by "SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
Published 06/15/2017 at 08:00
by "SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
Published 06/15/2017 at 08:00
No Tags
STARS: 6
Many Ebay car buyers feel protected by the little shield and the words “Vehicle Purchase Protection” which appear on each car ad on the site. That shield and those words do not do what most people expect, and I have the stories to prove it.
I’ve written about this before but I got a call this past week from a guy going through a bit of hell with a car he bought on Ebay. That’s the car in the top pic. And yes, this means I have done a topic based on a request. Erik told me I could use his story (and pics and name) as a cautionary tale for others who might let their guards down when car-buying on Ebay.
If you are curious, that car is a 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C Monza Base Convertible tribute car and Erik was the high bidder. Although the seller was in Canada and the car was in a storage facility with unpaid fees, he managed to get possession of the car.
This tale goes sideways when the title showed up. It was a mish-mosh of skips, missing signatures and other things which only make DMV workers tell you No. Unable to solve the title issues in any way that might seem reasonable, Erik filed a claim with Ebay’s VPP and then found out that this transaction was not covered by the plan because he had gotten A title. It wasn’t relevant that the title he got was useless; it was only relevant that he had gotten A title.
You can go read the VPP rules yourself. They are weird and maddening. And, they are quick to point out that they are not insurance and they are not Ebay. But that’s another story.
Here is the audio:
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
And the video:
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Follow me on Twitter: @stevelehto
Hear my podcast on iTunes: Lehto’s Law
Steve Lehto has been practicing law for 25 years, almost exclusively in consumer protection and Michigan lemon law. He wrote The Lemon Law Bible and Preston Tucker and His Battle to Build the Car of Tomorrow.
This website may supply general information about the law but it is for informational purposes only. This does not create an attorney-client relationship and is not meant to constitute legal advice, so the good news is we’re not billing you by the hour for reading this. The bad news is that you shouldn’t act upon any of the information without consulting a qualified professional attorney who will, probably, bill you by the hour.
"fourvalleys" (fourvalleys)
06/15/2017 at 09:05, STARS: 0
Steve, I (unfortunately) can’t listen to this right now. Any chance you’d be willing to spoil it and share what the outcome was for this person?
"E92M3" (E46M3)
06/15/2017 at 09:07, STARS: 0
So what’s he going to do now? I hear there are people in “looser” states that can get issued a new title from a “Bill of Sale”, then after some time you can use that title to get a title in your home state. That may require the car to be shipped to that state for a VIN inspection by a police department, and a theft database search to make sure it’s not stolen before they will issue a new title.
Unrelated question, have you helped anyone who has rented their car on Turo, and had their claim denied when the car came back damaged?
"SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
06/15/2017 at 09:50, STARS: 1
We don’t know yet. As of right now, he can’t get it titled. He has a few more things he is going to try and then we’ll see. I will update this.
"SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
06/15/2017 at 09:51, STARS: 0
He is looking in to his other options. I’ll update when he finds out.
No, I have not. I suspect that is another can of worms.
"jimz" (jimz)
06/15/2017 at 11:24, STARS: 2
more and more these “protection plans” seem to be geared towards protecting them from you and not vice versa.
"ateamfan42" (ateamfan42)
06/15/2017 at 14:09, STARS: 1
Great story, Steve. Eagerly awaiting the outcome....
I’ve become very wary of any of these “protection services” that don’t conform to any regulations. I’ve not heard of many cases of them actually protecting the consumer at all. They seem to just exist to give the illusion of security to increase confidence in a transaction without providing any tangible benefits when the rubber meets the road.
Does the legal concept of “title” come into play here at all? I was under the impression that just because I hold a piece of paper that says “title” at the top, that doesn’t necessarily mean I hold the legal title to the ownership of that property. For example, if the title is unsigned, then the title wasn’t transferred to me. Can an argument be made that the seller didn’t “send the title” because they didn’t transfer it in the legal sense? I wonder what this crappy VPP service would make of that argument.
"SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
06/15/2017 at 15:00, STARS: 1
He tried all of those arguments and they weren’t buying it. It seems odd to me that they exempt unsigned titles. What good is an unsigned title?
You’re right - the legal “Title” is not the piece of paper. That is EVIDENCE of title. But in their rules and so on they clearly are referring to the certificate of title (the piece of paper).
The funny thing is they say they are not an insurance company. Then what are they? They offer to pay reimbursement to certain people who suffer certain types of casualties. Are they doing it out of the goodness of their hearts? (Of course, they are insurance. They just say they aren’t to avoid regulations - which can be nightmarish and vary wildly from state to state).