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| Dragging the ol' Heap back from Copart |
Brad Hayosh had been after me for a while to either fix my Jetta, or buy some wrecked something or the other. Eventually I fell for the trap in a moment of weakness and found a reasonable looking Fiesta ST with "minor" damage.
The Fiesta came via a Copart internet auction from one of the Minnesota facilities. We used a broker, which was basically a train wreck. The guy charged us state sales tax and then never got us a title in our name, which is basically tax fraud. He also tried to keep my Paypal deposit for a membership fee that was in some bullshit fine print. I got that back via a Paypal dispute since he didn't respond to their query. Not really impressed.
For Copart's part in the whole mess, they didn't sign the title over properly, so it was rejected multiple times by the county recorder when Andrew attempted to get it transferred. The handwriting was illegible, and when we called their Minnesota facility, they basically refused to help us since we weren't their customer, and told us to F off. The big point of contention was that because the signature was illegible, the state didn't know who signed it. Copart gets power of attorney from the various insurance agencies to sell the cars, so the Copart signs over the title. Since the name of the manager for that office was online as a contact, we just printed in their name under the signature assuming they were probably an authorized agent. The state seemed ok with this solution and we got an Iowa salvage title in Andrew's name. Not a big deal if you're willing to make 3 or 4 trips to try to get the title work done.
Our dad had a friend of theirs pick the car up and drag it over to their lot, and another local friend snagged it on the dolly to bring it back to Iowa. So that part of the adventure was magic.
