seaden

I recently purchased a bike from ebay and recieved it with a great deal of disappointment. The seller told me that the bike had excellent paint and that the chrome had no rust. When I recieved it a couple of days ago the paint had been COATED in clear coat...like a VERY Very thick layer resulting in drip buldges all over the bottom part of the frame. The old metal face plate may have been accidentally clear coated and removed and replaced with the sticker version...to cover up the indent and holes where the metal face place once was. You cant even feel the lugs anymore, it's so coated!! All of the chrome on the bike had rust which maybe rubbed off with rubbing compound but there were a few stops that I definately would not be able to polish up. I wrote the seller telling him that I felt like I was mislead because of the fact that he told me "the paint is great and chrome has no rust." I asked for a refund and he responded by calling me names, unreasonable, and that I should have been shopping for a 2006 if I wanted something perfect, telling me that I am the type of person who will never be satisfied with anything, and what did I expect from a 14year old bike. Now I know that older bikes will come with a few imperfections....but not like this...I've bought older bikes and sell them and have been doing so for two year...my boss who is a vintage bike collector and old racer had the same things to say about the bike. What should I do? He seems to just be calling me names everytime I email him. I've not sent angry emails...I've been writing them as civil as possible. I just don't know what actions I can take besides leaving him a negative feedback.

grahny

If you truely feel like the auction description misrepresented the condition of the item, you can report it to ebay for them to investigate:

https://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/index.html

You have to use the "Item Not Received" selection to report something misrepresented I believe.

Were there pics in the auction? I never buy anything off ebay without tons of pictures of the actual item and not a stock photo or something.

and make sure to keep all the email correspondences too which ebay will probably need as well. Not sure what they might do, but if they find you are right, they may force a refund or disable the sellers account or something. Hope you used PayPal, that'll make getting a refund easier if they can do it.

badkarma

I'd say file a claim with Ebay, and see if they'll do anything; but I wouldn't hold my breath.

This is the risk you run with buying off Ebay, but best of luck getting your problem resolved - hopefully you didn't drop too much on the frame.

SoonerBent

If you paid through PayPal try their Buyer Protection.
From their website:
PayPal Buyer Protection covers:
An eBay item that you paid for but never received
An eBay item that is significantly different than what was described in the listing.

If you paid by some other credit card check their buyer protection policy.

If not, you can't do much but leave negative feedback.

SB

markwebb

And if you paid via PayPal immediately open a dispute on the transaction. When opening the dispute, for reason choose the item was defective/was not as described. It's prety self-explainatory. I think opening the dispute will actually debit the funds from the sellers account until the matter has been resolved. I had to do this on a bike last week and seller sent me another invoice and indicated he was debited the amount via PayPal. When we resolved the issue the funds were sent back to seller.

merlinextraligh

Hard to evaluate without pictures, and a link to the auction. However, 1) what were te return terms of the auction? 2) how much did you pay for it, and what kind of bike is it? 3) were there pictures of the paint on the auction? 4) what kind of feedback did the seller have?

mayukawa

This one will be somewhat difficult to dispute...because of ones interpretation of the condition of a 14-year old bike. Did you ask the seller questions before bidding? With eBay, I don't assume anything and will always ask the seller questions when something seems unclear or unspecified before bidding.

woodcycl

I've learned from the Seller's eBay community forum that PayPal nearly ALWAYS refunds the money to the buyer if the buyer is unhappy. So, I would ASAP open a dispute with PayPal ... that is your best course of action from what I've learned from eBayers.

Good luck ... I hope it works out okay.

catatonic

In my opinion:

The paint part is accurate in that the top coat is fine....however he should have mentioned it was a repainted frame, and not original paint.

The rust on the stays....depends how bad it is...if it's what I call bad, then there is a pencil eraser sized spec in a obvious location....therefore the auction was misleading.

