RX8Club.com - Questionable Guy : DomesticRx8

This relates to a pending sale between me and DomesticRx8 that fell through due to dishonesty.

https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-parts-sale-wanted-44/2004-rx8-enggine-231216/

Disclaimer:
I am posting this after confronting seller over the phone. DomesticRX, I am not posting to flame you, but to inform others of my experience with you and what happened. You seemed like an okay guy over the phone. No parties involved could deny that what is being said in the post is anything but factual. No money was exchanges since it was to be a cash sale at pickup.

Reason:
Seller was not forthcoming about a part that was in the picture but was removed and wasn’t honest about why and when this part was removed.

Details:
Wednesday (4/04/2012) we agree to the price. I was not committed to the purchase due the distance I would need to travel, and I was trying to find a driving partner. 25hours is a long drive. No mention of change in what was being sold.
Thursday (4/05/2012) I was planning to head out, but I relied on email alerts so I didn’t get the confirmation from seller till after I logged onto RX8club.com. By then I already started a tranny fluid replacement project on my DD. Later that night I committed to the purchase.
Friday(4/06/2012) Seller committed to the sale in the morning. No mention of changes to the sale at that time. I called in the afternoon to get his address and confirm what I was buying and have seller tell me over the phone what symptom he experienced. At this time is when I asked about the getting all the parts pictured. During this confirmation, I named off a few parts, alternator (which I thought was there, but wasn’t, I missed that) OMP, and various other parts. At that time seller did come forward that a part was no longer there. When asked where the pictured part went, he said it was put on the 17K mi replacement engine when he did the engine swap because the old one didn’t work. I agree to the new arrangement for the same price despite the fact I was planning to sell my old part after swapping it with the newer part to help recoup some of my traveling expenses (25 hrs. travel time, fuel for 1600mi round trip and lodging, etc…) Something didn’t add up and I was suspicious. So I call my rotary semi-expert for his thoughts, and I did some digging. Luckily, I was contacting some good honest people (ELI063) and discovered it was being sold.

Thoughts:
I don’t blame the seller for trying to make more money on the deal. As far as I am concerned when an agreement on price and product is reached, it is locked in at that time. If either party is making a change, that party should come forth with the change and it gets renegotiated.
If I wasn’t as diligent, I would have been on the losing end after spending all the time and money to get to the pickup location. It is the dishonesty that gets me, the principle of the matter, the break in the seller buyer relationship that I have issues with.
The fact is that, I would have bought and picked up the engine if seller was upfront with what they did with the part. Reality is I was getting an okay deal with the missing part included, because I know someone on the forum that has been looking that part for some time. With the part missing the deal was marginal when I factor the high expense and time to acquire this motor, but I was still going to hold up my end of the bargain.

Result:
I tried calling the seller at 8:30pm on Friday(4/06/2012) to confront him, and based on his answer I would decide on whether to go forward with the deal or not. If not, I would have provided my reason why, just like I did this morning. We talked Saturday morning (today 04/07/2012). I told him about my suspicions, and I asked him directly if he sold the part (no beating around the bush). He said “It is gone”. He didn’t elaborate, he just left out the detail that it being gone meant he sold it. I told him I called last night to confront him with this and his answer would determine if I picked up the motor or not. If I got the answer I got this morning, I would have slept in my bed like I did last night.

Trust is easy to lose and difficult to regain.

So a lesson to all buyers to be diligent and know what you are buying, and sellers that honesty is still the best policy.