Andre Souang thought he scored the deal of a lifetime when he won a $140,000 Bentley for $14,000 on eBay last month.
But when he went to make his payment, managers at Bentley Scottsdale refused to take his money, told him the car wasn’t for sale and disavowed the auction listing as a mistake.
Bentley Scottsdale’s refusal to sell was followed by a form message from eBay saying the auction had been canceled for unspecified reasons. The company scraped any trace of the auction from its website and from Souang’s account.
Within hours of the Oct.25 auction, it appeared as if the car had never been for sale at all.
By all accounts, Bentleys generally sell for six figures. The 2008 convertible that Souang bid on was in pristine condition, with low miles and one previous owner. Souang said he understood that when his “Buy It Now” offer was accepted that something probably was awry. But he expected the dealer would make a counteroffer, not shut him down.
The incident offers a window into how eBay handles its vehicle auctions, and shows how it may take the side of sellers against consumers when disputes arise.
EBay officials said they followed proper policies for canceling the auction after being contacted by the dealer. A review of the car price and the dealer’s online history determined that the car was erroneously listed for one-tenth of its value, officials said.
“Occasionally … our members make mistakes,” eBay assistant general counsel Jack Christin said. “In this case, they missed a zero. And that was a pretty significant zero. We felt the appropriate thing to do was to take the listing down.”
Most eBay auctions — from antiques to fashion to video games — are considered to be legally binding contracts, requiring quick payment from the buyer and safe delivery from the seller. Not so for vehicle auctions, which are non-binding and can be canceled by either the buyer or the seller.
In this case, eBay officials stepped in to support the seller. In addition to voiding the auction, a Bentley Scottsdale manager said auction-site officials gave him legal advice and provided at least one case example of a disputed car auction that went to court. The case helped cement Bentley Scottsdale’s decision not to sell the car.
Souang, who lives in an island community in Washington’s Puget Sound, specializes in online and traditional real-estate auctions. He is an avid eBay user and has more than 500 purchases on his buyer account. He said he is concerned that eBay voided the sale based on nothing more than the dealer’s contention that the price of the car was mistake.
EBay, which describes its job as “bringing buyers and sellers together,” did not take a neutral position and instead acted as if they had a stake in the outcome of the car sale, Souang said.
“EBay arbitrarily decided that their big client needed to be protected and unilaterally made (the auction) disappear,” he said. “It makes me feel very suspicious.”
Deal or no deal
The Ebay listing for the 2008 Bentley Continental GT convertible depicts a gleaming cognac-colored interior offset by a dark sapphire body. More than 35 pages of pictures show virtually every aspect of the car from its emblematic grill to the inside of its trunk.
In its auction, Bentley Scottsdale described the car as stunning and beautiful and called it “perfect for the person looking for the luxury quality and class that can only be found in a Bentley.”
Souang didn’t need to be sold on the car’s attributes once he saw the price tag: $13,900.
At first he thought he was mistaken. Souang, a 46-year-old owner of a financial-services firm in Eastsound, Wash., was looking to give his wife a Bentley as a third-anniversary present. And here it was, just a click away, for far less than he expected to pay.
The Bentley was being offered with no reserve in what is called a buy-it-now auction. In auction parlance, that means the car goes to the first person willing to pay the listed price.
Souang hit the button and received an instant reply that he won.
Instead of a car, Souang began receiving e-mails from Bentley Scottsdale’s Internet manager about 20 minutes after the auction ended. The e-mails, provided by Souang and confirmed by the dealer, went from apologetic to panicked.
Bentley Scottsdale’s Internet manager, Anthony Petruso, first asked Souang to contact him “so that we can find a solution.” Last than an hour later, Petruso accused him of trying to take advantage of the car dealer and damage the business.
“This is a gross mistake,” Petruso wrote. “Please don’t try to damage our business and, more importantly, I am asking you personally as this could cause me to lose my job. I am asking please don’t continue with this, my family and I cannot afford for me to lose my job over this.”
Souang said he often makes “deal” purchases on eBay for items far less than market value. He said he did not expect the dealer to sell the car for $13,900. But he expected them to make some kind of offer.
“What they should have done was offer me something at cost,” Souang said in an interview. “That way neither one of us loses anything. I would have paid cost for the car. That is something we could have done.”
In repeated e-mails, Souang asked Petruso to propose a mutually agreed solution. He asked about buying the Bentley or another car at cost, the possibility of special financing, or even a settlement.
Petruso responded the next day: “As the eBay Motors category is not a legally binding category … we are not required to provide you anything,” Petruso wrote, advising Souang to cease communication “as we do not do business with people who seek to do harm to others over simple mistakes.”
EBay mistakes happen
This isn’t the first time an auto dealer has listed a car on eBay for less than its value. But this might be one of the few times the mistake totaled $120,000.
According to reports in vehicle trade magazines and Internet forums, it appears that in some such cases, car dealers try to work out a compromise with buyers to avoid legal squabbles, bad publicity or customer service complaints.
