Ebay Purchase - Buckled alloys
Discussion
Hello,
I purchased a set of alloy wheels (no tyres) for my track day car from a private seller on Ebay, arrived last week and when having tyres fitted at the weekend we found that 2 were quite severely buckled and the other 2 had slight wobbles which might be able to be corrected with weights.
After paying the best part of £500 for them I was less than impressed... I have a receipt from the garage where the tyres were fitted explaining the problems.
Have contacted the seller through Ebay and they have responded saying that they were fine when he sent them and they were sold as 2nd hand not new.
Where do I stand with this, I've opened a case with Ebay for a defective item but have to wait another 6 days before they can get involved with what must be a new dispute system.
I have a place in my local village that can repair the wheels so will take them down there for a 2nd opinion and to see if they can be fixed but I don't really feel I should be paying for that?
Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks
Martin
I purchased a set of alloy wheels (no tyres) for my track day car from a private seller on Ebay, arrived last week and when having tyres fitted at the weekend we found that 2 were quite severely buckled and the other 2 had slight wobbles which might be able to be corrected with weights.
After paying the best part of £500 for them I was less than impressed... I have a receipt from the garage where the tyres were fitted explaining the problems.
Have contacted the seller through Ebay and they have responded saying that they were fine when he sent them and they were sold as 2nd hand not new.
Where do I stand with this, I've opened a case with Ebay for a defective item but have to wait another 6 days before they can get involved with what must be a new dispute system.
I have a place in my local village that can repair the wheels so will take them down there for a 2nd opinion and to see if they can be fixed but I don't really feel I should be paying for that?
Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks
Martin
I'd not fancy buckled and bent back to shape wheels on my car, metal fatigue will make them brittle and liable to failure.
stick at it with ebay, finger crossed you get your money back.
I'd guess original seller whacked a speed bump hard, then decided to sell them on hoping he could get away with it.
Anything in the sellers ebay history?
edit:
if they were fine when he sent them they must have been damaged in transit which he arranged and will need to claim via the courier for the damage.
stick at it with ebay, finger crossed you get your money back.
I'd guess original seller whacked a speed bump hard, then decided to sell them on hoping he could get away with it.
Anything in the sellers ebay history?
edit:
if they were fine when he sent them they must have been damaged in transit which he arranged and will need to claim via the courier for the damage.
I ship a large number of wheels in work. It's very rare that one gets bent and if it does it usually takes the form of a flat spot on the rim where the box has been dropped or thrown.
If there was no damage showing on the boxes they came in then my money's on them being bent before they went in the box.
I also ship wheels with tyres fitted and they NEVER get damaged.
If there was no damage showing on the boxes they came in then my money's on them being bent before they went in the box.
I also ship wheels with tyres fitted and they NEVER get damaged.
ebay will probably side with you
but as a general rule, don't buy second hand wheels.
Most after market wheels are lucky to have a 5 year life span on a road car, often the more expensive ones are the worst for this, as competition wheels as implied by the name really are for track use not 200k miles of road use.
As a result, there's a massive market in second hand piss poor after market wheels as people play pass the parcel with them.
but as a general rule, don't buy second hand wheels.
Most after market wheels are lucky to have a 5 year life span on a road car, often the more expensive ones are the worst for this, as competition wheels as implied by the name really are for track use not 200k miles of road use.
As a result, there's a massive market in second hand piss poor after market wheels as people play pass the parcel with them.
V8LM said:
eBay will probably side with you, but depends largely on how they were described. Link?
Thank you. I had been looking for a set for quite some time as these were the first I found in Ford fitment.Here is the link to them.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/compomotive-th-alloy-whe...
andburg said:
I'd not fancy buckled and bent back to shape wheels on my car, metal fatigue will make them brittle and liable to failure.
stick at it with ebay, finger crossed you get your money back.
I'd guess original seller whacked a speed bump hard, then decided to sell them on hoping he could get away with it.
Anything in the sellers ebay history?
edit:
if they were fine when he sent them they must have been damaged in transit which he arranged and will need to claim via the courier for the damage.
This is not actually true. If you bend a cold wheel back to shape I'd agree with you but you are assuming a wheel repairer just hits the wheel with a hammer.stick at it with ebay, finger crossed you get your money back.
I'd guess original seller whacked a speed bump hard, then decided to sell them on hoping he could get away with it.
Anything in the sellers ebay history?
edit:
if they were fine when he sent them they must have been damaged in transit which he arranged and will need to claim via the courier for the damage.
Metal will fatigue if you bend it bac kand forth cold. However if you heat it sufficiently for the metal involved it will rejuvinated the metal back to pretty much brand new.
It will of course need a coat of paint after this.
as others have said, ebay will side with you. Just make sure you mention the advert states they are "refurbed". That to me is enough to indicate they should be round and true.
You might have an issue with who pays the return postage (ebay often expects the buyer to) but, in my experience, if you stick to your guns (goods not as described) they will refund that too after a bit of persuasion...
I am assuming you paid by paypal?
You might have an issue with who pays the return postage (ebay often expects the buyer to) but, in my experience, if you stick to your guns (goods not as described) they will refund that too after a bit of persuasion...
I am assuming you paid by paypal?
