Posted on 03/18/2010 6:32:27 AM PDT by KKing
A gentleman who goes by the screen name "Hitman" placed the winning bid on a 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8. Hitman won the eBay auction fair and square with a bid of $29,100 on a vehicle that is sticker priced at around $46,000.
The dealership, Glenn E Thomas Dodge Chrysler Jeep in Signal Hill, California claims that their employee made a mistake when listing the vehicle and forgot to set a reserve price.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
I do not know much about e-bay but the whole thing probably comes down to the seller/buyer agreed conditions of posting and bidding on e-bay. I bet this whole thing is covered in the rules. Probably have an E&O statement.
Nonetheless, I would vote for the guy to get the car.
I’m a Craigslist fan.
The dealership would be better off to simply say “we erred, here’s your car per the terms of the auction” and take any loss out of the pay of the dipstick who screwed up.
Bingo.
How many days was it posted? And they NEVER noticed the "slip up"? Yeah OK.
I suspect this will come down to arbitration. This will be interesting to see how it turns out. Offhand, it seems like a binding contract and the terms will need to be enforced but I suspect something will be worked out. Mistakes do happen from time to time. Regardless the dealer has a lot of egg on its face.
I think the courts might have an issue with that.
Sounds like a stunt to me.
Okay, then fire him.
I believe that too. Also the starting bid was $10,000. That would signal to bidders that the car could be won with a low bid. I really think that they expected higher bids and are trying to back out. Nobody forgot to add a reserve amount. The dealership is just trying to weasel out of it.
As others have said, the dealership should have canceled it if there was an error in the listing. There’s a provision for that exact problem. A deal’s a deal.
It was a 7 day auction. The 5th to the 12th. The dealership is lying through their teeth.
People think an advertised price is like some kind of iron clad contract. Sure, there are some elements in business law that the offeree gains when the offeror offers a certain price, but legally I think it’s pretty easy to withdraw the offer.
In this case, well if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. I have no doubt someone (who now used to work there) made a mistake. Times are tough. If the dealer thinks he can get out of it cheaper than by honoring it, then so be it.
I agree.
Why would they intentionally not set a reserve? What do you think happened, the seller got remorseful about the deal he offered when he realized no one was bidding anything close to what he needed to get to cover his costs? I don’t get it.
Uh, oh. The dealer is going to get negative feedback.
You can trust them, they say so in their ads.
And besides, its Zero owned! Zero approved!
Nobody walks when the Zero talks....
Dealer loses. It’s not like an ad typo that any reasonable person would recognize as an error.
Completed eBay auctions ARE legal, binding contracts. If you make an error and don't fix it, too bad.
The market decided what the car was really worth. The dealer didn’t like the market’s appraisal.
Yeah, $20,000 worth of BAD publicity
Ebay makes it clear that this is a legal contract, there’s no “oops” if you made a mistake and left it for 7 days and then try to back out when you don’t get enough money.
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