This is an update my last post.
Summarizing the events: Agreed to but a 2002 Beaver 42 from seller Al Thompson in GA. Paid a $1,000 deposit, arranged financing, excited and ready to close. Thompson calls a few day before delivery saying, "I put in 6-12v house batteries thinking they were 6 volts, wired them up in series and things stopped working. Motors didn't work, inverter blew. It's in for service, don't know for how long."
Posted this here under
"12v batteries wired wrong". Many replied. Most said drop the deal. I dropped the deal. Looks like I'll have to eat my deposit.
I first found this coach on line. It's still being offered for sale, without disclosure of the potential damage to electric components from 72 volts. Don't want to see some hapless buyer purchase this rolling disaster-waiting-to-happen, so I wrote several sites where Thompson has his coach advertised. I recited the history and received the following replies…
[Received from RV Trader]
Kevin, Mar 23, 16:19
Hello Tom,
I would like to start by saying that I am sorry to hear about your negative selling experience and I do hope that you are able to get back in contact with the potential seller and arrange a refund. RVT believes the validity and quality of the ads listed on our site is paramount to our reputation and success, and we strive to ensure that all of our users have the best buying/selling experiences possible. However, we provide the advertising services in a buyer/seller beware environment as laid out in our usage agreement and we do not involve ourselves in the sales process between these two parties. While a sellers tactics may differ from our own we are unable to scrutinize unless there is proof of fraudulent activity, of which currently the evidence is circumstantial. I can assure you that we will monitor this scenario moving forward in an attempt to mitigate further damages. If you believe the seller in fact has no intentions on providing a refund or if you continue to be unable to contact this seller, I would urge you to contact your local authorities to report this issue/loss. In the future when buying on-line we recommend avoiding deposits for goods not yet rendered when possible and have a listing of further protection strategies available at:
http://www.rvt.com/fraud.php.
Lastly I would like to sincerely thank you for bringing this to our attention and say that I hope you are able to reclaim your funds.
Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.
Kind Regards,
--
KevinRVT & OldCarOnline Support
http://www.rvt.com
http://www.oldcaronline.com
EmailRVT:
kevin@rvt.com
EmailOC:
kevin@oldcaronline.com
Toll Free: 1-800-677-4484
Hours: Mon-Fri 8:30AM - 5:00PM PST
--
les@rvt.com, Mar 23, 15:36
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f258/12v-...ng-281932.html
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: RVT.com - Contact Us
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2016 22:00:39 +0000
From: tom
Reply-To:
To:
tradersupport@rvt.com
Name: Tom
Email Address:
Phone:
Ad Number: 6623242
Sales Order Number:
Questions/Comments: After first seeing the above referenced coach on
your site, I agreed to purchase this coach and paid Mr. Thompson $1,000
deposit on a written contract. I arranged financing for the purchase. A
week before delivery of the coach Mr Thompson called saying that he
could not deliver the coach when promised because he had installed
himself, by mistake, 6-12v batteries connected in series. This put 72
volts into the coach which was designed for 12 volts, and there a number
of system failures. Accordingly, I immediately cancelled the sale
knowing that many of the switches and relays in the coach were probably
affected. I posted this on the iRV2 website under the heading of
"Batteries hooked up wrong". To date, Mr Thompson has not refunded my
deposit (3 weeks and counting). What concerned me as well is that his
damaged coach is still offered for sale on your site and could be sold
to some unsuspecting soul. I urge you to pull this listing of Mr
Thompson's until there is full disclosure and ask him to refund my
deposit. Since you have first-hand knowledge of this, I believe that it
is you duty to police your advertisers or else your reputation will
suffer.
[Second reply — Received from RV Online]
Hi Tom,
I emailed Al Thompson and he said "Well Mike maybe u don't know the whole story". Anyway, I gave it a try. We don't get involved in the transactions between buyer and seller. The only time we pull a listing is if there is fraud involved. You can review buyer and seller guidelines and RV Online responsibility on our User Agreement page at
https://www.rvonline.com/useragreement.html . Our service is similar to placing an ad in a local newspaper.
If you feel he has defaulted on your contract, then I would pursue it with him in a legal manner.
In over 20 years of business, there has only been a couple of reported disputes between buyer and seller. I'm sure the vast majority of our 1000's of sold transactions have been consummated in a very satisfactory outcome.
Mike
RV Online
6250 North Pointe Ct.
Aptos, CA 95003
info@rvonline.com
http://www.rvonline.com
On 3/23/2016 2:41 PM, Tom wrote:
After first seeing the above referenced coach on your site, I agreed to purchase this coach and paid Mr. Thompson $1,000 deposit on a written contract. I arranged financing for the purchase. A week before delivery of the coach Mr Thompson called saying that he could not deliver the coach when promised because he had installed himself, by mistake, 6-12v batteries connected in series. This put 72 volts into the coach which was designed for 12 volts, and there a number of system failures.
Accordingly, I immediately cancelled the sale knowing that many of the switches and relays in the coach were probably affected. I posted this on the iRV2 website under the heading of "Batteries hooked up wrong".
To date, Mr Thompson has not refunded my deposit (3 weeks and counting). What concerned me as well is that his damaged coach is still offered for sale on your site and could be sold to some unsuspecting soul.
I urge you to pull this listing of Mr Thompson's until there is full disclosure and ask him to refund my deposit. Since you have first-hand knowledge of this, I believe that it is you duty to police your advertisers or else your reputation will suffer.
So there you have it, friends. Seems like these sellers of cyber-space would rather collect a few bucks from an ad that they know may be for damaged goods, placed by a liar and cheat, than cancel the ad which would make it difficult or this lousy seller to dump his bus on some unsuspecting souls.
Since many of us buy and sell our coaches online, we rely in part on the integrity of the websites. If there wasn't some degree of honesty and integrity involved, buying and selling would be a crap shoot. I am surprised that the websites won't police their advertisers in light of legitimate complaints like mine. If, "Well Mike maybe u don't know the whole story," doesn't confirm the events, what would? I know the whole story, and so do you.
If you think that these websites should continue to market damaged goods that they know about, please bitch. This is the only way we can keep this channel for buying and selling at least semi-clean.
Fair winds and smooth roads...
)
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