Bad traders

Hi, I had a few issues with a purchase from @Emlyn as well, but we did manage to sort them out eventually, so hopefully he will come through for you.

I bought a couple of large bundles of parts from him in the summer. Firstly as he was shipping from Belgian a large part of the overall cost was the postage, so I asked if he could combine the two bundles, but he claimed due to the weight limit it wasn't possible. That seemed a shame but I thought fair enough, however when the parts did arrive, surprise surprise they had been combined which I thought was a bit cheeky, but as the bundles were cheap I let it slide.

However I immediately noticed several of the items were completely unusable due to missing parts. So I emailed him about the problem and asked for a small refund, as more of a gesture of good will than anything else, but after about a fortnight of several messages via the forum and a couple of emails I still hadn't heard from him.

Eventually he did respond though and explained he'd been on holiday, which based on a lack of activity on the forum seemed likely. He agreed to my refund request, but then on closer inspection I noticed some damage on another of the parts I'd bought. When I queried this with him he said he'd mixed me up with another forumenger who he'd made aware of the problems.

Anyway he did send the refund in the end, so I left it at that, but given you're also having problems with him I thought I'd share my experience. Hope you get it sorted out, did you pay via PayPal?

nope, he just stopped replying after i raised it in this thread. and the paypal dispute ended because i didn't want to send it back and be £60 down on shipping.

oh well, not the end of the world, but i would recommend avoiding Marijonas Slektavicius (@aepo) in the future

Yes, after 20 days the items arrived and they are as described. Im okay with 2o days, I understand that people have busy lives and can't always get to the post office. JUST LET THE MAN KNOW!

This is not a problem I had with someone on lfgss but with a trader from ebay classifieds in Berlin. I just moved back to Berlin recently and I wanted to buy a new bike. This week I found a used Cinelli Mash Work for a good price. I contacted the guy and met up whith him. We agreed on a price and everything was ok. He also wanted to sell me the wheelset. As I have no idea about bike components, I agreed, as it seemed like a good deal. Turns out that they are not freewheel compatible which in my ignorance I didn't know. I called the guy up and wanted to return the wheelset. He agreed to take it back but wanted to give me 50 Euros less as he said that he either lost the money or didn't count right. I definitely gave him the full amount. I even made him count the money twice during our transaction. But he said that he is out 50 Euros and that he will take them back for 50 less than the original price. After a couple of heated phone conversations and lenghthy text messages, he has now stopped responding.
It's not even about the money, as I will now happily sell them even at a loss. But this whole situation has left me a bit upset and I needed to vent somewhere.

If it has threading for a fixed cog, you can still put a freewheel on.

they are not freewheel compatible

Don't all fixed hubs fit a freewheel as well?

I was told at a bike shop that I had bought the wrong stuff. That the rims were also not right if I wanted to use brakes.

Ah yes, no braking surface. Apologies.

Not sure what you can do about the fiddy though.

I don't care that much about the money but the way the guy behaved after he had my money.

frustrating.

just put some pics on on here; possibly all is well and you can use the wheelset as intented.
because
a) putting a freewheel on fixed threads works
b) rims dont need to have a milled brake track to be able to use with a rim brake

if you need some help with tools/advice im back in berlin 12059 from the 22nd.

at non fixed gear bike shops in berlin they also don't tend to know their stuff about track/fixed bikes. so, put up some photos/descriptions..

Here are some pics

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that's definitely been used with a rim brake already.

Yeah, they look like they have a braking surface. You just need one of these to make it a freehub http://www.velodromeshop.net/index.php?p=product&id=725

Great, thanks for your help. Good that I didn't take the guy in the shop up on his offer to buy a new wheelset.

@Rodolfo would be great to get some tips from someone. have not gotten much help in the shops I've been in. I myself am in 10249.

Wouldn't say they've got a breaking surface, the pads have just worn through the outer layer of the rim.

yeah any normal singlespeed freewheel should work with that hub.

what the others are saying; its been used already with a brake and you can easily use it with a brake.
see some previous discussion on here bout non-machined vs machined:
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/128720/

another subject but, why not first try fixed with a sensible ratio and maybe double brakes?
you could always go singlespeed afterwards.
ild do that; what cog is on there/what chainring do you have up front?

if the bike is ridable you are very welcome to come by mine and use some tools. otherwise i can thoroughly recommend the guys at keirin cafe (dunno if they opened up again) or goldsprint. at keirin the guy even let me use his tools for freeish and was very nice overall. at goldsprint and also keirin they help you with a lot of stuff at the spot if its not too much bother..
as said, will be back on the 22nd. also have a freewheel if you are not set on my proposal and if its a suitable ratio you can have it for cheapz and i'll help you to swap the cogs.

Thanks for the offer. It's definitely an idea, trying fixed gear. Only tried it for a couple of minutes on a friend's bike before.
I don't have a crankset yet and Goldsprint was the next shop I was going to check out.

Anyone know a guy called CJ Jones who rides an Argon 18 at Lee Valley? Done runner with my money after paying for a set of Alpina handlebars on the UK track buying and selling FB group.

wild speculation but this is a CJ with Alpina bars for sale

https://www.lfgss.com/profiles/106969/

He also comes across as a weapon

Excellent spot, could well be the same person. Full name Caleb Jones, apparently he used to ride for Fareham Wheelers? Also ripped off someone else from that FB group who had to get Paypal to sort getting his money back after being paid for cranks and then going AWOL.

I'd ask @Velocio very nicely if he can help establish that and perhaps give you some assistance tracking him down...