Item collected, turned out to be not as described...

Emily_Joy

I bought a bicycle on eBay. This is probably the 6th time or so I am buying a bike on eBay and previous experience has been mostly positive. Alas, this time it went wrong, and the bike rapidly developing issues one after another (described in excellent condition and 2 years old, but I have many reasons to suspect the seller is not telling the truth... ) which are likely to cost about half of the price I paid for the bike to fix (replacement parts + labour). I paid online, via ebay by credit card. I did contact the seller, but the they were somewhat unhelpful, and seem to suggest that the issues are neither important nor costly to repair.

The problem is - the seller has not marked the item as collected, it is still showing as "pending collection". As a result I cannot open not as described case. Any suggestions?

FFHillbilly

how long have you had it? what are the faults? how much are we talking about here, how much did the bike cost?

soolin

An SNAD claim is not easy with a collected item as you would be deemed to have inspected it when collected, you might have a struggle on your hands anyway.

Have you spoken to the seller, if so what have they said? 

elsien

The OP seems to suggest that the seller is being less than helpful. 

Emily_Joy

soolin said:

An SNAD claim is not easy with a collected item as you would be deemed to have inspected it when collected, you might have a struggle on your hands anyway.

Have you spoken to the seller, if so what have they said? 

The problem was (I will never do this again) that I collected it in the darkness and could not see the bike (or anything) properly. I am not sure inspection would help, though, as the main issues would not be easy to spot. I just trusted the seller when they claimed several times everything is "great". Yes - I spoken to the seller. They say things like "should be easy to fix, go to your nearest bike shop" or send a link to ebay listing for a replacement part that would cost £40, saying "you just need one of those". So the replacement parts alone would take me to £100.

GDB2222

A two year old bike that has been used occasionally should not show much wear. On the other hand it may have been used every day for a 20 mile commute, in which case several components may be near the end of their useful life. Would you have been able to spot that even with good light?

Once these parts are replaced, will there be much else to go wrong? 

Vectis

Emily_Joy said:

... This is probably the 6th time or so I am buying a bike on eBay..

 Is this a business purchase, or do you just get through a lot of bikes?

Emily_Joy

Vectis said:

Emily_Joy said:

... This is probably the 6th time or so I am buying a bike on eBay..

 Is this a business purchase, or do you just get through a lot of bikes?

The latter. My life is split between two houses, so I have two bikes at any time. The first second-hand bike I bought in 2016, so this is 6 bikes over 8 years. One was subsequently found to be stolen so I handled it to the police. Another one I bought for a friend of mine who is less familiar with eBay (that bike is OK - the friend is still a friend and we cycle together from time to time). One I gave away on freecycle as the internal gear hub was approaching the end of life and it was too expensive to replace (the bike was 8 years old). Another one I sold to replace it with a higher end model, that I still have. 

Emily_Joy

GDB2222 said:

A two year old bike that has been used occasionally should not show much wear. On the other hand it may have been used every day for a 20 mile commute, in which case several components may be near the end of their useful life. Would you have been able to spot that even with good light?

Once these parts are replaced, will there be much else to go wrong? 

It depends how much effort is put into masking the issues. With good light one can easily check the tyres and visible cables for wear and tear, as well as spot an odd rusty screw... however, the wear and tear of internal hubs would go unnoticed.  

stuhse

You still havent said what is wrong with the bike, or how much the bike cost to give context.

GadgetGuru

You collected the item - whether you collected in pitch black or broad daylight is on you. You had the chance to thoroughly inspect the item upon collection, even though at that point you had already purchased and paid for it via the eBay system. 
Have you tried contacting eBay and actually speaking to someone via phone - that’s what I would advise to see where you stand with eBay.