Help! Avionics $***show - how to proceed

[Pinecone]

What made the GTN stolen was the DoA taking it from the shop inventory.

If the DoA has an agreement with Garmin to sell their equipment, it was a reasonable offer.  Although it did cut the ship out of their markup.  

I know many years ago a certain flight demonstration team was sponsored by Garmin.  At least part of the sponsorship was that each pilot could buy one of each Garmin product at dealer cost to do with what they wanted (explicitly they were allowed to resell at a profit).

[Aerodon]

I have done a lot of internet buying.  I discussed my exposure with a lawyer early on about my risks of buying and selling  hardware that might have been stolen.  It was very clear to me that a seller needs to own the equipment before he can sell, and anything other than that is some sort of agency, brokerage etc.  And if I ended up with stolen goods, it was not the sellers to sell in the first place, any more than its mine because I happened to pay for it.  And you do not get to keep the $40m artwork after it turns out it was looted 50 years ago.  But I would have a claim against the seller.

So, since then, I do a reasonable amount of homework and keep records and note of all my purchases.  And basic internet searches - do I have enough information to be able to file a claim against the individual or company.  And a basic story behind the 'deal'.  It's quite easy to get a basic story - removed from N# for upgrade.  Even a 'new' GTN750  for a TXI upgrade.

Twenty percent off Garmin list price is not enough to imply a stolen unit, there is still some margin left for the larger dealers.  No invoice, no taxes and payment to an employee are all reg flags.  Depending on where you are, a dealer might facilitate the sale of a nearly new GTN that was removed for upgrade with the original owner so that taxes are not paid.  But most 'upgraders' would rather just take a trade in value to reduce their taxes?

My conclusion is that the first unit is not yours and you got scammed.  But I would look carefully at your email trail, notes, quotes invoices etc. and if most of it was on the dealers email and paperwork, I would think you have some claim on them.  Even if it's not that clear, a dealer needs to be pretty slack with his inventory control, invoicing, quotes, logbook sign out etc. to let an employee fleece $100k.  Slack enough to be a named party in your claim against the employee.

I think the biggest hole in your story is who, what and how you paid for this radio.  I cannot imaging cutting a check that size to an employee of any business.  Maybe you are just too trusting and have now learned a valuable lesson.

Aerodon

 

 

[Aerodon]

I am going to post another reply.  I was once dealing with a sales person of a well known avionics company.  (not Garmin, and I won't name them here).  He was super helpful, super friendly and I was getting really good discounts on new equipment. Not excessive discounts, but things like backdated OSH rebates.  All until I called one day and was told that XX had left.  I found the replacement sales people somewhat frosty and less than helpful, but I continued getting service and a dealer discount.

Then at OSH, I introduced myself to a principle as one of their more prolific 'small dealers'.  He knew exactly who I was (which surprised me) and proceeded to tell me that they had investigated me and my company as being complicit in a widespread fraud perpetrated by this individual.  He was taking stuff off the shelf and selling privately to customers, myself included.  They concluded that I was not, but I still don't know if I ended up with hardware that may have been improperly sold.  I think the thing that saved me was that all my payments were via credit card through the companies payment terminal.  I dodged a bullet, if any payments had been made directly to this individual, I think I would have been in trouble.  I went back on my email correspondence and noticed a mixture of company and yahoo addresses.  This guy was running a store within a store.  But ultimately an imbalance in inventory and sales will reveal a problem.

Aerodon

 

 

[Aerodon]

Additional thoughts.  Whenever I have had something installed, it is incumbent on the installer to make a proper logbook entry with serial numbers and traceability.  And when I supply parts, the installer usually makes a reference that they have installed 'owner supplied parts'.  And the invoices have always reflected parts supplied and labour to install.  I would want to see the logbook entry for this job, this would bring both the shop and Garmin into the dispute.  Was the dealer breaking his Garmin sales agreement by selling stuff out the side door, was he signing out owner supplied parts, or did he sign it out as a shop supplied component?  And if it was a labor only invoice, where did the IA think the parts came from?  Loose installation logbook entries are enough to bring the FAA into this discussion.  

Aerodon

[LANCECASPER]

All good discussion and good lessons and reminders.

One thing for sure is that there are at least three sides to every story: what one person says happened, what the other person says happened and what really happened.