Vehicle Purchase Protection Only good if vehicle is under 10 years old

[overkill1962]

I purchased and received a 1994 F150. In the description it was stated by seller he pulled the oil cap and said engine head looks clean and low miles. When i tried to open the oil cap it took me two wrenches one tohold the neck the other to get the cap off. Once off you can not see the valves due to metal plate under oil fill hole. The cap had milky dirty oil. I asked seller with ebay messages and he said he never open the cap. So even though i got him in a lie ebay Vehicle Purchase Protection will not help and the seller won’t do anything. Is there any thing else i can do? The transmission is messed up also. I asked the seller to refund and pickup vehicle or give me $900 back. Seller will not work with me. 

 Is there anything else I can do? Thanks for any help 

[marinermikes]

VPP is pretty much useless. It also won't cover it if you didn't have it inspected before you bought it. You bought it sight unseen?  What? a used car salesman lied! Who da thunk it.

Vehicle sales here are as is. Nothing you can do but fix it up or resell it and move on.

[mr.elmwood]

As MM says, as is where is. VPP only covers newer vehicles, and, you had it thoroughly inspected. 

You bought a truck, thru the mail? 

[ms.rodriguez*]

The only thing that you can do is to promise to NEVER buy a car online sight unseen. Never believe a car salesperson. They lie 99.9% of the time. Even a new car salesperson lies. Fix the car or sell it as is...

[mr.elmwood]

Oddly enough, hearing aid salespeople are worse. For $3000, I could get a promise to try. 

[nc-daydreamer]

Yes, 10 years.  Most states have a 'lemon law', but I think that also has a time limit. But vehicles sold on eBay is AS IS to the best of my knowledge. So now it's all yours. 🙂  If this is an off-site sale, then perhaps small claims court might help.

The price tag alone would throw up a red flag to me. Paying less than an item's worth is seldom an indication of good quality. 

So, are you saying that you did not personally view the vehicle, drive it and take it to your mechanic and have it thoroughly inspected? Really?  Did you get the VIN and run a CARFAX on it before buying it? And with this report being acceptable to you, you paid cash, right? .. (and not using gift cards, I hope).

Or were you knowingly buying it in non-drivable condition, maybe just for parts or with the intention of restoring it? If so, sounds like you may have gotten what you paid for if that be the case, IMO. As you know I am sure, the 'milky oil' probably means there is water in it from somewhere. Maybe more than the head gasket that is blown... 

So if you've decided it is not worth restoring it, then I recommend to take what you can use, and sell the rest part by part - remove and sell the seats, the exhaust manifold, the gas tank, the steering wheel assembly, etc... and check with your local junk yard to see what the going rate for scrap is (what they pay you for it)... total sum could bring more than the $900 you paid.

Good luck.

[nunabr0]

Wait...wait.... You buy a 25 year-old vehicle for $900 from a total stranger over the internet and you want a third party to intervene and save you?

And that is your only complaint- that the oil is milky and dirty?!

Why don't you change the oil and filter and see how it goes? Maybe give the motor a flush.

If it runs and drives, you could probably sell it locally for more than $900, to someone who would come and see it in person and know what they are getting.

To Parrot what Ms. Rodriguez said; If you call up about a car for sale locally, the person on the phone will lie to you 90% of the time, even though he knows you'll be coming to see the vehicle.... How much more when they know you won't be coming to see the vehicle first?!

If I rolled the dice and got a 25 year-old truck that ran and drove and stopped, and the motor wasn't knocking or leaving a plume of smoke, I'd be tickled for $900!

[long-gone]

The OP never said they paid $900 for the truck. It appears that is the amount the OP thinks it will take to repair it so they are asking for a partial refund.

OP's feedback shows this to be the truck.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1994-Ford-F-150-XLT/202705810985?hash=item2f32353629:g:SMsAAOSwiiJc8t8b

[nunabr0]

You're right, Long-gone- and I noticed the part about the transmission after I posted, too- but really, it changes nothing. 25 year-old truck....from a stranger. If it were a 2004 for ten times the price, the same would apply; it still wouldn't be covered because such defects could hsave been readily discovered had it been inspected before purchase, and the OP still wouldn't get a dime from VPP.

