Those with brains the size of a melon have plenty of complicated topics on the forum to peruse at the moment, so this one is for the rest of us.............
Should those of you who have or might buy a bike from an online seller, have the misfortune to have to send it back to the seller for any reason, read on.........
The Distance Selling Regs give you additional specific rights, in addition to those you normally have for a conventional sale. Basically you can just change your mind within 7 days and bung it back to Mr. Ebay or whoever. But, there's always a but, for your part you are required to send it back in the original packing. So, lesson 1, don't just rent it asunder to get your sticky little hands on your new toy. Even if you apply lesson 1 there is still a catch, because although the Chinese might make wonderful motors, spiffing batteries etc what they clearly haven't learned is how to make half decent cardboard. The cardboard box that your pride and joy will be shipped in is made of the thinnest, poorest quality cardboard it will ever be your misfortune to come across. It is just not up to the job and has only lasted long enough to reach you because it has lived its life so far surrounded and propped up by other pathetic specimens masquerading as boxes.
Once you remove its skeleton - your bike - it rather sadly just crumples to the floor. Now remember you have to put your bike back in this and send it off by those knights of the road, the carrier service, who will treat it very gently and will never allow it to fall off the lorry at more than 50mph
The real stinger though is that what has really held it together until it reached you was the plastic banding strips, which you have cut and which you cannot re-use. You haven't a chance, especially if you have left the deflated box in your garage for a couple of days because this chinese cardboard is dual purpose, it has a part time job as blotting paper thriving on damp air, so well before your 7 days perusal are up it will be totally, 100% useless, except as blotting paper.
Now this is based only on my own experiences, comprising 4 shipments from China, including one bike. Maybe they were all just 'Friday Afternoon' boxes (for those of you who know about British cars of the sixties) and the rest are just fine, I don't know. But just in case, I give you this cautionary tale. Oh, I nearly forgot, take a careful note of exactly how your bike was packed and which bit of bubble wrap went where, otherwise you won't even have the pleasure of trying to cram it back into its soggy box.
if your experience is different and you only ever get cardboard boxes with muscles, perhaps you should let us know, just to balance things up a bit.
I suspect it is all to do with weight. Good strong cardboard boxes are heavy, and multiply the numbers up a bit and you are paying a lot of money to ship cardboard round the world.
There is an answer of course, but but it is a bit radical; my lips are sealed.
Pete
Should those of you who have or might buy a bike from an online seller, have the misfortune to have to send it back to the seller for any reason, read on.........
The Distance Selling Regs give you additional specific rights, in addition to those you normally have for a conventional sale. Basically you can just change your mind within 7 days and bung it back to Mr. Ebay or whoever. But, there's always a but, for your part you are required to send it back in the original packing. So, lesson 1, don't just rent it asunder to get your sticky little hands on your new toy. Even if you apply lesson 1 there is still a catch, because although the Chinese might make wonderful motors, spiffing batteries etc what they clearly haven't learned is how to make half decent cardboard. The cardboard box that your pride and joy will be shipped in is made of the thinnest, poorest quality cardboard it will ever be your misfortune to come across. It is just not up to the job and has only lasted long enough to reach you because it has lived its life so far surrounded and propped up by other pathetic specimens masquerading as boxes.
Once you remove its skeleton - your bike - it rather sadly just crumples to the floor. Now remember you have to put your bike back in this and send it off by those knights of the road, the carrier service, who will treat it very gently and will never allow it to fall off the lorry at more than 50mph
The real stinger though is that what has really held it together until it reached you was the plastic banding strips, which you have cut and which you cannot re-use. You haven't a chance, especially if you have left the deflated box in your garage for a couple of days because this chinese cardboard is dual purpose, it has a part time job as blotting paper thriving on damp air, so well before your 7 days perusal are up it will be totally, 100% useless, except as blotting paper.
Now this is based only on my own experiences, comprising 4 shipments from China, including one bike. Maybe they were all just 'Friday Afternoon' boxes (for those of you who know about British cars of the sixties) and the rest are just fine, I don't know. But just in case, I give you this cautionary tale. Oh, I nearly forgot, take a careful note of exactly how your bike was packed and which bit of bubble wrap went where, otherwise you won't even have the pleasure of trying to cram it back into its soggy box.
if your experience is different and you only ever get cardboard boxes with muscles, perhaps you should let us know, just to balance things up a bit.
I suspect it is all to do with weight. Good strong cardboard boxes are heavy, and multiply the numbers up a bit and you are paying a lot of money to ship cardboard round the world.
There is an answer of course, but but it is a bit radical; my lips are sealed.
Pete