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Hi,
Earlier in the week I won a bike on eBay.
I'd arranged to pick it up tonight (he wants cash on collection). The seller has only been a member of ebay for 6 weeks and no significant sales. Alarm bells start ringing.
His username appears to be his name so I put the name and address into ebay and some worrying info came up. A few years back he was jailed for x years for burglary and it appears that the same surname was also involved in more serious crimes (might be family, might be him as the first name of this second person appears to be the middle name of the first person...if they are actually different people).
I don't want to judge a book by it's cover as people can change, but my gut reaction is to back out post sale.
So, if I did back out having already won the auction, what would happen on ebay?
Thoughts re the general situation? Am I being narrow minded?
Thanks.
What's the bike and where is it being sold from!? Still looking for my stolen bikes, as I'm sure are plenty of others on here!
Check with bike register or local police to see what it said bike is stolen.?
If you pay and collect then Plod can turn up and have it off you.
Ebay won't care; the police won't care that you've lost your money.
You will lose your money.
Don't bother. You haven't won anything, get something else.
Why didn't you do your detective work [i]before[/i] bidding?
At least you haven't paid yet.
Nothing will happen to you on Ebay if you don't complete the sale. You'll just get a non-paying bidder strike.
What is the bike? If it's an Apollo, you're probably OK. If it's a 2-year-old Santa Cruz...
Why not ask the seller? He might have proof of purchase or similar
If he doesnt, report him to the police
Take the BOYZ with you n if suspect call the plod
Ask for the frame number and see the response.
Ask for proof of purchase?
SaxonRider - I bid very late on the item. It was only hen he told me the pick up address that I started to be slightly concerned. I'll be really honest here, the location is a well known dodgy area. I know that there are good and bad everywhere and that you shouldn't pre-judge and I would be happy to be wrong but alarm bells are seriously ringing for me now.
Can I cancel a purchase on ebay and what will happen, will I get poor history?
Ebay will put you on the naughty step. No big deal.
Crim will have your details so when plod comes knocking for the stolen bike, he'll finger you as having bought it and ebay trail will prove it.
Plod will come to you demanding it back, even though you have never laid a finger on it. They will leave after threatening you with handling stolen goods.
Yep, been there too
Can I cancel a purchase on ebay and what will happen, will I get poor history?
Would you rather lose hundreds/thousands of pounds or have one bit of negative feedback on ebay? If he is a crook he's hardly likely to bother with feedback.
^^^Listen to them
Share the link, or a pic, it might belong to someone on here.
Thanks all.
I've requested frame number and receipts etc.
I'm not concerned about negative eBay feedback, more that I was unsure as to what does happen having never backed out of a sale before. Wasn't sure if eBay suspended the account etc.
Like some have said, it's unlikely that he'll kick up any sort of fuss if he's acting dodgy.
If you really doubt that it's kosher then back out and email eBay with your reason.
If you back out of lots of sales ebay might do something - if it's just one then it's irrelevant.
squin - MemberI'm not concerned about negative eBay feedback,
Don't worry about negative feedback. Sellers are unable to leave buyers bad feedback, it's been like this for years now.
That's probably why the place is the natural habitat of the tyre-kicker.
FFS why do people dither so. Its a bloody bike. Just walk away. Its not worth the anxiety.
Mattsccm, thanks for the input. Sorry for sharing 'chat' in the chat forum, maybe this part of the forum isn't for you if you're not chatty 🙂
You'll see that most of my questioning is relating to logistics and side effects of pulling out of the sale on ebay. I'm now comfortable that it's no big deal on eBay.
can he provide any receipts or proof of purchase for it.
If not I'd be suspicious.
Pay in stolen money.
Haha, like that, I'll pay in play money or a wad made of of cut up newspaper.
Check if it's the model with danfangled glitter forks. Back out if not.
Woody2000 - it's a Giant Defy Advanced 3 2015. Being sold from Warrington, but if it is hot it could have come from anywhere I suppose.
I'm not concerned about negative eBay feedback, more that I was unsure as to what does happen having never backed out of a sale before. Wasn't sure if eBay suspended the account etc.
If it turned out the seller was legit (or wasn't but is miffed about you backing out) they can apply for a 'strike' for non payment. Nobody can see these but when someone is listing an item for sale you can set the listing so that people with numerous strikes can't bid. But with only one, or a few, strikes you'll never notice, and even if you did have numerous strikes you wouldn't notice until you tried to bid on an item that had been configured that way. Someone might apply a 'strike' not to be vindictive or as some sort of negative feedback - its part of the process of reporting a non-completed sale so that the seller doesn't have to pay final value fees.
