I am writing to make you aware of a gentleman in Chicago who is defrauding people out of monies selling cars locally and on eBay and representing them as in excellent condition when they are not and actually purchasing inferior parts to put on them, then he lies to the customer telling them he knows nothing of the situation.

His name is Khaled Elissawi. He goes by ‘Khal’. He uses two corporations to accomplish this: 1) Bay Ridge Motors Inc and 2) Lincoln’s Body Shop Inc. dba Lincoln Park Auto Sales, Inc. (Illinois domestic BCA)
Business Phone: 312-929-3300
Business Fax: 312-929-3352
Cell: 773-657-1110
Cell: 630-280-9272
His dealership address is: 1449 N. Cicero Avenue, Chicago IL 60651
On eBay he buys and sells under the names of: alytrade05 & Ipas2005
Apparently he has also used the name of United American Group which is a corporation I understand the state dissolved.

In July, I won a bid on eBay from Ipas2005. This was to purchase a 2008 Jeep Cherokee Laredo. His ad states “exterior will be as close to new as you can get, you will love it!” Exterior has “alloy wheels.” In auto “Condition” he has listed left front fender and right front fender as in “excellent” condition. Tires are “excellent” – in fact everything from the front grille to the rear bumper is marked in “excellent” condition. Granted, we were aware of the fact that the car had been in a “minor accident” according to Carfax, but from looking at the photos, everything seemed to be okay.

On August 5, we sent Mr. Elissawi a cashier’s check which included funds for him to arrange for transportation of the vehicle to Utah. Since this time, we have found out that he charged us an additional $250 over what the transport company charged us while making us think the total additional monies were for the transport company. For several days, he accused us of sending a counterfeit cashier’s check when our bank showed it had already cleared our bank. We spent a good week or more trying to sort things out between him and our bank calling his bank, etc. The monies had already been deposited into his account and he still accused us of sending a bad check. He also charged us an additional $250 doc fee over and above the bid price which he should not have charged us.

Then, the transport truck broke down about 75 miles away and we ended up driving to get the Jeep. The transport driver (from Exit 15 Trucking, Load 154) gave us a receipt (a copy of which is included) he filled out when he picked up the jeep where he had marked clearly that there was a problem with the front bumper on both sides and a spot by the rear wheel on the driver’s side. There is Kahl’s signature that he agreed with the driver’s assessment of the vehicle. Yet when we approached Kahl regarding the problem with the bumper, first he denied there was anything wrong, then he said he had his mechanic squeeze something together and it was just fine, then in the next conversation we had with him, he again said there was nothing wrong with it. There were many minor things wrong with the car – broken air conditioning control, etc., but our main concern was the bumper as the dealership said it would cost $750 minimum to fix. We tried to get Kahl to make some sort of adjustment and pay for this, but he refused. He told us he had already lost $4000 on the car and he wasn’t going to do anything else. (He was yelling at me on the phone at this point and I have two witnesses who will attest to that.) He finally just got mad and said send it back and I will refund your money. We said all of it including transport and he said no.

Well, my son loves his jeep. He doesn’t want to return it, we just wand Kahl to be honest with us. He promised it was in excellent condition and it was not and we wanted him to bring it to “excellent” condition. Also, had we shipped it back we would have been out another $700 making a total loss of $1600+ and we would have nothing to show for that. It was money we did not want to lose.

Since this time, we have been contacted by a former employee (Ahmed Maragha) of Kahl’s who also told us Kahl put a bent rim on the jeep (we’ve had problems with that tire holding air and have to fill it nearly every day, but did not realize it was because the rim was bent.) (A copy of the photo from the purchase of this tire is included and you can easily see it is bent.) This employee said he does this to people all the time. He buys inferior parts (that is why the bumper didn’t fit in the first place that he used on the repair) and passes everything off as new. I have also included copies of feedback that has been left on eBay for him by others who he just says are liars. Obviously we are not the only people he is doing this with.

Mr. Maragha contacted me recently as he was very concerned for my son and me as he overheard many of the conversations as well as saw what was going on behind the scenes as the car was prepared for resale. He could no longer work for Kahl as he did not like how dishonest and bullying he was to people.

At this point, I would love to have him replace the bumper with the correct bumper and purchase me a new rim that isn’t bent to replace the inferior one, as well as refund the $500 he overcharged me. I will take care of the other minor problems not disclosed.

However, my greatest concern is that he not be allowed to continue his unethical practices with other individuals.

Sincerely,

Catherine Tezak