Well after the smoke cleared and the steam died down slightly, mainly off me, I'm ready to vent about the new wave of selling equipment due to covid-19, all over the internet. So far having mixed results and to be honest, not really happy about any of the companies doing it lately. I think personally its the greatest scam ever devised by anyone, but we'll let that slide for a few minutes. First few purchases went pretty smoothly, as a matter of fact, they went off without a single issue, but most know that can't last too long. Now to the one creating smoke and steam with me at the moment, came across a machine I was interested in, called the auction company selling it and asked questions, such as do all the accessories pictured go with the machine, was told twice yes, was even told its printed in the writing section of the machine listing, [which it was] called the seller and asked to see the machine in person and do an inspection, no issues there at and during the inspection, figured out what it needed for repairs and also what the accessories were worth to me and a few days later bid and won the item, paid the bill, fees, buyers premiums, sale tax, beer and hookers taxes and everyone else's taxes and fees they could think to tack on, got my receipt and headed out to pick up my purchase. Got there got it loaded and chained down ready to head home and asked who was going to get a forklift to load my accessories.......... was told they don't go with the sale......... ***, why not, never got an good answer, time was limited to get on the road, considered my options at that point, which were not many, some phone calls later and it was decided to leave with what I had and start in with the auction company when I got home, actually it took about that long for the steam to settle enough to actually get me user friendly enough to make the call. Well **** skippy, yes it was my stuff they refused to let me have, yes I did pay for it, yes its legally mine, yes I could have loaded it up and left, which is what I should have done looking back, no the way it went down wasn't right, but the upside is, the auction company will make it right?? ?? ?? ?? But to pay for new to replace the items I didn't get isn't an option for them, to give me my money back and cancel the deal isn't really good for them, its not their responsibility to replace the items I didn't get and no I never got an answer as to why I wasn't allowed those items, but they are working on it?? ?? ? ? ? So is it considered stealing if those items I paid for were not turned over to me, since I paid for them and have a receipt?? get this, they are not sure, for real, they don't know. But now the seller claims he doesn't know where they are.......................... Now I might be somewhat understanding if the items were misplaced and could not be found, but fact is, they were all there and present when I got there, I was told in no uncertain terms they stayed and were not going to be loaded, that's about the time steam started to roll out of my ears. Luckily the wife was along and reminded me I had a more pressing appointment the next day I had better not miss and she was not going to post bail if I did anything close to what was on my mind at that moment to those who had taken my paid for property away and out of my sight. So hows your guy's experience with internet bidding going?? Turns out bidding, buying and paying seem to be pretty easy, actually getting what you buy, might be a tad tough at times, right now it seems down right impossible and I'm not really sure why, it seems buyer beware isn't really the issue, truck driver picker upper beware carry your own lube might be a bit more fitting.
I feel your pain Randy. In my opinion if it said in the item description that the accessories were included then as soon as you paid for it they were rightfully yours. Unfortunately the door swings both ways. A good friend of mine has an auction company and has been dabbling in the online thing for a year or two now. A couple of days ago he told me about a recent older straight truck that was sold online. This particular sale was both live and online. My friend (the auctioneer) agreed to meet the wining bidder of the truck a few days after the sale at the sale location. They met and talked a little bit and the wining bidder asked if he could take it for a little drive around the block to see if it was going to run ok before he headed home. My friend thought that was a little odd but agreed to it. So he took it for a little drive and got back and preceded to say " your lucky this is a good running truck because what would you have done if I decided I didn't want it? My friend said " It was an auction.... you bought this 4 days ago. This isn't Craigslist where you have that option." The guy, with a confused look handed him the cashiers check and my friend handed the new owner the title and bill of sale etc. He then said to the new owner that from now on it would be in his best interest to go and inspect something before the auction.
