Bad traders

Hello All,

I'm the one that sold this bike. I've been a member of this foum since early 2017 and have bought and sold plenty of bits over that period without any issues, so it saddens me to see my name brought up here and a witch hunt ensuing.

The bike in question was originally an old entry level road bike. I later converted into a crit bike upgrading all of the components with Ultegra 6700 which i raced for a season before changing bikes. As a lockdown project i recommissioned the bike into a 1x, flat bar commuter/ pub bike which is the current form as seen.

The bike was sold as seen in used condition and fully functional with no issues. All of which was confirmed by the buyer who agreed as much during his test ride. Whether it be 20 seconds or 20 minutes he confirmed that he was happy and payment was taken. You can imagine my surprise when 2 weeks later i get a message saying the cranks were broken.

I told him that as far as i knew there was known issues and at the time of sale the bike was fit to ride. He mentioned that he had taken it to an lbs who said the splines were damaged and after several messages he said he wanted some money back. I said i was unwilling to offer money back but instead i offered to post parts which he wanted to convert the bike back to 2x free of charge as a gesture of good faith. Initially he told me he has already bought replacement cranks to convert back to a double ring, but later said that he was planning on buying them and wanted money to cover them.

(Someone correct me of im wrong) The first picture he sent of the cranks through the BB you can see that the frame seems to have resprayed. There are streak marks on the downtube, overspray on the BB, the boardman sticker which was on the front seat tube just above the bb weld is no longer there. This wasn't how the bike was sold, how can we be sure that he's not tried to remove the cranks before painting or done something to cause this.

You need to understand that from my point of view there is no way that these cranks should have fallen off and how am i to know that i'm not just being mugged off after he's done something to cause this, i mentioned that if he was on a budget he could opt for cheaper hollowtech cranks of which there are plenty available and offered to send bits to complete the build but was reluctant to send money. By the looks of the pictures the splines they seem fine besides one or two which could have been damaged as a result of being ridden whilst loose. They normally are quite stiff it's possible the person trying to reassemble hasn't given them a little tap as grams suggest.

Someone suggested that the black tape on the frame was suspect and i wholeheartedly agree, i'd assume the same if i were looking at a picture but i assure you that it was to cover the slightly horrific decals - on the top tube and the fork - from when i was racing and that these can be seen in photos of me racing the frame. It's peeling because it's been on there for years. I mentioned this at the time.

As for the matter of accepting a bank transfer, I apologise if i've broken forum rules but like i said, i've bought and sold loads of items on here, i'm sure there are people here who can vouch as much and i've often been asked to accept or pay via bank transfer so I assumed it was safe to do so.

I won't continue after this post because i think it's a waste of everyone's time but i'll leave a thought. If i buy a used car from a private seller and a week later something breaks i don't go back to them demanding a refund to cover it. It's part of buying used. I make sure to check over it first and if i spot any issues we can address them right away.

Like i said, i've used this forum for years and bought and sold wheels, frames, drivetrain bits etc there are loads of people who could vouch for me as an agreeable seller and buyer. I'm sorry that this has happened and hopefully he can get it sorted but i won't be sending any money back which i don't believe to be unjust and i'm sure there are many others who in my position would do similarly. I'm sorry if this causes offense to anyone one the forum or if I've broken forums rules, this was never my intention and i'm happy to speak to an admin if need be.