Am i being unreasonable?

SgtTupac

SgtTupac

SgtTupac

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Joined
3 Oct 2004
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UK
I bought a bike off *cough* as the advert said it needed little work and only a couple of things fixing and everything else was mint and working order. Upon reciveing the bike i have ound numerous parts to be damaged and worn out. It has ended up costing me more than it should have. So far ive replaced the rear mech, mech hanger, front crank arms, gear on the front, bottom bracket. Also the forks are good for nothing but the bin. I aint happy about it as it isnt as described. Ive just emailed the seller before leaving feedback to see if they are willing to pay towards the parts i have replaced. I have all the old parts ive had to replace and i can take photos for them if they need to see them! But i feel im backing them into a corner saying im basically gonna leave you bad feedback unless you give me some money back? *cough* says i should email the seller first to see if they are willing to resolve the problems.. I dunno. What do you guys think?


This is not a thread asking for ebay help. Just wondering if i am being reasonable with what im about to do...
 
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i think you should have emailed to find out the exact condition of the bike.


did you look at the new sticky at the top of GD?
 
Email him and see what happens, i have a feeling you will be the one on the losing end at the end of the day.
 
If he didn't specify what was in need of repair, but did mention that 'parts' needed replacing, then I don't think he has to pay you any money.

Personally I would have asked for an accurate description of the condition of each component which may be on it's way out.
 
Did you have pictures of the bike/parts before hand to show condition? If you worked out that it'll require a lot of parts, you should have contacted the seller, rather than buying parts then expecting him to pay for them (I would tell you to FO personally!) I dunno if he sold it "as seen" he shouldn't have to pay at all.

Do you have a ebay item number we can look for ourselves? Do you have pictures of the damaged components?
 
Sorry, forgot to add i phoned him before i clicked the buy it now. He said the only bits which needed attention were mentioned on the advert.
 
Here is the link to the ad here The pictures are not very good hence why i phoned him first. I can get pictures of the damaged parts. I know about the bottom bracket was mentioned on the advert so that isnt the problem. The crank arms and gear are.
 
If the item isnt as described then you're entitled to complain - if he doesnt help, you can get money back off paypal if you paid that way. If he didnt mention the condition in the description then theres nothing you can do.
 
don't see any ground for complaining, he hasnt said the components are in perfect condition. Unless he told you otherwise on the phone. Also are the components bust or just worn. Its a jump bike you have to expect a lot of wear.

how do you get damaged crank arms never seen a damaged crank arm before. Well apart from when a mate messed up a 360 jump and snapped 1 in half..
 
I'd get him to pay for replacement forks as they're an obvious selling point of the bike (being as they're a good brand name) and he never said they needed replacing as you have identified yourself. The rear mech wouldn't be so bad, I imagine the forks are going to be the most expensive.
 
SgtTupac said:
..... What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
You're not going to like it, but I think you're on a hiding to nothing with this.

In a private sale, you have very few rights indeed. Goods do, as others have said, have to be "as described", but the question is .... exactly what does that mean?

If someone claimed something factual about the bike (like 600cc engine and it turned out to be 250cc, or one owner and it turned out to be be five) then they can be held to that, relatively easily, though you may still end up having to take court action to get anywhere.

But for something like 'condition', it absolutely will take the age of the bike into account. What "very good" means on a five year old bike will be a different standard to that of a 6-month old bike. And therein lies the problem - establishing exactly what the description means. The description is subjective to start with, and you'd have to establish that the bike was not in that condition. This won't be easy.

Bear in mind that the golden rule of buying privately is "caveat emptor" - let the buyer beware. When buying privately, prices reflect the fact that you don't have the level of assurance, or comeback, that you do when buying from a dealer. The onus is on the buyer to examine the goods, and check. My old law lecturer used to say "when buying a horse, walk round and check there's a leg on each corner, because you won't be able to do anything about it afterwards if it turns out only to have three".


One thing - it might be worth trying to establish is the seller is private, or a dealer posing as private. In the latter case, not only would they have the same legal obligations under the Sale of Goods Act (etc) as any other dealer, but they'll have committed a criminal offence by posing as private. THEN, you have something to use as leverage.
 
Good point there. Ah well, we will see! The crank arms are bent where you bolt the gear to it on the four bolts, one of them is bent inwards, throwing the gear off.
 
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