I got taken a few years ago, a "parts" piece of equipment was advertised with pictures. Was a old RT with a boom and some other parts I wanted, so I bought it. Well in the pictures it was all together, setting in a field. In reality, it was disassembled with parts scattered all over the field. I never even went and got it. It was down on the gulf and with everything open and exposed to the salt air, I didn't throw good $$ after bad. In your case, I'm going to guess the seller was pi$$ed that the item didn't bring what he thought it should, and he's already sold the extra parts to someone he knows. You are out of luck. Its theft from you, but the auctioneer "buyer is responsible for all items after auction" typical small print probably gets them off the hook. You could try the sheriff but he's going to probably say its a civil matter, and small claims court means nothing. I always figure they are a thief, and they will get to meet their maker someday. I couldn't live with being a thief on my conscience, but most dirt balls don't care. I have had good experience with ironplanet, ritchie, and purplewave, and the sellers have been good straight up guys. I think you probably should have got the auctioneer on the phone that day, and if it was laying there and you really wanted it, told them you were getting it loaded and called the sheriff and a tow company to load it for you. That opportunity is now gone and you are never getting that stuff. Any steam now, just damages you. It stinks, but that's the way it is.
Auctions are just that-you want reality go to a farm or better yet livestock auction, full of turd birds. Years ago when i was kid on our dairy-the neighbor bought ten calves at the local livestock auction the next day or 24 hours later all ten were dead. The ******* who sold them stuffed rags in the bowels of the calves to keep them from crapping all the calves had scowers . I trust no auction.
Never bought equipment thru an online auction. Everything I've won has all been shop equipment for a few hundred bucks and been as advertised, in one case much better than I thought. Only scare was my 15 ton arbor press, couldn't get the ram to move, it was frozen from all the ancient grease on it, looked like some cowboy used open gear lube on it, at least it wasn't rust. Ed
Have been called on by a few to inspect at auction lots where some would allow in the good old days but not so much anymore. Do not want chance infections, will not speak to anyone that shows up that do have questions, make no efforts except to sell the pieces. Hear horror stories of Faked photos or Incorrect photos used to sell machines, would not trust any further than could see the real machines these days.
I got a call this morning from the auction rep, here's the status of updates so far, the seller was upset over what the sale item brought so he though he'd recoup some of his cost by keeping the small items, legally he couldn't do that, they belong to me since I bought everything complete. Apparently it took some negotiating on the auctioneers part and his people to get my items from the seller but everything was stated in writing at the time of listing what went with and what was included. They claim the auction company has my items and is arranging shipping them to me at no cost, they also claim they are the correct items and I will get all my stuff as soon as they can arrange it, should be this next week sometime. Personally I'm sort of speechless I even got any results, we'll see if the stuff is correct once it shows up, if its not, I guess I'm out those items, if they are my items, guess I'll get what I bought, just took a lot of doing to achieve it. So far they have handled the issue I guess you could say, time will tell for sure how this all goes down, but for today anyhow, things are looking up at least. I asked some questions as to what would have happened if I'd have called right from the sight at the time this whole ordeal arose, it got pretty quiet for a while and then I was told I'd have wasted my time by contacting them as it went down. It took the listing agent to take paperwork and photos to him and some calls to lawyers to get him to admit the stuff was indeed mine and to hand them over, nothing over the phone the day I was there would have achieved anything. They told me legally those items were mine, if I'd have loaded them and left with them on that day, a sheriff would have been called on me and my truck, trailer and load would have been impounded and me sitting in jail until this whole thing was worked out and I'd been released from jail. The auction rep did apologize profusely as to what I've gone through to get the items I legally bought and paid for through them.
About time to hear someone stood up for a customer.
That's great news. I figured it was to do with the $$ that it brought. I'm also kinda shocked that the auctioneer stood up for you, but they have their reputation on the line also. Somewhat on topic: (Meaning I get to tell a story now ) Years ago I was at a welding shop auction. He sold everything, and on the sale bill it said they would provide a forklift for loading. I bought a couple fab tables and a engine pulling gantry on wheels. I don't remember what I paid for the gantry and tables, but it wasn't much. The tables were 20' long and the gantry had to be cut down to get hauled, so no one wanted them. I talked to the owner, and scheduled to pick up the gantry and tables the next day, because it was such a zoo at the end of the sale. "no problem" just call me when you want to come get them. Next day I call him to come get the stuff "I read through the sale tickets last night and you "stole" that gantry and those fab tables" the seller complains. "Those items were worth way more than you paid for them, so its not even worth my time to go over there with the forklift and load it for you, with no more than you paid for them." I just told him that the sale bill said "loading would be provided", it sure hadn't said anything about a reserve or minimum price for items, but if he didn't want to load it, I was showing up with my own forklift and loading myself, I didn't care. He mumbled and blustered and cussed around for a little while, lucky for me it was close to my shop, not 3 hours away or anything. He did send his boy down with the forklift to load me up. But he wasn't happy. On the road like you were, you actually dealt with it the best way. It could have been really expensive if you were dealing with trucking a long distance and it would have cost you a extra load. That's really great that the auction company is coming through for you.
