Campagnolo Shamal trouble

A few days ago I received my Eddy Merckx MX Leader which I purchased from an on line shop in Germany (for a significant sum of money).
In general the bike was as expected (i.e. quite nice) except from the Campy shamal wheels!
The wheels was supposed to be one of the highlights of the bike, hence driving the price upwards.

My observations with the wheels were the following:
· Spoke tension was very inconsistent
· Some spokes were very very lose
· I could see small cracks near the cut out for the inner tube valve.
· The rims have a couple of small dents on the braking surface.
Problems were much more severe with the rear wheel.
I tried to ride the bike and it felt very wobbly and unstable. I could actual hear noise from the spokes heating on each other.
A soft push on the rear wheel either to the left or the right would move the rim several centimetres of axis.

I took the wheels to my LBS for tensioning/maintenance.
When I picked them up they mentioned that they could not get all the spokes tensioned as the tensioning nuts of certain spokes were stuck.
They tried several solutions to make the nuts loosen but they could not get all of them moving!
They mentioned that if they applied more force the spokes would break.
They also mentioned that they consider the wheels worn, with not much life left in them.
They pointed to the small cracks on the rims (around the cut-outs for the spokes and valve) saying that I should be careful as they are bound to make the rims crack at some point.

I contacted the seller, who responded that he dismisses all the above claims; he mentioned that all bikes are serviced and checked before shipping!

What is your view on the above issue:
· Can I do something to improve the performance of these wheels?
· Do wheels really have a useful life limit, after which functionality deteriorates significantly?
· What would you do with the seller?
Many thanks George

Below I attach sellers pictures. I will also provide my own close ups later in the day:

I'd send it back and get your money back. A shame you've been let down by the seller but always a danger when buyng 20 year old kit unseen, online, from another country.

Stuck nipples are not easy problems to sort (esp for unusual spokes) and rim cracks sound plain terminal.

I will take close up pics of the cracks as they are the most worrying problem!
As I have no prior experience with 16 spoke wheels, I want to confirm that the issues I am describing above are real issues and it is not just me being paranoid!!
Also if I insist that the seller provides replacement how do I ensure that he offers a pair of wheels of equivalent value?? If I demand refund how much should I ask for ??
As I mentioned the shamals were one of the highlights of the bike.
The bike was advertised as used in VGC and all parts work fine!
Thanks George!

Steel-vintage.com are a joke of a shop who don't care about their customers. I bought a bike from these Arschloschs as well, they sold me a crash damaged Eddy Merckx frame for £350 and refused to give me my money back as they said it was used and they didn't offer refunds, they eventually said that I would be able to get a reduction of $100 or I could send the frame back which would have cost me nearly £70. I decided to keep the frame and ride it, as the damage was minimal, just a slight bulge in the down tube, but they don't inspect their second hand stock properly, and they're quite nasty to deal with.

They'll be getting a brick through their window next time I'm in Berlin

I was not pleased at all with their response when I emailed them with my concerns on the above!!!

They basically told me that I was lying!

What would you consider a reasonable demand from my side given the situation??

I did paid a large sum of money for the complete bike!!

did you go through ebay? open a dispute straight away

No but I did go through paypal !
Does that mean I am covered??

As long as it wasn't a gift payment you should have some protection.

Not gift ! I checked now and it is giving me this option:

"You can report a transaction problem in the Resolution Center within 45 days of this payment. Have a problem with this transaction? Click here to resolve".

Get all your money back and get them to pay to return the frame - I really hope these fuckers get what they deserve.

^+1
especially as you've only just bought it, personally I'd get all my cash back as it was sold as VGC, take the cash and buy a Merckz from saarf or peterv,
ps there are a few folk here from Berlin if you need any logistic help give a shout out

Cheers guys !

Much appreciated !

I have decided to request a refund for the wheels based on what they sell them for.
Shipping large items from Cyprus is painful. I dont want to repackage and return the full bike.

Lets see how paypal handles this!

i would open paypal dispute to get your full refund , send it back who knows what else is wrong with the bike ! paypal will take your side 100% thats what i found out as a seller on ebay, they never side with the seller ....

Thank you for the input!
In my claim I decided to go the wheel refund based on the following:

• I was looking for an MX Leader in my size for a while and I was quite happy to find one (nice colour, good overall condition)
  
• I cannot really claim that the rest the bike is not as described
  
• Shipping from Cyprus to Germany will be a laborious task.
  I suppose you are correct in saying that once you find the first problem the risk of more problems popping up is higher (dubious seller)!
  It will also be more difficult to arrive at the value of the wheels (since I bought I complete bike).
  I have demanded that I receive the equivalent of what VGC shamals sell for on ebay!
  

just keep at them until you're happy

take detailed photos and document all correspondence.
You can make a lot of trouble for them all over the interwebz and they know that, and remind them

Dude, reclaim for the whole bike, wiser option.

Everyone is saying that !!!

Why??

I have already filed a claim for the wheels. Can I change it?? Am I credible (in the eyes of paypal and the seller) if I change my mind??

You're going to have a hard time getting them to agree to refund you the full value of a VGC set of shamals - they'll argue that as they were part of a package and used they aren't worth very much and will offer you a refund of $100

Don't mess about trying to get them to change just the wheels. Go for a full refund. Cyprus has been stuffed by Berlin enough already this last week.

Cheers Richard !

If they think that our banks are crap, then I will repsond by saying that their bike shops are.... :-)

Its bad news, I've had shamal's since day 1 and they are bomb proof. Yours are beyond repair unless you are going to spend a fortune on new rims if you can find them

Seen as people have answered your questions about the refund problems, thought I would try and answer your question about wheel's life spans.
The main thing that deteriorates is the braking surface, a rims braking surface wears down in the same way as brake pads (only over a longer period of miles). A rims lifespan can be prolonged by regularly cleaning it and checking your pads for stuff stuck in them (little stones, etc).

It does unfortunately sound like these wheels are past any useful lifespan, which is a shame as if they are looked after Shamals are really nice. I recently replaced the spokes in one for a customer and after stripping the hub and freehub, everything inside was still perfect!

But you can still get pretty much any spares for them, so if a refund doesn't work out and the rim isn't too worn you could maybe rebuild the wheels!

I hope that was helpful!

I looked at Vintage Steel and was put off by pictures which seem set to stop you looking at detail. They maybe need to see what is being said about them as it will hit there sales oppotunities in UK. Customer is king and they need to be reminded of this. I may drop them a mail and tell them how bad they are looking in UK. Hope you get sorted keep us all posted.

Seen as people have answered your questions about the refund problems, thought I would try and answer your question about wheel's life spans.
The main thing that deteriorates is the braking surface, a rims braking surface wears down in the same way as brake pads (only over a longer period of miles). A rims lifespan can be prolonged by regularly cleaning it and checking your pads for stuff stuck in them (little stones, etc).

It does unfortunately sound like these wheels are past any useful lifespan, which is a shame as if they are looked after Shamals are really nice. I recently replaced the spokes in one for a customer and after stripping the hub and freehub, everything inside was still perfect!

But you can still get pretty much any spares for them, so if a refund doesn't work out and the rim isn't too worn you could maybe rebuild the wheels!

I hope that was helpful!

Where oh where can I get some spokes for a front 12hpw? Have resorted to regular spokes and ain't to keen to give it a go!

Apologies for the thread jack!

spokes? > http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Campagnolo-Spoke-Shamal-Eurus-Wheels-/130860584816?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D11%26meid%3D6686526128391761980%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1005%26rk%3D2%26sd%3D271165145363%26#ht_2454wt_1170

check part numbers against the on-line campag catalogues