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History How to cheat and avoid getting cheated! (Pre1965) The old timer's stories....

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Nicholas Coe, Apr 7, 2020.

  1. carbking
    Joined: Dec 20, 2008
    Posts: 3,715

    carbking
    Member

    If we are going to flip to the other side of the coin, maybe 40 years ago when I still had the time to restore carburetors, received one that was literally broken to pieces. Called the customer, and he was up in arms, and filed a claim with UPS. The box really didn't look that bad. I took pictures for UPS, and also had another one of the exact same carburetors. Placed it on the box to take more pictures. The complete carb would NOT fit in the box.

    UPS denied his claim. I boxed everything up in a much bigger box, and UPS sent it back to him.

    I never heard from him again.

    And while not exactly in the genre of the thread, it is related. Some 30 years ago, got a call from an Allard owner, with the Cad V-8 and dual Rochester carbs. He wanted them mechanically and cosmetically restored; but he wanted a guarantee that he would get his original carbs back, no exchange. At the time, we had been in business some 20 years, gave him references, and told him he had my word, but other than that, I didn't know how to guarantee that to his satisfaction. About a month later, received the carbs. When I turned the carbs upside down to remove the throttle bodies for disassembly, found he had used metal marking stamps, and stamped his initials in the underside of the bowls, CRACKING both bowls! Well, he got the same carbs back, in the same condition he sent them.....ruined! Guess he was afraid I was going to swap him some junk, so he created some junk!

    Would be my guess that anyone in business for a few years could give you enough stories such as that to fill a book!

    Jon.
     
  2. Great story! That's the stuff.

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  3. Early in my car dealership parts department days a guy came in wanting a trunk key for the car he bought the day before. He had a registration with a date stamp of the previous day. I called the car division key office (almost 50 years ago, that is how it was done back then) and got the number. Cut the key. He paid and left.

    He came back in about five minutes later. No work. I cut another one to the same code, accidents did happen with the old Curtis Industries punches. Same result. I call to verify the key code with the car division, same code, checked the cutting chart again to make sure I did not make a mistake.

    I handed him his registration back and said "It looks like someone changed the lock on your Catalina." To which he replied "My car's a Bonneville." I then said "Sir, your serial number shows this to be a Catalina" He and I then went out to his car, sure was a Bonneville, no mistaking those taillights and side trim plus the length of the car.

    Yep, VIN tag was changed. Wrong rivets, bent in middle and straightened. To say the least he was not happy.
     
  4. dan c
    Joined: Jan 30, 2012
    Posts: 2,520

    dan c
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    i worked with an ex-used-car salesman. a customer once asked, "is this a good car?"
    "why, it sure is!"
    sales manager took him aside and instructed him to never tell a customer that; it's an "implied warranty."
    "am i supposed to say the car's a POS?"
    "no, son, but i'll tell ya, we thought the world had come to an end when we couldn't turn odometers back anymore!"
     
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  5. About 68-69 I worked at a Standard station. Down the road was a "we tote the note" lot, a one man band who did all his own work, body and paint out of a one car garage behind his house and lot. Bunch of shady work to say the least. He had a 65 Impala his wife drove. They brought it into the gas station to fix the exhaust just after he put it back together, hard front end hit. So we put it on the hoist, single post. It's up in the air, suddenly we hear a loud snap from topside. Lower the car, the windshield stress cracked in a couple places. Guess his backyard frame and body pull did not work as planned.
     
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  6. Another car dealer story. Bit o/t as this happened in '73. Guy came into the parts department for a oil dipstick for a 73 full size car engine. Another counterman got the initial request, I came in during the customer's second trip, luck of the draw as the guy that originally sold it was now at lunch. So the customer is badmouthing up a storm how nobody can find him the right part. So I start digging into this, turns out the customer got a "great deal on a emissions test engine, brand new", yadda yadda. I look it up again, verify all correct. Tell the customer this, he then tells me "You don't know anymore than the other guy did." So at this point I get pissed but bit my tongue. I ask him if he has the car with him, got a smart ass answer back from him. So I go out, open the hood on his car, a 66 Impala. I look at it, first thing I said is "Not a '73 motor", this starts the downward slope. He starts to argue with me, I said "Nice orange paint job but it's not a '73" as I point out the heads have no temp sensor fitting on the sides together with the large spark plugs and the road draft tube. Now he shuts up, I go to the engine number boss and said "Two letter code, 69 or earlier engine". He then said "You're wrong". So we go in, I start grabbing catalogs all the time he is jabbering at the counter how we don't know anything. I finally find it, with glee I said "You bought this as a '73 engine? You got screwed!" Turns out the engine coded out to be a early 60's medium duty truck engine.
     
