Won ebay auction at 60K for E90 M3, BMW of Lincoln refusing to honor

[TurboFan]

Originally Posted by e46e92love

Yeah, we can start a new word in the English langauge meaning "screwed".

Example: Damn, that guyed Doomad me".

Dooma'd
Sitkowned

I think we can give a new meaning to Dr. "Fil" too.

[TurboFan]

Originally Posted by e46e92love

Should be accompanied with a list of things the dealership could have bought with the 4K they are losing by having to sell this car under invoice

Cost of listing a car on eBay: $xxx
Cost of the attorney 'cause you're a damn idiot on eBay: $xxxx
Having your name smeared across the internet because you're the biggest dumbass to hit eBay yet: Priceless.


I'll have the photo made up, we can deliver in person. Road trip!

[e46e92love]

Originally Posted by TurboFan

Cost of listing a car on eBay: $xxx
Cost of the attorney 'cause you're a damn idiot on eBay: $xxxx
Having your name smeared across the internet because you're the biggest dumbass to hit eBay yet: Priceless.


I'll have the photo made up, we can deliver in person. Road trip!

AMEN!!!! Miss your humopr Jay...........

[e46e92love]

Originally Posted by TurboFan

Dooma'd
Sitkowned

I think we can give a new meaning to Dr. "Fil" too.

Thanks for the grammar correction on Doomad......I couldn't for the life of me decide how to grammatically write the word

[Googleman]

Hi Dooma,

Somehow I just want to lend support to your fight all the way from the other side of the globe, Indonesia.

I think they should learn the lesson from HP (please see the link below) to right the wrong and turn a mistake into the best advertising money can buy. As mentioned by many, Lincoln BMW should just own up and give you red carpet treatment and have the whole TV crew to welcome you. The positive review will more than pay the lousy $10k they lose on the deal.

Keep the fight on, don't let those bastard get away.

Keep me posted of the outcome and can't wait to see the final outcome.







http://digital.asiaone.com/Digital/N...326-56262.html


Laptop sent for repair loaded with bootleg XP

A BRITON who has lived here for 11 years got a rude shock when he turned on his Hewlett-Packard (HP) laptop, only to be flashed a message saying that its copy of Windows XP was a bootleg one.

Mr Anthony Jeff, 56, had just picked up the machine from an HP-authorised service centre in Guangzhou, China, where he was on a business trip.

His bought-in-Singapore laptop kept crashing during the trip, so the globe-trotting businessman sent it to an HP-authorised service centre there, since the machine had a limited international warranty.

The service centre told him that it did not have any more stock of the English version of Windows XP software, and that the default version used in China was the one in Chinese, but Mr Jeff insisted on having an English version installed.


An HP spokesman said: 'The engineer was under pressure and downloaded an English version from the Web without obtaining a licence from Microsoft.'
Mr Jeff, who was not told this, discovered it only when he turned on the machine.

'Fortunately for me, I did not turn on the laptop in front of my clients that day. It would have been utterly embarrassing for me,' he said.

He runs day2daytrading, a maker of decorative furniture and licensed toys like Buck Rogers, and is married to a Singaporean.

Mr Jeff returned to confront the service centre staff the next day, only to be taken aback by their nonchalance. He was told it was 'normal' in China because 'everyone uses copies'.

HP has since clarified that it gives strict guidelines to its authorised service centres against installing illegal copies of operating systems.

Its spokesman added that the company took the matter seriously, and that it would discipline the engineer and 'reiterate the importance of our service policy to all our partners'.

China has been in the spotlight for its rampant software piracy over the years, but industry observers say the incident was not about piracy but a failure in HP's support service.

Mr Tarun Sawney, anti-piracy director for the software piracy watchdog Business Software Alliance Asia, said: 'Using an unlicensed product key to download software is definitely illegal, but this is the first time I've heard of a service centre doing something like this.'

Technology lawyer Bryan Tan said: 'The attitude of the service centre reflects the general lackadaisical attitude in China towards using genuine software.'

Meanwhile, HP Singapore has settled the matter with Mr Jeff: It has paid for his return air ticket to China on business class, repaired his old laptop, given him a new one and also an HP iPaq smartphone.

Mr Jeff is happy with the way the company has resolved his problem. He remains an HP fan - and not because of its compensatory moves. When he had to buy a new laptop in China after the one with the illegal Windows XP could not work, he chose an HP.

[MichaelSTS]

Hello- I happened along this saga yesterday after reading our local paper, The Lincoln Journal Star. Someone has mentioned all of the Franchises owned by this company and thought I would direct you to an article that appeared in the Omaha paper last week.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pag...u_sid=10288535

Good Luck Ken!!!

PS. I have been reading this blog for the last 2 hours, just trying to catch up from where I left off.

[darkness_and_light]

I stopped at page 22, its far too much to read. Forgive me if I retread old ground. I fully support the buyer in this case. I know a bit about law from a business law class I took a few years ago, here is my take.

eBay is slightly deceptive, as a few people have pointed out the fine print in eBay's Terms of Service turns most peoples beliefs about buyer protection on its head. eBay is pretty much limited to internal sanctions on the seller, all of their other statements are qualified by the fine print which makes those statements rather flimsy. On the other hand they serve as strong documentation of the buyer's and seller's actions and provide strong evidence of their intent. I believe eBay will side with the buyer in this case, he may not be providing them with seller fees but eBay's business model hinges on their reputation. They won't risk losing their customer base over one seller's fees.

The sticky point I see is the formation of the contract, I believe the creation of the auction is an offer to sell not an advertisement and thus only requires acceptance of the offer by the buyer. However, from what I remember an offer can only be accepted by the person it is extended to, a person who overhears the offer can't step in and accept. I'm not sure of law in regards to auctions but if a court were to rule that the auction was an advertisement or for some reason this particular buyer wasn't allowed to simply accept and form the contract then the seller could reject the contract and the deal simply falls apart. As long as a court rules that the buyer in this case was able to accept the contract then I think its pretty much a lock.

