Pretty angry right now; I'm in the market for an RV-8, and found one on trade-a-plane. (Wasn't listed here, now I think I know why).
Called the seller up, asked my standard list of questions, seeing if the airplane was indeed something I was interested in. It was. Offered a 10% deposit to hold the airplane while I arranged for a good pre-buy inspection. Seller declined stating "Just set up your inspection, I don't need your money."
So I get all the funds for the airplane ready to transfer, and call Randy Richardson over at 52F and set up a Pre-Buy. Randy was great to work with and we quickly came up with a plan to get the airplane inspected. I call the seller, and he says the airplane can be inspected any time. Again, I ensured that he wasn't interested in a deposit? Nope.
I call Randy back and give him contact info for the seller, then I look to email the seller to expect a phone call from Randy. Right before I did this I find an email in my inbox THAT THE AIRPLANE HAS BEEN SOLD?!
Seller calls today and says that a buyer had purchased the airplane without a Pre-Buy, this morning.
I really hope this isn't standard practice selling aircraft. My understanding was that either a reasonable deposit or a gentleman's agreement to hold the aircraft would be sufficient to allow time to organize an inspection? What if I had already paid Randy for his time to inspect the airplane, and bought my plane ticket to come pick the airplane up?! Thousands of dollars would have been wasted due to a lack of common courtesy. I don't think people like that hang around VAF, which is why I'm thinking the airplane wasn't listed here. Either that, or there was something about the airplane that would have been discovered during the Pre-Buy that the seller wasn't disclosing.
Am I missing somethin in the aircraft buying process? Is there a method of avoiding wasting large amounts of time and money like this in the future?
Called the seller up, asked my standard list of questions, seeing if the airplane was indeed something I was interested in. It was. Offered a 10% deposit to hold the airplane while I arranged for a good pre-buy inspection. Seller declined stating "Just set up your inspection, I don't need your money."
So I get all the funds for the airplane ready to transfer, and call Randy Richardson over at 52F and set up a Pre-Buy. Randy was great to work with and we quickly came up with a plan to get the airplane inspected. I call the seller, and he says the airplane can be inspected any time. Again, I ensured that he wasn't interested in a deposit? Nope.
I call Randy back and give him contact info for the seller, then I look to email the seller to expect a phone call from Randy. Right before I did this I find an email in my inbox THAT THE AIRPLANE HAS BEEN SOLD?!
Seller calls today and says that a buyer had purchased the airplane without a Pre-Buy, this morning.
I really hope this isn't standard practice selling aircraft. My understanding was that either a reasonable deposit or a gentleman's agreement to hold the aircraft would be sufficient to allow time to organize an inspection? What if I had already paid Randy for his time to inspect the airplane, and bought my plane ticket to come pick the airplane up?! Thousands of dollars would have been wasted due to a lack of common courtesy. I don't think people like that hang around VAF, which is why I'm thinking the airplane wasn't listed here. Either that, or there was something about the airplane that would have been discovered during the Pre-Buy that the seller wasn't disclosing.
Am I missing somethin in the aircraft buying process? Is there a method of avoiding wasting large amounts of time and money like this in the future?