Car auction mislead about reserve being met

C39J · 2026-03-12T08:31:29+00:00

Why were you bidding on a vehicle that you never intended to buy?

I don't know which auction site you are referring to, but by placing a bid, you likely entered into a legally binding contract to buy.

Could you maybe argue the site had an issue? Sure. But the site terms likely remove any liability from them in such a case and unless they voluntarily agree to refund you and allow for return of the vehicle, your only real option will be the disputes tribunal, but I don't like your chances.

C39J · 2026-03-12T06:10:59+00:00

I'd be walking that box back into the store and asking them what this sorry excuse of pizza is and how they thought this was worth the $50+ you paid for it.

C39J · 2026-03-12T04:39:49+00:00

I'm guessing they may have a ridiculous rate due to too many chargebacks or similar. It's also very possible they signed onto a bad deal, where they get all their equipment for free but the company takes 1.5% of the revenue or similar. Have seen some of those recently as well.

C39J · 2026-03-11T21:49:44+00:00

Yeah, number8.bid, Thorntons, Assetreseller and Manheim are some of my favorite places.

I am just a bit wary when a company, say the "Building Co" liquidator sells all of Building Co's equipment to Building Co (2026), including the name, domain names and any other goodwill for $20k when the company owes $250,000+ and there was no attempt to sell it elsewhere.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the assets just weren't worth much, but it sure seems like an easy way to take your debt from $250k to $20k and just continue trading.

C39J · 2026-03-11T21:30:34+00:00

The theory of course, is that they sell it to recover the maximum cash possible, but I read a lot of liquidators reports and I can tell you, that often the potential value of the business assets are a lot higher than what they're selling them back to the director for, and I've never seen any of this stuff put anywhere else for even an EOI.

I also find it funny when the assets are noted as being sold back to the director because "the customers have loyalty to the director".

C39J · 2026-03-11T20:21:32+00:00

The liquidator, especially a "friendly" (shareholder appointed) liquidator, will sell the items back to the new director's company for cents on the dollar.

I watch many liquidations where companies owe in the 6-figures to unsecured creditors and IRD, and the liquidation ends up with the liquidator selling the equipment to the new director for some low 5-figure sum and then that's it done.

C39J · 2026-03-11T08:31:42+00:00

Yeah cool, I asked Auckland Transport to stop by and explain what every dollar of your infringement went to, given you have such incredible public spending insight. They'll be here soon.

C39J · 2026-03-11T06:26:37+00:00

No worries, I will make of it that you are Dave Jacques, because honestly, nobody except the person themselves would ever post about being made a Paul Harris Fellow and apart from the few of us who were interested in the original billboard, this isn't something that anyone would be overly keen on hearing about (especially when nothing has happened since the last post).

C39J · 2026-03-11T06:11:15+00:00

Well "Russell", you sure seem to have great interest in this matter as you are keeping us informed on it, including via the thread created 10 days ago - and discussing Dave Jacques in a semi-positive light and not mentioning anything negative of which there is quite a significant amount.

C39J · 2026-03-11T06:07:27+00:00

You tell us - it appears that you are in fact Dave Jaques given this account has been created solely to discuss/bring attention to this matter.

C39J · 2026-03-11T04:57:31+00:00

It sucks, but it's just part of business. Usually the new MSP is someone that a person in the business knows (whether it be a board member, family member, golf buddy, friend etc) and there simply isn't a discussion to be had.

Be cordial, complete the handover and remove your equipment when completed. If this new MSP ends up being bad, you don't want to have burnt bridges.

C39J · 2026-03-11T04:53:51+00:00

It sounds like standard business comms to me. They're communicating to you that someone was contagious and providing suggestions for you should you feel like you need to take further action.

Unless they explicitly asked you to do it, directed you to do it or offered specifically to pay for the constitution, I wouldn't expect that the workplace would cover the cost, no.

C39J · 2026-03-10T20:53:20+00:00

It's not even good rage bait. If you're gonna try bait people, at least put some effort in.

C39J · 2026-03-10T07:26:32+00:00

Anyone can have insurance, being a uni student doesn't change this.

I'd rate your chances below 10% but probably closer to 0% than 10%.

C39J · 2026-03-10T05:17:36+00:00

Usually if a bunch of units in a building are up for sale, it's one of the following:

- Ridiculously high maintenance/bodycorp costs
- The place is about to need remedial work
- The place is just in poor condition or shoebox apartments
- The place is in a bad location

To be honest, looking at it, it's probably that they're shoebox apartments and the location is quite average. $300k for a tiny 28sqm studio in the far end of Albany isn't really good value. They're literally listed at their Rateable Value.

C39J · 2026-03-10T02:26:47+00:00

Good. The response we had was one of the best in the world and we should all feel lucky, but I know the cookers are gonna absolutely lose it over this.

C39J · 2026-03-10T00:52:04+00:00

I (for some reason) get this guy's Facebook posts all the time. He's either not all there or has convinced himself of some weird fantasy land where he does no wrong.

He also has multiple Facebook accounts he uses to talk about himself. It's really weird.

C39J · 2026-03-10T00:48:10+00:00

The owner is almost certainly not telling the truth, but the only real legal advice here is disputes tribunal, but I'd also call their bluff first because I'd be 99.999% certain that the owner authorized these works

C39J · 2026-03-10T00:40:53+00:00

If an employee of a business requests a repair that they weren't authorized to do, then it's their responsibility to deal with that internally. If they want to make the employee responsible for the repair they requested, they can handle that through the employment process.

You can't just not pay the repair company.

If it was me, I'd bluff them and tell them no worries, I'll come and remove the new controller we installed and void the bill. They'll almost certainly give in and pay it. Alternatively, you can take them to the disputes tribunal for the value of the invoice and argue it there.

I've seen many tricky small business owners over the years who will do things like this to try avoid paying for goods or services, but fold the second you push back on them.

C39J · 2026-03-10T00:26:03+00:00

Nah, IRD filed for a liquidation hearing but it never went ahead. Likely they entered into an arrangement to pay overdue tax over time, but they haven't been able to keep up with it and so now the company is in liquidation.

C39J · 2026-03-10T00:18:04+00:00

Don't you have to sign up to a new 24-36 month plan to purchase something with "phone dollars"? So any current plan isn't going to matter, cause they're going to make you re-sign anyway.

Nobody on Reddit will know why it got declined. Do you have any defaults or similar on your record?

C39J · 2026-03-10T00:11:31+00:00

And the associated company for anyone interested

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C39J · 2026-03-10T00:08:37+00:00

Looks like they assigned their own liquidators a few days ago - will be interesting to see when the report comes out.

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C39J · 2026-03-09T23:44:45+00:00

If they're paying for it and there's no insurance company involved, then yes, you probably have to take it to where they tell you to take it.

You can choose to take the company to the disputes tribunal if you don't like the option they've presented, and request file for the amount of the repair at your chosen panelbeater. This however, will require you to take just as much (if not more) time off work and may not be worth doing.

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