If you paid by PayPal, and the item wasn't as described, you'll win the case and you won't have to pay for return postage - you'll get a refund for the item and the original postage.
In this case, it states that the wheels were refurbished and they're clearly intended to be sold as good condition, so if they're buckled then I'd class that as significantly not as described.
In this case, it states that the wheels were refurbished and they're clearly intended to be sold as good condition, so if they're buckled then I'd class that as significantly not as described.
julian64 said:
This is not actually true. If you bend a cold wheel back to shape I'd agree with you but you are assuming a wheel repairer just hits the wheel with a hammer.
Metal will fatigue if you bend it bac kand forth cold. However if you heat it sufficiently for the metal involved it will rejuvinated the metal back to pretty much brand new.
It will of course need a coat of paint after this.
All you're going to achieve by doing that is to anneal the wheel, turning it into a supersoft paperweight. Please don't do this.Metal will fatigue if you bend it bac kand forth cold. However if you heat it sufficiently for the metal involved it will rejuvinated the metal back to pretty much brand new.
It will of course need a coat of paint after this.
Garybee said:
julian64 said:
This is not actually true. If you bend a cold wheel back to shape I'd agree with you but you are assuming a wheel repairer just hits the wheel with a hammer.
Metal will fatigue if you bend it bac kand forth cold. However if you heat it sufficiently for the metal involved it will rejuvinated the metal back to pretty much brand new.
It will of course need a coat of paint after this.
All you're going to achieve by doing that is to anneal the wheel, turning it into a supersoft paperweight. Please don't do this.Metal will fatigue if you bend it bac kand forth cold. However if you heat it sufficiently for the metal involved it will rejuvinated the metal back to pretty much brand new.
It will of course need a coat of paint after this.
The Spruce goose said:
surely a buckled wheel should be noticeable before fitting.
i guess the seller never used them just sold them on.
They are noticeable as soon as you put them on the tyre balancing machine , I have two out of four buckled wheels on my car , dunno what caused it the wife claims no knowledge either (but it was her i guess the seller never used them just sold them on.
) they looked fine and the car drove fine but on the balancer they looked like 50p pieces , so there is a chance the seller didnt know Howard- said:
If you paid by PayPal, and the item wasn't as described, you'll win the case and you won't have to pay for return postage - you'll get a refund for the item and the original postage.
In this case, it states that the wheels were refurbished and they're clearly intended to be sold as good condition, so if they're buckled then I'd class that as significantly not as described.
Yeah Paid via paypal. In this case, it states that the wheels were refurbished and they're clearly intended to be sold as good condition, so if they're buckled then I'd class that as significantly not as described.
The Spruce Goose- said:
surely a buckled wheel should be noticeable before fitting.
i guess the seller never used them just sold them on.
I literally took them straight out of the packaging and straight onto the fitting machine before they we attempted to balance them. i guess the seller never used them just sold them on.
Have to wait until the 29th before Ebay will step in as the Seller isn't wanting to accept there is an issue
Edited by MartyG1987 on Tuesday 22 September 16:33
You need to file a 'not as described' case. Follow the dispute process through and eBay should give you the return postage to send them back to the seller so you won't be out of pocket.
Don't do anything else to them, don't put weights in, fit tyres etc. He needs to get back exactly what he sent. You will win the case without much hassle if you just stick to the dispute process and follow it to the letter.
Don't do anything else to them, don't put weights in, fit tyres etc. He needs to get back exactly what he sent. You will win the case without much hassle if you just stick to the dispute process and follow it to the letter.
I've owned a few sets of different Compomotive wheels over the years and never had a problem with them buckling through road use, even after hitting a reasonably deep pothole once, as they're generally pretty strong.
That said however, the TH variant the OP bought (especially in that size, fitment & offset) wasn't just a popular aftermarket wheel on road cars but also exceptionally popular on rally cars and as a result it's possible this set could have been used like that in the past and had a hard life hence the damage.
I know the seller says they have been recently refurbed, but I wouldn't be surprised if he bought them used in worn condition with the intention of fitting them to his own car and refurbed them first without checking their condition. At that point he either noticed the damage and fitted a tyre to try and hide it and sell them on, or alternatively it's possibly he just never used them and they were sold on without knowledge of the damage.
It's possible the seller is genuine and didn't know about the damage, but given the amount of people on eBay nowadays determined to sell stuff which isn't as described, it's entirely possible the seller was aware of the damage
That said however, the TH variant the OP bought (especially in that size, fitment & offset) wasn't just a popular aftermarket wheel on road cars but also exceptionally popular on rally cars and as a result it's possible this set could have been used like that in the past and had a hard life hence the damage.
I know the seller says they have been recently refurbed, but I wouldn't be surprised if he bought them used in worn condition with the intention of fitting them to his own car and refurbed them first without checking their condition. At that point he either noticed the damage and fitted a tyre to try and hide it and sell them on, or alternatively it's possibly he just never used them and they were sold on without knowledge of the damage.
It's possible the seller is genuine and didn't know about the damage, but given the amount of people on eBay nowadays determined to sell stuff which isn't as described, it's entirely possible the seller was aware of the damage
Edited by AlexRS2782 on Tuesday 22 September 17:50
Edited by AlexRS2782 on Wednesday 23 September 19:51
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