicle as you did.
Regarding your legal recourse, while I would normally advise someone to contact their Consumer Affairs Department (NOT the Better Business Bureau!), this multi-state, internet-based transaction makes this very complicated in a legal sense. As a result, you will probably have to consult an attorney, which will obviously add to your expenses. I really do empathize with you.
The truck is 15 years old and there is a 99%+ chance you own it in its entirety, warts and all.
It was probably sold AS IS and if someone is advertising a 15 year old truck with only 60k miles I’m going to remain skeptical of that unless proven otherwise.
EBay has become a good dump-off spot for problem vehicles. Flowery ad or little info at all, receive payment, and ship the truck preferably to someone in another state. Out of sight, out of mind.
You did not even state what the engine symptoms are and why in the world it takes 1500 dollars to determine if an engine is bad. 50-100 at most, and possibly even free would do it.
Yeah, eBay won’t get involved in disputes “we are just a venue…” unless he’s reversed a Paypal payment or otherwise stirred them up.
I don’t see any closed auctions for the past 30 days for any 3500 GMC’s with “60K miles”.
And you can buy a couple of crate gas engines for 5 grand and have change left over. I gotta call bull$hit on the “5 thousand in repairs” as well as the 1500 skins for a teardown…
You bought a vehicle without having it checked out by your mechanic first? If the terms of the sale were “sold as-is” you have no recourse. You should never buy a vehicle signt-unseen. Now that you have, you can either sell it, fix it, or get a second opinion from another mechanic. I hope you didn’t pay much.
Stronzo:
I agree with you something stinks. I found no closed listing for the described truck either.
I did cross check the OP’s name “Coreyscove” with Ebay users and got a match. Coincidence? maybe but the ebay Coreyscove bought a 94 GMC Sierra 3500 pick up in June with 196,000 miles on it.
The pictures are gone but it is item #4651248451
OP: Is this you? Care to respond?
~Michael
I noticed he hasn’t posted back with any ebay info too. I think the whole thing is made up, or perhaps some facts have been changed in an attempt to protect the original poster.
for 5k you could buy a new crate 350 engine.