Iride01 

Did you buy this on eBay? They generally favor the buyer over the seller in these things. So don't wait too long to file a complaint with them or whomever is the entity that runs the site you might have gotten this from.

Also, find out what protections you have from your method of payment. Credit card companies, PayPal and others have some built in protections and sometimes insurance.

However the second set of pictures show that this bike wasn't worth anything more than scrap. Though they can be fixed. It wouldn't be worth fixing unless you already were a frame builder yourself with all the pieces parts just laying around. Even then you'd have to consider if you wanted to waste your time on it.

IMO of course.

Homebrew01

Looks that way to me too.
Refund, "Not as Described"

ShannonM

Chainstay bent, along with seatstay, on the same side, and in a similar relative position? And a taco front wheel?

Dude got hit.

Frame is toast.

Uncooperative seller trying to play the "It's fine, your bike shop just wants to sell you stuff" card?

E-Bay complaint. Fraud claim with credit card. Seller can pound sand.

--Shannon

cyccommute 

You need to make a claim with the shipper. fietsbob is correct. When I first say the crimp I couldn’t I thought it had been crushed from the side but couldn’t figure out how that had been done without a corresponding crimp on the seat stay. Your pictures above are proof that the frame was crushed and then straightened. I would say that someone at the shipper opened the package and straightened the frame to hide the crushing. The seller should have put a block in the frame...I use old hubs if I have nothing else...but the damage wasn’t apparent in his original posting.

MattTheHat 

How would someone at the shipper know how to get the spacing correct when they bent the frame back? And if that were the case, the shipping carton should show damage and evidence of being resealed.

My guess is a dishonest seller, or at the very least an ignorant one passing on a previously repaired bike.

CliffordK

If this frame was in an accident, there is also a good chance the frame is out of alignment. Potentially something that can be at least partly repaired. But not something you signed up for.

Some bike shops should have tools to check frame alignment. Or you can do a rough check eyeballing, putting the wheels in the frame, flipping the wheels the opposite way, and using string.

cyccommute 

Look at the pictures Aerogut linked to in post 14. Unless the seller was a wiz at photoshop, there isn’t any damage in all of the pictures. Now perhaps he crushed it while packing it but that’s a stretch. jonny7 hasn’t told us the status of the box so we don’t know if it was crushed and resealed. We also don’t know if the spacing is correct. The frame has obviously been bent one way and then back the other. The seat stay says that as well.

Iride01 

Link in post 14 isn't the bike the OP got. Just similar.

madpogue 

That's the point. The bike in that link is a CONTRAST to the bike in this thread. That was the point of post 14.

CliffordK

Looking at the photo again. That is a tough place to dent one's bike (without a chain gouge).

Is it possible that someone intentionally dimpled the frame for chainring clearance with a pair of pliers, and ended up with a tool mark on both sides?

Iride01 

That's sort of what I thought.

But then the OP posted some pic's of the seat stay near the brake mount and some other dents that make the frame just not worth anything. At least it's not worth anything to me.

cyccommute 

I understand the point. Why would the seller bend the frame before shipping it? The frame isn’t “crimped”. The frame hasn’t been “modified”. The frame has been crushed. Even an accident with a car wouldn’t do that kind of damage. The bend in the chainstay has a corresponding bend in the seatstay which says that the whole right side of the frame was crushed down to nearly flat and then bent back. A lot of effort went into bending it both ways. Perhaps the seller did that as a “joke” but I really find that hard to believe. Perhaps he had someone else pack it and they crushed it then tried to hide the problem.

cyccommute 

I didn’t think that someone had modified it but it looked like the frame had been crushed. I couldn’t understand how that could happen until jonny7 posted pictures of the chainstay with similar dimples. The right side has been crushed and bent back like fietsbob said. It would be worth a claim to the shipper.

CliffordK

Do the original high-res photos from the ad exist? I looked on E-Bay, but didn't find a match.

You may be right that a crush + realignment could do that. But, I can't imagine a shipper would crush and realign a frame without at least leaving some kind of note about damage. And, it would be obvious from looking at the shipping container.

Now, it is possible that the frame had been crushed previously, either in shipping, or in a shop (without the wheel), then the seller attempted to realign the chainstay/seatstay, and crunched it slightly on top with pliers to alleviate a ridge.

Then tried to sell it hiding the damage.

We're assuming the buyer didn't receive a crushed frame and attempted to fix it.

madpogue 

^^^^ OP mentioned "marketplace", which I think can be interpreted to mean BookFace.

cyccommute 

The link to the pictures can be found in post 14. But here it is again

The seller has 17,000+ sales and only 2 negative reviews. If the seller were shady enough to crush a frame and then try to pass it off, I doubt they would have that many good reviews. I do find it hard to believe that a carrier would open a box and check the contents much less mess with them. But I also find it hard to believe that the seller would pass off merchandise that is that damaged. Was there a 3rd party that did the packing and shipping? The link in post 14 does say that the item was available at Amazon.

The pictures don’t show anything that would look like tool marks on the crimp. The paint would crack like that just from the bending of the frame. One thing I did notice is that the frame is a lot dirtier than the original photos. Specifically look at pictures 4 and 5 in the link above.

AeroGut

Those pics are NOT the same bike. I posted those as examples of what that model SHOULD look like. From the original post with just the chainstay damage, there was speculation that it might have been a deliberate crimp to allow for more chainring clearance. I was making clear that the bike did not originally have that deep of a crimp in that location. After seeing the additional seatstay damage, I no longer believe it was done for chainring clearance.

CliffordK

It appears as if the OP's bike was sold as a built bike.

There are a few subtle differences between the two. The OP's bike has a "Syncros" decal on the top tube whereas that bare frame does not. I don't see the fork decals on the OP's frame which are visible on the E-Bay frame.

This leaves us with still needing to see the original ad (text and photos).

Homebrew01

Post 14 is A DIFFERENT FRAME, DIFFERENT SELLER

madpogue 

That was a good find and a good example. And the point about it being a different bike has been repeated. Why it falls on one pair of deaf ears is .

Iride01 

OP apparently is been busy since the 13th. Might need to wait for some input from them so we can have some better direction to what we piddle about.

phughes

You still do not understand. The frame in post 14 is not the frame the OP purchased. It is a different frame altogether, from a completely different seller. They posted that ad to show how the frame is supposed to look.

cyccommute 

I misunderstood your post. My apologies. I will, however, stand by the frame has been crushed and bent back for whatever reason.