Between people who lie, and those who are just ignorant of things mechanical, there's just no way you can expect anything to be what you think it should be- and the more so on something that is 25 years old. Just from the description you can tell there are issues; that the truck has been modified (always a gamble- who knows who did what and how!) etc. and considering how clean the body is, and the listed mods, if that truck were perfect, the guy never would have sold it for that price. (NICE-looking truck!)

Sheesh- so the engine in it is 34 years old....

The only times in my life I ever bought vehicles sight-unseen, was from a friend whom I've known for over 20 years...and I only bat about 500 with that-- half of them have been keepers; half I have resold- and that's from a friend.... I wouldn't even THINK about buying sight-unseen from a stranger, unless the price was so low that I couldn't lose. (And by the looks of this truck, if 900 clams'll make it right, I'd say the OP still did good)

[garry1951garry]

There is at least 1 more gullible truck buyer in the world; me! 12/2018 I bought which I thought would me my "last" P/U, $12000 for  a 1994 Ford F-250 with 74,000 miles and the 6.0 diesel engine.. Ebay  provided the Experian report which showed no problems. 3000 miles later 07/2019 the engine blew.  My mechanic  stated the coolant had "stop leak" additive in it. I got the same run around from VPP, and Ford Motor. BUT, I used Pay Pal and now have a case filed with them. I also filed an Internet Fraud case because I live in Georgia and purchased the truck from Dover, Arkansas. 

[nunabr0]

I don't understand....

'94 F250's didn't come with a 6.0L(eaker) diesel. Did someone install a 6.0 (which didn't exist unbtil 2003) in the 94; and if so, why would they put a different engine in a truck with 74K miles?

Experian? They are a credit reporting agency....

What was the fraud? Used (especially 25 year-old) vehicles are sold "as is" unless a warranty is expressly given by the seller, or if the seller made false material claims- such as the vehicle having a rebuilt motor, when it can be proven that such was not the case.

Ebay's VPP states that it does not cover vehicles which are over 10 years old- and even if the vehicle were less than 10 years old, it only applies if you had the vehicle inspected prior to purchase; and only covers things which could not have been discovered by such an inspection, such as hidden frame damage which can not be readily seen.

Sorry to hear that you got ripped off- but I think you're out of luck on this one.

Why would you pay so much for such an old vehicle? Regardless of how nice it may appear, at that age, regardless of mileage, time takes it's toll on everything- such as all rubber parts and seals; electrical components; paint, etc.

I too prefer older, simpler vehicles.....but one has to be realistic about them (My current F250 and Excursion are a 99 and an '00).

And if I may offer a little advice for the future: Stay away from low-mileage old vehicles. A 25 year-old vehicle with such low mileage has spent most of it's life sitting and making very short trips- which makes it deteriorate faster than if it had been driven a lot and maintained for such use; AND with such low mileage, it probably still has all of it's original parts from 25 years ago.....

Or did you mean you bought an '04 F250 with a 6.0? Same caveats apply if that's the case....but even a tiny bit of research would have made it clear what absolute piles of feces those 6.0's were; nothing but problems, including head gaskets which blow every 30-40K miles (and which are hiddeously expensive to repair)

And what does Ford have to do with this? They don't warranty 25 year-old nor 15 year-old vehicles bought 2nd or 3rd-hand.....

When you buy used, make sure you're getting exactly what you think you're getting, before you hand over that cash, 'cause once ya buy it..it's yours, as are it's problems. 😞

[mr.elmwood]

I am looking around for a vehicle, yeah, research. After awhile I get tired of the answers I find. It is becoming which set of problems I am willing to settle for.

The one thing I do not want, is the "I dunno" answer. When were the struts, bearings, tie rods, etc, done? "I dunno". Happy trails.

There is this 2006 Grand Prix with the 5.3L V8 ….

[vikingsandpintos]

If it is the one in this link, the description says motor needs to be rebuilt.....

[mr.elmwood]

"Vikingsandpintos"? I missed that day in history class.

[atikovi]

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@garry1951garry wrote:

I got the same run around from VPP, and Ford Motor. BUT, I used Pay Pal and now have a case filed with them. 

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You're out of luck. No chargebacks on titled property.