A cautionary tale of eBay.......

[MadDad]

I was in my LBS yesterday having a coffee and chat about carbon v titanium (still cannot decide), when a chap came in to pick up his bike following a service. Shot the breeze with him for a bit while the LBS owner nipped out back to get his rather nice looking Colnago, and then presented him with a bill for over £850! Once the chap left the shop I asked how come a service was so bloody expensive?

Apparently the poor chap bought it off eBay in good faith, and rather than picking it up paid for shipping. When it turned up it was a mix of different bikes, MTB headset, broken 2300 rear mech, two knackered non-matching wheels, broken shifters, worn chain, etc, etc, etc. The buyer raised a dispute through eBay, but they decided that the seller had not broken any rules (apparently the advert was a little scant on detail).

Long and short of it, buyer would have seen what a basket case he was buying if he had gone to pick it up. Additionally, the frame looked ok, but given the state of the components I would not trust the condition of it - highly likely/possible that it has some sort of history. Depending on how much he bagged it for I guess he might have saved a couple of quid (even after spending the £850) but I would not want to ride it!!

[anonymous-user]

caveat empor. I doubt it was even a colnago http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=colnago+sticke...

[MadDad]

Back of my mind was that it was probably nicked and built up from parts of other nicked bikes.