Re: [CR]advice on dealing w/bad transaction

(Example: Framebuilders)

From: <OROBOYZ@aol.com>
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 14:06:54 EDT
Subject: Re: [CR]advice on dealing w/bad transaction
To: rodk3d@attbi.com, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org


In a message dated 5/24/2002 1:14:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, rodk3d@attbi.com writes:

<< Specifically, I asked how the chrome fork was. "Good" was the answer. Upon receipt of the bike, I see the fork is completely pitted and pocked marked from one end to the other and it doesn't polish out. From 5 feet away it looks ok. I think this condition is fair at best and that I should have been told about the pitting.

I feel I have been taken here, the fellow list member thinks his description was accurate. I have cancelled my check that I wrote, which costs me $25, fellow member says his bank will charge him the same.

I feel we are both out the $25 bank charge. He shipped the bike to me, I will ship it back to him. We are both out the same monies which to me seems the fairest way to resolve the matter. He thinks I should pay for everything as he would have refunded my money, less shipping costs. This is very honorable on his part, but after his description of the fork condition, I felt this person's integrity was questionable. >>

Hmmmm. My 2 cents.......

Rod, I hear about this happening a lot with sight unseen purchases... There are a wide range of standards out there and everybody's idea of "good", "excellent", " very good", etc., are really wide apart. That's why pictures are essential. "Good" is only one notch away from "fair" to me so I would not have expected a lot here. I assume that is the exact phrase he used, not "excellent"? A prudent buyer insists on pictures before entering into such a deal..

Here is a big problem... You say: "I feel I have been taken here, the fellow list member thinks his description was accurate." You think he tried to "take you"? I mean you are saying that with forethought he was thinking that he was selling you a bike that was less than he described on purpose? A CR member would intend to defraud another CR member to make, say, $50.00 more or something?

What is more likely is that you expected more and he thought you expected less. This isn't an attempt to rip someone off I think but a difference in communication~interpretation.

This was a very expensive bike? I missed how much the selling price was.. If it were a $600-1000.00 bike then reasonably high expectations might be in order. If it were a $200.00 bike, then one should have commensurately lower expectations......

I guess you may know by now, but canceling a check, before you try to work things out, is a no-no. Legally wrong even. The cost incurred as a result of that check being stopped at both ends is your responsibility and shipping to & fro is also yours. But he should refund your core purchase price. And you shouldn't have been so quick to question his integrity because that is hard to retract...

As with all these things, I counsel compromise, compromise, COMPROMISE!

Good luck!

Dale

Dale Brown
cycles de ORO, Inc.
1410 Mill Street
Greensboro, NC 27408
336-274-5959
fax 336-274-6360
http://www.cyclesdeoro.com
http://www.classicrendezvous.com