Online Auction Scams Rip-offs to Avoid
After doing business on the web for over a decade, we've seen quite a number of scams and rip-offs. We come into contact with thousands of customers through the years and have received many questions on the subject of online car auctions. Generally speaking, the main questions are: "Are they safe and are they as good as they appear?" Going back a number of years, many internet retailers (including me) were hesitant about buying anything from an online auction. Many horror stories were circulating about eBay back in those early days. Then about five or six years ago, more customers started inquiring about buying cars and trucks online. This is especially appealing to those of us living in rural America. After doing tons of research and receiving a good amount of feedback from our customers and visitors to Audio-N-More.com, we've decided it was time to offer some simple guidelines for our customers. There are different types of auction sites on the web. Generally speaking, the old saying prevails: "let the buyer beware". A little skepticism can be healthy. You will find advertising offering access to special government auctions of just about anything you can imagine. Sure, you might be able to get a great deal on a single car or motorcycle that was seized during a drug raid in south eastern where ever... Lets be real about this. None of these auctions are free access. You have to subscribe or pay an entrance fee to just see what is available. In most cases you will learn after you join that the main headline items are long gone. Then you have to jump through hoops to purchase anything you might be interested in. How do we know this? Easy, more then a few of our customers and business associates have tried these venues in the past before contacting us. If curiosity overwhelms you, go ahead and join one and then return here when you can report something positive. Most of us are just regular people looking for the convenience of shopping from our computer and seeking a good variety of vehicles and prices before we make a purchase. Secondly, we all want to feel secure in knowing we'll get something as advertised. In answer to both these questions, we recommend eBay vehicle auctions exclusively. First, you cannot find a better variety of any specific make or model of vehicle anywhere. When you start scanning the individual sales you will quickly see that a good percentage of the vehicles shown are offerred by real world dealerships. Although most car dealers laughed at eBay just a couple years ago, almost all the major dealerships have an internet department in the twenty first century. Secondly, we find that most selling vehicles provide ample pictures and a thorough description of the vehicle in writing. In many cases you'll learn more about a vehicle on the auction site than if you visit a dealer and speak to the salesman. Did I mention the blessing of not dealing with a salesman? No bull, no lies, no false promises here. Since they have to publish everything, it is easy to hold any seller to their word. They all fear retribution from eBay if they get negative feedback from buyers. In my opinion, this is a better protection then most of us get if we travel to our local used car lot. Can you really trust anyone selling on eBay? Honestly speaking, I haven't bought a used vehicle anywhere but eBay for over five years now. In addition to buying my own family vehicles, I've bought or handled transactions for friends, neighbors, business associates and bought trucks for construction and maintenance vehicles. I can say in good faith that I have had nothing but good experiences shopping eBay car auction sites no matter if buying from an individual or a dealer. Again, just use good common sense and read the listings very thoroughly. We learned the downside to shopping for a vehicle on eBay is the effort needed to find exactly what we needed. Consequently, we have constructed our local auction sites to enable fast and easy location of whatever specific vehicle you are searching for. So as the title says, just beware the many scams and rip-offs that exist on the web and shop through our safe and secure shopping system. A Personal Note from Doc, owner of Audio N More.com I've bought many a vehicle through our associate sites on this page. I suggest researching the value of a vehicle before seriously bidding on any vehicle. Kelly Blue Book will give you an idea of what any vehicle might be worth. Decide what your budget is and stick to it. Then,
happy shopping. |
