ebay cover-up scam, potentially dangerous. can you work out what is wrong?

So whilst browsing ebay I found a cannondal st100 for £80 .... bargain!!

But then I found this.

Now there is a huuuge issue with this, I will leave those of you who have a detective type mind to have a ganders and see if you can suss out the issue before I post a spoiler - a subtle hint is that the two of these are obviously the same bike, yet different colours....but why?

What can be done about this?

Look at that fucking dent.
Who cares if it's a 'dale. It's still pretty much fubar, I assume they've filled the dent and blown over to hide the repair.
Scary, :/ inform ebay?

thought about it...but will they really care?
Any way to ebay bomb him and leave negative feedback without screwing over my own account?

his reply: Hi, yup same bike, hence the revamp ;) dent is still there and been filled in with body filler.
Doesnt affect the bike as the dent is only about 1" across, doesnt even span the diameter of the stem.
Cheers
Steve

• blackpool12
  

thought about it...but will they really care?
Any way to ebay bomb him and leave negative feedback without screwing over my own account?

How about you ask him a question from the link inside the auction asking if there has been any structural damage, dents etc or has the bike ever been in a crash.

If he is feeling honest about then he will respond to the question and add the answer into the listing, if not then he is a douche.

He really should mention the dent in the ad, including the original pictures. He may not think it's anything to worry about but many many people would.
Let them make their own mind up and bid accordingly instead of ending ip disappointed.

99.1% (224)

I don't think anyone would be interested in buying from someone with that sort of rep anyway.

I'm 98.6% (246) after some scammer neg repped me by buying off me through a different username after I called him out for scamming me previously. So I wouldn't take 1 neg over 8 years as being an out and out cunt.
But yeah, this is proper dodgy. Intentionally leaving out pretty vital details.... hopefully he's just ignorant and will amend his ad accordingly having been called out on it.

Out of interest, how much history did the different username have?

IIRC the fantastic ebay rep I dealt with told me he was running 6 usernames at the same time selling protein shakes and cycle clothing. They had been made aware of him previously for shill bidding etc but he'd not been formally dealt with.
All usernames had been long established, only noticed when he bought something off me shortly after our episode and noticed the delivery address/name! But I digress.
This seller needs to up his game if it's unintentional, needs to be dealt with properly if it's to deceive intentionally.

I called him out on it, saying it was unsafe etc...no response.
Going to contact ebay I guess..... but I think this guy falls under the douchbag category

Did he admit to the dent to you via eBay messages? If so they are more likely to pressure him as they have a record of the messages. Try and get eBay on the phone if youcan, far more productive actually talking to them as opposed to using the email forms.
Will message the seller myself today

After reading this (and confirming what you'd written for myself) I tried to lodge a complaint with Ebay, but none of the categories seemed to cover it.

So I commented on his Retrobike thread.

This morning, I found that:
a) he has deleted the OP and marked it as "sold".
b) someone called "overkill1" (oh the irony) joined Retrobike today and their first and only post has been in support of "badknee1".
c) and, well I'll let you read the OP's balanced and considered response for yourselves.

PS I've reported him to John on Retrobike so hopefully overkill/badknee will get banned.

well there is no evidence now, with his ad on retrobike having been removed....leaves us kind of powerless unless somebody has a crappy ebay account they can but the bike, not pay and then neg report him with.... looking into it!