I recently bought a car from a private seller in Illinois and we live in Wisconsin.
We're trying to get to the bottom of car inspection that we asked for prior to purchase, and was handled and coordinated by the seller, at least I thought he just drove the car to the dealer. I was in direct contact with the dealer doing the inspection with phone conversations. I had to fax a payment authorization form to them.
After picking up the car we discovered a problem that we didn't notice on our test drive. We had already scheduled an appointment with another dealer to do an oil change. They diagnosed a repair that they estimated around $900. I called the seller and at that time he said he was willing to cover a small portion of the repair.
I called the dealer who did the inspection and asked how they missed the problem (it was easy to detect by the other dealer). They told me they knew about this problem and only communicated it to the seller. They also stated they wrote the problem on the Work Order. This is the basis of our complaint.
Now back to the inspection time- we were in a discussion with the seller after the inspection. After the dealer completed the inspection the seller called me and told me the results (not this repair) and told me the dealer couldn't send me the inspection report because of some non-disclosure policy. We didn't know about this. I asked him to give them permission to fax it to me. In the end I got this fax from the dealer ( I confirmed was 2 pages) an Inspection Report with checked items on it. There was no indication of any major issues that alarmed us.
So at this point we have written a letter to the dealer and seller.
To the dealer we asked
> Why didn't they inform us of the non-disclosure policy when I signed the authorization payment form? We were shown as the customer on this form.
> Why did they agree to fax a partial inspection report that looked complete at face value. They admitted on phone call later that they knew there was repair work to be done which was on the Work Order?
>Why didn't they document the repair on the inspection report?
To the seller we asked
> Why this problem wasn't disclosed to us. He says the dealer didn't tell him and it wasn't documented on the Work Order.
The seller has been in contact since and tells me he will mail his copy of the Work Order and a check which he stated he would pay. He said it would go out the next day. I have not heard or received this letter a week later.
There were a lot of other issues going on with the car so the inspection was key to us. We believe we would have walked from the purchase had we known about this repair.
Do we have a case against both or either (dealer or seller)? Is it worth pursuing given court costs? Should we use a lawyer?
We have since found a cheaper repair alternative by half. Still we are concerned there are other documented issues on this Work Order that we don't know about yet.
We are trying to log all of our phone calls, and we are sending certified letters to the seller and dealer. At this point, we believe the seller is trying to avoid us.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
We're trying to get to the bottom of car inspection that we asked for prior to purchase, and was handled and coordinated by the seller, at least I thought he just drove the car to the dealer. I was in direct contact with the dealer doing the inspection with phone conversations. I had to fax a payment authorization form to them.
After picking up the car we discovered a problem that we didn't notice on our test drive. We had already scheduled an appointment with another dealer to do an oil change. They diagnosed a repair that they estimated around $900. I called the seller and at that time he said he was willing to cover a small portion of the repair.
I called the dealer who did the inspection and asked how they missed the problem (it was easy to detect by the other dealer). They told me they knew about this problem and only communicated it to the seller. They also stated they wrote the problem on the Work Order. This is the basis of our complaint.
Now back to the inspection time- we were in a discussion with the seller after the inspection. After the dealer completed the inspection the seller called me and told me the results (not this repair) and told me the dealer couldn't send me the inspection report because of some non-disclosure policy. We didn't know about this. I asked him to give them permission to fax it to me. In the end I got this fax from the dealer ( I confirmed was 2 pages) an Inspection Report with checked items on it. There was no indication of any major issues that alarmed us.
So at this point we have written a letter to the dealer and seller.
To the dealer we asked
> Why didn't they inform us of the non-disclosure policy when I signed the authorization payment form? We were shown as the customer on this form.
> Why did they agree to fax a partial inspection report that looked complete at face value. They admitted on phone call later that they knew there was repair work to be done which was on the Work Order?
>Why didn't they document the repair on the inspection report?
To the seller we asked
> Why this problem wasn't disclosed to us. He says the dealer didn't tell him and it wasn't documented on the Work Order.
The seller has been in contact since and tells me he will mail his copy of the Work Order and a check which he stated he would pay. He said it would go out the next day. I have not heard or received this letter a week later.
There were a lot of other issues going on with the car so the inspection was key to us. We believe we would have walked from the purchase had we known about this repair.
Do we have a case against both or either (dealer or seller)? Is it worth pursuing given court costs? Should we use a lawyer?
We have since found a cheaper repair alternative by half. Still we are concerned there are other documented issues on this Work Order that we don't know about yet.
We are trying to log all of our phone calls, and we are sending certified letters to the seller and dealer. At this point, we believe the seller is trying to avoid us.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?