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

[Doesn't Drive]

Just registered to add my $0.02 CDN of support for the OP. Even read through all 24 pages of posts. From reddit.com, if anyone is curious.

Here's hoping the dealership digs up some integrity, ponies up and concludes the deal the way they should have at the beginning. They may have wanted more bidders on their auction, but they didn't. Too bad for them.

For those arguing that this was all a tragic mistake, they watched this auction, modified this auction over the course of several days. The OP's bid was the high bid for over a couple of hours before it expired. Do you mean to argue that during that time NOONE in that office could have pulled the plug before then?

Like I said, just my $0.02 CDN. And I'm up way too late reading forums on a work night. Again.

[Bettor]

Hello Everybody!

This is my first post! (And my last, I ride my bicycle more than drive - It uses food for fuel and everything except hamburgers (LOOK IT UP!) has a smaller carbon footprint).

Anyway, I don't think I've ever joined a forum for one post, but eBay and a 60K mistake.. And watching it unfold since page 17... Mostly causing all the damage in the middle of the night! It's just like the Republican Congress!

This poor "salesman" made a mistake. But mistakes are meant to be learned from, and many have costs... and consequences. If the person who's at fault treats the guy that's in the right like some sucker he deserves this. I wonder if he woke up yet? :^D

He is trying to steal YOUR car!

He could've said "Oh, I made a terrible mistake, how about I send you a grand and you let me off the hook? Please? Then give each other positive feedback and send each other Xmas cards for a couple years.

But Noooooo.... And now it's too late. Now, he's GUILTY! Guilty of being too stupid to be honest.

He's got 2 other rides online right now. If he sells one today, any American corporation especially eBay will turn that commission down on principle and close their account as soon as they see their rules were clearly broken (and probably a state law or two), right? Ha!

Disclaimer: I AM NOT talking about our most patriotic Corporations! Like ATT that just triggered some carnivore type system to flag my IP and save a copy of this. Just in case I really AM being sarcastic. And especially all of the Super Patriotic contractors working alongside all of The Real Heroes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

One of the central premises of "The Art of War" is: Whoever has the most power at the time will win the battle. So all you need is a bit more power than "A multi-million dollar store"! LOL And we're all sitting in our underwear reading this on a network, that's worth a trillion (or a google) times that!

Actually, his "real power" is the difference between the 60K and the number he wanted, what was it 7K or something? As viral as this thing is getting already, someone over there needs to do some damage control, FAST! Their eBay thing is probably already dead. And if they don't do something before someone creative puts something on YouTube...

I hear the weather is getting better all the time in Alaska...

[ganjadude]

stumbled here through digg.com but read it on autoblog first.


anyway i was thinking we should give them some of their own medicine. We should all call them up later today, and keep their salesmen tangled up with the idea that we are interested in buying a car from them. i am talking keep them on the phone as long as possible adding in all options, you know working that price up so they see $$$ in their eyes.

Than proceed to tell them that you made a mistake and really just want to buy a used chevy or something.


just a little note IANAL but I am a seller of cars through ebay:

I used to be a car dealer, my father owned some car dealerships until he got screwed by at the time daimlerchrysler. This type of thing is why when you read an add in the paper now adays for a car that seems too good to be true, if you look right under it usually you will see a stock number. This is the price for that 1 car (that is convieniently sold by the time you get there) This is how they avoid bait and switch when it comes to print.

Me and some of the ex employees currently sell cars through ebay motors (i wont advert myself, not the right place) and yes dooma, you WILL win your case if you take it to court. Take it from a seller of cars through ebay!

[AYF82M4]

Interesting point,Navnurs. I too, was surprised by the reaction. Most of the time, bad dealership situations are of the he said she said variety, which are very difficult to validate. This situation is a bit different in that the auction pretty much speaks for itself so there really isnt a need for me to lie. An opportunity to purchase a great car at 60K, why wouldn't I follow through? Had I been dishonest, Im sure the dealership would be on here to defend itself, and rightfully so.

But for those interested, I do have a voicemail from a Michael Barrett of BMW of Lincoln, advising they will not be honoring the auction ending price. He left a voicemail on my cell phone, which I have since converted to a WAV.

[ganjadude]

Originally Posted by dooma350

Interesting point,Navnurs. I too, was surprised by the reaction. Most of the time, bad dealership situations are of the he said she said variety, which are very difficult to validate. This situation is a bit different in that the auction pretty much speaks for itself so there really isnt a need for me to lie. An opportunity to purchase a great car at 60K, why wouldn't I follow through? Had I been dishonest, Im sure the dealership would be on here to defend itself, and rightfully so.

But for those interested, I do have a voicemail from a Michael Barrett of BMW of Lincoln, advising they will not be honoring the auction ending price. He left a voicemail on my cell phone, which I have since converted to a WAV.

cant wait to hear that wav (psst, convert it to MP3 before you post it), if you do post it id wait til AFTER everything is settled just to be safe IANAL but I would assume it could be used against you if you post his voicemail msg to you ATM

[Falcon Keeper]

Dooma350,

I saw a thread regarding your situation over on M3Forum.net so I thought I'd swing over and lend you some support! I hope you get the ///M and hope you make'em suffer!

