On Friday, Jim Martin got the piece of paper he has been awaiting since January: the title for his 2003 Toyota Tundra pickup. As I reported earlier this month, Martin bought the truck at Maryland Avenue Auto Sales in St. Paul, but the title never arrived in the mail. When he drove back to the dealership to find out why, Maryland Avenue Auto Sales had disappeared. Nobody he contacted knew what happened to the title, so Martin was stuck with a truck whose ownership he couldn’t legally prove.

My investigation determined the title was in the hands of another company, the Minneapolis Auto Auction, which had sued Maryland Avenue Auto Sales for what it called “fraudulent” car sales. But the auto auction didn’t want to punish Martin for the actions of the defunct dealership. After Whistleblower alerted the Minneapolis Auto Auction about the situation, Martin got the certified letter with the title enclosed on Friday.

Martin is still wondering what happened to the $436 in fees and taxes he paid on the date of the sale for license plates that never came. But he said his finance company told him it wouldn’t make him pay the money twice.

Martin, a long-haul trucker who was back on the road Monday, sees the end of his five-month ordeal. “It looks like it’s coming together,” he said.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Businesses in hot water, Buyer beware, Complaint sagas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.