The time the buyer spent watching the auction, securing financing and contesting this case aren't really recoverable as damages. He might be able to recover it as a separate award but its a bit more chancy. An example of something he would probably be able to recover as damages would be the price of a rental car if he had nothing to drive in the interim or the difference in price if he were forced by circumstances to buy another E90 immediately (I wouldn't want to have to try to justify this decision though, it would be tough since its a $60k car. Industrial/commercial equipment used in the course of business would be easy to justify for example).

I believe the buyer is morally justified in his decision to pursue his case. The origins of contract law are providing consistency in business dealings. The buyer in this case is morally entitled to his contract price because he accepted an offer in good faith and took steps that demonstrated his willingness to fulfill his end of the contract. Contract law does have many complexities to ensure that all parties involved reach agreement before a contract is formed, in theory if the dealership made an error in their price they would be allowed to withdraw from the deal. However, part of the court's role is to judge if agreement was reached. The dealership's actions show the intent to reach an agreement, regardless of whether or not they actually intended to honor that agreement. The courts will probably rule that agreement was reached.

There are a few minor points about how a contract must be formed but I think the courts would rule that the use of eBay constitutes a written contract. I doubt the dealership would dispute this point because the judge would ask them directly if an employee was the poster of the auction and if they were empowered to do so. There would be no point in pursuing that line of defense when it is so easily resolved by a point blank question by the judge.

Incidentally the seller's terms in the eBay auction may or may not be worthless, sometimes contracts contain clauses that are illegal or is unenforcable. These types of clauses are called "voidable" and a judge can chose to discard those clauses without voiding the entire contract. Sometimes one party will knowingly introduce voidable terms into a contract knowing they could be discarded because the other part doesn't know that they are not valid. An example of this are the excursion forms schools give to the students parents to sign releasing them from liability, they are completely worthless. The forms do not protect the school if a teacher is negligent and if another party is negligent the school isn't vulnerable to a lawsuit anyway. They do have the benefit of protecting them from frivolous lawsuits but by all rights those suits wouldn't go anywhere at all, so if anything they save the expense of proving the suits are frivolous.

In short, there are a few points I'm not sure of because of the peculiarities of contract law and eBay's role in the process but the fundamentals seem to be solid. Those peculiarities could break the case but

[stlmini]

Caught this pic of Fil walking through Springfield (I assume Nebraska) on his way to the Quik-E-Mart. Apparently, they are hiring. DOH!

[ideliver]

Originally Posted by MichaelSTS

Someone has mentioned all of the Franchises owned by this company and thought I would direct you to an article that appeared in the Omaha paper last week.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pag...u_sid=10288535

They are on the FBI's radar...I would NOT want that monkey on my back!!

[mrwma237]

Hey good luck buddy.

You're from 90275, there are plenty of good lawyers in your neighborhood. I hope to see a good outcome on this case.

I'll know it when I see you cruising in that new Fox red interior m3 on Hawthrone.

[ihasyourbimmerkey]

Dooma,

Iv'e been following this since it first started, very addicting. Hope you get your bimmer!

[darkness_and_light]

Also a reply to a (way) earlier post that the contract does not have consideration: the promise to pay $60k is consideration to the promise to provide the car.

[corsa]

Originally Posted by lando

My dealer has 0 complaints in 36 months.

My nearest BMW dealer has... oh crap, my nearest BMW dealer is BMW of Lincoln.

[BritBoy]

Originally Posted by ncoday

I think the stealership's lawyer is trying to do damage control by attacking Ken; wonder why I never liked lawyers?

He's just doing his job - not nearly as well as Dooma's lawyer in my opinion (nowhere near as articulate). But then, look at what he's got to work with...

[DCLeopard91]

Hey Ken,

As far as suggestions for "other things to do"...I'm surprised no one's mentioned this yet:

What are the character limitations for custom plates in Cali?

Once you get the car, there are SO many possibilities for your license plate!!

People can start posting ideas.

How about:

PWNDFIL
PWNHSKR

[asif163]

Ok so I read up to page 56 and since yesterday it's jumped to 80! So did he get the car or not? I remember that they were going to honor the auction with some "conditions". Any idea of what those conditions are?

[DCLeopard91]

Originally Posted by asif163

Ok so I read up to page 56 and since yesterday it's jumped to 80! So did he get the car or not? I remember that they were going to honor the auction with some "conditions". Any idea of what those conditions are?

read starting on page 61...try the last 5 pages also, it'll give you a good idea.

Looks like he will, we're still waiting for final confirmation.

[BzsBimmer]

Originally Posted by DCLeopard91

Hey Ken,

As far as suggestions for "other things to do"...I'm surprised no one's mentioned this yet:

What are the character limitations for custom plates in Cali?

Once you get the car, there are SO many possibilities for your license plate!!

People can start posting ideas.

How about:

PWNDFIL
PWNHSKR

How about THKSFIL

[Labrada_Exoticz]

Dooma, i see your making good progress and cant wait to see pics of the car finally lol...its incredible to see what this has turned into since i first saw when it only had about 2 pages. Then, i hadn't checked on this post for a few days and all of the sudden i see it has 80 PAGES!! ...i had to do a lot of catching up lol...Well best of luck to you with this whole Lincoln BMW problem though i'm sure you'll be riding around in your new M3 soon..

[MadDog]

Originally Posted by BzsBimmer

How about THKSFIL

It's available:

[MadDog]

This plate is NOT available:

[McChillen]

How about OWNDFIL?

Ken, way to stick it to HAG. I hope you get your car soon.