• If you currently own, previously owned or want to own an Avalanche, we welcome you to become a member today. Membership is FREE, register now!

Never, ever buy a vehicle from Ron Ferrari in Brunswick, OH

frito

PM 2022
PM 2021
PM 2020
PM 2018
PM 2017
Full Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
2,794
Location
Cincinnati, OH
To all my Northern Ohio brethren, I feel compelled to give a word of warning if you're ever in the market for used vehicle.  Never, under any circumstance, buy a vehicle from Ron Ferrari Auto sales. 

When I was in the process of buying my Avy last year the airbag light was on.  Fine, since he planned to repair it before I bought it.  They found the issue was a faulty clock spring, very expensive since I have radio controls.  The truck had an after market alarm system that was tied in to the clock spring.  He called me up while his tech was installing it and asked if it was OK to remove the aftermarket alarm because he was concerned it would void the warranty.  Key phrase right there, he was concerned it would void the warranty.  Fast forward to now and that clock spring he put in has failed.  I called him up and he's trying to tell me that there was no warranty on it since it was a used part.  I asked why he presented to me the option of disconnecting the alarm to protect the warranty, which it apparently doesn't have. He's now trying to change his tune and say that the alarm is what damaged it in the first place and "what did I do wrong?  I didn't do anything wrong!"  Well, for starters, don't ask somebody to disconnect something so it doesn't void a warranty if there's no freaking warranty to be voided in the first place.  :beating:

Looks like I'll be chatting with the Better Business Bureau with whom he is so proud of having a good rating.  I've sunk well over a grand of unexpected repairs into this thing, not counting another boatload for preventative maintenance and now I'm looking at another $1,500 for this clock spring and other things.  And that doesn't count what has beenpaid under my maintenance contract.  :E: :E: :E: :E: :E: :E: :E: :E: :E:

Anybody have any blood pressure meds?  I'm in great need of some at the moment.
 
So sorry about all of your issue Joe, maybe the BBB can help you get everything lined out and you can upgrade from the Bumblebee to something a little more reliable. I know you love her, but there are plenty of other Av's out there you may not have as many issues with.

I really hope they can help you rectify what is wrong... That really sucks :(
 
4x4dreamer said:
So sorry about all of your issue Joe, maybe the BBB can help you get everything lined out and you can upgrade from the Bumblebee to something a little more reliable. I know you love her, but there are plenty of other Av's out there you may not have as many issues with.

I really hope they can help you rectify what is wrong... That really sucks :(
Yeah, I don't love her so much anymore.  I love the Avalanche but definitely bought the wrong one.  Upgrading isn't an option.  I am so upside down on this blasted thing that I can't afford to get rid of it and start over.  I'm still kicking myself for being penny wise and pound foolish and letting that red one slip away.

The only bright side is that my maintenance contract has now paid for more repairs than it cost me - in only eight months an 10,000 miles.  :eek:. I'm looking over my back now because they're probably hiring a hit man to take me out.  :laugh:
 
Was the clock spring damaged before or after the front end repairs you had done? Only asking because if the mechanic doing the repair spun the steering wheel while it was disconnected that will damage the clock spring as well.
 
Blackcomb said:
Was the clock spring damaged before or after the front end repairs you had done? Only asking because if the mechanic doing the repair spun the steering wheel while it was disconnected that will damage the clock spring as well.
Until now, as far as I know, the steering wheel has not been removed for any of the repairs.  The airbag light didn't come on until after the repairs to the brakes, brake lines front differential and tightening the control arms.  It was flashing before the idler arm and control arm replacement.  It went into the current shop for the front end issues and airbag light.  Since I've owned it the light on the Prog/OnStar button has worked only intermittently which I attributed to a bum light bulb.  If it stays lit after the repairs I'll know for sure it was defective from day one.  It also has only "clicked" when turning the wheel one direction, not both.  Oh, and it's been driving me nuts that I haven't been able to properly fasten the shroud around the steering column.  Turns how his guy installed it incorrectly.  Again, it's been that way since day one.

