What is the WORST deal you've ever been a part of?

J3ff

Seller or buyer, tell us your worst deal and the details? 

Mine is easy, it's right in this forum. Buy a boat for 20k, get it home, oil turns white, all mechanics on vacation, spend labor day sitting on it in a parking lot and putting another 20k into it in the form of a new engine and transom mount...and then winterize it 3 weeks after that.

I just got F'd over again on a jetski.. lol...... figured a family of firefighters who owned 10 different kinds of vehicles would know how to describe their item for sale and not try to hide anything.  Just sent off a 10,000 word email to them basically saying "shame on you".. either way, point of this post is to share our mutual misery and laugh about it while having a drink..

Tell me, what's the worst deal you've ever been a part of?? 

zaverin1

Well
i am
sorry for your troubles but always inspect and survey 

J3ff

No no, that's not what this thread is about, tell us your worst!! Imagine pulling your stool up to a bar and sharing war stories. 

zaverin1

Ok
my Jetski lol

zaverin1

Purchased a high powered seadoo with already race engine in it lol
checked her all out and it passed with flying colors 

4th of July I blew the engine on it while up north 
needless to say no she makes more power and has a super cool sticker.
lol
3k into the engine and 
2 stroke advisory 
you just got smoked sticker
priceless 

skennelly

First attempt buying a boat.  Private seller I put down a deposit on a 20' bayliner...only to go home and read about the force ldrive it had.  Seller agreed to give back my deposit and I backed out.

I never took ownership of it so it wasn't too bad I guess

J3ff

zaverin1 said:

Purchased a high powered seadoo with already race engine in it lol
checked her all out and it passed with flying colors 

4th of July I blew the engine on it while up north 
needless to say no she makes more power and has a super cool sticker.
lol
3k into the engine and 
2 stroke advisory 
you just got smoked sticker
priceless 

It's got to be an RXP or an RXPX right? Those things were KNOWN for the super chargers blowing up with 100 hours on them. Just so you know I have TWO turbo Honda jetski's now in my possession, one has an engine that is locked up due to unknown reasons (worked fine Oct 2017, now has oil in the water and is frozen) and the other I just bought yesterday got it home and found out Cylinder #2 is no good. *&$#

GMSLITHO

I’ve had quite a few once  I’m struggling a little with the boat I have now but a few years ago in the fall I bought 2 used jet skies ,worked on them all winter couple thousand and hours put into  them got them in the water and the gt  1200 ran great the sea doo was sinking fast drive shaft seal,repaired that and got them both working .in the meantime I made my 3 boys all take the cost guard course over the winter before I would let them get on one .......well I’m on a small crowded lake ,one season was enough worry , sold them to my cousin for real cheap he left my driveway and took them up to his lake way upstate ny   Well I forgot to hook up the raw water pick up after I winterized the ski the past winter .... so he when he put it in it overheated and fried the motor and I refunded him back 1/2 the cash 

randy56

 not as bad as yours, Here's one story, in the late  80's I had a 1985 18.6 ft wellcraft, it had a 4 banger in it, ran great, winterized it, in the spring when I got ready to summarize the starter was locked up. So I put a new starter on it, that was not my problem the engine was locked up. So I decided to change it to a V8. So I call my favorite salvage yard looking for a 350 truck engine. They said they just got one in, late model, low miles, wreck  on the interstate.  so I had to fabricate, motor mounts, to accommodate the 350. took about 3 weeks to get in installed. Launch day, put it in the water, and it smoked, badly. The boat would barely plane off. No power, the 4 banger ran better.  Took it back home disappointed, re studying  everything, ran fine on muffs. Back the the water, same no power. back to a boat mechanic. two week's later he said it's ready. Back to the water, ran the same, **** at this point, took it to another shop. This guy said the motor was shot. He was correct. Took the boat out again and it blew up. I sold the boat as is. 
I have a lot of these story's. 

J3ff

Okay, at least I'm not the only one! That's rough man..

J3ff

"winterized it, in the spring when I got ready to summarize the starter was locked up. So I put a new starter on it, that was not my problem the engine was locked up." that is exactly what's going on with my first jetski. It actually is and was insured, I just don't know how they would cover something that looks like I f'd it up.. even though I winterized it the same way I always have since 2008. 

J3ff

randy56 said:

 not as bad as yours, Here's one story, in the late  80's I had a 1985 18.6 ft wellcraft, it had a 4 banger in it, ran great, winterized it, in the spring when I got ready to summarize the starter was locked up. So I put a new starter on it, that was not my problem the engine was locked up. So I decided to change it to a V8. So I call my favorite salvage yard looking for a 350 truck engine. They said they just got one in, late model, low miles, wreck  on the interstate.  so I had to fabricate, motor mounts, to accommodate the 350. took about 3 weeks to get in installed. Launch day, put it in the water, and it smoked, badly. The boat would barely plane off. No power, the 4 banger ran better.  Took it back home disappointed, re studying  everything, ran fine on muffs. Back the the water, same no power. back to a boat mechanic. two week's later he said it's ready. Back to the water, ran the same, **** at this point, took it to another shop. This guy said the motor was shot. He was correct. Took the boat out again and it blew up. I sold the boat as is. 
I have a lot of these story's. 

It blew up!??

randy56

The engine blew up, it was junk from the beginning, they lied about the 350.

