ComplaintsforUnisell Auto

• Initial Complaint

  05/21/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Purchased 2022 Audi A4 with 9500miles April 29, 2023. In order to make the sale, they didn’t disclose rebuilt title up front. Vehicle displays symptom for starting malfunction same day it was purchased. Diagnosis is to replace hybrid battery, costing near $1,000 for parts and several hours of labor for replacement. They promised the car was as good as new with no issues. No resolution has been reached. They submitted order for the battery with Audi of Omaha which required a back order of 6+ months. Recent check in with Audi of Omaha it was found the battery was recieved. The past 2 weeks Unisell has avoided taking any action and has provided no steps at resolution. Loss for over-paying on rebuilt vehicle is at least $3,000. Loss from repairing vehicle to sellable condition (start malfunction) is estimated at around $1,500 via battery replacement. Loss from having to sell the car that never would have been purchased without original deception would be a total exceeding $7,000.

  

  Business response

  05/22/2024

  All our vehicles are advertised with the disclosure of the title status.  Attached is the copy of the vehicle posting online with the title status disclosure. Also attached is the copy of the signed vehicle condition report  where customer acknowledges that our selling vehicles had a Salvage/Rebuilt status. Customer have purchased the vehicle "AS IS" with no warranty.  Attached is the signed copy of the " Buyers Guide". with AS IS No Dealer Warranty.  Car has been in an operating and driving condition at the time of the purchase. Legally, with all the signed contracts and agreements between the customer and the dealership, it is customer's responsibility to maintain the mechanical condition of the purchased vehicle.  

  Customer response

  05/28/2024

   
  ********** ********
  
  I am rejecting this response.

  Unisell made no effort to disclose the title status the entire day of the sale over the course of about 6 hours with many conversations with 3+ staff members. The online listing is not sufficient. Even if the online listing used the correct term (either salvage or rebuilt), it would still not be sufficient. The term "branded" for title condition is vague intentionally and not well known. Also, and most importantly, the title condition of the vehicle must be stated in person before agreeing on price and signing all the final documents. I can't remember all details of an online write-up. And in general, with 100+ vehicles on the lot they would be quick to switch you to a different vehicle without mentioning the title status. **** ****** *** ***** never told me it was a rebuilt until the service contract warranty sales pitch began, which was at the very end of a long and exhausting day. Much of the agonizingly long trade-in process was cause by Unisell and was probably intentional to put maximum pressure on to sign at the end of the day. I had to have my family drive in since my wife needed to sign the title, they were all waiting on me to finish the transaction. This was the worst possible time to make a decision about the rebuilt status issue. On top of this, in the sales room with Max and Fatah they gave absolutely no time to think it over, and no indication that I could back out of the sale. Also, no mention of renegotiating the price which was now not much too high for the vehicle's condition.
  
  Apart from the sales tactics issue and up-front deceipt. Unisell has succeeded in making the attempted repair beyond miserable. They told me 5+ times in separate phone calls and in person twice over course of 8+ months that they acknowledged that the start malfunction (presumably caused by defective hybrid battery) would be repaired by Unisell. Unisell told me within the first calls that they would look at the vehicle and attempt to repair their issue. Within 2-3 months of purchase Obaid proceeded with an order to Audi of Omaha for the hybrid battery which he said would be paid by Unisell. Never one mention of warranty from Unisell as this was obviously a pre-existing issue with sub-par rebuild -- all batteries should be replaced on a crashed vehicle, especially as the rear impact incident would be likely to damage the trunk-mounted batteries. The displayed fault was reported to Unisell within 3 days of sale and the error on the dash first happened on the first day driving back from the dealership. The start malfunction error is continuous, being displayed at all times, and has additional pop-up on the cluster displayed every single time the vehicle is started. The hybrid system also does not function correctly and stop/start feature never worked.

  I can't get away from this vehicle as the title status means Audi of Omaha will give me $15,000 for the vehicle, which is better than some other dealers and is the highest dealer offer I have received. If sold privately (which would be a nightmare in itself), I expect I would have to pay for the start malfunction/battery issue and then take another roughly $5,000-7,000 loss on top of that to account. Also there is another issue with the rear tail lights that is almost certainly due to poor rebuild of the back end of the vehicle.
  
  I am requesting Unisell buy the vehicle back at BlueBook private sale value (good condition), which Obaid promised was the actual value of the car when I told him about the issues with low dealer offers. Unisell marked up my trade-in vehicle by about $5,500 if I remember correctly, so they've probably already made more than $10,000 off me while I am out probably more than that amount.

  ********** **** ******

  

  Business response

  06/11/2024

  In our previous response we attached all the proof where it shows in bold letters title status disclosure where customer signed at the bottom. We don’t understand how this could be vague description or explanation. Customer is an adult who could understand, read and write. Moreover he did sign the Buyer’s Order AS IS with no DELAER warranty. All the attachments with customer’s signature have been disclosed and attached in our previous response. 

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