Letting off more steam

[john a]

Some may recall I posted about having a Powabyke Innovator stolen a while back.

Well, having seen a good example advertised on Ebay, I decided to bid for it. The location was some way away, so I had a courier lined up.

Having checked with the seller that he would be ok with packaging the bike up to avoid damage in transit (no problem he said) - I went ahead & bid on the item, and won it.

Great! Or so I thought.

Paid through paypal. Seller bubble wrapping or casing bike in cardboard. Collection arranged for Tuesday, delivery for Wednesday........what could possibly go wrong?

Hmm

Out of interest, late last night, I decided to check the tracking information on the courier website... nothing shown. Strange. Then I email the seller asking if the bike was picked up as arranged. No reply.

I put it down to a possible glitch in the courier website, and perhaps the seller didn't check his emails every day.

So, anticipating delivery today, and having put everything else on hold.... I get a message from the courier saying that they could not collect the bike as the seller had failed to package the bike. Turns out he had wrapped part of the bike in black bin liners.
Consequently they were not going to be responsible for damage in transit.

Have just spoken to the seller.... very apologetic of course, but turns out he was selling the bike on behalf of his father, so in other words he wasn't too bothered, as he was making nothing out of it. The father is now busy hunting the streets for suitable cardboard and/or bubble wrap to package the bike properly.....apparently.

Of course, I now have to re-arrange everything. Including keeping another day free, and having to pay the courier AGAIN. Of course I cannot do that until someone gets handy with the bubble wrap & the sticky tape!

apologies for the ranting, but just felt the need to share the experience!

 

[funkylyn]

You're not having much luck are you ?

Hope it gets sorted sooner rather than later.

In my mind there is nothing quite like a little bit of ranting to soothe the soul......I am building up to a session of it myself in the not too distant future.....quite looking forward to it

Lynda

 

[flecc]

Sorry to hear this John. It's strange how consumers who so often complain about supplier shortfalls themselves fall into the worst of practice when in a selling role, misleading and sometimes even lying to their customer.

 

[jazper53]

Some may recall I posted about having a Powabyke Innovator stolen a while back.

Well, having seen a good example advertised on Ebay, I decided to bid for it. The location was some way away, so I had a courier lined up.

Having checked with the seller that he would be ok with packaging the bike up to avoid damage in transit (no problem he said) - I went ahead & bid on the item, and won it.

Great! Or so I thought.

Paid through paypal. Seller bubble wrapping or casing bike in cardboard. Collection arranged for Tuesday, delivery for Wednesday........what could possibly go wrong?

Hmm

Out of interest, late last night, I decided to check the tracking information on the courier website... nothing shown. Strange. Then I email the seller asking if the bike was picked up as arranged. No reply.

I put it down to a possible glitch in the courier website, and perhaps the seller didn't check his emails every day.

So, anticipating delivery today, and having put everything else on hold.... I get a message from the courier saying that they could not collect the bike as the seller had failed to package the bike. Turns out he had wrapped part of the bike in black bin liners.
Consequently they were not going to be responsible for damage in transit.

Have just spoken to the seller.... very apologetic of course, but turns out he was selling the bike on behalf of his father, so in other words he wasn't too bothered, as he was making nothing out of it. The father is now busy hunting the streets for suitable cardboard and/or bubble wrap to package the bike properly.....apparently.

Of course, I now have to re-arrange everything. Including keeping another day free, and having to pay the courier AGAIN. Of course I cannot do that until someone gets handy with the bubble wrap & the sticky tape!

apologies for the ranting, but just felt the need to share the experience!

Maybe you could tell the father that he can get the necessary packaging from any bicycle retail outlet....as they normaly bin most of there packing for display bikes etc.

 

[john a]

Maybe you could tell the father that he can get the necessary packaging from any bicycle retail outlet....as they normaly bin most of there packing for display bikes etc.

