eBay problems, resolutions, shenanigans, questions and info (not bike finds)

Yeah was this a late eighties peugeot that cost £15?
Cos i reckon under £30 its not worth it.

Paypal all the way! At least you can open a dispute and the seller will have the money held! Never pay any other way!
Unless its something so cheap just put it down to the ups and downs of buying off ebay.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/index.html
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/item-not-received.html

THe fucker that bought the Soma has another day to pay before I report them to ebay as a non-paying bidder and get my listing fee back and the ability to re-offer or relist. If you're reading this.. pay up cuntos.

D lock in the windscreen.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/index.html
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/item-not-received.html

THe fucker that bought the Soma has another day to pay before I report them to ebay as a non-paying bidder and get my listing fee back and the ability to re-offer or relist. If you're reading this.. pay up cuntos.

twas a good price too..

D lock in the windscreen.
it really is the best way to go :) or full water bottle

Do you still want the bike?

Will a discount make you happy?

Did you get a good deal regardless of condition?

Good questions DMC.

It was a singlespeed MTB, a picture of which (new) I've put in the current projects thread. It would have been a good deal if the paint had been good and the bike not juddered or rattled. He didn't even clean it, in spite of saying in the description he would.

I paid £160 for it, and you can get them new for £250-ish. If I'd seen the condition it was in, I wouldn't have bid. What's worse was that I passed on a mint Sunn B-Mix for £170 because of this.

Was it a bargain? Not at this price - mainly because of the paint, but the cost of new parts have to be factored in too. Do I still want it? Not too sure now...

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/buy/item-not-received.html

Ebay rule 14 states "If you can find the lying bidder you are allowed to kill him/her in the face up to a maximum of 3 times"

Most sellers are reasonable, partly to protect their feedback reputation.

Ask to return the bike and for a refund, detailing the problems.

They may offer a discount at that point, so consider if it's worth it.

A dispute probably won't get you there as photos of the item were posted.

I imagine you also have shipping costs to deal with?

I think that's probably what I'd want to do - if the only problem was that the bearings needed doing, and the star-fangled nut and cables needed replacing, I'd be happy if the seller refunded some of what I paid, but because the scratches are really deep, and on the forks in particular they've worn through to the bare metal, this isn't something I can accept; it's a steel frame and the whole lot would need a respray.

If a seller says the bike's in great condition, and says nothing at all on the listing about the amount of wear and the fact the components are on their last legs, I see that as 'significantly not as described'. Photos show that the bike is dirty, but the seller said they'd clean it before the end of the auction (they didn't), while none of the photos show the wear or scratches.

No shipping costs per se, as it was picked up for me, but yes, I would have to pay to return it - or else wait until I'm next in the area to do this.

In short though, I've decided I'm not going to keep it, so either they take it back and give me a full refund, or I'll be pushing it through eBay - in which case they may well end up out of pocket and with the bike still in my possession. I certainly wouldn't keep it, but they'd have to make arrangements to get it back - that's for sure.

Worst thing is that by not responding to my e-mail, they've got me worked up, so if they'd come back and said 'let's work something out' straight away, I might have considered it, but now I just want rid of it.

Decided to take some photos so I have something to show if this goes to a dispute. What do you think?

Sorry for all the pictures, but it gives you an idea of the condition of the bike overall. You can see in the last picture the amount of wear on the rims as well.

5 Attachments

That looks battered to me! Like someone else has pointed out different people has different interpretations of the term 'very good condition', but that bloke must be from another plannet. Or he must work in a scrap yard.

Were all those scrapes featured in the original listing? If not you've got every cause for complaint + a refund.

Re: non-payers, I just had one. You can't even give the scrotes bad feedback anymore. Apparently they get some completely hidden non-payer's strike against them, which no future seller can see. It takes several of these invisible strikes "within a short period" for Ebay to even think about banning them, meanwhile weeks of waiting and irritation time pass by for the seller.

Ebay's protection policies are complete dogshit.

Yep the new system is great if you're a buyer using paypal but pretty bad for sellers. @mooks +1 on filing a paypal dispute, the money will disappear from the seller's paypal account - no motivation like the cash disappearing to make the seller sort out an amicable solution.

Were all those scrapes featured in the original listing? If not you've got every cause for complaint + a refund.

The description said:

This bike is in great condition. There is slight wear to the pedals and muddy stains covering parts of the frame, but this will be cleaned up before the sale. Other than that, the bike has been well looked after. The chains have been greased on a regular basis.

As far as I'm concerned, that description doesn't correspond with the bike I've ended up with - what that description implies is that the bike's a bit muddy, but that'll be cleaned up before the end of the auction. Aside from that, only the pedals are a bit worn. The photos either didn't show the parts of the bike that were scratched, or were wider shots (e.g. of the whole bike) where the scrapes weren't visible.

