Frank Krause Automotive

Ron C responded

Frank continues to use misinformation to further his MO. Most of what his response said was inflammatory and filled with pejoratives. Let’s review his statements: 1) He hates Car-Fax, yet has this statement on his website: “ We have a car-fax for every vehicle that insures all potential problem areas are documented to be free of issue.” 2) I offered to send him the report and he replied: “No need to, I don’t read them anyway.” 3) If Car-Fax states 4 title exchanges, than his Auto-Check is wrong. He probably didn’t read this either. 4) I put the deposit down on Friday evening and asked for a refund on Sunday, less than 40 hours. I only ask to hold the car til I had received the inspection report. He never took the Cars.com ad down during this time. In fact told me the car had still been for sale during this time. 5) The car was not on his lot, it was at his home. So it would have been impossible for a customer to have seen it and would return on a five minute call to pay full price. 6) He found a mechanic on Sunday evening that would check the alignment on Monday morning? Must have been one of his drinking buddies? The receipt he posted was hand written in pencil and stated this was an estimate. No proof the work was actually done. 7) I told him to cancel his appointment with the mechanic on Sunday. He had plenty of time to cancel that appointment. Any work he did was for his own edification. 8) Asking for an independent inspection is part of due diligence. I had no way to validate his description of the car because of my distance from the business. He did not disclose any of the issues before the inspection report arrived. That is not nit-picking. 9) He only sent a screen shot of his Autocheck report. Not the full report. 10) Tire tread starts at 10/32 or more. Tires should be replaced at 4/32. Not sure how a seasoned car salesman doesn’t know this? To get 10,000 miles with a 5/32 tread is dreaming.

Frank Krause Automotive responded

Ron says most of what I say is "inflammatory" and that is because Ron is like a hemorrhoid, an annoying itch back there, that won't go away, a real PITA, and there is no way to describe something such as this but to employ "pejoratives" as Ron calls them, to express contempt where it is due. He likes to make lists, and always adds new items to his lists. To respond in kind: 1 & 2 I don't hate Car-Fax. The term Car-fax is used on my website because it is universally understood to mean "a vehicle history report" and does not necessarily mean that I have one of the Car-Fax brand. I don't need to pay Car-Fax any money because I don't need them to sell a car, and never have. That is part of buyer's due diligence, should they wish to spend the money. I do, however have Auto-Check cover pages provided for me without charge and I check them and provide them to anyone who asks and I don't buy cars where any recorded event is flagged on these cover pages. This was provided to Ron and it indicated an accident free car with two owners and properly recorded mileage and no flagged or derogatory items. I am not interested in reading further into these reports if no items are flagged, because I am a mechanic and my time is better utilized evaluating the mechanical condition of the car by driving it and inspecting it on the lift. 3 Ron states 4 title exchanges on Car-Fax and Auto Check shows two owners. This is because title exchanging between dealers to whom the car is traded to or dealers like myself who buy the car from another dealer, wholesale, and sell it retail, do not constitute owners, per se, we are not retail owners, merely handlers, yet Car-Fax reports us as owners, whereas Auto-Check excludes us because we do not put any mileage on the car. 4 Ron thinks I should be working on Sunday and catering to his whims then. I deserve a day off, and I don't have my work phone with my all the time on Sunday and I did not take the ad down for the car because it was not paid for. 5 & 6 Yes, I took the car to my mechanic on Sunday who was closed, because I wanted it to be there when he opens at 7 AM Monday to make the minor repairs for Ron, but my mechanic is not my drinking buddy, he owns an independent state licensed garage a few blocks away and whatever invoices for the work performed were given to me, which were hand written on letterhead invoice, I provided to Ron and I even told him that the owner himself performed the work. Nothing was stopping Ron from calling the garage and talking to the owner for verification, should none of this be good enough for him. Yes, I took the car home for a night, as I live four blocks from my dealership, and then it went back to my dealership the next morning, maybe Ron has a satellite tracking this car so from the west coast, he knows where it is at any given point. If he does, he can see it in Texas now, with a truly happy customer, instead of a miserable nit-picker such as himself. 7 The work was done for Ron, not my "own edification" as I already knew how nice the car was, as only fine tuned it from there. The car was at the mechanic for Ron's initial requests to be satisfied, but Ron is never satisfied and he kept finding reasons not to complete his purchase by nit-picking and adding new things to his list, after I agreed with him, before the car went to the mechanic, to meet his demands (other than the tire sensors, of course) and make the minor repairs initially requested. 8 I encourage evaluations, especially when a car is purchased remotely and even offered to take the car to the local Toyota dealer for this. Ron opted to employ a mobile company for this, and then nit picked about stone chips, properly touched up, whine about tire pressure sensors, and label minor dings as "dents" 9 Already discussed, I provided Ron with the Auto-Check cover page, indicating no flags or derogatory information and he was free to pay for anything additional he required. 10 This is a USED car, and in excellent condition. It was being sold AS-IS with the tires that were on it, for the price advertised - PERIOD. The tires, as discussed elsewhere, were serviceable for some additional time, and were likely the only thing needing replacement in the next year of enjoyment. If Ron wants a car that needs nothing replaced soon, he should buy a new one. I remedied the initial concerns he raised, with pleasure, with proof provided, and without reluctance. Ron will continue to be a PITA, the hemorrhoid that he has become will continue to become further inflamed and create an ongoing nuisance, to the readers here, to those on other forums, and to me, because Ron has nothing better to do out there in Oregon, while the rest of us are enjoying life during summertime, especially me here at the beach on the Atlantic Ocean, and the new owner of this car is driving, top-down, care-free, in Texas.