'father' has now been to Halfords and helped himself to some cardboard. apparently. have just had to ask the couriers on behalf of seller if this is acceptable or not. it seems that the body of the bike fits into the cardboard box, but the pedals & handlebars are sticking out.

as they would of course.

now, i am not about to suggest to this guy that he avails himself of alum key and twists the handlebars around, as he will likely break gear cables or worse... so have asked him to acquire some bubble wrap from the post office or whatever to wrap the handlebars and pedals as best he can

the courier...i have to say, have been more than helpful. it is actually costing £25 to transport an electric bike from any mainland address in the UK to another - which i find staggeringly cheap (although I know why). Happy to pass on their details to anybody that wants them.

anyway, bike now scheduled to be picked up tomorrow & delivered on friday. that is IF the bubble wrap can be bought, and if the father & son double act can manage to print off the consignment note & packing labels I have sent them!

to be continued!

 

[jazper53]

Well we will keep our fingers crossed for you, and hope things will go through smoothly... and look forward to those sundrenched days e-biking the countyways where the past misfortunes are just a distant memory.

 

[john a]

Sorry to hear this John. It's strange how consumers who so often complain about supplier shortfalls themselves fall into the worst of practice when in a selling role, misleading and sometimes even lying to their customer.

Bike expected tomorrow... just in time for the nice weather that is forecast

The seller has now pulled his finger out and emailed me the second the courier arrived to take the bike away, which is something - as everybody likes to be kept in the loop, and customer service is so important yet often disregarded.

It may sound slightly insane, but I am now wondering why I bought the bike, having already replaced the stolen bike with an X6 then X24... sentimental reasons I guess, and at least I will have a spare.

On a more general note, and speaking as someone who uses Ebay far more than is healthy, it seems to me that the quality of both the goods & service offered by sellers has deteriorated terribly over the past few months.

It seems sellers are not responding to questions asked and giving misleading or inaccurate descriptions - either deliberately or through ignorance.

I needed to replace a powabyke shopper as stated elsewhere on this forum - I saw what appeared to be a good example at a good price on Ebay - needed to clarify a few points with the seller, so sent a message - twice. No answer was forthcoming. The following day someone else had paid the buy-it-now price. It was just not worth running the risk of me buying it & asking questions later.

 

[john a]

Bike arrived as scheduled.

However, major problem. The seller - for reasons known only to himself - has decided to pull the handlebars & stem from the bike. (I guess as he thought it would be easier to pack this way, although there was no bl***y need to do it)

Has anybody got any idea how to re-assemble the stem so it fits into the frame correctly?? Step-by-step instructions would be useful. Obviously there is nothing in the user manual that remotely addresses the issue.

Thanks.

 

[jerrysimon]

I am assuming its a quill stem ?

From Youtube

[video=youtube;PzeM5iOLQnk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzeM5iOLQnk[/video]


The other type is a threadless stem in which case do a search on Youtube for that

Regards

Jerry

 

[john a]

Thanks for that. I will take a look... probably quite simple, and me over-reacting in view of this on-going disastrous saga!

 

[electric_avenue]

On a more general note, and speaking as someone who uses Ebay far more than is healthy, it seems to me that the quality of both the goods & service offered by sellers has deteriorated terribly over the past few months.

I'd say you just had a bad run then. Since ebay is a crazy mix of sellers, its not really possible for overall ebay performance to change over a short period of time. Despite its shortfalls, its still my first port of call.

 

[john a]

I'd say you just had a bad run then. Since ebay is a crazy mix of sellers, its not really possible for overall ebay performance to change over a short period of time. Despite its shortfalls, its still my first port of call.

I am not so sure. I can think of several instances recently where I have bought goods that were simply not as described. I get the impression that there are some people out there who are bending the rules - and their descriptions - possibly more due to hard times.

The answer has to be to actually ask the seller everything in advance. If they do not reply - then there is likely something to hide. If they do, then you have cause to complain if something does not meet the description.

Paypal are quite good with disputes - but you can be compelled to pay return postage costs, which seems a bit unfair if you were duped into buying something less than satisfactory. This is not very amusing- especially when it is a heavy item!

 

[GaRRy]

I am not so sure. I can think of several instances recently where I have bought goods that were simply not as described. I get the impression that there are some people out there who are bending the rules - and their descriptions - possibly more due to hard times.

