Originally Posted by
ramzilla
Wow. Just wow. I can't imagine somebody actually doing weird stuff with the drivetrain to get over on a bike deal. Most of the time people just try to talk me way down on price. When they throw out a 1/2 price offer is when I put the bike back on the rack and, get ready to leave. The most I usually come down off a bike price is about $10. Sometimes........... I give them away for free. But, those don't get advertised. They go straight to charity.
Read between the lines: not meaning to label any specific group but I think it may be in some people's CULTURE, especially if they come to North America from an environment where an honest or dishonest effort at outwitting the other person is expected in every commercial or financial transaction, and the prices of commodities must be determined through haggling.
For some people it is a small step up from the urge to haggle to the covert action of deliberately damaging something in order to get the upper hand: It is the wonderful world of capitalism.
In both of my cases (only 2 cases in hundreds of transactions) I truly suspect that the idea was to cheapen the cost of the bikes with reversible damage in order to increase their profit magin when they resold the bikes later in Toronto and this little trick of theirs was something they try to do regularly in order to increase profits. Some flippers have multiple bikes on CraigsList and if they pull something like this with every purchase.... it all adds up.
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