HOUSTON – Buyer beware! A northside man who says he paid thousands of dollars in cash for a vehicle including tax, title, and license, tells KPRC 2 that nearly a year and a half later, he still hasn’t been able to register the vehicle in his name after the DMV told him he needed more paperwork.
Making matters worse, he says the man who sold him the car disappeared last year.
Deven Clarke was able to track the seller down, and he is now apologizing and promising to right the wrong.
“It’s just been sitting there for the most part,” Rafael Perro said about his 2009 Subaru Forester.
He says it has become an eyesore, a headache and a constant reminder of a shady business deal between him and a dealership named Reliable Cash Cars.
“This was going to be something that I would use to get around in to make deliveries or something to make more money on,” Perro said.
But instead of making money, he says the vehicle he paid about 45 hundred dollars cash for has cost him hundreds more in repairs. Nearly a year and a half and three paper tags later, he still doesn’t have it registered. He says the DMV told him he was missing paperwork.
We visited the shop on HWY 249. A man claiming to be in charge says Hector—the man who sold Perro the car—was no longer there, and the business is under new ownership. We learned the state took away Hector’s license to sell cars.
We tracked Hector down, called him, and didn’t get an answer. We did get a text message asking for the purchase receipt, which we sent. He sent a text message promising to call us back. In the meantime, we found reviews on Cars.com, Google, and the Better Business Bureau with warnings about Reliable Cash Cars from around the time Hector was there.
“I wouldn’t make that mistake anymore. I would advise people to do their homework, some more investigating,” Perro said.
Finally, Hector gave us a ring and explained why he says he stopped responding to Perro last August.
“I’m not using this as an excuse, but I was going through some issues and stuff like that dealing with a few different things, and I really just wasn’t in a position to lend any assistance,” Hector said.
Now, Hector is promising to make things right.
“I’ll have to go down there with him to try to figure it out why they didn’t give it to him. Like, they should have just been able to process it through and given him his plates, because he has the title and all that, but one way or the other, I’ll help him figure I out,” Hector added.
We plan to keep you posted on what happens but, in the meantime, anyone out there thinking of buying a used car, the BBB advises you to ask friends for recommendations, read business profiles, and search online for complaints or reviews.