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Houtz Auto Sales, Harrisburg PA

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Kenneth of Peoria IL writes (4/30/02):
I saw a bus on Ebay that I was interested in purchasing and then called George, the owner at GM Houtz in PA and spoke with him in detail about the bus. He indicated the problems it had and specifically the needed repairs before it would be roadworthy. He agreed to sell me the bus for $4,500 and also help me get it on the road. I agreed all repair cost would be on me to get it on the road for the known steering problem he described.

Days turned into weeks when I finally took over locating the parts needed for repair and located those within 24 hours and had them sent overnight. I paid for these parts $265.00 shipped. That was on Tuesday the 23rd they received the parts. I also called them and communicated that once these steering repairs were complete they needed to deliver the bus to U.S. Coach in Jersey and the owner Luke agreed to finish preparing it for the trip home.

I called every other day for the remainder of the week and left emails with no response. I finally this past Saturday sent an email indicating to them I wanted a refund. I called again Monday the 29th, and no response. I called Tuesday the 30th no response. Every time I call their store number the guy that answers says they are not there and I leave messages and when I call there cell phone no-one answers. I finally had my brother call their cell number, he has a different area code and number and lo and behold they answered the phone only 30 seconds after I tried. They returned my calls and said too bad, so sad the bus is mine now.

• George stated both verbally and in writing the tires are "nice". After retaining someone to inspect the bus I found not only are the date codes out of date for being safe on the road, they are weather cracked, or dry rotted and in the opinion of a 25 year bus person unsafe. This is not accurate with George's description and the bus has 6 tires at the cost of 350.00 each new. This was EXTREMLY important to me and I asked a couple of times!
• Second misrepresentation, the bus was communicated to me to be a 1965 GMC 4104 when actually it is a 1957.
• 3rd misrepresentation was the type of conversion. George stated this was a "very nice conversion" and according to my inspector this is an older average home-made conversion.
• 4th misrepresentation is battery condition. George indicated the batteries needed to be jumped and then once charged over a couple of says they would "run down" and now they are saying the battery won't hold a charge and therefore the bus isn't roadworthy. Batteries running down over a couple of days would indicate something is draining them and the condition of the battery is fine, I questioned George about lights and he said "yeah, probably something draining it, there are so many switches I don't know what they all do."
• 5th misrepresentation was about the paint. They indicated they painted the coach recently. My inspector stated thy only painted from the beltline down and over lights and everything. Parts of the paint are peeling and they never bothered to mention this in the description either verbally or in writing.
• 6th misrepresentation was about how they came about the bus, when questioned George stated they got it from a somebody that had it when the older gentleman passed away and it had sat for a few years. On the back of the title there are 2 dealers prior to GM Houtz indicating it probably was had through an auction.
• 7th misrepresentation was the entry-door glass. They didn't bother to tell anyone that it was cracked. I asked about glass and George's answer was, "Yeah it's good".
• 8th misrepresentation, Their presale agreement to "help me" get it roadworthy.

Kenneth should have hired the inspection before he bought the bus, not after.

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