[bamafun]

I saw your story on another site and was outraged at this dealerships actions regarding this auction ! I posted the link on digg - hope it helps !
http://digg.com/autos/Guy_wins_Ebay_..._to_honor_deal

Originally Posted by dooma350

This was originally being updated in another thread but I wanted to get some additional opinions so I am posting this here. Sorry if its the wrong section.

I’ve been looking to get an E90 M3 sedan, and was cruising ebay when I came upon this auction. Its for a Jerez Black sedan with FR interior, loaded with everything except extended leather.
The car advertises its title in CAPS “LOWEST PRICE ON EBAY”. The auction started at 60,000 and had a BUY IT NOW for 66926 K. NO RESERVE.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ksid=p3907.m32


Jerez black on Fox red was not my first choice (I have a deposit for AW/Silver interior with DCT at a local dealer) but I was willing to live with it at a 60K price point, so I bid on it with the intention to pay if I won.
I wasn’t sure if I would win or not, but I went ahead and secured financing prior to the auction end so I could arrange immediate payment.
I ended up winning the auction with a bid of 60K (my max was 61K).

15 minutes after auction end, this guy Michael Barett (At BMW of Nebraska) calls and nervously tells me the auction was a “mistake”.
I reminded him of his contractual obligation to complete the transaction, to which he continues to reply “it was a mistake”, and refused to honor the deal.
He then offered to call his manager and confirm what they could do, but same response. When I pressed the issue and raised the possibility of legal action, this guy had the nerve to condescendingly laugh and say we are a multi-billion dollar company, ebay will definitely side with us.
I corrected Michael, and told him your company may have revenue in the millions, but you make 35K a year, screwed the pooch on this one so lets not get carried away.
But to make a long story short, he is refusing to honor the deal.

This morning (Mar 21, 2008) I left a message with the GM (Fil Catania - He didn’t pick up) to call me, so we will see what happens.

But this whole incident just stinks, and sets a bad example for ebay auto sales in general.
Can sellers, especially dealers (which you would think are held to a higher standard on ebay) just decide they don’t want to honor a price? I know not all dealers are like this, but its pretty unethical, on both sides to back out of an auto auction because you dont like th eprice.

Im convinced this dealer went into this auction intentionally setting a low price, with no reserve.
The title, 08 M3 LOWEST PRICE ON EBAY says it all and me thinks they were hoping to generate bids, which didn’t pan out.
Also, the pricepoint at which they started the auction, 60K is no small amount.....its not as if the auction started at 0.01 and ended there, it started at 60K.
Obviously, they set it to attract serious buyers with the money to complete the transaction.

In this case, this dealer wasn’t happy with the ending price, a 7K difference from his BUY IT NOW (which he adjusted twice, so I assume they watched this auction). Had the auction ended at 64K, would they have still refused?
But I know had the auction ended at 90K, and I refused to pay, Im sure their lawyers would be all over me.
Not sure what Im going to do, but part of me feels I should pursue this on principle alone. But at the same time, I dont want to get too worked up, as these things might drag out, take time/money and make it a negative experience overall. I want to be happy getting a new M3 like some of the others on the board, ya know?

Anyone ever experience anything like this on ebay?
Please feel free to chime in.

[bolmedias14]

Any more news yet?

[ganjadude]

Originally Posted by bolmedias14

Any more news yet?

he made this post less than an hour ago.... only 4 posts above yours....

Originally Posted by dooma350

Interesting point,Navnurs. I too, was surprised by the reaction. Most of the time, bad dealership situations are of the he said she said variety, which are very difficult to validate. This situation is a bit different in that the auction pretty much speaks for itself so there really isnt a need for me to lie. An opportunity to purchase a great car at 60K, why wouldn't I follow through? Had I been dishonest, Im sure the dealership would be on here to defend itself, and rightfully so.

But for those interested, I do have a voicemail from a Michael Barrett of BMW of Lincoln, advising they will not be honoring the auction ending price. He left a voicemail on my cell phone, which I have since converted to a WAV.

* bold face mine

dealerships in nebraska probably arent open at this hour so i am going to go with a no for 500$ bob

[bolmedias14]

Guys, this is the phone number of the dealer, posted on Digg: 1 (866) 520-7950

The email address: sales@huskerautogroup.com

I'm considering spamming them, but I could then get into trouble for doing that.

[ganjadude]

Originally Posted by bolmedias14

Guys, this is the phone number of the dealer, posted on Digg: 1 (866) 520-7950

The email address: sales@huskerautogroup.com

I'm considering spamming them, but I could then get into trouble for doing that.

you can find the number on their website. spam is not the best way to go as like you said you could get in trouble... although your in the UK so im not 100% sure how much trouble YOU could actually get in but there are better ways to deal with them than spam

however we COULD take their productive time away from them, something that they took from this bidder


anyway i was thinking we should give them some of their own medicine. We should all call them up later today, and keep their salesmen tangled up with the idea that we are interested in buying a car from them. i am talking keep them on the phone as long as possible adding in all options, you know working that price up so they see $$$ in their eyes.

