Mr.Transmission

[Circa89]

What are everyones feelings on this.
I was about to sell my 1999 Ford Windstar in June and suddenly the Transmission blew. I figured I better fix it to get it sold. The bill came in at $2800. Wow, but not unexpected.
I tried to sell it on Autotrader with little success and then the auction with no results. I tried UsedCalgary.com (an awesome site) and wound up selling the Van for a mere $3200 on New Years Day.

The nice young lady I sold it to had driven it for 5 days and now the Transmission is shot once again. I had only put 1500kms on the new tranny.

Here the kicker. Mr.Transmission will NOT warranty the transmission because ownership of the Van had changed.
1500kms is about 3 weeks driving for me and they will not honor their work because of a technicality.

What can I do to help this poor lady?

I don't think I can sue or call BBB because it clearly states the warranty is void once the car is sold. Unfortunatley we both neglected to read that fine print on the back.
Help me help her! I feel like a schmuck but can't afford to buy the Van back and fix the tranny once again.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by Circa89

What are everyones feelings on this.
I was about to sell my 1999 Ford Windstar in June and suddenly the Transmission blew. I figured I better fix it to get it sold. The bill came in at $2800. Wow, but not unexpected.
I tried to sell it on Autotrader with little success and then the auction with no results. I tried UsedCalgary.com (an awesome site) and wound up selling the Van for a mere $3200 on New Years Day.

The nice young lady I sold it to had driven it for 5 days and now the Transmission is shot once again. I had only put 1500kms on the new tranny.

Here the kicker. Mr.Transmission will NOT warranty the transmission because ownership of the Van had changed.
1500kms is about 3 weeks driving for me and they will not honor their work because of a technicality.

What can I do to help this poor lady?

I don't think I can sue or call BBB because it clearly states the warranty is void once the car is sold. Unfortunatley we both neglected to read that fine print on the back.
Help me help her! I feel like a schmuck but can't afford to buy the Van back and fix the tranny once again.

Well, in all honesty I'd have to say that its her problem now. If it says change of ownership voids the warranty (which I think is a total scam anyhow) then she is hooped. Its not your responsibility any more.

[Circa89]

I realize that I am off the hook legally but not morally. This Lady has two small kids and can barely afford the gas let alone a new tranny. Aparently she just had the head gasket replaced last week. The check engine light was on but she negelected to spend the $75 on a mechanical inspection before she bought the Van.
I sold the Van in good faith but now it looks like I tried to screw her over.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Circa89

she negelected to spend the $75 on a mechanical inspection before she bought the Van.

I made that mistake................. once.

If the Mr. Transmission warranty says sale voids it; then that is the case. You could have made arrangements for you to take it in yourself; but it's too late for that.

One of the reasons places offer good warrantues is they realize that a certain percentage of vehicles will be sold within a certain period.

Edit- just curious.... did you spend $2800 and then right away sell it for $3200?

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by Circa89

I realize that I am off the hook legally but not morally. This Lady has two small kids and can barely afford the gas let alone a new tranny. Aparently she just had the head gasket replaced last week. The check engine light was on but she negelected to spend the $75 on a mechanical inspection before she bought the Van.
I sold the Van in good faith but now it looks like I tried to screw her over.

Well I mean what can you do, right? Can you afford to buy the van back? Probably not, right? Neither could I in your situation. You're not a crook or a bad guy, sometimes bad luck just happens.

[Circa89]

Originally Posted by ken0042

.

Edit- just curious.... did you spend $2800 and then right away sell it for $3200?

Well I thought it was useless to try to sell a van with no tranny. I tried to sell it for much higher but I had no takers. I finally said lets get this Van out of my life and cut my losses. So I sold it for $3200.
In retrospect I should have sold it at the Auction for $1000 with no Tranny.
all in all I spent about $7000 in repairs last year alone.

I hate Ford!

[Flashpoint]

Crap. Tough one. No easy answers.

So is their reasoning that the warantee doesn't change ownership if the van does? I.e. you are still the owner of the warantee? I mean, do they check the title when they fix the tranny? Call them and ask them.

If you still own the warantee, get her to sell the van back to you for $1. Then it is back under warantee, get it fixed, and sell it back to her for $1.

I gotta say - Mr. Transmission sounds pretty crooked to me - if you warantee something, the warantee shouldn't depend on who owns the van.

