Warning: Chesrown Chevrolet and Buying a Car on eBay

I learned a very important lesson this week. After looking for months for the perfect car, I found it on eBay. It was placed on eBay by Chesrown Chevrolet in Delaware Ohio. I waited out the auction, and at the last minute placed my bid. I won, and at a good price! I was excited, I finely got the car I had been looking for. The auction ended at 7:04pm Tuesday night. At 10:30am Wednesday morning I called the dealership to work out picking up my car. When I called, the salesman told me that my car was out on a test drive. I asked why my car was on a test drive!! He told me he would call me back and hung up. After waiting an hour and not being called back, I called them. Their response to me was: Sorry we just sold that car, it is gone! I asked them how could they sell my car?!! They replied too bad it’s gone. I immediately called eBay. EBay’s response was, sorry but there is nothing they can/will do about it. I can leave negative feedback on them if I want, but that was it!! Now this was not some kid selling CD out of his basement on Craigslist, it was a Chevrolet Dealer and eBay. I expect more integrity out of established businesses. I guess I was wrong. So the lessons I leaned were: On eBay when buying a car, if you win the auction, it means nothing, and if you are selling your car on eBay and you don’t like the price you get – don’t sell it, the “binding contact” to sell means nothing! The other lesson I learned is Chesrown Chevrolet is a dishonest dealership, and makes me wonder about other Chevrolet dealers.

I used to work there in the early 2000s. Back then it was Chesrown Pontiac Buick GMC and was across the street from the current lot. It doesn't surprise me.

These guys? http://www.chesrown.com/

Having worked with several dealers who sold on ebay, just like Logdog I am not suprised, I have won an ebay auction for a vehicle, reserve was met and had the exact same results as you. What ive seen is some people looking on ebay will see the dealer selling and realize that it is relatively close and go try and make a deal on that car outside of the auction. which according to ebay is their right. its wrong when they do that E36 M3 after the auction though.

Wow, this is the same eBay that tries to force the deal through on every joke auction?

What kind of car was it?

Yes, bigdaddylee82 thats them.

It was a 2004 Base, 5 speed, low mileage, NO SUNROOF, clean, one owner, red, Mini Cooper. My wife was going to drive it this summer, then over the winter I was going to convert it to an SCCA HP racecar.

Seems my old service/parts manager moved to sales and according to the pop up window is available to chat.

DaveV wrote: Yes, bigdaddylee82 thats them. It was a 2004 Base, 5 speed, low mileage, NO SUNROOF, clean, one owner, red, Mini Cooper. My wife was going to drive it this summer, then over the winter I was going to convert it to an SCCA HP racecar.

Sounds nice, that sucks they did that to you, I dont see many coopers without the roof around here

tell your story on Jalopnik. This has happened before, and they made the dealers regret ever even looking at ebay.

Google reviews: https://www.google.com/search?q=Chesrown+Chevrolet&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs#lrd=lrd

Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/chesrown-chevrolet-buick-gmc-delaware

Tell them, and everyone else what you think. If you don't have any Yelp history, or other reviews, a single review from you won't stay "recommended" for very long.

They made ebay car auctions non binding a while ago. Most times that's probably for the best (show up and find out it's a heap), sometimes not. Bid and win all their auctions and don't follow through? From eBay: "A non-binding bid is a bid that shows a buyer's interest in purchasing an item, but it doesn't create a formal contract between the buyer and the seller.

All bids made in the Real Estate and eBay Motors vehicles categories are considered non-binding.

Remember, bids placed in any other category are a legal commitment to purchase the item"

And cal back to speak with those in charge of the dealership, It may do nothing but it may prevent someone else from getting screwed like you did. Call them and speak to the GM if that goes no where look for contact information for the owner or owners group. Lastly check your local news station for some sort of consumers protection reporter. Businesses really dont like negative local news coverage

Did the auction include the caveat that the car is also for sale locally, and we reserve the right to end the auction early? If so, they did. 5 milliseconds before the clock counted down to zero. Probably hard to fight that one.

yeah, technically you are the one who didn't read the rules, and you're blasting them on a forum for your foibles.

your win said you intend to purchase the car, not that is it yours right then. the only rule you might get them on is:

"Backing out of the transaction because buyers didn't place a high enough bid and the seller didn't add a reserve price"

but the car is gone, and you can't prove intent. so nothing will come of blasting them online for violating an imaginary binding contract. lesson learned, don't deal with them and when you see the car you want get off your ass and go get it, don't try to snipe it on ebay.

That's here in town. Bum deal.

When I was looking for a used 5-year old car I looked at local dealers on ebay and then drove over. They never could find the cars or said the same "we just sold it".

So I learned to call and state I'm driving right over and is the car on the lot. "Oh, we just sold it."

Usually the cars were really low price and I learned to look at the background to see that in July why are the leaves bare on the trees.

My conclusion is it seems to be the old bait and switch game.

Lesson learned.

Oh, forgot you said that.

Bid $1M on every car they list for the next 6 months. Non binding works both ways.

The amount of integrity a business has simply depends on the owner. Many dealerships spell integrity g-r-e-e-d. The Chevy dealership in question apparently related to the old adage "a bird in the hand . . . . . "

I just counted and I've worked in 5 dealerships during my life. I have literally been disgusted by some of what I've seen occur in them.

That's nothing. The sales manager for Upstate Toyota in Batavia NY took my keys and refused to give them back to me unless I sat back down and went over the "deal" he was giving me, which was $3k over what the lease should have been and had about $1000 in fees. I had to ask 3 times....one more time and his fat ass would have been laid out on the showroom floor. That's what I get for trying to buy a car with no soul.

Toyman01 wrote: Bid $1M on every car they list for the next 6 months. Non binding works both ways.

Haha. I wish I could vote this up. Several times.

Bababooey wrote: That's nothing. The sales manager for Upstate Toyota in Batavia NY took my keys and refused to give them back to me unless I sat back down and went over the "deal" he was giving me, which was $3k over what the lease should have been and had about $1000 in fees. I had to ask 3 times....one more time and his fat ass would have been laid out on the showroom floor. That's what I get for trying to buy a car with no soul.

"Yes, is this the Batavia police department? My vehicle has been stolen by Upstate Toyota"

mtn wrote: "Yes, is this the Batavia police department? My vehicle has been stolen by Upstate Toyota"

They're worthless. I had a can of beer thrown at me by a bunch of dirty rednecks in a brodozer and they were more concerned with taking every bit of info about me down so they could run me for a warrant.

Unfortunately for this guy I'm in the car business and know a lot of people. I'm telling everybody. No wonder dealerships are E36 M3ing their pants over Tesla going direct.

Some interesting reads in similar cases. I remember the M3 one as it made a lot of news articles.

http://jalopnik.com/5918702/dealership-threatens-to-sue-guy-who-won-their-ebay-auction

http://wot.motortrend.com/gt-r-for-55100-dealer-latest-to-refuse-to-honor-ebay-auction-105645.html

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127993