Than proceed to tell them that you made a mistake and really just want to buy a used chevy or something.

[bolmedias14]

Originally Posted by ganjadude

you can find the number on their website. spam is not the best way to go as like you said you could get in trouble... although your in the UK so im not 100% sure how much trouble YOU could actually get in but there are better ways to deal with them than spam

however we COULD take their productive time away from them, something that they took from this bidder


anyway i was thinking we should give them some of their own medicine. We should all call them up later today, and keep their salesmen tangled up with the idea that we are interested in buying a car from them. i am talking keep them on the phone as long as possible adding in all options, you know working that price up so they see $$$ in their eyes.

Than proceed to tell them that you made a mistake and really just want to buy a used chevy or something.

We could be even harsher and make it sound like we want to buy this M3. One of us offers $60,000, the next offers $70,000, then when it gets to $100,000 we all say we made a mistake.

[Nucking Futs!]

Wow, this is getting crazy big. I'm a forum member on here even before this story came about (saw it on Autospies & Autoblog). As others have already stated, if the $tealership doesn't come through soon & agree to sell you for the original auction price then they're just making their whole company look bad aka negative press. Good luck!

[bolmedias14]

Now I'm looking for people to help with my little plan:

We could be even harsher and make it sound like we want to buy this M3. One of us offers $60,000, the next offers $70,000, then when it gets to $100,000 we all say we made a mistake.

[Spazdoc]

Coming over from e90post, good luck Dooma.

Originally Posted by Laszlo

I would take this back if I was you.

I said this and got my ass handed to me and almost left this site for good.

The problem was that you kept argueing and digging yourself deeper into a hole, and that is why people kept jumping on you. Not for just one innocent comment.

I have seen bad outcomes from eBay regularly, and they have only limited power to effect transactions. It is all essentially based on the herd mentality of good feedback.

[bolmedias14]

Originally Posted by Spazdoc

Coming over from e90post, good luck Dooma.



The problem was that you kept argueing and digging yourself deeper into a hole, and that is why people kept jumping on you. Not for just one innocent comment.

I have seen bad outcomes from eBay regularly, and they have only limited power to effect transactions. It is all essentially based on the herd mentality of good feedback.

That's not to say he doesn't have a case...

[ShakeR]

For me, one post says it all:

Originally Posted by AML

-The auction on this M3 was started on Mar-17-08 16:42:59 PDT.
-On Mar-17-08 18:11:17 PDT the dealer made changes to the Details of the vehicle.
-On Mar-18-08 16:42:50 PDT the dealer changed the Details yet again and changed the Buy It Now Price as dooma said.
-On Mar-19-08 09:25:57 PDT the dealer changed Description, PictureURL: Pictures Added/Deleted, Gallery, Buy It Now Price, Details

These things we know for sure. Now how the heck can one monitor an auction, make changes to the Buy It Now Price twice, two days in a row, and not notice there isn't a reserve set if it wasn't done intentionally?

Screw the dealership, i'm thinking about contacting danish car magazines to hear if they wanna pick it up

[bolmedias14]

I've told a lot of people who I know, and they've all agreed with me on the unfairness. But where else can we post the story now?

[yacoub]

Originally Posted by Ron21

Some people here really need to first understand how ebay works before saying "error, mistake etc.."

The auction started on March 17th and ended on the 20th. That gave the seller 3 days to decide on the selling price.

As we saw the seller made several revisions to the auction including directly to the price of the car.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=230233277471

So that tells me that the seller was fully aware of the auction and it's activity. There were no surprises.

They could have simply canceled that entire auction and removed the bids, for what ever reason they didn't.

At this point I really think the dealer should honor the auction and sell the car.

[yacoub]

Originally Posted by bolmedias14

Guys, this is the phone number of the dealer, posted on Digg: 1 (866) 520-7950

The email address: sales@huskerautogroup.com

I'm considering spamming them, but I could then get into trouble for doing that.

Please don't do anything illegal or stupid. You will only hurt dooma's cause. Thanks.

[yacoub]

A mistake would be a starting bid price of $6,000. Not $60,000 which is well within the range of a brand new M3's MSRP (go build one on BMWUSA.com). And obviously they were okay with that bid so long as the auction was still going on, just hoping to see even higher bids.

This is a shady dealership trying to get out of an auction that backfired because their scheme didn't work as they'd hoped. If they get away with this you can guarantee they will do it again in the future. If they are forced to go through with the deal, they might learn their lesson, though it's not exactly that far off the vehicle's MSRP.

[stormrider]

Good luck Dooma250 from the UK!

Has anyone sent any info to the Top gear lads yet - they may be interested.
Might be a bit too international - but never know