Just won a bike, A 650b Saracen Zen, only ridden a few times, immaculate condition, just serviced, has had the equivalent of a 40 point check etc, etc. Cost New £1600 & I won it 3 hours ago for £359. It was for my son wh who is not in a good place at the moment and was really excited… I’ve just had a message from the seller that he’s just found a crack on the frame and has decided to keep it..what a load of bollox. He’s not gotten the money he wanted and pulled out. So angry right now.
I’ve asked him to honour the terms of the deal and send me the bike anyway..don’t know what else to do,..Any ideas?

Walk away? Leave feedback? Call Ebay?

Probably best to avoid ebay, anything that is way under market price is likely to go this way or be nicked.

Only other thing is ask him to name a price and do it the old fashioned way.

I’m afraid if you ‘win’an auction for a price well under what would be considered reasonable you basically just have to accept this will happen. I play dirty and use snipe engines to buy at the least possible price, buyers will play dirty by pulling stunts like this to avoid ebay high reserve auction prices. End of the day you are not out of pocket

Same thing boils my blood with buyers, the usual excuse of my son was on my pc …
So annoying.

This is annoying.

The worst eBay burn I’ve had, bought a bike from the US which evidently went for less than the seller wanted. He sent me a quote for priority air-freight delivery, which I paid. He then shut down his eBay and PayPal accounts and everything went very quiet. Three months later the bike turned up on a ship, for which he had paid about a tenth of the postage he charged me.

Leave a negative. Isnt that what the feedback system is there for?

Had the opposite occur – sold something, buyer won it and then tried to renegotiate the price downwards

It happens – you can take legal action as the auction is a binding contract but it takes ages and you need the sellers address and other details to raise the claim

Mostly it’s a waste of time though, hard work to get anything sorted as eBay don’t want to know. Best way is ask what they want for the bike and negotiate a price – or suck it up and move on

Sadly this is the world of ebay, annoying but not a lot you can do. Never really understand people who do this, or why people bother with reserve prices – just start your auction at the lowest price you’d want for whatever you are selling surely? Either that or take the rough with the smooth, some things sell high somethings sell low.

Sorry, but unless you offer more you’re unlikely to get the bike even by complaining to eBay, leave the seller negative feedback and move on.

Keep an eye out for it getting re-listed.. be the winner and dont pay.
Be the twunt buyer who doesnt pay.

why didn’t they start the auction off at the minimum price they wanted…it’s not like you haven’t been able to do that for ages now 🙄

Ebay seems to have gone mad recently, cycling stuff is the worst for it.

I am after a new bike so have been watching loads of items recently, a lot of people are trying to sell a second hand bike for more than it costs as new, old stock from Pauls Cycles where I get a warranty and don’t have to drive to the other end of the country.

Then after it not selling for a while, they put a more realistic price on it but then end the auction early – presumably because they had a better offer outside of ebay or they are not happy getting less than they were hoping for it.

eBay has also started doing an odd thing where if you put something on there it suggests a starting price – never used to do that. Often the price it suggests is a bit ridiculous. For example I put a rusty ladies bike up there (a project I am not going to get around to so wanted to get shot) eBay suggested I started the bidding at nearly £50 which is mental!

Easy come, easy go.

It’s not something I’d do as a seller, but then I wouldn’t start an auction for less than I’d let a bike go for.

Getting my knickers in a twist about having it done to me would make me feel as greedy as the seller.

People still think the best way to get a good price is to start it at 99p and that a reserve puts people off. Just put it up at what you’ll take as a minimum and let it run!

I don’t buy off Ebay now unless it’s a reputable shop’s account, been burned far too many times by people removing stuff that went cheap, badly described or never shows up. Don’t sell on there either. Far better to deal face-to-face even if it means I sell stuff a bit cheaper or pay slightly more.

eBay is a joke and has been for some years now. I used to sell records, computer games and DVDs on there years ago as a bit of a hobby, until eBays management changed and they brought in loads of changes geared to pushing smaller amateur sellers off the site with the aim of bringing in corporate sellers.

Fees increased, sellers could no longer leave negative feedback for buyers who didn’t pay (which in turn opened the floodgates for all the fraud issues on there now), forced postage prices, taking a fee on postage (which combined with the previous one meant that you actually lost money with every item posted) and my personal pet hate, forcing you to accept Paypal.

The two-way feedback system of the original eBay kept a lot of the idiots away because sellers could leave feedback for non-paying bidders. You could even be banned from the site for non-payment / not shipping items.

I’ve kept my account open as I occasionally buy bike parts but I wouldn’t dream of selling on there any more.

too many bikes in the world to get hung up on your ebay missed opportunity. god forbid you could always try gumtree (and how excellent I have to say has ebay made that “free” website) 👿 this one anygood for you? http://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/saracen-zen-ii-mans-mountain-bike/1104479690

Suck it up and move on. Leave them negative feedback if you wish.

