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

Emily_Joy

stuhse said:

You still haven't said what is wrong with the bike, or how much the bike cost to give context.

Because I don't think it is important. The bike which is in "excellent condition" should not require extra £200 to make it road save or road worthy.

rollingmoon

Emily_Joy 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.

You had the opportunity to inspect the bike; if it was dark then maybe a torch would have been a good idea. Furthermore, if inspection wouldn't have revealed the faults then is it reasonable to expect that the seller knew about them? 

It's not what you want to hear, I'm sure, but you don't have a leg to stand on here unfortunately.

Emily_Joy

rollingmoon said:

Emily_Joy 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.

You had the opportunity to inspect the bike; if it was dark then maybe a torch would have been a good idea. Furthermore, if inspection wouldn't have revealed the faults then is it reasonable to expect that the seller knew about them?

Yes, absolutely. The vendor, who claims to be the first and only owner, does know for a fact how much the bike has been used and what the faults are. Let us say that the breaks are not working properly. This would be blindly evident when you try to stop riding the bike downhill. If the area near the vendors house is mostly flat, it would have been very difficult to notice a problem during a test ride. Frankly speaking what you notice with daily use and what you can see during a brief inspection the vendor would offer are very different things. (P.S. When I sold a bike myself I provided the buyer with a full history and notes from the workshop that serviced it every 6 months.)

stuhse

FFHillbilly said:

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

Good questions

GadgetGuru

Emily_Joy said:

Yes, absolutely. The vendor, who claims to be the first and only owner, does know for a fact how much the bike has been used and what the faults are. 

No, not necessarily. Is the vendor a bike expert? If so, how do you know? How can you prove the seller knew of any faults?? This is your assumption - not a fact. 

Just because you have your bike serviced every 6 months and keep on top of the maintenance of it, you can't expect everyone to. 
I have a bike. I've had it for 5 years. I ride it every so often. I know it works well. Whether it has any underlying issues I don't know. As far as I know I can get on it and ride it, that's it. 

At the end of the day the responsibility was on you when you decided to collect to do your checks etc. If the item was posted to you then that's a different story and your rights as a consumer differ. 

I appreciate that's not necessarily what you want to hear, but that's how I see it. 

Emily_Joy

GadgetGuru said:

Emily_Joy said:

Yes, absolutely. The vendor, who claims to be the first and only owner, does know for a fact how much the bike has been used and what the faults are. 

No, not necessarily. Is the vendor a bike expert? If so, how do you know? How can you prove the seller knew of any faults?? This is your assumption - not a fact.

It doesn't matter whether or not the vendor knew about the faults. It only matters whether the item is as described or not.

GadgetGuru

Emily_Joy said:

GadgetGuru said:

Emily_Joy said:

Yes, absolutely. The vendor, who claims to be the first and only owner, does know for a fact how much the bike has been used and what the faults are. 

No, not necessarily. Is the vendor a bike expert? If so, how do you know? How can you prove the seller knew of any faults?? This is your assumption - not a fact.

It doesn't matter whether or not the vendor knew about the faults. It only matters whether the item is as described or not.

Let me put it another way - if Im selling a car that looks and drives perfect, and the buyer came and inspected and was happy enough to purchase it, how am I supposed to know that there was a bit of rust next to the engine that a week later has eaten its way through a clip and caused a pipe to come loose and damages something?
Is that my fault for not knowing there was rust there and pointing it out beforehand?? 
This is why its the buyers responsibility to check over everything, or have it professionally inspected if need be. 

You stated above that it was a 'fact' that the seller knew about the faults. You can't state this to be a fact. If you didn't see the faults upon collection, why would you assume the seller knew about them?
As you do not wish to disclose what these faults were, we have no idea how serious they potentially are and whether they are easy enough to spot, so are unable to advise any further. The fault could have developed after the sale, for instance, or, as stated previously, you should have inspected it more closely upon purchase - its not like it was a car engine and you have to open everything up.....

GDB2222

Emily_Joy said:

GadgetGuru said:

Emily_Joy said:

Yes, absolutely. The vendor, who claims to be the first and only owner, does know for a fact how much the bike has been used and what the faults are. 

No, not necessarily. Is the vendor a bike expert? If so, how do you know? How can you prove the seller knew of any faults?? This is your assumption - not a fact.

It doesn't matter whether or not the vendor knew about the faults. It only matters whether the item is as described or not.

I think you are right about that. The bike was described as "in excellent condition and 2 years old".

Well, the 2 years old is a matter  of fact.  You might be able to get the age from the frame number and contacting the manufacturer. If the bike is actually 5 years old, say, you have a strong case. You obviously can't quibble about a couple of months.

"Excellent condition" is pretty meaningless. It's highly subjective, and a non-technical person could reasonably describe the bike as excellent even if it has a couple of faults that they have got used to.

I agree that, if the brakes didn't work at all when you got the bike, that would not be excellent.. But, simply requiring a very very hard pull or being less than 100% effective - that's not clear. 

You don't want to hear any of this, and you just want ebay to give you your money back. Maybe, they will, and I wish you luck.

FFHillbilly

Emily_Joy said:

stuhse said:

You still haven't said what is wrong with the bike, or how much the bike cost to give context.

Because I don't think it is important. The bike which is in "excellent condition" should not require extra £200 to make it road save or road worthy.

you shouldn't post on a forum looking for help but only decide what you tell us, in order to skew the comments so they just agree with your point of view,  whats the point?
if you explain all of the facts you'll get some real opinions.
I wonder if somewhere else on the internet theres a post from someone along the lines of
"sold my used bike for £200 it was all working fine, buyer inspected it when they collected it now 3 weeks later they are complaining because the gears skip occasionally, I told them it might need a new chain"

Emily_Joy

FFHillbilly said:

you shouldn't post on a forum looking for help but only decide what you tell us, in order to skew the comments so they just agree with your point of view,  whats the point?

I actually got the advice I wanted - which was to contact eBay and to talk to a person. The vendor offered to make contribution towards necessary repairs. The bike had not only a frame number, but also a sticker from the bike shop that sold it at first place. I did contact the bike shop and they told me it they sold it in early 2020.