Richard Gavin at Fleetwood Auction Center Held vehicle for ransom trying to extort more money out of us unethically manipulative and deceptive individual in Riverside California

Together with my mother, Melody S; I purchased a vehicle (VIN# FJ-4522423) from a Mr. Richard Gavin, owner of FleetwoodAuctionCenter via eBay (item# 321242876541) on November 7th, 2013 for the amount of $5,000.00.  We paid for the vehicle in full via bank wire-transfer and have proof of this, but Mr. Gavin refused to release the vehicle to our auto-shipper saying that $60.00 was still owed to him for the installation of a pickup bed topper/canopy purchased from another individual nearby.  I agreed to the $60 charge; $40 for installation work, and $20 for ratchet tie-down straps; and have proof of having sent it on 12-6-2013 to Mr. Gavin, but he claims never to have received the $60.  2 attempts were made by truck drivers to load the vehicle within the past several weeks, but they were sent away empty handed.  Eventually I had to instruct an auto transporter to personally pay Mr. Gavin cash in order that the vehicle could finally be released.  Mr. Gavin claims never to have received my $60.00 money order, yet now states that he intends to cash cash it "if it does ever show up in the mail".  I sent it to 2200 Fleetwood Drive, Riverside, CA, yet he claims that this was not a valid address (even though it's right on their website: www.fleetwoodAC.com).  He claims that I was supposed to send it to 8221 Wilcox Avenue, Cudahy, CA90201.  He intentionally confused the auto-shippers by giving them a false pickup-address as well.  I would have been perfectly willing to pay a reasonable price for the following services, except that Mr. Gavin offered to arrange to pick up the topper I puchased in a nearby town, place it on the bed of the vehicle, secure it with rachet tie-downs, and load it onto my auto-transporter with a forklift (all free of charge). 

Yet, at the last minute, he decided that we needed to pay him extra money for those services, and refused any instant payment method, and insisted only on a money order sent through the mail (intentionally holding things up for more time, and causing the truck-drivers to have to re-schedule).  In the end, he never did strap the topper down for us, and ended up refusing to load the vehicle with their forklift like he had previously promised (costing us an additional $250.00 winching fee, and eliminating shippers who otherwise could've already picked the vehicle up).  Additionally, he insisted that we pay for half of his eBay listing fees (even though that is completely against eBay policy), and claims that it cost him $250 in fees to sell the vehicle.  When I declined to pay his seller fees, Mr. Gavin attempted to extort extra money out of us by holding the vehicle for ransom so to speak.  We have not received the vehicle as of yet, but do have confirmation that it was finally released and picked up by a driver from Atlas Auto Shippers (888)-285-2706 (after a nearly 2 month ordeal). 

To date, Mr. Gavin has failed to provide us with a title, or even so much as a bill-of-sale, which is in violation of the law in most States.  Without such documents, we will be unable to register the vehicle here in the State of Iowa without going through a lengthy legal bonding process costing anywhere from $50.00 to $200.00.  Mr. Gavin has been manipulative and downright unethical throughout this whole process, and I wish to report him to the California Attorney General’s office, Better Business Bureau, eBay, and your website in hopes that other potential buyers will not become entrapped in his webs of deception in the future.  Our wishes would be that he is informed, and warned against exacting this type of extortion on people in the future, and that our experience has been duly noted on record.  Thank you for your time and consideration.  I have plenty of e-mails and other supporting documentation to substantiate my complaint against Richard Gavin if needed, and would be more than happy to provide them if it would be helpful.  Respectfully, Jason S