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Originally Posted by rchase
Hmmm,
Why would you buy a car sight unseen trusting photos and the description of someone that you don't know typically in another state for way over the local market selling price?
Perhaps people should stop whining about the sellers ripping them off and look to their own foolish behavior?
Food for thought.
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Well, the buyer beware approach is unfortunately necessary in the used (or even new) car business, but is not necessarily strictly legal. Sounds like the buyer has adequate doocumentary evidence of the initial claim (the ebay posting) and the actual condition of the mechandise (independent evaluation by a Mercedes shop in writing) to file a small claim for breach of contract against the seller, which in most states allows claims up to $5K.
Some people claim that a small claim court decision is a waste of time, but it actually has the force of any court decision: it accrues interest at the legal rate (about 10% per year; legal eagles call these seemingly irrelevant judgments "money machines," because they sit around gathering interest and growing sometimes indefinitely, and 10 years later, when the defendant wants to do something, the judgment can rear its ugly head and interfere with their lives, and they can get very agreeable to settling at that point just ot be rid of the problem), you can garnish wages, you can force a debtor's examination to identify assets to take, you can establish liens against a person's real property, if they have a business you can send a sheriff over to take money out of the register (Literally). And now it is even harder to get out of this by bankruptcy, due to changes in bankruptcy laws. So the seller shouldn't eliminate this possibility unless geographically it is impossible/impractical.
One of the reasons this option often isn't open to someone who is buying a car from a private party is that there is no documentary evidence to start off with regarding what the initial state of the car is as represented by the seller. Even if you have it inspected, you then are stuck with trying to prove what the seller said about the car's condition, and it degenerates into a he said she said argument. What is different in this case is you have an ebay listing in which the seller describes the merchandises condition, including the vin number, which can be traced documentarily to the seller.
So, small claims provides a way to get some....revenge/satisfaction...as long as the buyer is willing to make a hobby of it. No lawyers involved, minimal filing fees, informal hearing and sometimes the defendant doesn't even respond, not realizing what a pain in the ass he's setting himself up for.