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I don't think the "Scam Review" section was here when I posted this, so I thought I'd post this here as a warning in case anyone ends up dealing with this guy. This is the same posting I had in the "Brawl Room" but I thought it would be appropriate for here too. FYI, it's been almost a year since this took place.
This post is titled "almost trade" because, well, we almost traded. So here's the deal. I offered my bagged 84 S-10 for a 2000 Suzuki TL1000R. I used to own a TL1000S and it was such a fun and unique bike, that I wanted another one. Anyways, I made the offer and the guy told me he was coming up to the Relaxed Atmosphere show in Millington, TN. Since I'm right outside of Memphis, I told him I'd meet up with him and let him check out my truck. I told him I wasn't going to trade right away, because I never trade just right away like that. So I meet up with him in Millington like we agreed and let him see the truck. The guy who owns the bike calls himself "The Lefty" and he's trading his bike for my truck so he can give the truck to his friend, Nathan, and Nathan is going to pay him back for it. He likes the truck and I ask him lots of questions about the bike. Mainly I asked:
How many miles are on it? 16000
Is the plastic cracked or missing screws? No, it has one crack on the battery cover and there's a small rash where it fell over in the driveway.
He asked me if I was serious about trading. I told him if I checked the bike out and it wasn't knocking, smoking, or otherwise not to my liking, then I wasn't trading.
I told him I wouldn't trade until after the car show my work was having on Sept. 12. Lefty was kinda being a douche about it, but finally agreed to wait. After the show that Saturday, Nathan asks when I wanna meet up. I said I'd meet up next weekend. Lefty texts me later and says "Forget it. You're too wishy washy." He said that because I kept asking Nathan questions about the bike. I like to be an informed consumer. My apologies.
I dealt mainly with Nathan for the next 2 or 3 weeks because he seemed pretty level-headed. Finally last Sunday, er, yesterday, depending on what time zone is reading this, I made the 220 mile drive to Birmingham and he made the 2xx drive from Bum[censored], GA to meet up with me. I left about 5 a.m., took my time driving, made a few stops, and made it there by 9 a.m. or so. He gets the bike unloaded and holy sh** it was a piece. There were a lot of mounting tabs on the plastics missing, screws missing, jerry-rigged plastic screwed into the ramair ducts for turn signals to mount, much of the plastic was misaligned, two fairing pieces were held together with zip ties, the mirrors looked like something robbed off of a 70's model F100, the right side pipe was scarred up, the bar end fell out, the clutch cover was so new you could still smell the plastic wrapping it came in (leading me to believe without a doubt this bike had done worse than tipping over in a driveway), and even though I didn't take any of the plastics off, I could see things in the motor bay kinda hanging off. The power commander wasn't even secured with the two-sided tape or velcro or whatever they come with. It was kinda just hanging around. Then when I went ahead and cranked it, it took a minute before it fired up. It sounded like hammered ass and the odometer read 245xx. He lied about the miles and the condition. That all being said, keep in mind my truck is complete, runs like a top, and looks, drives, and rides pretty damn good.
I told Nathan (Lefty wasn't there) that I wasn't feeling it. He kept talking to me about the bike and about my truck, and I kept telling him I couldn't do it. He started whining about how he spent 100 bucks driving down here and how he didn't want to hear that. Hell, I'm saving him money by not trading. He doesn't have to drive two vehicles back now, just one. He was making me nervous because he kept staring at the bike and had this look on his face. I tried being a nice guy and saying "I appreciate you meeting up with me. Sometimes these things happen. I'm glad I made the trip even though things didn't work out." My friend Bryan kept reaching in his pocket and fingering his knife because he was nervous. I kept my right arm down near my holster because I was getting the same feeling. I mean I had 2 copies of 2 bills of sale in there and my title. He had two friends with him. I kept telling him I don't regret making the trip because sometimes you don't get what you want. It's better to inspect it in person and turn it away, than not make the trip and wonder about the trade that got away. Right before Nathan finally took a hint and started to load the bike back up on the trailer he said "Did you want to ride it or anything?" I just shook my head. Yeah, I'm gonna ride your hoopty bike and then when something breaks or I fall over, then I'm liable for it. No sir.
So he loaded it back on the trailer. His two friends were already in the truck. I'm getting ready for Nathan to walk over to me and shake my hand so I can tell him thanks for making the trip, sorry it didn't work out. Instead, he throws his Mountain Dew into the bushes, gets in the truck, slams the door, and drives off in his 95 Silverado or whatever with the 4.3 and a holed out muffler that sounds like old diarrhea, and roars, er, purrs off, dogging his POS the whole way until he was out of earshot. Bryan says, "What a douchebag." And I'm like, "Yeah that was a [censored] move".
You'd think that'd be the end of things and I'd never hear from either one again. That wasn't the case. My phone battery was at 12% having used the last half navigating to the waffle house we met at. For some reason the car charger wasn't working so I turned it off in case I needed that last bit for an emergency. I turn it on when I get home at 3 p.m. I have a text message and a voicemail. I deleted the voicemail, but the text I had to read anyway. It is as follows, and I quote:
"you are a piece of [censored], i would have whooped your ass, you seen all the pics before hand, we will meet again count on it THE LEFTY"
To be fair, I did see pics before hand, but none of them showed zip ties, misaligned plastics, or other misfortunes I mentioned earlier. The bike looked pristine. Why are you going to talk so much sh** when you're 700 miles away? And also, how old are we? I'm 25, about to be 26 in October, and he's older than me. Nathan's about my age with a son. Is that a good example for him? Fighting because you didn't get your way? I used to do that when I was 5. Throwing hissy fits because I didn't get my way.
My whole point is, if your deal doesn't work out, just be a gentleman (or lady) and thank the other person for their time, say you're sorry things didn't work out, and wish them luck. Don't be a king sized douche tard and try to fight them.
I apologize for my rant, but I needed to get that off my chest. I look forward to any comments, positive or otherwise, that others in this community have to share. Thank you.
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