A salutary tale......caveat emptor

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disherwood
Posts: 324
Joined: 19 Jan 2008, 9:26pm
Location: Halifax

Re: A cautionary tale......caveat emptor

Post by disherwood »

simonineaston wrote:While not knowing the exact circumstances, I'd have thought the offer of a refund if buyer not delighted would be part of the spirit of friendliness & common interest that underlies interaction amongst members of this group...


Wonderful sentiments simon........hows those tyres doing you offered me ..?..... :)
disherwood
Posts: 324
Joined: 19 Jan 2008, 9:26pm
Location: Halifax

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by disherwood »

Sorry to hear of your difficult experience........for what its worth.......if the sellers description was, in any reasonable persons opinion, way off and they’re unwilling to at least engage in a discussion with you the buyer then as others suggest i really do feel you should threaten them that you will highlight their behaviour to the forum if they are not willing to at least discus the matter....
Hope you get it resolved
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Sweep
Posts: 8443
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by Sweep »

pete75 wrote:
Sweep wrote:well that's a very odd case.

Don't see how anything could have protected you from that.

My point is how can you tell from the nature of a profile that a seller may swindle when it can happen after several satisfactory transactions with the same person.

I took your point. As I said, that's an odd one.
On the other hand, most of us in a life of any length have felt shafted at one time or another by folk we had long known - friends, lovers, long-time colleagues.

My general nous stands.

Avoid anyone who is a new entrant to the forum.
They may be OK but then do you really really need that thing now now?
Check their posting history - I look for a pretty large number of posts on matters cycling with no transactional content.
This tells me that they have a genuine interest in this place and the community.
And might be keen to maintain their presence here.
If their record shows a large number of posts have been made but very few are available to actually see, think twice. Or think once and move on.
Sweep
pete75
Posts: 16370
Joined: 24 Jul 2007, 2:37pm

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by pete75 »

Sweep wrote:
pete75 wrote:
Sweep wrote:well that's a very odd case.

Don't see how anything could have protected you from that.

My point is how can you tell from the nature of a profile that a seller may swindle when it can happen after several satisfactory transactions with the same person.

I took your point. As I said, that's an odd one.
On the other hand, most of us in a life of any length have felt shafted at one time or another by folk we had long known - friends, lovers, long-time colleagues.

My general nous stands.

Avoid anyone who is a new entrant to the forum.
They may be OK but then do you really really need that thing now now?
Check their posting history - I look for a pretty large number of posts on matters cycling with no transactional content.
This tells me that they have a genuine interest in this place and the community.
And might be keen to maintain their presence here.
If their record shows a large number of posts have been made but very few are available to actually see, think twice. Or think once and move on.


From what the mods say dishonest selling is very, very rare on this forum so every case in an odd one.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
Cyril Haearn
Posts: 15215
Joined: 30 Nov 2013, 11:26am

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by Cyril Haearn »

One is occasionally surprised by how high (or low) asking prices are

Whatabout part-worn tyres?
Entertainer, juvenile, curmudgeon, PoB, 30120
Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott
We love safety cameras, we hate bullies
K1566
Posts: 99
Joined: 26 Jul 2014, 11:06am

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by K1566 »

I have both bought and sold on here.So far without any problems.
The key to selling is be honest and supply accurate photos and provide the goods as advertised. If you are buying pay cash on collection if you are picking it up or use PayPal or similar.
Personally if I’m spending several hundred pounds I’ll drive and get it then pay cash or bank transfer after I’m satisfied with the goods.
Sadly it sounds like you’ve been had over.
Hope you get some resolution
merseymouth
Posts: 2519
Joined: 23 Jan 2011, 11:16am

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by merseymouth »

