private bike sale

[Michaelcry]

Just looking some advice. I recently sold my ducati on Gumtree and received a text from the buyer a week later demanding a refund as the bike was not as described. The ad listed the bike as 2003 which came up automatically on entering the reg. I did not realise so did not correct to the actual year, 2000. It was not a deliberate attempt to mis lead and the buyer signed the v5 which clearly shows the correct year.

The bike was advertised for 2250 and I took 1600. He now wants another 300 back or a full refund. Any ideas?

[LoonR1]

School holidays again.

[Michaelcry]

The guy was about 50 and it was a perfectly amicable sale. Not sure if I should give him money or just ignore it.

[Matt UK]

Tell him the V5 is accurate and that Gumtree must not be. Either way he had all the info to hand and proceeded with the sale.

After this I would not respond.

[LoonR1]

It's a topic that's been done to death. Feel free to explain how a 2000 bike comes up as a 2003 based on it's registration number.

[73mark]

Sold as seen.

[Michaelcry]

I live in northern ireland. Car details are regularly incorrect based on the reg. If the vehicle is brought in from mainland UK this often causes problems as with my own yaris I bought in Liverpool and re registered.

[rfoster]

73mark said:

Sold as seen.

Not sold as seen. Mis-described (albeit unintentionally.) Should have checked that the advert didn't contain false information. Up to the seller how to play this really - but if this were to go as far as court then they could decide in the purchaser's favour.

If it were me, I would point out that the vehicle was registered in the UK in 2003 (if that's the case), although manufactured in 2000. I would also point out that you agreed a price considerably lower than you were asking and say that you'd rather have the bike back than offer further money off (assuming you want the hassle of selling it again). Your choice!

[jeff666]

LoonR1 said:

It's a topic that's been done to death. Feel free to explain how a 2000 bike comes up as a 2003 based on it's registration number.

I just put an Automatic Fiesta on gum tree, put the reg no in as asked, it came up as a manual.

Does happen.

[LoonR1]

jeff666 said:

I just put an Automatic Fiesta on gum tree, put the reg no in as asked, it came up as a manual.

Does happen.

That's very different to a registration number coming up with the wrong year. Admittedly I'm not sure about the NI bit, but it still don't believe the OP. Here's a test for him, which shouldn't be a worry for cloning etc as he's sold the bike.

What's the registration number and we can all test it independently.

[rfoster]

If the vehicle was imported and first registered abroad, then the DVLA and HPI will show the vehicle as first registered in the UK in whatever year it was. HPI will also note which year the vehicle was first manufactured. So it's quite possible for some computer systems to automatically populate the date of registration rather than year of manufacture.

[mini1380cc]

So he still wants to keep the £2250 bike but for £1300, instead of the £1600 he already paid.... tell him to beat it, the deal is done. If he wanted come back he should have bought from a dealer. What ever happened to personal responsibility?

[Gixer]

LoonR1 said:

That's very different to a registration number coming up with the wrong year. Admittedly I'm not sure about the NI bit, but it still don't believe the OP. Here's a test for him, which shouldn't be a worry for cloning etc as he's sold the bike.

What's the registration number and we can all test it independently.

Happens all the time. There's a dealer selling a '2008' Z06 on Pistonheads at the moment, and has been for some time, it clearly is not a 2008 and is in fact older. No doubt it sat in a a showroom for a while and was registered in 2008.

[LoonR1]

rfoster said:

If the vehicle was imported and first registered abroad, then the DVLA and HPI will show the vehicle as first registered in the UK in whatever year it was. HPI will also note which year the vehicle was first manufactured. So it's quite possible for some computer systems to automatically populate the date of registration rather than year of manufacture.

So if I import a classic car from 1950 then DVLA will assign it a 14 plate as that's the current plate? I doubt it very much.

[boyse7en]

mini1380cc said:

So he still wants to keep the £2250 bike but for £1300, instead of the £1600 he already paid.... tell him to beat it, the deal is done. If he wanted come back he should have bought from a dealer. What ever happened to personal responsibility?

I'm all for personal responsibility, but in this case I believe that the OP needs to be the one taking responsibility. He put inaccurate information in his advert. He was aware that the bike was made in 2000, not 2003, yet he failed to notice that his advert was wrong.
Just because it is a private sale does not mean that you can put what you like in the advert, it still has to be accurate.

[Gixer]

LoonR1 said:

rfoster said:

If the vehicle was imported and first registered abroad, then the DVLA and HPI will show the vehicle as first registered in the UK in whatever year it was. HPI will also note which year the vehicle was first manufactured. So it's quite possible for some computer systems to automatically populate the date of registration rather than year of manufacture.

So if I import a classic car from 1950 then DVLA will assign it a 14 plate as that's the current plate? I doubt it very much.

No, I'm not sure what the DVLA are doing (don't think they do either) but there are a surprising number of US cars with the wrong year reg on them. Not just imports either, some official Stratstone Euro cars are plated with a newer year than that of manufacture. Usually easy to spot if you do your homework as US cars tend to have physical differences from year to year (so you would know if a dealer was selling you a new car when in reality it's been sitting dockside for 15 months, like they do here).

[rfoster]

LoonR1 said:

So if I import a classic car from 1950 then DVLA will assign it a 14 plate as that's the current plate? I doubt it very much.

No that's not correct, they will assign a plate that's in line with the year of manufacture. However they will note the date that the vehicle is registered in the UK.

[V8mate]

If you can afford to, refund him. He's angling for the discount and will lose a cheap bike entirely.

[steveeeW]

If it's not much hassle, then refund him, get the bike back & get the price you advertised it for, or slightly cheaper, like £2000. You'll basically have a £400 profit :O