Good for the auction company looking after you. Years ago at a farm auction site I bid and won on a galvanized water tank about 1000 gallons on skids to fit on a truck. I was looking to see what some other stuff at the sale was going for and just hanging out. I walked by the tank a little later to confirm the lot number so I could pay for it and there was now a note on it, "Not in Sale". I went to the office and made the mistake about asking what that was about. Apparently the owner of the tank had bought it a few month's previous and never picked it up. I said it should never have been auctioned in that case. Your auction rules even state items to be removed within 30 days. The guy that bought the tank originally, showed up at this auction after it was auctioned and got them to put the Not in sale on it. He was just fuming that they sold it. The auction company was generally pretty good to deal with and said they'd make sure nothing like this ever happens again. They told the guy to go home and get a truck or trailer pronto and they'd load the tank. They also banned him from future auctions. They said they had had other issues with him in the past. I didn't get the tank but I could have fought harder to get it. In hindsight I should have just paid for it. Then I think legally it would have been mine (completed contract) and the other guy would have been SOL. Glad you are getting the attachments you paid for.
I've bought three pieces of equipment on an Iron Planet auction, the only issue I had was with a lying freight broker on my dozer purchase, he called it "just verbiage" - he was a lying sack of crap. Since then IP has really cleaned up the shipping part of the purchase process.
I like it when someone is called that, it makes my day.
I've only bought one piece of equipment at auction. It was a Gardner Denver 3100 air track drill, and it only ran me $55.00. At that price, I'm not complaining.
They are bluffing and don't know the laws. If you loaded up the items and left, if they got really lucky a cop might have come and checked you out, but nothing would happen as long as you had the paperwork with you. In your position I would have told them here are your options, you load the attachments for me, I load the attachments myself, or you try and stop me. Either way, i'm leaving with my stuff. It's good they took care of it, they want buyers to be happy. And the thing is, most don't pay the sellers for weeks so they have recourse that way.
It all depends on how aggressive the seller is if he doesn't want you to load stuff whether it's technically yours or not. I'm sure there have been some serious incidents involving disputes between buyers and sellers. No use getting beat up or worse over something that could be straightened out by all 3 parties involved. A good auctioneer could hold back money to the seller if they don't release the items to the buyer. Have heard of this before where the seller takes items out of a lot because they wanted more money. Sell it privately if you think it's worth more.
Sounds more like a seller issue instead of auction.
I've never picked up stuff where the seller is present, only auction company employees, and when it comes down to it they don't care too much. Even virtually all sellers, if you took the machine and loaded up attachments that they know you bought, are they going to try anything? I doubt it. I guess everyone is different, but i'm at the point where I don't tolerate BS from anyone anymore, and if i'm really pissed off no one gives me any grief, one of the benefits of being 6'6". If you were going to leave the attachments, you'd be much better off not picking up everything and demand full money back.
Auctions are funny things like that have witnessed my share of horror stories over the years A local guy who pretends to be an equipment broker got bounced from Ritchie's I think permanently for bringing in garbage and trying to pass it off watched a sales man from the local dealer get greedy he had a buddy bump a rather expensive loader and got away with it so then they tried bumping a hammer my dad was bidding on and dad figured it out and hung them with it needless to say no salesman from that dealer were allowed there for a long while But I have never heard of a story like that and am glad to hear that they are coming thru for I am really not surprised cause if they are halfway serious they wont let some attachments torpedo there reputation nor will they let that customer back That's why I like richie's and iron planet your at substantially less risk or buyer beware with them now shipping is another story but a f rd fiend of mine brokers equipment and he has a really good freight broker and they have done well for me
Ritchies is better for things like that but far from perfect. One piece of equipment I bought and went to sell nearly a year later still had lien from previous owner, Ritchies did get it removed but their stance on it was not their problem at all. Bank just forgot to remove there was no problem, but if there was a problem it could get expensive. If I ever buy equipment there again which is really unlikely, I will be checking for lien and if it has one getting in writing from them it will be removed before I pay for it. I don’t trust ritchies one bit anymore.