  7. One of my gullible salesmen let a guy off the lot on a test drive without taking his license for collateral. Got the car back three days later after a call from short term parking at the airport. Guy had taken a 100 mile one way test drive and had used my car as his cab.. Couldn't really get mad at the guy. He'd locked it, and left the keys above the visor. Salesman wanted to call the cops, but I reminded him he'd let the guy take the car.
     
  8. 500caddy
    Joined: Feb 8, 2019
    Posts: 92

    500caddy

    I saw that to it must be true


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  9. Oh Lord that's bad! Soo dangerous!

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  10. Good point. Fair play to him!

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  11. 57Custom300
    Joined: Aug 21, 2009
    Posts: 1,424

    57Custom300
    Member
    from Arizona

    I watched my old man "patch up" more than one old yblock Ford doing that for customers that couldn't afford to fix their cars. He didn't do it to cheat anyone, just get them down the road for a while.
     
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  13. Gabby
    Joined: Apr 14, 2007
    Posts: 299

    Gabby
    Member

    I worked for a Ford dealer back in 73. A old salesman there told me they let a guy take home a 36 Ford for his wife to see. He later returned it and said his wife didn't like it. A few days later they went to move it and it ran like crap. When they raised the hood they saw a very rusty crappy motor. He guy had removed the worn out flat head from his work boat.and put in the car.
     
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  14. Johnny Gee
    Joined: Dec 3, 2009
    Posts: 12,603

    Johnny Gee
    Member
    from Downey, Ca

    ^^^^^ Reminiscent of the good old Hi Po rent a car day's.
     
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  15. Gearhead Graphics
    Joined: Oct 4, 2008
    Posts: 3,890

    Gearhead Graphics
    Member
    from Denver Co

    I used to work for a body shop, I was more or less the gofer/shop monkey. College tuition/beer money.
    We were the choice shop for a couple of shady dealerships. My boss had low morals. Steel wool into the kitty hair to cover rust morals.
    he also bought cars from the auction and would fix/flip them

    Finished paint on a real sharp looking little blazer. I put it back together. most of the interior panels were in with drywall screws (they held it in that way when he bought it)
    Kid bought the blazer, deal was he came back the next week and we swapped out the aftermarket nice stereo for a factory on. Kid never came back. Boss was pissed about that for months.

    I never decided which one of them got screwed more.
     
  16. 37 caddy
    Joined: Mar 4, 2010
    Posts: 487

    37 caddy
    Member
    from PEI Canada

    Wasnt me,but ive heard of some guys taking a older VW beetle for a test drive,and swapping the motors before they brought it back,its real easy to switch the motors in them.My son is into them,when he got his first one back in 1997,he was 17,the one he bought was a real POS,anyway the motor had to come out of it,i had never even had the hood up on one of them before,we had that motor sitting on the ground in less then 10 minutes,so i guess it is possible. Harvey
     
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  17. Hopefully he got caught! That's plain theft.

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  18. A study in hypocrisy. DMV tried to sell me an out-of-state, stolen, two year old, low mileage Mercedes 450SL for about 10 cents on the dollar. Car matched the legit paper work. Too bad the seller didn't. I motioned my salesman to call the cops, and kept the seller talking and showing me the car till they showed up. Should have seen him trying to explain that he was part of a 'sting' operation DMV had set up. Can we all say 'entrapment'. Tax payers were the ones cheated that day since they were paying that ass jockey's wages.
     
  19. Hnstray
    Joined: Aug 23, 2009
    Posts: 12,355

    Hnstray
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Quincy, IL

    C'mon Harvey....I think there is more than a little BS in that story...:D 10 minutes.....? 20 I can believe..;)
     
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  20. liliysdad
    Joined: Apr 1, 2013
    Posts: 98

    liliysdad
    Member
    from Oklahoma

    Cool story...but that's not entrapment. Entrapment requires enticing an innocent person to do something they would not normally do. Sneaky =/= Entrapment.

    What you describe is literally every buy bust/undercover deal works.
     
