I walked straight into the middle of that dealerships grand opening, balloons and free hot dogs and a radio station broadcasting live, but I did not come to cuss anybody out. I came with a folder, and beside me stood an investigator from the state motor vehicle board and a reporter from the radio station itself.
The salesman spotted me and his blessed-day smile vanished.
He told me AS-IS meant the truck stopped being his problem the second I drove off, but AS-IS does not cover fraud, and a retired railroad man knows how to follow a paper trail.
After my transmission dropped on the interstate, I did not just eat the eight thousand dollars. I had a mechanic examine the truck, and he found the transmission had been packed with a heavy sealant, a cheap trick that quiets a dying transmission just long enough to get it off the lot. That is not AS-IS. That is knowingly selling a concealed defect, which is fraud.
I took the mechanics report to the state motor vehicle board. And it turned out I was far from alone. A dozen buyers, many of them older folks who paid cash and trusted a handshake, had the same story: a doctored vehicle, a quick sale, and have a blessed day.
The board had been building a case. My documented report helped complete it. And the local radio station, the very one broadcasting from the dealers grand opening, had been quietly investigating consumer complaints.
So on the day of the big tent sale, with the whole town eating free hot dogs, the board investigator arrived to serve notice, and the radio reporter, live on the air, asked the salesman to explain the sealant in a dozen transmissions.
The grand opening did not recover from that.
The investigation confirmed the fraud. The dealership was fined heavily, ordered to refund every defrauded buyer, and the salesmans license was pulled. Several of the doctored sales were referred for criminal charges.
I got my eight thousand back. So did the other buyers. And I bought a good honest truck from a dealer across the county, one that hauls my grandkids and my fishing boat just fine.
I never cussed. I never made a scene. I just did what a railroad man does: I followed the line, car by car, back to the truth.
He called me old timer and told me to have a blessed day. I did have a blessed day, eventually, the day the state shut down his fraud and put my money back in my pocket. Should have had a mechanic look, he told me. I did have a mechanic look, just a little later than he expected, and that mechanic is the reason that dealership sells doctored trucks to no one anymore.