I am what you would call a smart and good buyer of things, including boats which are kinda my hobby. I won a 1993 Crestliner 196SST Fish/Ski boat and trailer thru a very large online auction company in MN. With the 10% handling and taxes the total was about $6,900. As per their instructions I brought a cashiers check when I picked up the boat. I asked for titles for both the boat and trailer (needed here in MN) and the business owner that the auction company was selling for advised me that he would have them to me w/in 48 hours. I took the boat and went home to start working on it. I went back to the owner 2 days later and he used very abusive language at me and told me to basically get lost. I called the auction company who stated that they would get the titles for me and told me "to park the boat under a tree" while this gets worked out.

As both the boat and trailer tags had expired years before I could not use or move the boat legally anyways. I continued putting work into a boat that I didn't own as I thought for sure they could get the titles within a few days. Well, days passed and all I got was a "we're working on it" response from the auction company. After about 1 1/2 weeks I advised the auction company I wanted my money back as I couldn't use what I had bought and there was no way I was going to get the titles soon as I had called MN DMV and they said that they were processing title requests from 5/9/06 so it was basically another 7 weeks before I could get title as it now was 6/23/06.

I had continued to work on the boat as I liked it and thought for sure the titles were coming soon as the auction company assured me that they were told they would have them soon. Luckily MN has a statute law that says the seller of a boat has to supply titles to the new owner within 10 days of sale or it's a misdemeanor and fine.....after 15 days it's a felony. I then informed the president of the auction company in a nice and long and very detailed email of the problems I was having and what MN law was and that I wanted my money back.

Well, I got a call within 24 hours from the prez guy who said he would give me my money back if I brought the boat back to his office about 150 miles away, which I did the next day. They had a cashiers check waiting for the purchase amount and the sales tax amount was being mailed to me the next day. Then they said they wanted me to bring the boat to another place about 75 miles away, of which then I promptly played the voice mail from the pres guy telling them I was supposed to drop the boat off where I was, not somewhere else. I don't really think they thought I could back that boat down railroad tracks and through the tight doors of a 1800's warehouse but when you're motivated you can do anything you want - I have no idea how they are going to get it out of there.....

My lesson learned is you must have the clear titles in your hand before you give them a check......no titles no money. I had probably had about 75 hours of labor and $500 in parts into the boat as I really wanted the boat and was somehow hoping the titles would show. As I said before I like to think I am a savvy buyer but I sure blew it on this one.....I'm lucky that I got my money back as auction companies are notorious about you bought it you own it thinking, even if they are in the wrong.....they now have a boat that's in hugely better condition then when I bought it, and of course what do you think an auction company will do with it? I'm guessing that they'll sell it and benefit from my labor and expense......none of which they will reimburse me for.....nice guys....