FWIW I recommend Gixen for sniping, I use it a lot. Not only is it good for getting bids in at the last moment, it also means you can set it up well in advance and just leave it to do its thing, avoiding the sickening feeling you get when you forget to bid on something and it goes for pennies !

Easy come, easy go.

It’s not something I’d do as a seller, but then I wouldn’t start an auction for less than I’d let a bike go for.

Getting my knickers in a twist about having it done to me would make me feel as greedy as the seller.

This.

A low starting price encourages bidding – I sold an old cast iron fireplace recently, I started it at Ebays recommended price of £50 – no bids, re-listed, no bids, re-listed a third time, no bids so the fourth time I started it at 99p and it sold for £69 with six or seven people bidding on it.

I just got someone banned from ebay for pissing me about on a sale. People assume there’s no point in complaining/pursuing but ime it’s not the case. Having said that if they have a plausible excuse it probably is a waste of time.

I’ve been selling a bunch of toys recently so the “my son bidded” excuse is convincing enough that I just let everyone off. Going soft in my old age!

I have listed my DJ equipment on Ebay, three times now I have had people click the ‘buy it now’, which obviously I was delighted with. They then mail me asking for personal email, and they send a fake PayPal invoice to that account and ask the goods to be shipped to Nigeria!!
So no longer selling on ebay. Too much hassle.
anyone want to purchase some DJ equipment?

1210’s mrwhyte?

Denon CDJs, 5000s, with a DNX-1500 mixer.

Gumtree is far worse for stolen goods, Nigerian scams etc.

I’ve been idly watching a Cervelo R3 which has been constantly re listed since JULY with occasional tiny reductions in asking price. It’s still over priced and it’s now a year older.

Mind you that reminds me of a few classic STW classifieds…

Ah, considering some 1210’s (sold mine about 15 years ago), got 800 hip hop 12″s gathering dust that need to see some action, but virtually no CDs!

I have kept my 1210s, too nice to give up!

Don’t blame you, was like losing an arm 🙁

1210’s mrwhyte?

You’d have to be mad to sell a set of 1210’s these days! I certainly never will sell mine.

Anyway, I think you can contact ebay about this and they will close the sellers account as it is against their TOS.

Little consolation, I know, but the age old “if it looks too good…”

Leave a neg feedback. Its not a genuine ‘oh no I cant let that crazy low price bike go now due to that mysterious crack’.

Its **** how do I get out of this hoodini.

It’ll be on pinkbike and ebay again shortly. So you need to flag upto other potential buyers about this potential dangerous frame….

Tell him you are not bothered about the crack, but it is now a fair price given that the frame is cracked. If in coventry I can pick it up for you!

Leave negative feedback

“said was damaged but wouldn’t provide proof ”

It doesn’t help if people let it go

Keep calm but leave negative feedback. They should loose the account for that

It’s ebay, it’s full of twunts!!

There is another bike I spotted last night, seller wants £25 more as 2nd hand than you can get it for new, not even new old stock but brand new….and then he want £25 postage on top where the shop selling will ship for free.

In the last week i sold my full suss mtb on e bay by taking the best offer.
Contacted the buyer twice about paying and collecting and got a reply saying just because i accepted their offer doesn’t they are going to buy it.It was a pretty unpleasant e mail ending with me being called a douchebag.
Now ebay have sent me a bill for £60 for the sale!

All you need to now do is open a case. The buyer will get a unpaid item strike and you will get a refund for the charges.

I have my account set to not let bidders bid if they have any unpaid item strikes

This is why I no longer sell anything via eBay when combined with ridiculous fees that eBay and PayPal charge you. The worst is the cheeky sods that hit the buy it now and then email you to offer to buy it at a lower price.

Now ebay have sent me a bill for £60 for the sale!

this happened to me recently – ebay’s idea of giving me a refund was actually to give me a credit on my account. So you get the money back, but you can only spend it with ebay. WTF?

EDIT: I went down the ‘agreed with the buyer to cancel the sale’ route, rather than the ‘non-payment’ route, as I beleived it was a genuine error on their part. Probs should have just gone straight for non payment in hindsight.

joeegg – Member

In the last week i sold my full suss mtb on e bay by taking the best offer.
Contacted the buyer twice about paying and collecting and got a reply saying just because i accepted their offer doesn’t they are going to buy it.It was a pretty unpleasant e mail ending with me being called a douchebag.
Now ebay have sent me a bill for £60 for the sale!
The winning buyer is being a dick.

By bidding you are entering into a contract to pay for it should you win.