Sometimes you don't have a choice if the seller is there. Maybe the auction was on his property? I'm sure if you look there are hundreds of cases of altercations between buyers and sellers at auctions. Doesn't matter how big or how tough you think you are if the other guys is carrying a bat, a knife or worse a gun. Yes people have been shot over what should have been a simple transaction. Randy did the right thing and it looks like the auction company is too.
I don't have to say a thing since my views on equipment auctions have been made clear from day 1. Some emotes to describe my feelings about them.....
More and more of the stuff sold on auction is at a remote location, many auction firms don't even have yards anymore, its all sold offsite somewhere at either a sellers location or in one case of a machine I bought, sitting on an oil patch, beside a pumping well 20 miles from anywhere, the buyer can go pick it up himself, not even anyone around to give the paperwork to once we arrived. I've had to give the release forms to people before on things I've bought, several told me to just show me a copy off my phone, basically they never even looked at it before telling me to just load it up and go?? HHHHHMMMMM wonder how tough it would be to forge the auction paperwork and just haul off a machine without ever paying for it at all? I think I can see the next major wave of crime about to hit the auction industry, forging paperwork and going picking up machines off remote locations. I bought a piece of equipment two years ago off one of the large auction firms via the internet and paid for it, got the paperwork and directions to go get it, [I never looked at it beforehand] and when I got there, I called and asked for better directions, was told that's the address, they told me twice it was right, I said hold on one minute can you repeat it once more, they did, the lady that lived at that address informed them she didn't have anything like that in her backyard or in front of her house for that matter and told them to quit giving out her address as the place all this stuff was to be picked up from. It took about half an hour to get the correct address to get my machine from. Turns out the elderly lady who's address they'd been giving out was wrong in the GPS system and she was tired of everyone stopping at her house to pick up stuff. Nice lady though, I told her I'd do my best to straighten it out so she wasn't bothered anymore, which I think we got accomplished, turns out the gravel pit behind her house was where everything was at, she had no idea anything was for sale there since it had been shut for years.
Ever wished you knew where your auction purchase came from...??? For your viewing pleasure!
A bunch of the equipment on Iron Planet is former rental, Sunbelt is a major supplier. My JLG boom lift only had 1740 hours on it (Sunbelt rental) and was due for another annual inspection so I suppose they didn't want to pay for and cut it loose. I've gone through it and it's been well maintained.
One of my family members worked for Sunbelt as a mechanic for a couple years before getting tired of them and moving onto something much better. When he first got there they brought in a big new portable standby generator and he had to go set it up, it ran 24/7 and he was finally given permission to change the oil and take the break in out of it when the hour meter read 1800 hours. It was very common to have light towers with 3-4000 hours on them between oil changes, they only held a few quarts of oil to begin with. Lifts had gasoline put in the oil reservoirs routinely and diesel lifts had diesel put in the oil reservoirs all the time by those renting them. The single greatest invention ever was the low oil shutdown alert, when the oil level got to a certain level, the engines would automatically shut down, then it was routine to just go add some more, never change the oil or filter, just keep adding. That's one outfit I'd never buy anything they ever owned no matter how cheap it was on a sale. I'd think they do a lot better business of product endurance testing for companies rather than renting machines, most of their equipment survival rates are not all that long before hitting an auction somewhere.
That is funny, I have had several customers bring in Sunbelt machines for a once-over, that had pretty good maintenance records and looked like they were well taken care of. One we think may have been auctioned because of a "gremlin", it would run fine at light load but sputter out at full load, turned out to be a well hidden "rock screen" type filter that was part of the fuel pump, changed that and it was golden.
