Better Business Bureau

Absolute Tree Service just removed our tree and we are very pleased… Crew was very professional and did an excellent job. We would highly recommend them

I purchased a used Mercedes through ebay from Lokey Mercedes-​Benz of Clearwater after much back and forth emails on ebay and on the phone with Dan Zoda a salesman. In the ad it stated the car was grey. I asked him if it was anthracite grey or desert taupe. I could not tell on the pictures taken in very bright sunlight. I asked him to check the paint code or the window sticker. He assured me it was desert taupe. When I received the car the car was Anthracite grey. That’s just the beginning! The ad said the car had no dents or defects on body. When I received the car the grill as broken, fender had a 1“x 1 ½″ abrasion down to the plastic, car was covered with very deep scratches worse on the truck lid like a cat had lived on the lid. Fog light covers next to headlights were severely scratched and left one was cracked. The right rear tail light was cracked. Dan had written that it is a FL car with no rust! In fact there were two holes in the body below the rear window that had rusted through. He wrote there were no odors in the interior. In fact the interior smelled heavily of moth balls and I could not get it to decrease by leaving the windows down in my garage for days and cleaning the leather with Lexol. He said everything worked. The tachometer was broken. He charged me $ 199 for detailing and a full tank of gas. I shipped the car closed carrier so it arrived exactly how it was shipped. It was not detailed and had less than a tank of gas. Two weeks later after they picked the car up they have not returned all of my money, as they have been instructed to do by Mercedes-​Benz of North America. I have been driving Mercedes since 1976 but have never bought a car on the internet. I will never do that again. In addition to the money they still owe me, $ 1594 I lost $ 1300 in shipping charges bringing the car to Colorado. Do business with LOKEY MERCEDES-​BENZ at your own risk!!!

I filed a complaint with the BBB about a vehicle purchase I made through eBay wherein the seller (Paradigm Motors of Tampa Bay, also doing business as Joey D’s Auto Outlet) lied in the eBay listing about the condition of the tires («75%» when cord wsa showing through the rubber).
The BBB forwarded my complaint to the company who responded with «Our attorney is handling with e-​bay at this time».
I have contacted eBay who emphatically state they are not involved in this transaction as they do not cover the vehicles and the VPP program that is run in eBay by a third party company doesn’t cover tires, regardless of the item description.
I informed the BBB of my conversation with eBay and the result the next day was that the complaint was «Case ADMINISTRATIVELY CLOSED».
The business listing for Paradigm Motors now shows an A– grade and the complaint listing shows:
«BBB found business made good faith effort to resolve complaint but customer not satisfied with business response (1 complaint)»
Unbelievable! I know if the business doesn’t want to work on the problem the BBB (as a private corporation) has no power against them but why they would put a positive review for this complaint is beyond me. My questions to the BBB about this case have gone unanswered. They don’t seem to work with the same ideals as they expect from the companies they rate.