  21. So... you're saying that I would normally buy a stolen car? And that I'm not an innocent person? :confused:
     
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  22. Hnstray
    Joined: Aug 23, 2009
    Posts: 12,355

    Hnstray
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Quincy, IL

    Of course it is a form of entrapment.......RJP didn't seek out the seller, the 'seller' came to him with a rigged deal. The legal definition may differ, and that does matter in court, but legal can be unethical in it's form. And, I want to impress on you...I AM a Law and Order advocate. But I am also a realist and pragmatic.......RJP was rightly offended by your post.

    Ray
     
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  23. s55mercury66
    Joined: Jul 6, 2009
    Posts: 4,335

    s55mercury66
    Member
    from SW Wyoming

    I'm gonna go a little off the rails here on an entrapment type of story. Years ago, a friend gave me a law library. Yes, it is a full pickup load of books. Anyway, thumbing through some of it, I found a case where Bobb Chevrolet, in Columbus, Ohio, had left a car outside overnight with the keys in it. You know what happened? A kid actually stole it! Well, turns out Bobb had created an "attractive nuisance" by leaving this car out in their neighborhood (yes, the court mentioned the fact that it was a bad neighborhood), and so the thief was therefore not guilty of the crime. I wonder if those poor unfortunates on "Bait Car" should have had that kid's attorney. Anyhoo, back to the tales of woe of yore.
     
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  24. Hnstray
    Joined: Aug 23, 2009
    Posts: 12,355

    Hnstray
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Quincy, IL

    @s55mercury66

    It appears the ONLY time we will be called to account for our behavior is on the apocryphal 'Judgement Day'.......not soon enough in many cases....:D
     
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  25. His "kid" worked at that same station. Drifter type, came up from down south. I got fired because of him. He was caught dipping into our assigned cash register drawers. We each had a key for our individual drawers, while nosing around in the back storeroom he found extra keys and used those to help himself to supplemental income. I was the first to get fired, another friend got it too. The owner got suspicious of him. His drawer was never short so he set him up, he fell for the trap. I got rehired with a raise, I had no hard feelings over it. I was glad to see that dumb ass get caught, he was lucky he didn't get prosecuted or his ass beaten by the owner, both were distinct possible outcomes. I ran into the "kid" a couple years later by accident. He had a sob story how his wife left him, out of work, no money, could I "loan" him a few bucks! Don't think he expected me to to tell him to have a sexual encounter with himself.
     
  26. KCTA Chris
    Joined: Jan 16, 2002
    Posts: 436

    KCTA Chris
    Member

    Maybe not a big cheat but when my legally blind father in-law and his brother had a car lot a few years ago he would put little braille stickers in the windshield. His braille tags not only clued him to the make and model but also sale price and his auction price and issues so he could "work" with his customers on the spot.
     
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  27. That is one of the exact reasons why Bait car shows are no longer a thing. They got challenged in court and lost. Citing your case. Boom.

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  28. John Starr
    Joined: Sep 14, 2016
    Posts: 139

    John Starr
    Member

    The only story I know is when, in 1915, my grandfather sold his brand new Ford Model T for only $25 bucks less than what he paid for it new. This was after;

    The car had literally just been driven for weeks cross country on the new Lincoln Highway from the east coast to San Francisco, a lot of it off road, experiencing seven blowouts, limping into one town with sagebrush and burlap stuffed into the rim, and being sunk to the roof in a river, dragged out by a team of horses, engine taken apart on the shore, sand cleaned out, engine put back together on the shore, successfully started...

    A tavern owner in town agreed to show the car around and try to sell it, taking a small commission if he was successful.

    Despite busting a leaf spring during the test ride with his buyer, the barkeep got the buyer to pay top dollar for the heap. How? I’ve always wondered what the tavern owner told the buyer, or did to promote the sale.

    Heck he probably told him the truth! “This is one tough little car, it’s proven. Take it or leave it”.

    :)
     
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2020
  29. Outstanding story! I'm gonna remember that one.

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  30. lonejacklarry
    Joined: Sep 11, 2013
    Posts: 1,498

    lonejacklarry
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    The reason that "Bait Car" is off the air is that they simply were not renewed. As for as the "challenged in court and lost" part of your statement: The only lost case was when a detective failed to completely advise the suspect of his Miranda rights. The detective told the suspect " "You watch TV. You know your rights and all that?" The prosecutor threw the case out.
     
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