Now, even if the second shop damaged it, I still will not recommend him to anybody based on how he treated me when I called him.  As I mentioned in my initial post, when we bought the thing, he called me to ask if it was OK to disconnect the aftermarket alarm out of concern that if the clock spring were to go out again, IT WOULD VOID THE WARRANTY.  He was lamenting at the time that the clock spring is setting him back $500 due to the fact it has the radio controls.  When I go onto auto part website, the new clock springs are in the $500 range, offering limited lifetime warranties.  When I called him his first words were "It's a used part, there's no warranty on that" to which I asked, then why did you ask me if it were OK to disconnect the aftermarket alarm so as not to void the warranty if there's no warranty.  He then started getting belligerent with me, raising his voice at me and repeating "I didn't do anything wrong!  What did I do wrong?"  Then he finally says "Well then tell me what I told you".  I started telling him what he told me when we bought it and again he cut me off and starts raising his voice at me.  I finally had to tell him "Look, you told me to tell you what you said and you won't even let me get a word in". 

So, where I'm at, even if one of the shops damaged it, I fully believe this guy's a schmuck.  If he were honest, he could have said for me to have my shop call him that he wants to make sure the part is truly bad and wasn't damaged by a different shop.  I can accept that as a reasonable response.  I cannot accept representing a part has a warranty when it doesn't and then getting belligerent when asking why he mentioned a warranty in the first place. 
 
You haven't said it directly (or if you did I've missed it) but it sure sounds like he used "warranty" as an excuse for not hooking up the alarm system fully and now when you've got a problem with the part that was supposed to be warrantied it turns out it was all BS.
 
enoniam said:
You haven't said it directly (or if you did I've missed it) but it sure sounds like he used "warranty" as an excuse for not hooking up the alarm system fully and now when you've got a problem with the part that was supposed to be warrantied it turns out it was all BS.
Yep, that is exactly what happened. 
 
Keep track of all costs incured and you can always sue in small claims court. Depending on your state you could be looking at up to $5000...

You could also talk to a local media outlet and explain to them what happened with your truck... They won't appreciate negative publicity. Just depends on how much it is worth to you...

Note that small claims court generally doesn't cost that much and prove many of the issues in writing and fill in the spots with believable testimony and you should win. If you do attempt to sue him he will surely try to bully you but you do not need a lawyer and depending on the Judge will see his hiring a lawyer as a bad thing.

My mom sued someone in small claims court over a traffic accident and it cost like $12 at that time.. Probably closer to $100 now but your court will be different. You should also do research with the BBB to see if they indeed have a good record or he is just telling you he does.

Also the Clock Spring when I last looked up the price was under $30 for the one without controls but like $180 with controls. So his $500 story is a sham... I never pay attention when they try to tell me how much it costs. When I bought my truck they tried to make me feel bad because they put $500 into fixing a couple minor things.. They had a mechanic and a shop of their own so I don't believe the $500 no way.
 
I just got an update from the shop.  This is just unfreaking believable.  The quote from their email is:

This is interesting, the clock spring was broken, installed upside down,and used from a junk yard.
 
Here's a video they sent me https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=A0CD2120C355E4A8!3976&authkey=!AI-GTixxKyjPbiw&ithint=video%2cmov

Rodney, the dealer is four hours away so heading up there for court would be a real PITA.  I'm going to start with BBB and see if they can help me resolve it.  When I first started looking, I would only look at big named dealers on the chance the vehicles were serviced there.  Other than that I was only looking at for sale by owner trucks.  Another "I should have" - I should have stuck to my guns and not used an independent used car lot.

Oh, and as far as his good BBB rating, I did limit myself to only those with A and A+ BBB ratings.  I checked him out on the BBB before I even gave him a call and checked it out.  There were some for sale that looked very appealing but I wasn't comfortable with BBB ratings so I didn't even call on them.
 
Just finished filing the complaint with the BBB.  We'll see how it goes not.
 
Well, this is not what I wanted to post for my 1,000th post. 

We received notice from Angie?s list back on March 24th that he disputed our claim.  Since it?s a matter of ?he said, she said? they closed it moved it from the ?Penalty Box? to ?Stalemate? category.  I got notice the following day from the BBB that he rejected the claim.  They at least gave me an opportunity to rebut his rebuttable.  I provided them with the email form the local shop, a BBB accredited shop with an A+ rating nonetheless, along with the video they sent me and a picture of the clearly broken clock spring.  I jumped online today to check on the status and see that it?s closed.  I read his comments and he blatantly lied to them.  I?m not surprised since he blatantly lied to my face by telling me the clock spring was setting him back $500 when he paid a junkyard $80 for it and asking if it was OK to disconnect the aftermarket alarm under the guise of protecting the warranty.  I guess I?ll check with my lawyer brother-in-law next to see if I would have any chance at all against this scumbag.  He obviously has no qualms lying to ones face so I?m sure he would do the same in small claims court. 

