Boy this is a tough one.
This type of thing has happened to me a couple of times in my life and I 
gotta think it can go either way.
Both times with VW's BTW once I offered it back once I didn't.
First time I was driving down a road looking as much in driveways and 
backyards as I was at the road when I spotted a rust free 70 squareback next 
to the garage with no plates.  I pulled over and inquired of its saleable 
status.  The gentleman that answered the door told me that a week before he 
must've blown the engine because all of a sudden it started blowing oil smoke 
like he'd never seen before so he towed it home and had already bought 
himself a used Nova to replace it and if I wanted it I could have it for 50 
bucks (what the local junkyard was offering at the time.) Without hesitation 
I agreed to the transaction and the deal was done.  Well while I was thinking 
that it was worth it for the wheels alone I soon found out upon 30 seconds 
worth of inspection that the reason for the smoke was the overfilled oil bath 
air filter that was letting oil get sucked straight into the intake.  I 
pulled off the filter housing and ran it for about a minute till the smoke 
cleared.  At that point I offered it back to the gentleman.  He said "Well 
that's the price you pay for ignorance.  If I'd had it towed to the junkyard, 
I'd never have known, so you keep it, we had a deal." That buggy lasted me 
through my entire senior year of High School before I sold it for a nice 
profit.  
Next time was a 79 bus that I spotted behind a local towing and recovery 
shop.  When I asked about it he told me that some kid was traveling through 
town when he seized the engine.  So he towed it to his shop and the kid took 
his radio out and left the van for the towing bill.  When I saw it two months 
later it was being used as a storage shed.  It was the cleanest rust free 
body I had seen on an east coast van in a long time.  I had a 78 rebuilt 
motor in a rust bucket at home so I figured why not and ended up purchasing 
it for 200 bucks.  He towed it to my house as part of the deal.  As he was 
pulling away I heard the familiar chug chug that tells me that the e-brake 
wasn't fully out and the van was about to roll out of my driveway.  But while 
diving into the van to pull the brake out all of the way, I realized that 
"hey this engine is supposed to be seized, that sounded like compression to 
me.  Sure enough, one sticky starter later the van was happily buzzing around 
town with its original engine.  What was I to do?  Go back to the garage and 
offer it back to them?  Would they have sold it for 200 bucks if they knew it 
just needed a starter? They were a GARAGE for goodness sake - they didn't 
bother to have anyone look at it before relegating it to toolshed status in 
their yard?  I suppose the "rightest" thing to do in hindsight would be to 
find the kid whose story of VW abandonment had been told to me by the towing 
guy and offer it back to him.  Was it true or BS?  Who knows?  I've heard the 
song line "one man gathers what another man spills"  and this is a perfect 
example. I needed a van too.  And with a little VW knowledge and some luck I 
got a good one. 
BTW getting back to the story at hand.....How long did she have this ornament 
on her lawn thinking that it needed heads?
She states she had a friend in the VW business that recommended The Parts 
Place to her.  Couldn't her friend have given her a diagnosis before sending 
her to the sharks? (some friend!)   
And lastly, she had this list (or the entire internet)  at her disposal. She 
could have come here for information or even offered it here for sale first.  
There are plenty of listees who would have quadrupled that offer if it was 
worth it.  Or she could have put it on e-bay to see what the general consumer 
market would pay for it.  Instead she goes to the Parts Place and the scene 
gets to looking like the lions and the baby zebras on the Discovery channel.  
We wince when watching it but we all knew what was gonna happen, because 
that's what lions do.  It sounds like plain ignorance to me on her part. But 
these guys are in it to make money and this is how they do it.  Buying, 
marking up, selling.
Unless the Parts Place willfully misrepresented the diagnosis and swindled it 
out of her by misrepresenting that the van had some problem that it didn't,  
I have to believe that they are just guilty of being really, really heartless 
by rubbing her face in it that it was a minor problem.  If the van just went 
away and she never knew of it again, would she be going through this anguish? 
 Probably not.  So it really puzzles me why they would do this.  If they knew 
she couldn't afford a head job for it, she couldn't possibly afford to buy it 
back for $3500.  So what's the point of doing it?  I think there has to be 
more to this story and frankly, I would love to hear Jack Finn's side of this.
 Believe me I'm no fan of the parts place.  Their catalog makes good bathroom 
reading and that's all.  Every time I've called for something, its never in 
stock or at the price listed.   I would love to see their inventory taken 
over by one of our listee vendors who actually knows how to treat a customer 
but until then I will only proceed cautiously and in emergencies only.   My 
3�.
Keith Olsen
87 Vanagon Wolfsburg
82 vanagon diesel
85 golf diesel
79 home Westy conversion