Provide us some pics so we can tell you where we stand on this.

markwebb

I called PayPal and verified that when you file a dispute it puts a sorta hold on the seller's funds or looks to seller like you no longer paid, and stays that way until the dispute is settled, or for x number of days. If in a certain amount of days the dispute is not settled I think it releases the funds back to seller automatically - before that you need to follow the buyer protection or the more formal process - it's all explained when you take the first step in filing the dispute via PayPal web site. When I did it the seller got really mad, sent me several invoices/requests for payment daily, etc - and up to that point he failed to respond to my emails for over 2 weeks!!! Hitting him where it hurts - in the pocketbook - sure got him motivated.

BTW - your bad seller is not from Colorado, is he?

catatonic

So far I only got burned twice on Ebay.

First was a battery for my laptop that was actually wrong...the voltage on it was not the correct one, nor match auction description, nad the capacity was far lower as well. I got my money back after all was said and done....pretty easy.

Second one was buying some music. I was told these were Digipacks, and legit albums (i had a hard time finding them in any record store, since this group does not have much of a US presence if any). Turns out they were counterfeits, the seller refuses to return contact either. Right now the label of the band is investigating, using the evidence I provided. I was impressed when they sent me legit versions of all the albums I sent in. Pretty much I just felt like hell knowing the band didn't get paid, because some jackass got greedy. +1 for independant labels.

H1449-6

You'd have a better chance at prevailing if the seller had sent you a toaster instead of a bicycle.

Most condition representations, like "excellent condition," are considered fluff and not a material basis of the bargain.

Anyway, good luck.

brundle_fly

Just my person experience.
I'd never buy a bike off Ebay without seeing it and collecting it myself.I've had some poor ones myself.
A person advertising "In excellent condition" could mean anything

nova

I had one ebay seller try to rip me off. See years and years ago i bought 2 jade and "silver dragon rings" 75 bucks for boths. Well as it turned out they were not jade and silver but jade and brass. this imidatly struck me as odd as these rings were obviously extreamly old and both had marks denoting where they were made who made them etc like you would expect to find on gold and silver. So strange i started researching them at the local libraries. And well i found them. They both date from the mid 1600s yes you heard right the mid 1600s not 1800s like he claimed.

He thought he was rippign me off but what he realy did was rip him self off.
I did how ever send hima final email including a scan of the pages regardign the rings. I said
"while you tried to rip me off im going to let it pass and not take any action. You may be wondering why i have decided to do this. Well the reason is simple. Those "jade and silver dragon rings" you sold me were infact not jade and silver but jade and brass. This let me track down these very odd rings quite effectivly. They are not from late 1800s as you claimed but are infact from the mid 1600s and are worth much much more than the 75 bucks i paid you. They are worth right around 800 dolors each. Have a great day atached are the scans of the book i found the rings in"

He never replied back lol.

So some times a seller will try to rip you off but realy end up rippign them self off. Lookk up moss and snow jade and empire jade. They are 2 of the more rare types of jade and one ring was empire jade and the other hade a moss and snow jade setting .

I say take it up with ebay and paypal sence you got bit but figured id toss in my little ebay bad seller story just for laughs.

seaden

here is the auction

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1

I bought this bike a week or so ago and have been trying to talk to the seller about a refund but he refuses and tells me I got a quality item when obviously it wasn't...he should have clearly said it was repainted and by rattle can or something...I doubt I will get my money back though. I think I will just take it apart and resell piece by piece to get most of my loss back. It did had all campy parts with Pinarello engraved on everything.

EricDJ

Well since you already got your positive feedback from him, you can leave a bad one for him without worrying about retaliation directed to you.

Looks like the parts could fetch some resale if need be, or you could dispute it if you paid via PayPal. Money order refunding is harder.

PhilThee

I have bought several older FM Tuners on Ebay.I have had to use the Paypal claim system many times because of fraudulent sellers.
I have been refunded in every case except one where I couldn't give a USPS tracking number to Canada.
That was my mistake.They recommend UPS or FedEx for that reason. They have rectified the problem since.