It's now time to ream him on every on-line site I can think of, Yelp, Google+, Facebook etc.  I do see on his Facebook page somebody reamed him just a couple weeks ago.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I hate ?should haves? but I should have stuck with my initial plan which was not even looking at used car lots much less buying from one.  :beating: :E: :beating:
 
First question, did you buy the vehicle "as is" or with any warranty? If "as is" then the clockspring, which was installed prior to sale, was probably also sold "as is."

If I understand correctly, you were led to believe the clockspring the selling dealer installed before the sale was covered by a warranty. Do you have anything in writing that establishes this? It sounds like the answer is 'no', there was no express warranty.

Next question, do you have anything in writing that disclaims any or all implied warranties? Chances are the sales agreement disclaimed all implied warranties. If there was no disclaimer then there are certain implied warranties that you could pursue in small claims court.

By implied warranty I mean that under law there are certain unstated warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose that exist if they are not expressly disclaimed by the seller. By "implied" I do not mean implied by what the dealer said about the alarm system. What he said about the alarm could be offered as circumstantial evidence but will not carry the day on its own, since he did not expressly say "the clockspring has a warranty" and what the terms of that warranty would be.

Having said all this, since the clockspring could have been broken by the other shop, the burden will be on you to prove otherwise (e.g. get the other shop to testify to the fact that they did not break it, either in court or in an affidavit if the court will accept that). If I were Judge Judy I would latch onto that issue and tell you that your case is dismissed unless you can prove the clockspring was broken before the other shop worked on the truck. And even if you can prove that, you may still have problems with whatever Ohio law says about used car warranties and what the sales agreement says about it. Good luck!
 
That's where I screwed up.  I took this lier's word for it.  He blatantly misrepresented on many fronts, directly to my face.  First by saying it was setting him back $500 which is the price of a new clock spring when he in fact used a junk yard part.  Second by implying it had a warranty when asking if it were OK to disconnect the aftermarket alarm system "so as not to void the warranty should it fail in the future". 

The only thing I have is the video from the shop that fixed it showing that it's broken and, this might be the only thing that would hold up, installed incorrectly (i.e. upside down).  I think my only outside chance to prevail is to prove that the incorrect installation led to its failure.  I can guarantee you the shop I used didn't break it.  The steering wheel wasn't opened up by anybody local until after Ferrari got belligerent with me and I knew he wouldn't do squat.

Yes, I know, shame on me for not dotting the "i's" and crossing the "t's".  Nobody to blame but me there.  It sure would be nice though if this thief had an ethical bone in his body.
 
Well try not to be too hard on yourself. It sounds like you tried everything to rectify the situation, but the seller probably deals with a lot of unhappy customers and still manages to sleep at night. The video is good evidence but you would still need the other shop to testify under oath to what it represents since you did not make the video yourself it is hearsay.
 
MLM said:
Well try not to be too hard on yourself. It sounds like you tried everything to rectify the situation, but the seller probably deals with a lot of unhappy customers and still manages to sleep at night. The video is good evidence but you would still need the other shop to testify under oath to what it represents since you did not make the video yourself.
Actually, they probably would testify if I bought it local.  It's a four + hour drive to where I bought it.  They let me know it was OK for the BBB to contact them.  I provided the BBB with the email they sent me, the video and a picture of the broken part as well as their contact information.  I haven't asked them yet if the BBB contacted them or not but I do not see any information on the dispute that leads me to believe they did.  

I don't know how this guy sleeps at night.  It's one thing to replace it with a junk yard part before you show it to prospective customers and just be silent on the matter.  It's entirely different to be intentionally misleading ("so as not to void the warranty") and to blatantly lie to one's face ("I have too much unexpected costs with this $500 clock spring to come down in price").

EDIT: And btw, I'll be able to sleep with myself quite well as I drag this dealer through the mud on every online review site I can dig up providing as much detail as I did the BBB.  Maybe I got screwed but if I can prevent it from happening to somebody else I'll feel a little bit better.
 
Back
Top