Re: it dies

On May 12, 3:02 pm, Jay Carpenter <jcarpenter...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
tomor...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

My experience has been quite different. I have bought three
motorcycles on eBay. Each bike has been exactly as advertised by the
seller, and each transaction was completed to our mutual satisfaction.

Otoh, if you do have problems with an eBay auction, unless it is
criminal fraud that law enforcement officials would find compelling
enough to prosecute, as you say, you are on your own. eBay will NOT
get involved.

Law enforcement will not get involved. They call it a "civil matter".

My experiences with Ebay are quite different.

I bought a Mercedes on Ebay. Description was "pristine" and "dealer
maintained all it's life". Seller had good feedback. I travel 300 miles
to pick up the car. Front end problems, transmission problems, paint
problems. I walk.

I bought another Mercedes on Ebay from another seller with good feedback.
The car would not shut off without opening the hood and pressing the
emergency kill lever. Front end problems. Cracked intake. I walked.

I bought a Ford F250 for 20K from a seller with over two hundred positives.
Can't go wrong....right? Seller said the truck was "perfect". I travel
600 miles to pick up the truck. From 10 feet away, I could see the poorly
repaired damage on the front end. This truck actually had a one-quarter
inch panel misalignment. I walk. Seller pays me $400 for my expenses if I
don't hammer his feedback.

I've since quit using Ebay for anything.

I dunno about bikes, but if they are anything like cars -- 75%+ of the
listings are junk that people are trying to dump out of their home area.
Ebay could make buying transportation a safe affair. Unfortunately, they
prefer to run their vehicle auctions like a wild-west affair.

Sorry to hear about your misfortunes!

Again, my experience differs. I bought my pickup truck on eBay. and
my son bought his. Now, in my case, no real risk. It was a
franchised Chevy dealer selling a brand-new 2006 Silverado that one of
their local customers had special ordered and then walked out on.
They had a "Buy It Now" price that was acceptable to me, so that was
the end of that. No troubles.

My son bought his 1997 Ford F250 from a small, Mom & Pop used car
dealer 650 miles from us. The truck sounded good, the sellers had
good feedback (not just numbers, but comments, both selling and for a
few things they bought) so we did a Carfax report on it, and it came
up clean. The pictures provided were good, but not great. My son e-
mailed and requested additional high-resolution photos, including
photos of the undercarraige. (Note: my son is a certified Ford
technician, so he knows exactly what to look for and what questions to
ask; this is admittedly a major advantage!) After examining the new
photos (they took about 35-40 iirc) he called them and talked to the
seller on the phone. He asked all the questions he would ask a local
seller, along with some that he wouldn't have, since he would have to
invest a day and over a hundred dollars in expenses just to see the
truck. After digesting the answers to those questions, he called the
seller back the next day and got all his follow-up questions addresed.

Finally, he won the auction, and I drove him to look at, purchase, and
bring home the truck. Everything about the truck was as advertised,
the finish on the truck was better than the pictures had led us to
believe, and the truck drove, handled, and stopped the way it should.
He completed the deal and followed me 650 miles back home.

That was a year ago, and the only thing the truck has needed is a set
of tires and an instrument cluster since then. Here's a photo of the
truck on our way home from Kentucky: http://preview.tinyurl.com/22hbl7

In transactions other than cars and motorcycles, since 1999 I've had
close to 1,000 completed eBay transactions almost equally divided
between selling and buying, and only had to deal with two or three
jerks. Admittedly, almost ALL of my transactions have been motorcycle
related, and quite honestly, colleagues at work who buy and sell less
specialized household, sporting, and childrens goods seem to get a
higher percentage of "problem transactions" than I do.

Otoh, as Ari Rankum will tell you, I'm an ***, so there may be a
huge body of eBay users out there who hate me and are unhappy with
their transactions with me and I'm simply blithely unaware of it!
Yeah, that's probably it!

.

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