How long would you give the seller to respond? In my head I'm thinking late tonight/early tomorrow, as I e-mailed them initially on Monday night. The problem is that I'm off to Sri Lanka next Thursday, and I'm really nervous that if I file a dispute and I'm not around to respond, I might get shafted...

Most of the scratches seem to be very parallel, hinting at one big crash rather then wear and tear over time. Surely you'd be expected to decribe such a damaging crash (this might have loosened the headset too, seeing as the forks are so scratched) in the bikes history.

As mentioned by others, open a dispute and have the money held by Paypal. Otherwise the seller might just play a stalling game.

Depending on when you paid him he could have already withdrawn the money from his paypal account already. It only takes 3 or so days to transfer from paypal to a bank account.

If someone collected it for you, you must know where the seller lives? Is there no way you can get there to see him?

My dad collected it for me, so yes, we know where he lives. I'll use that as a last resort at the moment, as I don't want to put my dad in a potentially dodgy situation.

I've tried calling the seller and there's no answer - just an answerphone. I'm going to grab myself some lunch, but if they haven't called or responded by the time I get back, I'll start down the dispute route - remembering they've had since Monday to respond to my e-mail.

If the worst comes to the worst, I'll pay them a visit myself - like you've said, I know where they live. I'm not great with conflict, but hey, I've got to learn sometime.

Mrs Smallfurry bought some studio lights from Ebay, which turned out to be pretty far from the description. I drove her to the guys flat to return them (as arranged via E-mail), and he would'nt answer the door. This peed me off as I had driven from Oxfordshire to London, and it was obvious he was home. The guy then decribed, in a graphic E-mail to the mrs, how he did'nt come to the door because he was 'pleasuring a nubile young blonde' and would'nt have answered the door for the PM himself. WAC.
Luckily for both of us, he responded well to my less than polite reply, and we recieved a full refund.

The damage looks very strange to me. Not normal wear and tear at all. More like someone has deliberately fucked it up with an angle grinder or something.

I'd get it refunded and start again - it's too dodgy.

No response to e-mails, doesn't answer phone, won't return my calls, hasn't responded to my answerphone messages asking him to call back.

Suffice to say, I've filed a dispute.

weird one. charge stove is just a big bmx and looks like it has been ridden. i severely doubt there is any damage, as those frames are bombproof. you definitely don't need a respray.

if the item was picked up, it should of been checked b4 taken.

i agree description may not be clear, but it was sighted and picked up.

if it was a used car and you bought it, took it home, then found stuff like that. no-way on earth would you get your money back.

No response to e-mails, doesn't answer phone, won't return my calls, hasn't responded to my answerphone messages asking him to call back.

Suffice to say, I've filed a dispute.

I advise you do a big poo in a newspaper, wrap it up, take it to his house, leave it on his door step, set fire to it, and ring the bell.

Childish, i know, but funny ;)

weird one. charge stove is just a big bmx and looks like it has been ridden. i severely doubt there is any damage, as those frames are bombproof. you definitely don't need a respray.

if the item was picked up, it should of been checked b4 taken.

i agree description may not be clear, but it was sighted and picked up.

if it was a used car and you bought it, took it home, then found stuff like that. no-way on earth would you get your money back.

I got the impression that the bike was covered in mud when collected?

This may have been "strategic" mud, looking at those scratches.

I'd be more than pissed off with that- I'd want the smallest scratch described in the listing, anything like the scratches pictured above and I'd want detailed photo's of them in the listing, and a big drop in price to match.

Appreciate the points raised so far - should probably clarify a couple of things:

I made it clear to the seller that it wouldn't be me who picked up, but a member of my family. They were picking it up in good faith - they weren't there to say whether the bike was in good condition or not;

The listing clearly stated that the bike was in "great condition" and made no reference whatsoever to the wear to the components, or to the (not insignificant) damage to the paint. I wouldn't have bid on the bike at all had the seller made it clear that there was significant cosmetic damage to the bike;

With £20-30 spent to replaced the damaged components, this bike would be rideable and I would have been happy to keep the bike, however due to the amount of cosmetic damage and the lack of reference to this in the listing, I'm disputing the transaction as 'significantly not as described';

It's clear the seller was aware of the condition of the bike when he listed it - the scratches were very visible and very deep, while he appears to have gone out of his way to take photos that do not the damaged areas of the bike - but he did not make any reference to these in the listing - instead stating the bike was in great condition. It would seem the intention was to deliberately mislead;

I paid a decent amount for the bike - probably the amount you probably should pay for one of these bikes in "great condition". What I got was one in an extremely poor, used condition. That's just taking the piss. Yes, it'll be rideable if some parts are replaced, but it's scratched to fuck. I simply don't want a bike that's scratched to fuck.