FasTrak Charity Auctions "Charity" auction owner Greg Roberds unethical business practices Mesa Arizona

Having been to this auction on a couple occasions I can say that this company seems like a reputable firm. They do label major problems with the car on the windshield and they do repeat the issues when it is on the auction block. The minor issues you will have to figure out yourself. This is a used car auction and I do mean used. Some of the cars are in pretty poor shape, but deals can be had. If they are beat up and the interior is very dirty then they were not taken care of by previous owners. This is a place to get cheap cars under the impression that you will have to do some or maybe major work to them. 

Now if there was any trickery in the bidding, this is very dishonest on the company's end. This company does have a rating of "F" with the BBB though, so I will have to be wary if I do purchase a vehicle there. Of course if I do buy and have a problem I will be back here eating crow.

Since, I have not purchased there my insight is limited. I guess the main thing I wanted to add was that these are used cars and they should be treated as such.

This customer attended one of our auctions and purchased a 2000 Blazer that had a bad head gasket for $900. We fully disclosed that the vehicle had a bad head gasket by writing it in large letters on the windshield and announcing it while the vehicle was on the auction block . The customer was the high bidder and there was no collusion or duress.
After purchasing the vehicle, he discovered that repairing the vehicle would cost more than he had projected so he inquired if we would assist him by having our mechanics repair the vehicle. Initially we resisted this, but finally agreed to do the repairs in an attempt to help this customer.

Upon tearing the engine down it was discovered that the heads would need to be replaced, something that is common when dealing with blown head gaskets. It was determined that we could replace the engine with a used engine for about the same cost of purchasing new heads. The customer elected to have us replace the engine and purchased a used engine for us to put in the vehicle.

Once we replaced the engine we discovered that there was a problem with the electronic control module that came with this engine, The customer claimed to have no more money and started to complain.

In yet another attempt to appease this customer, our company purchased the electronic control module, along with several other parts including a fuel injection rail, and motor mounts. In all our company has spent $1100 in parts and over 80 hours of our mechanics time in attempting to "help" this customer with the vehicle he purchased.

After sending the vehicle to and paying for a GM dealer to reprogram the new control module, the vehicle now runs fine with cold air conditioning, another item we repaired for this customer!

However, when it came time for the customer to pick up his vehicle and pay us the $500 he originally agreed to pay us for "assisting" him in repairing the vehicle, he informed us that he did not have the money to pay us . Mind you that this $500 he agreed to pay us was $600 less than we spent on the parts and would not compensate us for the 80 hours of labor we expended on a vehicle we originally sold for $900.

In our final attempt to "make this customer happy" we agreed to take the vehicle back and credit him with the full amount he paid for the vehicle and the parts he purchased, More than $2,000. He could apply this credit to the purchase of another vehicle in a subsequent auction.

We in turn kept the vehicle that we now own for more than $3,100 plus an additional $900 we paid the original consignee for the vehicle when this customer purchased it. Meaning we own this vehicle for $4,000 plus the 80 hours of Labor expended repairing it, bringing the grand total to $5,600. This customer, who is complaining we ripped him off, has a credit of all the money he expended on this vehicle and still is not satisfied.

We are fairly certain that nothing in the world would satisfy this gentleman short of us delivering a brand new car to him. He would then probably complain because we did not pay for his insurance or gas for a year.

The lesson learned is do not try and help someone who claims they are down on there luck, there is probably a very real reason they are in the position they are in!