I bought a Genie battery powered scissor lift a few years ago from Iron Planet but it wasn't covered under their "Iron Clad Guarantee" which basically means if you get the equivalent of a giant paper weight, tough luck. That lift had an intermittent control problem which I tracked down to the joystick cabling. The hydraulic steering linkage needed to be replaced, there was always a loud CLUNK when maneuvering. So lesson learned. I gave it away to get it out of my shop.
@Randy88 Did you get your stuff?
Just showed up this afternoon, was complete and in perfect condition. The rep for the auction company apologized again claiming this kind of thing is extremely rare and never should have happened. Delivery cost me nothing, so they trucked it 400 miles one way at the auction companies expense through their sales reps. I told them anyone who bid on the item was bidding on everything complete, turns out they contacted the other bidders to do a "survey" of why they bid and what they were bidding on and it appears I was right, take the extra's out the seller wanted to keep and none of the other bidders were even interested in the original piece at all, basically they were after the extra's and that was all. Last year I bought a piece of shop equipment off an online auction, went to go get it, had all the correct forms in hand, loading was included. The auction rep asked me, get this, what the item was and what it did.................I asked him if it was indeed mine, he said it was, I told him I'd answer any or all of his questions after it was loaded, chained down and ready to leave. He was a bit puzzled as to why, but agreed, it took about two hours to move enough stuff to get to it, get it loaded onto my lowboy and chained down ready to go. Just as I was about to pull out he came over to get an answer. So I told him, he completely misidentified the item, I only stumbled across it by accident online, told him what it was, that it was only two years old, had never been used and that it cost almost 60,000 bucks new today, had every bit of tooling with it included, also never used and because of his error, I bought it for 600 bucks on his sale and he loaded it for free besides. The look on the guys face was complete shock and horror as I waved to him and told him to have a great day, I was pretty sure I just did and it was only getting better. Every once in a while a person gets lucky on items they buy online, it really helps if those listing stuff have no clue as to what it is, I also noticed the auction site took it off their items sold portion completely, like it never existed or was ever sold, imagine that??
Nice to hear a story with a happy ending.
OK I"ll ask, what was it??
Last year I bought a brand new cylinder bench, this go around I bought a crane with a lot of current certified lifting rigging.
My latest online purchase from Iron Planet was a cheap (cost wise) hydraulic grapple for my hoe to clean up junk, tree limbs, etc. from the property. Paid the bill and set up the freight on my own to get it like always. Pretty seamless and straight forward. A couple days later on a late Thursday afternoon I get a call from the yard manager where I bought the grapple and he tells me that he just sent the truck away that I had come to get it. I asked why and he said the truck was not a flat bed but a regular box trailer for freight. I said okay but why send it away without the load. The yard manager then breaks in to a tirade about he only loads heavy equipment on flat beds and he needed a heavy duty pallet and he wasn't going to drive around town looking for a heavy duty pallet then strap it down on his own dime. He then starts saying how freight companies don't haul "heavy equipment" so it was my fault for any additional charges I might incur, etc. etc. He said he told the freight driver to come back Monday (4 days later) after I, the buyer, figure out a solution for him, the yard manager 600 miles away, to load it. End of conversation. Being end of the day, I decided to cool down and call the freight company next morning. Next morning Friday, I call the freight company 1-800 customer service number and after explaining my situation, I was handed off to the regional manager for customer service. She puts me on hold and calls the local freight hub who services that area and verifies my story. She said all their trucks carry extra pallets and could have loaded it but said the yard manager turned their driver away (which I had already explained). She then asks me to verify if there was any hazardous material since it was 'heavy equipment' since that was the yard manager said it was. I said no, it's just a hydraulic grapple just like it says in the bid and quote I got from the freight company. Then I heard "Aaah... can you verify the hydraulics were drained, flushed, and capped to prevent hazardous material spillage?" I said no, I can't... to which she said "Okay, that's why the local hub manager said he couldn't pick it up and turned down the load." I start to explain that I described the grapple correctly in the bid (even used the exact dimensions and weight from the manufacturers website) but she said they don't read the bids per se and it's a computer generated system that quotes