The answer has to be to actually ask the seller everything in advance. If they do not reply - then there is likely something to hide. If they do, then you have cause to complain if something does not meet the description.

Paypal are quite good with disputes - but you can be compelled to pay return postage costs, which seems a bit unfair if you were duped into buying something less than satisfactory. This is not very amusing- especially when it is a heavy item!

Not saying your wrong but have to say that as a seller ( private not business) the quality of buyers has gone down as well lately.

None payments have gone from almost none existent to 10% of all things sold.
Bad feed back because they thought were getting a bargain when listing clearly states fault
Despite stating that as china is impossible to insure for a fair price that it is sent at their risk demanding money back when it goes wrong. (and yes I do pack well) and knowing full well eBay will back them up irrespective of what was agreed.
Moaning about P&P charges after bought item despite the amount being on item.
Expecting 4 kilo parcels to be posted for a couple of quid
Etc etc etc

Yes these have always existed but have got worse and worse over last few months and have been increasing steadily over last few years since eBay gave all the power to buyers ( can only leave positive feed back for buyers, almost impossible to get negative feed back etc removed from selling account even if completely unreasonable (eg complaining 150 + year old plates were used!!!!)

If there was a good viable alternative I would stop using eBay immediately.

 

[the_killjoy]

Generally agree.

But no one is going to accept a seller who says it's not their fault if it gets broken in the post.

 

[GaRRy]

Generally agree.

But no one is going to accept a seller who says it's not their fault if it gets broken in the post.

I annouce it up front and always give the buyer the chance to cancel the transaction before they pay and say if they do I will in no way complain about their decision.

I also wrap really well (I reckon my actual breakage rate is around 0.2%) and this only applies to china.

For china there really is no other choice especially when shipping abroad and postage costs can be far more than the item is worth. (Not unusual for it to be £25-30 or more for a £5 item). The alternative is not to offer it for sale at all or charge £100 + to get it sent in a way where it is insured as I cant afford to take the hit.

Oh and reality for the few breakages I have had I have always refunded some money (usually the cost of item) as a act of goodwill.

Oh and the other one I missed out of my list is the item has not arrived brigade. Dont get me wrong im sure most of these are genuine but as you have no idea if the buyer has said this many times before you have no idea if they are telling the truth or not.

To be honest my real beef is that eBay do everything they can to protect the buyer (fair enough) but absolutely nothing to protect the seller. If they can keep and show all the stats on sellers why cant they do the same for buyers. Not paid/not arrived cases raised would be a good start as they are matters of fact not opinion although it seems fine to collect opinions of sellers (eg if you check community sellers have had poor postage ratings despite charging no more than the cost of the stamp !!! )

 

[the_killjoy]

I do think removing the ability to neg. a buyer was a real step back.

 

[eddieo]

a few ago I looked to buy some lens cleaning cloths (cameras, glasses etc..) pack for £2.99 with 99p postage. so I press button to find 25 days delivery UNLESS I pay £18 for postage! entirely my fault, I should have examined postage before committing, but this is fraudulent IMO as most just scan and press and take it at face value

I am now in dispute......Ebay = shark infested waters

 

[flecc]

Ebay = shark infested waters

Fully agree, I won't buy through there. On occasion I find out who the supplier is and then deal direct, but only if they don't insist on using PayPal in some way. I pair the dishonest, despicable PayPal with ebay as organisations to avoid, both the same company of course.

 

[themutiny]

I'm getting narked with Sellers who don't leave feedback or mark paid items as paid, as I keep getting reminders. It's common courtesy surely?

 

[jerrysimon]

Strange my experiencing of selling and buying a few hundreds items has been nothing but pleasant. Maybe I have been lucky ?

I find the use of Paypal easy and convenient, linking it to a CC that has a fixed limit on it i.e. around 1K.

On ebay I find it easy to source stuff that is not readily available locally without hassle and ordering.

Good communication, patience and remaining calm (not always easy) but works 99% of the time. As always a few rogues can spoil it.

At one time I purchased and sold acoustic guitars on ebay costing 1K + trading about a dozen before I found the one I wanted. Huge savings over buying new. A couple were even purchased from the USA when the pound was strong a few years back.


Regards

Jerry