If you really want to, go. You should get a good idea if its legit by talking to the guy. Ask him some details about the kit, how he found the brakes. Where does he go riding etc.
If he doesnt know much about the bike and biking you'll soon know.
8OThere's been a lot of talk lately about people being robbed going into dodgy areas with cash to buy things from online selling sites. Go with your gut feeling. Did the bike go very cheaply ?
I've been to Warrington twice in my life, and the second time was for court 😯
revs. The bike did go for a reasonably low price...also part of my gut feeling being wrong!
Walked away from this one.
Post up link n well see if he relists it then .
Most recent sale - which I guess the OP won is here
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2015-giant-defy-advanced-3-composite-/231858223069?hash=item35fbd3b7dd%3Ag%3AV-0AAOSwWTRW0K2r&nma=true&si=GEqVm3Fa1x34eqbsMgu1OSv1t%252B4%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
Interestingly he sold it a 5 days ago here
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2015-giant-defy-advanced-3-composite-/231853049819?hash=item35fb84c7db%3Ag%3APbEAAOSwUuFWykRC&nma=true&si=GEqVm3Fa1x34eqbsMgu1OSv1t%252B4%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
And is now selling a PS4 here
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ps4-/231863387563?hash=item35fc2285ab:g:vNgAAOSwzgRW1tKk
And a guy with the same name as the username from Warrington here
http://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/2194005.police_warning_after_burglar_jailed/
Disclaimer - could be a different guy and doing the eBay seller an injustice, just posting what Google tells me!
The newspaper article has the crime stoppers number.
If he cannot show proof of purchase and won't give you a frame number to check, I'd be ringing that number...
Smurfly. I hadn't found the previously sold item but I had found all the other stuff. There's actually some even more intense criminal activity reported on Google related to someone with a remarkably similar name.
Go with your gut, if it feels dodgy it probably is.
Wish I taken my own advice a few weeks ago - via a series of slightly bizzare events I finished up being offered a bike out of the back of a van (along with 2 others) in a dodgy street in Luton, by a bloke who's story about the sale made absolutely no sense - he said it was his sons bike & he had gone to uni so didn't need it. When he turned up he was only about 25 himself!
Needless to say I got back in the car and got the hell out of Dodge.
LONGSHOT - why not see if you can give these people a quick call? (From your link) Detective Constable Stuart Eales (or more likely whose took his place), of Warrington Burglary Unit
Regards ebay feedback, you'll only get the mark against your name if you just leave it and don't pay. If the seller cancels the sale from their end it's no problem.
If they don't get back to you with receipts etc just be polite and ask them to cancel, you never know. The non-paying mark is only a problem if you get a few of them anyway.
If you do get a mark and it bothers you it's worth contacting ebay about it if the bike does turn out to be stolen, they may be understanding and remove the mark. Ebay like buyers, it's sellers they don't give a **** about (I'm not bitter)
Quite simple really, no original sales receipt, no sale.
Phone number on earlier ebay ad gives his Gumtree. Lot of phones for sale there.
https://www.gumtree.com/sellerads/1158006144?page=1
I think you've got enough evidence to point you in the right direction. Might be worth asking at the local police whether there are reports of this bike being stolen in the area.
contact the police. If they are happy it's not stolen then go for it. I suspect they will think it is, like you, and in which case you might help someone get their bike back.
I helped a guy get his bike back a few months ago when someone posted up a suspect stolen bike for sale on gumtree.
Quick update.
Surprise surprise I've heard nothing back from the guy regarding proof of purchase or frame number.
I had a word with our friends in blue last night. Got an incident number etc. I worked on the basis that speed of information could be useful to them. They were very helpful. I don't know whether they'll be able to do anything as my information is all circumstantial but I'm happy that I've shared the info.
Hmm, makes you wonder where he got the Giant TCR from? The one in his completed items that he ended early. 😕
That's interesting. I asked him why he hadn't ridden it much and he said because he'd got a great deal on a TCR...he obviously loves that bike so much that he tried to sell it too!!
p.s. I've only just found out how to get historical ebay info. I was amazed that you lot were so knowledgeable 🙂