Be sure you know what you are talking about, tell them how he reacted, be civil, and be patient. It will probably take close to a month.
If he said it has perfect paint and no rust, that is fraud and misreplesentation for profit.You need to use his exact words as used in the auction against him.

mscycler

File a complaint with PayPal and your Credit Card company (if you paid thru your CC using PayPal).

If that doesn't work, threaten to kill him...

mscycler

PhilThee

If after three weeks of the paypal claim there is still no refund, contact your credit card company.
I filed a claim with my my credit card company one time and the money was replaced immediately after I provided a tracking number.

dekalbSTEEL

2 things:

1. $125 flat rate shipping??? WOW! that's high!!!!(twice as high as his actual cost, I bet.)

2. If you really like the bike, why not strip it down and have the frame repainted?

Everest

I have had bad luck lately as well. I have been buying lightly used parts to convert my bike to double and have been mislead on about half the transactions. The first problem was with a set of 105 Calipers they were missing mounting hardware, the seller has been easy to work with and has agreed to pay for new hardware. The second was a Ultegra rear derailluer it had obiously had the chain dropped and the cage and joskey wheel were bent beyond repair, seller refunded purchase price and half of shipping cost, easy to work with and seemed genuinely sorry. The final time has been the worst and is as yet unresolved. I bought a set of 105 Brifters, which the seller described as used but in good working condition. They have a alot of slop annd dont shift smoothly. plus he negleted to mention they had obviously been crashed. The hood is torn all the way through in a few places and one of the caps is knocked way loose and appears about ready to fall off. The seller has not responded to my messages. How do you think i should proceed? Sorry if this is a hijack but I didnt want to clutter the forum with a different thread of such similiar content. Below is the item description and the auctions photos (he deliberately took the photos in a way that hides the damage.

Description:

This auction is for Shimano 105 9speed shifters. The shifters are about 4 or 5 years old and are used but in good working condition. Buyer to pay $7.00 fixed shipping cost to the lower 48 states only.

grinderbob

if you paid with paypal, file a dispute. The money will immediately be taken away from the seller.
just sent the bike back, $35 most of the time, $50 if you send from coast to coast.

SingleSpeeDemon

Damn pretty bike as the pics show...do you have close-ups of the crappy chrome and the clearcoat from hell?

seaden

here is the response from him via email after I gave him negative feed back. Note that he was telling me know would find me a customer to buy the bike off me but I basically just did not want to deal with him anymore after so much name calling. As for whatever he is talking about someone buying something from me (I have never sold anything on ebay) and leaving a neutral feedback...this is another stupid why who sends me the wrong pictures of the seat post he was selling me..which makes me think I am buying something totally different from what I actually got.

here is his email:
dear denise,
apparently you really do have issues. Thank you for your dis-servcie. You can see my response to your negative feedback. What I said about you, speaks volumes and I hope it hurts you on eBay immesely. I recommend that you seek counseling and get off the destructive path you are on. I had a buyer for your bike, I agreed to find one for you less than 48 hours ago. But i would never let you handle one of my transactions. We are done. Notice how one of my recent buyers, who bought from you on May 31st, left a neutral and said you were a nightmare. As least he had the class to leave you a neutral. If i could withdraw the positive feedback I left you I would. I would. Just remember what i said, You are a disgrace to ebay. completely unstable. Get back on the Prozac Denise and return to the ebay community when you've become a stable person, if that's possible. Good Grief. Not pleasure doing business with you at all. May you go to ebay Hell.

DrPete 

Very important in this case to look at the seller's feedback. I wouldn't buy a bike or any other big-ticket item from anyone who hasn't established a good feedback rating as a SELLER. I read people's feedback to make sure that they've actually sold things. Most sellers give out positive feedback just for paying in a timely fashion, so it's important to read the feedback.

DrPete