Deal Gone Bad: Blame on the Customer, Manufacturer, Dealer or All Three?

Having first walked in at the Daniel Martin Motors company aka Texarkana Motorsports, one would think the people friendly, helpful, and informative. They have good manners and are very polite. The inventory is impressive. The appearance of the place and the stock make it look promising. The management seems to have plenty of irons in the fire, so to speak.

The business of the day was buying a go-kart, so I speak in reference to this sale only because I refuse to be misleading as well. There is no interest in attacking the reliability of the other items in stock. Having no experience buying a go-kart, I wasn't aware of the differences one could encounter with the different manufacturers. One with no experience just thinks, "They're just go-karts. They have small engines. How much could go wrong?"

Well, plenty went wrong. We bought the Kazuma go-kart. Now, first let me say that Kazuma has been known to sell other products which work quite well from what the other sellers have said. But the other sellers all agreed that the go-kart is this manufacturer's weakness. I have no desire to put a smear on their name except to critique this one item.

The Kazuma go-kart we bought when compared to other brands is definitely lacking in quality workmanship. Everything is built cheaper and it shows. The styrofoam wrapping around the frame is not meant to last. (Other manufacturers wrap theirs with a special tape, which helps maintain the life.) The gas cap seal did not seal. The tires have vent holes which are meant to seal up once full of air. Two of the tires did not seal. The batteries, two separate ones, did not keep a charge and were new batteries sold with the go-karts. An oil leak developed after less than two hours of driving. The solenoid had to be replaced as well.

The mechanics used by the Daniel Martin Motors company aka Texarkana Motorsports were unreliable. We were finally told one was "just a helper, and the other worked another job but came in after hours", which wasn't true. The other only helped on weekends and also performed work for another business in town and worked at his own pace because of this. A good mechanic, but unable to perform promptly because of his other responsibilities. Although the salesperson was top-notch and apologetic, he only had so much authority. He gave us a verbal warranty, which the owner only upheld with the first go-kart (read on). Lesson of the day, which we should have known anyway, was to "get it in writing". Dealing with a business that was certainly not new, one did not expect to have issues. After all, if he'd been there for years, surely that meant he did something right?

Well, we were misled about the mechanic, not given a written warranty (which an honest business would have offered up-front anyway), sold a lemon, and told we did not need a title, which I later discovered was untrue as well. The business did replace the first go-kart, but we had to wait all afternoon for them to finish assembling the new one. I was told it was "almost done" before I drove over there. The new one gave us problems as soon as we rolled it off the trailer once we got home. More battery trouble, more tires deflating, and another solenoid that had to be replaced, not to mention the leaky gas cap. At this point, the business owner was ready to wash his hands of the whole deal. But he wasn't ready to wash his hands of the money we'd invested! We were ready to wash our hands of the whole deal as well. Unfortunately, we found we were stuck with the machine. This whole ordeal drug out for almost a month, mostly with us waiting on the business to take care of business.

So, make sure any deals you make with small businesses are in writing, clearly stated from the start before any transactions occur, and make sure you know your brands. It may take some time to research the items in question, but other people's experiences with the same businesses and with the same brand, make or models may well save you a lot of headache, frustration, lost money, and lost dignity. But what do I know, I'm just a small consumer, and this is just one family's experience!