Frank Krause Automotive responded

This review is a rant by an angry, disturbed person, it is entirely and utterly inconsistent with the experience had by the overwhelming majority of people here, it is a defamatory, libelous, personal attack, fraught with lies and untruths, issued by a miserable person who is not in fact a customer. I am hearing impaired, so I admit to being loud, I don't need to be mocked as a result of a disability as Tamela does. Tamela incorrectly states I only talked about myself, yet she fails to mention that we had a discussion about her former career as an enforcement agent for the DEP, which is likely where her propensity and mission to find fault with everything, even when there is none, stems from. I have earned a five star rating from 100 actual customers, which means there is likely ten times that number of customers who would concur, since only about ten percent leave a review. I can say I am the best at what I do in my area because I am a specialist in used Toyotas and Hondas, the only one around, and I choose to be in this business and I work tirelessly to be the best at it, offering simple and honest dealings with customers who choose not to deal with anyone who isn't the best for them as well. I have owned my Spring Lake location for nearly 24 years, and Tamela tells another lie when she says my lot is 30x30 grass. My property is 70x180 with a garage building and an office building and a paved drive and lot with two additional gravel areas and I can hold 27 cars. Local ordinance prohibits parking on grass, One gravel area is bordered with belgium block that is SIX INCHES high, and I park 4 wheel drive vehicles there in three lanes of two each with plenty of room between for access, contrary to the lies that Tamela tells of them being "crammed". I am a mechanic and expert driver and I ease them over this curbing as needed and these vehicles have plenty of ground clearance and suspension articulation to permit this, One does not need a lifted monster truck to navigate this minor obstacle as Tamela suggests. Check google earth for a satellite overhead photo of my lot layout, and you will see what a liar Tamela is. Tamela says I talked about "a bunch of people and what they drive, as if we care or it would make a difference" This is a further display of her utter ignorance a she opted to test drive a particular Toyota SUV and I told her of all the family members and neighbors to whom I sold Toyota products powered by the same engine as the vehicle she was testing and all the mileage those customers put on those vehicles with great success, some of which are nearing 300,000 miles, yet all this ignorant person heard was me talking "about myself" It is good business to follow up with shoppers so, yes, I did call Tamela three times, but she is fails to mention that her voicemail was full the first two times I called, which makes the calls useless. Finally on the third attempt, I was able to leave a follow up message. If you don't like a business, don't go back. Don't post a review that mocks someone's disability and proceed to issue a personally defamatory and libelous attack, fraught with outright lies and blatant displays of your ignorance, the evidence of a truly miserable person who has nothing better to do with their time but to attack honest hardworking people.

Frank Krause Automotive responded

Bob, no one strong-armed you into paying a price "higher than we wanted to pay and higher than KBB and NADA suggested". as a matter of fact, you fail to mention that I sold the truck to you for $1000 less that the advertised price and yet you came from over an hour away for this truck, evidence of the unavailability elsewhere of this 13 year old Ford Ranger with only 76000 careful miles. If there is so much of this product available elsewhere at prices that KBB and NADA suggest, you would not have bothered to come all this way for it. Bob, you are very good at taking my previous statements out of context for your own grandstanding purposes. You state I "diagnose mental illness". A man's own father told me his son had anger management issues, so that's not my diagnosis, it was that of another and I would trust in a father's judgement of his son. You state that I believe that "steering systems are accessories". Once again, not my belief, as this statement was taken out of context, for I referred to another customer's steering fluid leak as an accessory to his engine and powertrain, not his car. He had a powertrain only warrantee, and his steering system was not covered as an accesory to it, and you made it seem as though I likened the steering system to his stereo system. Bob, I told you that I deal with a title company and could have the title delivered to me in 24 hours and I in fact did. You were no owed any title until all checks including the one from your loan company cleared, but I provided you the title when you picked up the truck. Many New Jersey buyers still wait for their titles due to the fact that the DMV here just opened a week ago and delays are long due to closure because of the Chinese virus. Bob, we did our deal in the parking lot, and I do have a nice office in one of my buildings. In these times of the Chinese virus, safety for all and common sense overrides the appearance of professionalism, and as much as possible, health-minded people prefer the outdoors whenever possible and practical, so excuse me for preferring to remain healthy and minimize my exposure to potential germs strangers such as yourself may be carrying by conducting business with you outdoors. Bob, you contradict yourself yet again saying that the truck let out a grinding noise when you shifted into 4WD and "would not drive" Obviously the truck would drive because you "turned around and took it back to the lot". I don't know how fast you were going when you shifted into 4WD, Bob, but just because the owners manual says you can do it at any speed doesn't make it a wise choice to engage it at any speed, nonetheless, I agreed of course, to replace any parts needed to have the 4WD engage as per the owners manual operation. I never would have "insisted it would be fixed the next day" because I do not manufacture or stock the parts needed to make all repairs and I have to rely on my mechanic who works for me as well as other dealers to have the time to make those repairs, which leaves the time promised outside of my control. My mechanic replaced one component for the 4WD and then, discovered that it needed a second component and there was a weekend involved, so yes, it took one week to complete, but the repair to the 4WD actuation was completed correctly. Bob, I, you, and my mechanic drove this truck and none of us heard any noise from a front wheel bearing, it was NOT apparent at the time of sale and it manifested itself after.. You state that you "began to hear" the wheel bearing noise on the way home. You failed to alert me to this, or I would have made that repair, and those parts are readily available. "Top tier dealers?" Bob, do you really think you are buying a new truck from the Ford dealer, with a courtesy full tank of gas, a breakfast bar in the waiting room, and complimentary loaner cars? You bought a 13 year old truck, a good one at that, with a glitch in the 4wd actuation, that I repaired, from a small local dealer

Bob responded

It took you over a week to repair the issue and you refused to refund my money after I asked just a day after the purchase. Feels like bad faith to me.