Who do we notify and how do I notify the owner of this site about a person who has ripped off myself and one other Brickboarder (I saw in the review). We both sent Money Orders and received nothing and receive no responses from him since. Mine was only $50, but the other poor fellow was taken for $450....OUCH!

I saw an ad out here today from this James Burbage and I want to warn everyone about him. His ID is VolvoJim.

Where can I find more info on "VolvoJim?" Does he have a website? I can't find it... Just would like to check out his "warez."

Thomas -- the Volvos which he sells are listed on the 'Board in the Classified section. He'll put several car listings on about every 2 or 3 weeks. Don't know about other stuff which he might be selling.

Rob

I thought I'd better add my two cents to this concern as last March I bought a '68 142 from Jim. Jim operates out of Kansas City, Missouri. Some folks may know that K.C. is on the border with Kansas. The car I bought was registered in Kansas, and Kansas has no safety inspection (at least that's what was explained to me).

Jim advertised for many years in Rolling; since electronic for sale ads have become commonplace, Jim has moved his ads to this site -- he continues to post on a regular basis. He explained to me that he purchases old Volvos from around the country, drives them to K.C., fixes them up to some extent, and then sells them off.

I'd been very much interested in getting an Amazon or 140 to complement my two 245s; after several phone and email conversations with Jim, I finally decided to move on this 142 he had for sale. I sent a bank check for half of the purchase price and took a Greyhound bus from Penna. out to K.C. to pay the balance and pick up the car.

The car turned out to be a tad more work and in somewhat worse shape than I'd been led to believe. I had some reservations about continuing with the deal, but since I had come so far, I decided to carry on. Male pride, and all that, I suppose.

There were a number of safety inspection-related issues wrong with the car which I'd have had to deal with in Penna. (which has very tight regs.) which Jim didn't need to deal with in Kansas. A crack in the windshield, non-functioning turn signals, intermittent fuel gauge, things like that. There were some patches on the floorpan which attested to it's having been treated for floor rot in the past -- the car was advertised as rust-free. The interior was perfect, and the B-18 was strong.

On my drive back to Penna., as far as I can tell, the rear diff. seized up. After driving approx. 500 miles, there was a loud crack/bang from the rear, both rear wheels locked up, and the car skidded off I-70 near Terre Haute, Indiana. That's where I left the car, in the possession of the wrecker who rescued me from the dark and cold of western Indiana. (I figured that this car was *now* going to cost me a lot more than I'd anticipated, so I decided to cut bait to minimize my losses.) I'm not sure if this drivetrain problem could have been anticipated ahead of time without a total stripdown of the rear differential -- something I've never done on a pre-purchase inspection. I don't hold Jim responsible for this.

Conclusions to be drawn from my experience? Don't we as sellers always think more highly of our cars than they 'really' are? Don't we as buyers always think this prospective purchase isn't as good as the seller thinks it is? That's just human nature. I'll never buy another car from Jim again. However, I'll never send money to *anyone* again without looking the car over ahead of time. That's not necessarily Jim's fault, that's my lesson to be learned.

Rob

Rob Kuhlman wrote:

> The car I bought was registered in Kansas, and Kansas has

> no safety inspection (at least that's what was explained to me).

Yes, this is correct, no safety inspection in Kansas. The only time you have to get your car inspected in Kansas is when you bring a car in from out-of-state . . . and the inspection is only a Highway Patrol inspection of the VIN. The purpose is to make sure it isn't a stolen car.

However in Missouri we have annual safety inspections.

Of course, as a dealer, he could simply transfer the title, thus he wouldn't have to title the car in Missouri . . . obviously meaning no safety inspection.

It may not be his fault (you had the right to inspect it), but he materially misrepresented the car to you and let you drive it off the lot with the knowledge that it was unsafe and could harm you.

It reminds me of a puff piece I read on GE, where Jack Welch claimed that dumping PCB's in the Hudson River was not illegal. Maybe not, but it damn sure was unethical, and they knew that the PCB's weren't going to do the river any good. It's moral idiots like Jack Welch and GE and James Burbage that cause lots of extra unneeded regulation to be enacted and cause lots of unnecessary litigation to go on.

Bring back public hangings.....

/// If he has a site it has to be registered for domain name. Before he vanishies contact the web sites that track this. (Go to and search for web fraud etc.)

Report him to the IRS. Would you bet he did not report this income. I have found that this has the most effect. You might collect a reward.

I recently posted a classified for two exhaust manifolds. I got about 10 replies. I waited for more than a week. The email addresses expired on several. All others wanted cash in advance. They tried in several email exchanges to get cash in advance. So far I haven't bought a manifold. One person shipped COD and they sent an intake manifold instead of an exhaust.

In future transactions use i-escrow. There are several companies but they all charge about $3 for under $100 transactions. Use the one Ebay uses.

A cash transaction is when you put cash into his hand and he puts the part in your hand at the same time. If you send cash in advance he only "promises" to ship at a future date. There is no secure transaction there.

What kind of manifold are you looking for?

/// B18-20 fuel injected, three tube with double down tubes to the connector pipe. It need not have the 1/2 inch threaded port in the first tube. This is from a 72 1800 and a 73 144. It is cast iron and should have no cracks between the tubes. Volvo put out some faulty castings and did not have the connector tube brace to the bell housing on these mods.

The problem I am having is that these people answering the ads are doing off the books cash deals to avoid income tax or do not have the manifolds at all.

This fellow is in KC (maybe St. Louis) as I recall and posts ads for a large number of rare Volvo models for sale from time to time. For example something like a 123GT, '71 142E, 79 242 GT being posted at once. Not exactly those but something like that, multiple rarities, would be typical. I always wondered where he got all these hard to find models and have thought of asking how he does it. I have no knowledge that there was anything wrong with these ads other than he listed more rare Volvos, more often, than anyone on the web.

Where is he doing business (or it would seem in this case not doing business) out of?

Randy

Is this the guy that was selling the volvo service CDs? I remember some

other boarders complaining about the lack of service and disappearing

money sometime last year. I would say to make sure you can state your

case make sure you have documentation. Then you could notify Jarrod and

the folks on the other boards about this person. If you really want to

make his life hard you could try to get the guy charged with mail fraud.

I'm sure as an international crime it has severe penalties. Hope this

helps.

Dave 82 242ti

Volvo jim is trying (forcefully) to sell me a '70 144 at this time. He claims to have this particular car in Wichita (ks.) his actual e-mail address is:

ismlu2@hotmail.com. the name comes up "Brent Bashant" but he signs Jim Burbage. I received a list of pics from him, some were noticably of other cars. This may have been an honest mistake. May I never live to receive a "poor" rating on any websight!!! By the way, this car was listed here, on the brickboard classifieds.

I'm not buying...