based on dimensions and weight only. I'm confused and frustrated as she starts to read some fine print somewhere where they don't pick up hazardous material and she has to abide by the local hub manager's decision. I said fine, cancel my load and ensure the truck doesn't come back on Monday so I don't incur any charges. She agrees and she cancelled the load and cancelled any pending charges. I decided to wait until the following Monday before I called anyone else or tried to get another LTL quote as I was pissed and knew it would be a bad conversation. Monday morning rolls around and I get a call from a guy who says he's the local freight hub manager and he's got a truck heading out to pick up my grapple in a few mins. Confused I asked if he had talked to his previous driver or the main office or seen anything in their computer systems about this debacle. The hub manager said that his last driver was turned away because the load wasn't ready yet and was instructed to come back on Monday and that's all he knows. And since one of his trucks was in the local area, the hub manager was sending it over. He called me to verify the load was ready as my contact info was listed as the loadout POC (even though the yard manager was listed in the quote, bill of laden, and release docs). I said I thought the load was cancelled and have no idea what the yard manager will do. Hub manager says, well, his truck is only a couple mins away so he'll call me back if any issues. 30 mins later my phone rings and I expect another bad conversation. This time the hub manager said the load was on a pallet, strapped down, and loaded without issue. He had no idea what the issue was the few days before nor with his main office. Grapple got delivered without issue and no additional fees. Just goes to show you how dependent you are when you rely on someone else to get something done. So many variables, personalities, and systems that don't always connect. I got lucky this time.
What a mess but glad it worked out for you. When I was dealing with a freight broker that kept lying to me about my load being picked up but it wasn't I got Iron Planet involved (this was several years ago) - that plus me going ballistic with the freight broker worked. Got my wired money returned. Contacted a trucking company directly and that all worked out fine.
I've bought a few vehicles/machines from internet auctions and while I've been disappointed a time or two I've never been burned. When I do my bidding I always consider there could be a major component that could need replaced and make an appropriate bid. If it turns out to need some major repair when it arrives, yea, I'm disappointed but I've made provisions in the purchase to pay for it. I don't always win the auction but I've avoided purchasing scrap metal.
I was at an auction quite a few years ago now, must be close to 15 years as time seems to fly and everyone there was talking about a large contractor and his house purchase over the winter. Seems this guy, local to where the auction was at, bought a piece of property down south and then bought a fabricated pull together house for a winter home down south. The house was built, and he had his own guys do the cement work on the lot for the pad it sat on, water, sewer, driveway install and even the electrical panel was in place, basically all they needed to do was get the house set and hook stuff up so to speak. So as the story goes, the contractor got cheap when it came to the trucking of his new house for that far so instead of using the house manufacturers dedicated movers, he decided to hire someone cheaper. So everything was arranged, the house was picked up on time, and a few days later his new house was supposed to arrive where his crew was waiting for it, crane was hired to set it in place and everything was good.................till it never showed up on the other end....................ever. Turns out, he builder of the house wasn't at fault, since his dedicated movers were not involved, the house movers he hired evaporated and had no business line working anymore, turns out the place he took care of the paperwork at, was an abandoned building that nobody was supposed to even be in and his house was nowhere to be found....................ever. Turns out there are no serial numbers on houses, so no law enforcement can even go looking for it, no idea what state it even went to let alone what town it ended up at and the buyer was out his money, trucking and the whole deal. Now I'd heard plenty of stories about stolen equipment, vehicles, even livestock but to steal a house was a new one for me.
I have bought a fair amount of stuff off Iron Planet and all has gone well but the freight situation always concerns me. The way they word the ship out is ridiculous. I have sold stuff on IP as well and I always make it as easy as possible on the buyer. I load the item, regardless of trailer type. Having been on both sides it is apparent that if the seller wants to be a PINA it is really easy to do. If they wanted to generate more sales, make the seller obligated to provide loading of the item. Spec the trailer if you need to, but trying to find someone to load an item on the other side of the country is a huge PINA.