Also - this would be a great story for a local news station. Love the "2 small kids" angle.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

If you still own the warantee, get her to sell the van back to you for $1. Then it is back under warantee, get it fixed, and sell it back to her for $1.

This is my suggestion aswell. Depending on how the warranty is worded for change of ownership this should work. Also I suggest never buying a Ford again. Fix Or Repair Daily.

My family has had terrible luck with used cars. That's why the last one I bought was brand new. My brothers used car he bought didn't even make it home after signing the papers before it broke down.

But nice to see your trying to help the lady. Most people would just cut and run.

[pope04]

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

Also - this would be a great story for a local news station. Love the "2 small kids" angle.

I'd give Tony Tighe at Global or Lea Williams-Doherty at CFCN a call. They'll let you know where you stand.

I had some problems with my '95 Windstar back in '98 or so and Tighe helped me out.

[Circa89]

I'll call the head office in Toronto and see if the warranty is valid if the ownership is transferred back to me.
If all else fails I'll give Tont a call to see if we can't get this sorted away.

... Well, Toronto says that it is still null and void because now it would be 2 ownership changes and therefore it would be doubley null and void. Arrgh!

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Circa89

... Well, Toronto says that it is still null and void because now it would be 2 ownership changes and therefore it would be doubley null and void. Arrgh!

Are they all on computers, or is it a printed invoice? I'm just wondering if she sold the van back to you, and you just happened to walk in (or maybe drive in) to another location, how they would even know.

[Circa89]

I thought about that too. However, we have a small issue with that. The Van's transmission is gone, Therefore it is undriveable. It has been towed to the Mr.Transmission in question and is sitting in the lot right now. Therefore I would have to get a tow truck to haul it to another Mr. Transmission and I have a pretty good feeling they would pick up the phone and call the MacLeod Trail location to see why it wasn't brougt back to the store that did the original work. I don't know I think we are done with this and have to bite the bullet. I guess I can offer to pay half of the bill to a maximum of $500 or something.

[ken0042]

Before doing that I would call the consumer watchdogs as mentioned. Even if it doesn't make the news; Lea Williams-Doherty helped me once just with info over email. (That's all it took to solve my problem.) It might just take a phone call from a news station to the head office to get it fixed in your favour.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Burninator

This is my suggestion aswell. Depending on how the warranty is worded for change of ownership this should work. Also I suggest never buying a Ford again. Fix Or Repair Daily.

My family has had terrible luck with used cars. That's why the last one I bought was brand new. My brothers used car he bought didn't even make it home after signing the papers before it broke down.

But nice to see your trying to help the lady. Most people would just cut and run.

No that's Found On Road Dead

I commend you for trying to help this lady, I would feel terrible and would do the same in this situation. It's unfortunate that Mr. Transmission found out about the ownership change, otherwise the lady could have sold it back to you for $0.01 and you could have taken it in for warranty.

But I would do what others have suggested. Call a consumer watchdog, let the media know. If they pick up your story, usually the places that are involved are embarassed into making it right if they care at all about their business and reputation.

[greyshep]

That is ridiculous. Terrible on the part of Mr. Transmission.

It is nice to hear that you are trying to assist this woman. Very stand up thing to do. Not enough of that going around these days. Kudos.

Mr. Transmission obviously doesnt care about negative advertising. I certainly will avoid them if I ever have problems now.

Definitely take this up with Tony Tighe, etc.

I am not sure if you have already given this crooked org. enough info that they would call you on it if you did the ownership swap again, but that may be your best option here. I really cant see them checking registry records if you came in with the van.

[Frank the Tank]

There is a consumer watchdog company dedicated to the car industry but I can't remember what they are called. They do a show on W5 every year about the best/worst car dealerships in Canada. They might have some advice.

Also, do you know any lawyers? Sometimes just a stern letter from my buddy gets me action.

[Ironhorse]

Any shop that has the audacity to charge $2800 for a (obviously shady) rebuild that fails after 1500 kms, and then tries to weasel out of the warranty on a technicality, deserves to be tarred and feathered.

Good ideas on following up this up with the news stations. I, like others on this board, applaud your actions on helping this poor lady.

[CaptainCrunch]

I don't know what you can do if its a clearly written policy, Mr Transmission would certainly have the hammer. The only thing that you can hope for is the heavy hammer of public pressure.