Motor Trend in August published reports about eBay Motors auctions where buyers see dream deals crumble when auto dealers claim price mistakes. Among the cases cited were: a 2008 BMW M3; a 2009 Nissan GT-R; a 2010 Dodge Challenger and a 2010 Hyundai Genesis Coupe. The cars sold online anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 less than retail, but in each case the car dealers negotiated a settlement with the buyer.
Randall Ammons, the owner of Honda San Marcos in California, which sold the Nissan GT-R for $55,100 — thousands below retail — said he would honor the eBay price.
“That’s our fault,” he told Motor Trend. “We’ve spent years getting a great reputation and a deal’s a deal; we’re going to honor it.”
Bentley Scottsdale has no plans to honor the auction price or to negotiate with Souang. Manager Brad Roosma said in an interview that he will sell Souang the Bentley for the intended auction price of $139,000, which he described as an “incredible deal” and still thousands below retail.
“But ($13,900) is not even reasonable or acceptable. It is not even in the scope of rational thinking,” he said, adding that the error occurred when the dealership lowered the auction price from $144,900 to $139,000.
Bentley Scottsdale is also a dealership for Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini and Bugati. Its ebay sites list vehicles priced anywhere from $65,000 to more than $300,000.
The dealership is part of the Penske Automotive Group, the second-largest publicly traded automotive company in the country. According to the company’s website, it operates 172 dealer franchises in the United States and 155 internationally.
Roosma acknowledged that the e-mails Petruso sent to Souang were unfortunate, and said that the manager was never in danger of losing his job. But he said the company had no choice but to cease communicating with Souang once he “went in the legal direction.”
Roosma said his staff contacted eBay immediately after the car sold when they discovered the error. He said eBay was cooperative in taking down the auction and that eBay provided information about other cases in which the courts had ruled against buyers who sued over erroneous prices.
He said one such case eBay cited involved a $150,000 Ferrari that sold for $15,000 because a zero was left off the listing. According to eBay, the court refused to uphold the sale price unless the buyer could provide at least three other examples of similar Ferraris selling for the same price.
Roosma said he wants to be reasonable, but he does not believe that he has any legal obligation to sell the car for a more than $120,000 loss.
Millions of cars sold
EBay Motors was designed to be the “safest and most popular way to buy cars online,” Christin said.
Since its launch 10 years ago, eBay Motors has sold 4.3 million vehicles, along with motor parts and accessories.
EBay Motors provides a history report for every vehicle listed on the site, allowing buyers to check the car’s condition. The report lists accidents, the number of owners, mileage, clear title and warranty information among other things.
EBay also offers up to $50,000 in buyer protection in case a car arrives damaged or a seller fails to deliver after a car is paid.
Christin said listing mistakes similar to the Bentley Scottsdale case are rare but do happen. That’s one reason why vehicle auctions are non-binding. Another reason is that some laws require written agreements for car and real-estate transactions, he said.
“That contract can be unilaterally canceled,” Christin said, calling it a point of protection for buyers and sellers alike.
For instance, buyers might accidentally hit a Buy It Now button and agree to purchase a car they had no intention of buying. Likewise, a dealer might make a mistake in the listing price.
EBay does not cancel auctions for just any reported mistake; Christin said it has to be a significant mistake that a reasonable person would consider obvious.
He denied that eBay is looking out for the interest of vehicle sellers who might pay thousands of dollars in listing fees each year and 2percent of a vehicle’s purchase price when eBay’s online payment service, Paypal, is used to complete an auction.
Listing fees on eBay Motors are flat; sellers pay the same fee to list a Honda as a Bentley.
One of the chief protections eBay said it offers buyers is the chance to leave negative feedback about a purchase, allowing other potential buyers to see if a particular seller has a history of trouble. Sellers are not allowed to leave negative feedback about buyers. Scottsdale Bentley’s eBay site shows that it has received 100 percent positive feedback on 17 transactions.
Souang lost any chance to leave feedback about his experience when eBay removed the auction from its website.
A form letter eBay sent to Souang failed to disclose why the auction was canceled, saying only that it was likely because: The listing didn’t follow eBay guidelines; it wasn’t allowed or allowed only under specific conditions; or it created copyright or trademark issues. Erroneous price was not listed among the reasons.
Christin said a review of the auction supported the dealer. It showed that the car had previously been listed for $144,900 and that the seller’s history showed it routinely auctioned cars for far more than $13,900. Also, the buy-it-now listing removed any suspicion that the dealer intentionally low-balled the Bentley’s price to drum up interest in the car.
Christin said the removal of the auction is consistent with eBay policies. He said it follows the basic tenets of contract laws, which don’t hold buyers or sellers liable for mistakes.
Souang disagrees. He said his own research and experience with real-estate auctions suggests that Bentley Scottsdale could be forced to sell the car at the auction price. And while he once offered to settle, he said the treatment by the dealer and eBay has convinced him to hire a lawyer and challenge the system.
In the meantime, however, he is still looking for an anniversary gift.
Robert Anglen investigates con-
sumer issues. If you would like him to look into a possible fraud or deception, e-mail him at robert
.anglen@arizonarepublic.com.