Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 13:12:03 EDT
Reply-To: VintagePkr@aol.com
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Keith Olsen <VintagePkr@aol.com>
Subject: Re: Parts Place preys on "customers"(longish)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Boy this is a tough one.
This type of thing has happened to me a couple of times in my life and I
gotta think it can go either way.
Both times with VW's BTW once I offered it back once I didn't.
First time I was driving down a road looking as much in driveways and
backyards as I was at the road when I spotted a rust free 70 squareback next
to the garage with no plates. I pulled over and inquired of its saleable
status. The gentleman that answered the door told me that a week before he
must've blown the engine because all of a sudden it started blowing oil smoke
like he'd never seen before so he towed it home and had already bought
himself a used Nova to replace it and if I wanted it I could have it for 50
bucks (what the local junkyard was offering at the time.) Without hesitation
I agreed to the transaction and the deal was done. Well while I was thinking
that it was worth it for the wheels alone I soon found out upon 30 seconds
worth of inspection that the reason for the smoke was the overfilled oil bath
air filter that was letting oil get sucked straight into the intake. I
pulled off the filter housing and ran it for about a minute till the smoke
cleared. At that point I offered it back to the gentleman. He said "Well
that's the price you pay for ignorance. If I'd had it towed to the junkyard,
I'd never have known, so you keep it, we had a deal." That buggy lasted me
through my entire senior year of High School before I sold it for a nice
profit.
Next time was a 79 bus that I spotted behind a local towing and recovery
shop. When I asked about it he told me that some kid was traveling through
town when he seized the engine. So he towed it to his shop and the kid took
his radio out and left the van for the towing bill. When I saw it two months
later it was being used as a storage shed. It was the cleanest rust free
body I had seen on an east coast van in a long time. I had a 78 rebuilt
motor in a rust bucket at home so I figured why not and ended up purchasing
it for 200 bucks. He towed it to my house as part of the deal. As he was
pulling away I heard the familiar chug chug that tells me that the e-brake
wasn't fully out and the van was about to roll out of my driveway. But while
diving into the van to pull the brake out all of the way, I realized that
"hey this engine is supposed to be seized, that sounded like compression to
me. Sure enough, one sticky starter later the van was happily buzzing around
town with its original engine. What was I to do? Go back to the garage and
offer it back to them? Would they have sold it for 200 bucks if they knew it
just needed a starter? They were a GARAGE for goodness sake - they didn't
bother to have anyone look at it before relegating it to toolshed status in
their yard? I suppose the "rightest" thing to do in hindsight would be to
find the kid whose story of VW abandonment had been told to me by the towing
guy and offer it back to him. Was it true or BS? Who knows? I've heard the
song line "one man gathers what another man spills" and this is a perfect
example. I needed a van too. And with a little VW knowledge and some luck I
got a good one.
BTW getting back to the story at hand.....How long did she have this ornament
on her lawn thinking that it needed heads?
She states she had a friend in the VW business that recommended The Parts
Place to her. Couldn't her friend have given her a diagnosis before sending
her to the sharks? (some friend!)
And lastly, she had this list (or the entire internet) at her disposal. She
could have come here for information or even offered it here for sale first.
There are plenty of listees who would have quadrupled that offer if it was
worth it. Or she could have put it on e-bay to see what the general consumer
market would pay for it. Instead she goes to the Parts Place and the scene
gets to looking like the lions and the baby zebras on the Discovery channel.
We wince when watching it but we all knew what was gonna happen, because
that's what lions do. It sounds like plain ignorance to me on her part. But
these guys are in it to make money and this is how they do it. Buying,
marking up, selling.
Unless the Parts Place willfully misrepresented the diagnosis and swindled it
out of her by misrepresenting that the van had some problem that it didn't,
I have to believe that they are just guilty of being really, really heartless
by rubbing her face in it that it was a minor problem. If the van just went
away and she never knew of it again, would she be going through this anguish?
Probably not. So it really puzzles me why they would do this. If they knew
she couldn't afford a head job for it, she couldn't possibly afford to buy it
back for $3500. So what's the point of doing it? I think there has to be
more to this story and frankly, I would love to hear Jack Finn's side of this.
Believe me I'm no fan of the parts place. Their catalog makes good bathroom
reading and that's all. Every time I've called for something, its never in
stock or at the price listed. I would love to see their inventory taken
over by one of our listee vendors who actually knows how to treat a customer
but until then I will only proceed cautiously and in emergencies only. My
3¢.
Keith Olsen
87 Vanagon Wolfsburg
82 vanagon diesel
85 golf diesel
79 home Westy conversion
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