A bit of advice please.

I bought a used bike off the evilBay for my son. First listing was started at 99p with a reserve or £250 BIN.

I was the highest bidder but it didn’t reach the reserve. He relisted without the BIN, so I asked if he would sell for a mutually agreed price. We agreed a price and he relisted BIN at the agreed price. Delivered all OK, (see the waiting in for a parcel thread)

I started to build the bike back up, wheels off, seat slammed, bars turned, pedals off. That’s when I started to notice a few problems.

Little things, V brakes needed setting up, the cup and cone washers were a jumble. The chainline, SS, was way off and had been for some time, the chain had scuffed the anodising off the bash guard. He had changed the grips from the photos and put some new, but cheap grips on.

More noticable was the left pedal was really loose on the spindle. 5mm of side to side play. I took the end cap off, no grease. Re-buildable but very obvious. The BB, ISIS, is dead. Grinding and movement. I pulled the seatpost out to clean up and grease, find it’s been cut down by about 140mm. Way too short to use.

None of this mentioned in the listing. I contacted him and his response has been dismissive to say the least. His take is that he fitted new tyres, a chain and XT V brakes and levers, so that more than makes up for the faults and I have got a bargain. I understand that the price we agreed was below his initial BIN price, but he agreed. If I’d known I wouldn’t have offered the price I did.

A bit of learning on my part, but he is not offering anything to make amends. The price I paid would be a bargain if all was spot on. After putting everthing right it will be more than what it’s realistically worth.

He’s not going to do anything, he’s made that prefectly clear. If I raise a dispute I’m unlikely to gain anything money wise, and I’m not sure I want to return it.

Do I just mark it down as experience and approach evilBay with caution in the future, or leave him justifiable feedback as the last word?

EDIT: Sorry, that ended up longer than I planned.

unless it’s one big con – just enjoy your life is my advice – good luck

Always a risk with buying 2nd hand bikes and parts. If you’re really not happy I’d ask to send it back, you’ll lose postage etc but that’s the price to pay. Otherwise, suck it move, learn from the experience and get on with fixing it up as best you can without spending a fortune on it.

If it’s not as described you can open a dispute and ebay will usually side with the buyer for a return.

and I’m not sure I want to return it.

treat it as a lesson learnt then – I had similar issues with a secondhand bike dealer, luckily seller was happy to agree a discount that made up for the bikes short comings, it might be worth trying this angle with the seller as I’m sure they won’t want to incur the cost of it being returned

Plenty of good, reliable eBayers out there. Unfortunately you’ve stumbled across one of the wrong’uns that give it a bad name. Leave neg feedback and be done with it.
I’ve only ever come across 1 bad seller in all my years buying stuff on there – and that was only a £15 item.

99% of the population don’t look at bikes the way we do.
A bike’s a bike – they don’t know anything about chain line or whether a bottom bracket is graunchy (a bottom what?).