Help? - Sold Dangerous / Faulty Motorbike

jddm201

Hello,

My son turned 16 this year and he has long wanted to buy a motorbike so that he could pass his CBT and start driving.

As such, a few months ago I bought a motorbike from a dealer who advertised the bike on ebay - but he agreed to sell it to me privatley, over the phone. The cost of the bike was £1000, which was out of my sons money, but paid for through my MBNA credit card.

The bike arrived and after riding it for a couple of hours it broke down - first leaking petrol and water and then suddenly a loud bang and the engine had exploded.

It was sent to a local garage who stated that the bike was composed of mish-mash parts that were incorrectly fitted and had numeous parts missing and was in fact very dangerous!

Essentialy the entire engine would have to be replaced as well as other components - which would cost several hundered pounds.
I tried calling the sellers garage several times, only to be told that the guy I needed to speak to was unavailable, or that I had 'just missed him' and was on holiday for so many weeks.

In the end, noone from the garage would respond to me.
I tried to claim the £1000 back through my credit card company MBNA - but after so many weeks they said that nothing could be done unless I could produce the sellers 'terms and conditions'.

However, there are no such terms present on their website and I have tried emailing them and calling them to ask them for their terms and conditions but they will to reply to me?

So is there anything I can do? Is there perhaps an agency that they would have to have logged their terms and conditions with when they opened their garage?

Any help would be appreiciated, I'm worried that my sons £1000+ will simply be lost and he'll have nothing to show for it but a broken, cheap motorbike. Not to mention the fact that these 'dealers' put my sons health at risk by letting him ride this death-trap.

Thanks,
From Teresa.

Freddie_Snowbits

Was it from a dealer or private sale? I see if it was a private sale, then I am afraid it is caveat emptor

maninthestreet

Freddie_Snowbits wrote: »

Was it from a dealer or private sale? I see if it was a private sale, then I am afraid it is caveat emptor

The bike was bought from a dealer. A dealer can't get out of hid legal obligations by merely claiming it was a 'private sale'.

Freddie_Snowbits

jddm201 wrote: »

As such, a few months ago I bought a motorbike from a dealer who advertised the bike on ebay - but he agreed to sell it to me privatley, over the phone.

maninthestreet wrote: »

The bike was bought from a dealer. A dealer can't get out of hid legal obligations by merely claiming it was a 'private sale'.

Then the question should be was it sold as seen. (Fred smells a fish here!)

Mankysteve

Ask your repairer if he'll be willing to back his claims up in court. Then write to the dealer a notice before action that you rejecting the bike under the sales of goods act, give them 14days to reply.

In the mean time talk to your local trading standards.

Any dealer will to sell privately should be warning bells and by motor bike I presume you mean 50cc moped.

MrRedundant

My concern would be the OP has left this too long.
The OP really should have rejected the bike the second it failed and in writing. Instead they went through the bank.

Unless the garage refused (and im not talking ignoring calls as these are hard to prove) or ignored proven written letters then they will simply claim the OP didnt give them a chance to fix it and given we are now so far down the line whose to say the OP didnt cause the problems or do something to the bike.

jddm201

Thanks for your replies!

The bike is 125cc but was restricted down to under 50cc I believe so that my 16 year old could legally take his CBT test on it.

It was being sold through ebay as an auction, but the seller then agreed to sell it out of the auction, through his bussiness / garage / company called NG Moto Quads.

The guy who repaired it said he wouldn't be willing to go though the hassle of appearing in court as he said he has done it too many times in the past.

I tried contacting the seller immieidaitly, but was of course told he was on holiday for 2 weeks and then after that I was just ignored and fobbed off so I went immieidiatly to my credit card company, but that has taken a long time for them to finally come abck and say that they need terms and conditions of the seller.

But I've checked their website and they dont have any, and of course whenever I call them up to try and ask them if they could send me their terms and conditions they ignore me???