Hello all, I have to be careful how I say this, but Caveat Emptor is a suitable heading.
On a certain web sales site someone has posted an Item for sale that is more than a little questionable?
The item is a new/unused Tricycle Conversion Set, it was made by a well known and respected engineer. The price alerted me to it as it is way higher than when supplied direct from the maker. I alerted the builder who informed me that the item was an order being shipped to Australia, so stolen in transit never leaving the UK!
Due to the time lag over such shipments it appears that the insurance in transit had time lapsed? So the builder has got no money for the order having had to repeat the order!
Now I feel that theft is theft, the courier obviously has security issues, but surely they have a duty of care over in transit, so they should compensate the builder for his loss.
We then get to the moral question over the practises of all web trading sites?
A couple of years ago I came across a silver cycling medal on such a site, as it happens I knew the medals winner personally, so when I contacted him he was stunned to hear of it being up for sale, it was definitely missing from his collection!
But cutting to the chase I got my daughter to contact the trader to let him know the situation. To our great delight he asked for my friends address, then he dispatched it gratis with no postage charge? He had bought in in good faith from a fellow collector, but he still felt obligated to restore stolen property to it's rightful owner, brilliant. I contacted him and thanked him profusely, a very decent man.
Hope the Con-Set finds it's way back to the builder??? MM
sun ra
Posts: 168
Joined: 3 Feb 2010, 11:27pm

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by sun ra »

simonineaston wrote:While not knowing the exact circumstances, I'd have thought the offer of a refund if buyer not delighted would be part of the spirit of friendliness & common interest that underlies interaction amongst members of this group...


I haven’t had the time to read every single response to this post but this one above I totally agree with.

A little draconian, but I think you should really ‘name and shame’ to save everyone else on this forum suffering the same fate.
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RickH
Posts: 5832
Joined: 5 Mar 2012, 6:39pm
Location: Horwich, Lancs.

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by RickH »

sun ra wrote:
simonineaston wrote:While not knowing the exact circumstances, I'd have thought the offer of a refund if buyer not delighted would be part of the spirit of friendliness & common interest that underlies interaction amongst members of this group...


I haven’t had the time to read every single response to this post but this one above I totally agree with.

A little draconian, but I think you should really ‘name and shame’ to save everyone else on this forum suffering the same fate.

If you've not read it all then you've probably missed the fact that the user in question is no longer active so there probably isn't much point in a "name & shame".
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
tuttonp
Posts: 327
Joined: 11 Nov 2009, 1:52pm
Location: Brizzol

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by tuttonp »

Graham wrote:I believe that the BIG 6 Banks have now implemented the Account Name Verification for their Faster Payment transfers.

I work for one of the 'Big 6 banks', the service you refer to is 'Confirmation of Payee' where banks will attempt to check that the person you are paying matches the account details supplied. It's not 100% foolproof, but designed in such a way as to catch deliberate fraudsters. It's getting better, day by day
Bonefishblues
Posts: 11010
Joined: 7 Jul 2014, 9:45pm
Location: Near Bicester Oxon

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by Bonefishblues »

tuttonp wrote:
Graham wrote:I believe that the BIG 6 Banks have now implemented the Account Name Verification for their Faster Payment transfers.

I work for one of the 'Big 6 banks', the service you refer to is 'Confirmation of Payee' where banks will attempt to check that the person you are paying matches the account details supplied. It's not 100% foolproof, but designed in such a way as to catch deliberate fraudsters. It's getting better, day by day

That's good to hear.
thirdcrank
Posts: 36776
Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by thirdcrank »

Sweep wrote: .... If their record shows a large number of posts have been made but very few are available to actually see, think twice. Or think once and move on.


IMO, it says nothing about the honesty / trustworthiness of the poster, but it does suggest to me that they may be breaking forum rules about private sales only. Not conclusive, of course: they may be private sellers who have bought a lot of stuff they no longer need.
Cyril Haearn
Posts: 15215
Joined: 30 Nov 2013, 11:26am

Re: A salutary tale......caveat emptor

Post by Cyril Haearn »

I think some sellers with few other posts may be quite serious, they are just not interested in arguing about cycling, politics, porridge etc &c :wink:
Entertainer, juvenile, curmudgeon, PoB, 30120
Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott
We love safety cameras, we hate bullies
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