Sounds like it was deliberate scam to steal a house...but wow...stealing a house!!! Ballsy! Gotta wonder about insurance fraud too.
Exactly. I buy a decent amount online without having physically seen it. Most of the time I get what I expect and I'm happy as the seller tries their best to be accurate and fair. But I always try to verify the shipping method and cost before I buy...which Iron and Gov Planet make impossible to do. It's really a gamble with those sites as some of their pickup locations are easy access for large trucks while others involve going through a military or so security gate with all kinds of pre-arranged ID checks and scheduling. At least Ritchie Bros sites are pretty open and straight forward...but I have had drivers turn down bids to go to Ritchie Bros due to long wait times for pick up. After I explain they would be picking up weeks after the auction closed and there should be no lines, they usually take the job. KSSS- just in case no one has said it- thanks for being a good seller! Good buyers appreciate it!
NOW THAT RITCHIE BROS OWNS MOST EQUIP AUCTIONS AND DRAW BIDDING FROM EVERY CORNER OF THE WORLD, YOU MIGHT AS WELL GO TO NEAREST DEALER TO BUY. PRICES ARE AS MUCH AS DEALERS AND SOME DEALERS STAND BEHIND THE SALE. AS IS WHERE IS AT AUCTIONS
Auction sites over here are getting really good at vague descriptions and then small print to indemnify themselves, the most recent is this little gem "run and drive" this is a yes and no tick box on the listing, when you click the small print it states under the yes box that the machine started and moved forward under its own power. BUT this is guarantee or warranty that it will do either at time of collection, so basically you're screwed if you get there and it doesn't start or move. In the current climate of restriction on movement I really do believe governments need to get involved to force these company's to list honestly with no caveats and take honest pictures of any damage leaks etc, i don't understand why they don't anyway as it would give buyers more confidence and probably drive prices higher given you know the truth and if its not as listed you can throw it back at them.
For heavy equipment in the states, no seller is required to disclose what is wrong with a machine. "Let the buyer beware." Plausible deniability is the the normal course of business when it comes to something used.
Better to play dumb and not say much because if you say the wrong thing someone will try to sue you for misrepresenting the machine. There are a lot of unscrupulous sellers (and auctions) that don't care if people get ripped off buying worn out junk. I don't think auctions would be feasible if the auction company had to have independent inspectors come in and verify the condition of every machine. It's best to have your own inspector take a look before buying. That's one of the reasons sometimes it's better to buy from a dealer. People buying stuff online without ever seeing it in person are taking a real gamble unless there is a warranty or guarantee.
Just my experiences for the day. Looking for a couple machines. Main issue with ANY auction, at least for me, pretty much nothing is local. This brings a HUGE time waster because you waste the time/fuel/etc to go "look", waste time figuring things out, then, as always, the price shoots WAY over the moon. Like thousands over good retail. Do people not realize auction equipment is being sold for a reason? The reality is as long as there is an idiot willing to pay too much, sellers will continue with it. It doesn't hurt them one bit! As is the case with one machine today, the listing both noted and pictures show active cylinder leaks, grease and oil all over, etc. Contact seller and he tells me they recently put a new UC under it and there is nothing leaking!!!! What do you do with that? I was going to drive the 3hrs to go see it, then reminded myself that everything sells for too much anyway. Bid like it needs repair and prepare to lose. If I go look, it will still sell too high. It sold for pretty much exactly what retail might bring. BUT, people say "go to a dealer".... The dealer will charge probably another 10-20K for that same machine but give you a "warranty"! lol Yes they pad things up for that warranty and it is rarely much of one. 100hr/30day warranty? IDK, I have never bought from a dealer. All I know is we need an excavator bad and I cannot seem to find anything that is even close to a "deal".... People think I want something for nothing, but the reality is people sell for a reason! Usually around 10K hrs, knowing the pumps are close to death.
If you want a mini-ex, the rental houses usually turn them over at about 2,000 hours or so. A nearby Kubota dealer was selling a 5 ton mini rental with 80 hours for a really good price, this was about 18 months ago. I was really tempted but my local Kubota dealer wasn't exactly close to me. Different situation for the large hoes based on my auction observations, those usually have thousands of hours.