Willhound

Hmmm....twice. And both times I should have known better. Both when very young . Early 20's. Bought a 1976 Dodge Aspen 318 RT thinking i was getting a hot little car. Ran good but all the electrical and frame was shot. But only cost me $400 because that's what the car cost and I gave it to the guy that was trying to help me get it on the road for his time. He parted it out .  Had a bad snowmobile addiction. Paid $200 for a 1976 Ski-Doo RV440. Anybody that knows sleds knows these things were rocket ships in  their day. Could not get it to run. Turns out it had two left hand pistons in it. Again gave it to the buddy working on it with me because I was broke. He changed out the pistons  and sold it for $300.
Sorry. No boat stories. They all worked out ok. Maybe why I gave up sleds and cars!

zaverin1

No I have a custom 900cc xp 

J3ff

zaverin1 said:

No I have a custom 900cc xp 

My first jetski was a 98 Sea-Doo xpl. I was cruising at 30 mph one day just kicking back. Water was glass.... And the motor just stopped. 

Piston skirt randomly just broke? Still have that ski rotting away in my parents back yard with no motor in it

J3ff

Pics.

J3ff

Alswagg said:

I guess I have been trying to think about a bad deal.  I just can’t think of any.  I have had great deals.  25 years ago I got married, 24 years ago my son was born.   2 indentured servents in one great package 

The exit to this thread is over here... Let me help you with the door 🤣🤣

Willhound

@J3ff totally rebuildable.  After being through your 270 motor rebuild I get you not wanting to play with it. But so about would. Value even as it sits.

212rowboat

First motorcycle not a hand me down. 

Was a young Marine and bought a $2500 motorcycle at reasonable intetwst rate of 12% (I had zero credit history).  Financed it for 36 months.  Was real careful with the papers..... I thought..

Turns out they nailed me with the "accessories package"... It was tricky how they did it.. Different packages of $500, $1k or $1.5k... If you spent one dollar over 500 you just financed $1k... At 28%... 

Ultimately they were blackballed by the bases, and then charges were brought, and then they disappeared into the ether...  But I still owed a finance company who only knew I bought a bike at 12 pts for 2500, and spent another 1k at 28%... 

From this came my mantra:  if you enter a transaction knowing you've been lied to, you get what you deserve... Doesnt matter how small or about what... Knowing somebody lies means you've got to review everything they've ever told you and everything they say from then on.... Not worth it... No matter how bad I want something, I'm willing to walk away from it.  The lies make ot easier... 

I lived off of $300 a month for a little over two years because of that bike.  The lesson was worth it in retrospect .  

J3ff

Willhound said:

@J3ff totally rebuildable.  After being through your 270 motor rebuild I get you not wanting to play with it. But so about would. Value even as it sits.

I'm so far beyond even caring about the XPL... was thinking I'd throw it up on craiglist for free.. same thing with this junk ski I just boat yesterday lol. 

J3ff

Alswagg said:

What to do with a Bombardier Sea Doo?    Have you ever heard of Terimite?    Buy 3lbs use a remote igniter stand back a long way.     Good luck. I would not rebuild it 2 strokes ugh 

Yup. Total trash, but I do have to admit that it was a fun ride.. seems like they just tried to put too much HP out of a 951cc..   Looking at that picture I do still think about what a fun time that was in my life. 

boatman37

Probably the worst I can think of is back around 1995 I had a '66 Chevy II that was all torn apart and had a 1987 Monte Carlo SS. I traded these and a few parts for a '57 Chevy and some parts, including a cherry picker (I already had a good one). First time I tried to use the 'new' cherry picker it almost tipped over. It was all bent and twisted. Called the kid I got it from and he said it had fell out of the truck on the way to my house. So as part of the deal I gave him a built powerglide transmission that I ran and made about 10 passes at the drag strip with. He calle me and told me the transmission was junk. I told him I didn't believe that and that we were even for the junk cherry picker. A few weeks later we were at a swap meet selling parts and he walks up with a box of transmission parts. He tells me he is going to pick something from the table and take it and grabs a torque convertor. I told him if he didn't put it down he would be leaving in handcuffs. He set it down and left.

This guy was known for these ploys and people didn't make deals with him because of it. I never heard from him again.

J3ff

shawnmjr said:

I had almost an identical story to yours with a Yamaha Blaster 4-wheeler. A guy I used to work with had a buddy that was selling it. It supposedly had a rebuilt motor (top end and bottom end 2 stroke) and it looked really clean for its age. The price was pretty high for the market but figured since I knew a guy that knew the guy that was selling it and it was rebuilt I had better luck than buying from a total stranger on Craigslist and rolling the dice. I spent the extra money for the peace of mind and after two hours of riding it the motor locked up. The guy wouldn’t give me any type of refund and it took everything in me to stop myself from stomping his face in the ground. 

Well it's reassuring that I'm not the only one this has happened to, it seems to me that we are the majority and that there really aren't any smooth deals for anything going on. The kid wrote me back a long email where he apologized and told me not to just his family. I may write an email to his father in the next day or two, not sure yet. Either way the kid should consider his family judged . 

J3ff

yes and the pictures above are a rotax 951 cc engine. I swear I took care of that thing with the most respect any 20 year old could have. The day it grenaded I could not have been taking it easier on it. I heard that the 951 motors had a lean spot and that may have been my ultimate demise. I was just sitting back, enjoying the view, not speeding, not spinning around like a mad man, just a really amazing calm cruise and suddenly it just stopped. My friend towed me in, fathers truck got stuck trying to get the ski out of the water, took the head off the next morning in 2006, those are the pictures you are seeing and I was pretty much devastated. It actually was my first introduction into what being an adult was all about. Constant disappointment . 

zaverin1

951 was the worst engine all around