eBay Claim - Fork related

I recently bought a pair of Pace RC40 XCAMs from eBay.

The forks were described as being in perfect working condition and recently serviced. Indeed, when they arrived they looked to be in excellent condition.

However, it soon became apparent that the forks didn't work quite as well as I had been led to believe in the item description - none of the dials (rebound, launch control etc) worked, and the forks felt very notchy. I followed all the advice about cycling the fork through it's travel with the launch control engaged and they still didn't work.

I decided to send them to Tim @ Fork English, who has taken them apart and has confirmed a couple of things:

- The wrong weight oil has been used.
- The forks weren't put back together properly when they were "serviced" by the seller, and a couple of bits have been damaged in the process, requiring replacement

I bought and paid for the forks on the 26th March. Am I still able to start a claim? I paid through Paypal using my Credit Card so I know that I'm covered by buyer protection, but I'm not sure whether I've left it too late to claim or not.

I've asked Tim to send me an email, detailing all of the work which he has had to do on the forks (service included). I will be looking to get this money back from the seller, especially as it's cost me virtually the same amount to have them serviced as it did to buy them in the first place!

Any advice would be appreciated - sadly I can't get on to eBay at the moment as I'm in work...

I suspect you are in for a bun fight, not because of the issues found and the evidence amassed but rather the cost of the subsequent service being close to what you paid for them, ie if the seller compensates you in full then he's almost given them away. He will probably say that you should have given him a chance to mend or refund and return but he no longer has that option, even if he would have been prepared to do that anyway, question is also what are the forks worth now after the work etc ? is it more than you originally paid ? and what were they worth if accurate description and all issues known ?

this may not be good news but did you speak to him about the issues before work done, this in my mind is the key question

daugs":2evk6oa9 said:

I suspect you are in for a bun fight, not because of the issues found and the evidence amassed but rather the cost of the subsequent service being close to what you paid for them, ie if the seller compensates you in full then he's almost given them away. He will probably say that you should have given him a chance to mend or refund and return but he no longer has that option, even if he would have been prepared to do that anyway, question is also what are the forks worth now after the work etc ? is it more than you originally paid ? and what were they worth if accurate description and all issues known ?

this may not be good news but did you speak to him about the issues before work done, this in my mind is the key question

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I paid £121 in total (including postage from Poland) for the forks. The service has cost £111.95 in total as a couple of bits needed replacing on top of the standard service costs.

The forks would be worth around £130 - £150 if they were in perfect working order, given their cosmetic condition (which is excellent).

To be perfectly honest, I wanted to keep the forks, and I hadn't really given the claim any thought until now, hence the reason I've had the work done.

I think I'll just open a claim, provide all the evidence and see what happens. Even a part-refund is better than nothing at all...

Personally if I was not happy with their condition when they arrived I would have send them back and requested a full refund + postage. Paypal protection would have most likely ensured you got your money back if not the postage.

I would be surprised if you receive anything back from paypal or the seller since you have chosen to keep and repair them.

I use eBay a lot and have been burnt a few times over the years, this charismas I spend £280 on some earrings which were stolen from their box in the post! Ebay / Paypal were not interested, luckily the seller refunded me the cost. With long distance selling and second hand goods you are always taking a risk that they are not as describe or what you expected.

I think I'm just going to bite the bullet with these and chalk it up as a lesson learned!

Thinking about it, it'll probably be more difficult for me to prove that it wasn't me who did the damage to them (even though they've been sat in my garage untouched since I sent them off to Fork English last week)..!

Oh well.. I've sent the seller a message anyway explaining the situation. Perhaps he'll offer me a part-refund if he's any sort of decent human being.

Was that a pig flying?!

At least you now have a decent pair of forks that you know have been services well

dan smith":33vzajc2 said:

At least you now have a decent pair of forks that you know have been services well

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This is true. And they only cost me almost twice the going rate :roll:

Haha, tell me about it, I recently purchased a mech from ebay (US) got stung with VAT and RM handling fee, total cost is about twice as much as it is worth!

You will have to use the bike twice as much to get your money’s worth

45 days to open a claim. I think you should as that's lying. You should aim for half the cost to yourself? I fyou sent them back and he then advertised them properly they would probably only fetch half the value or less? So it would be about right.

It looks like I MIGHT be able to get a part-refund on the forks, to cover the cost of the parts which the seller damaged when putting the forks back together (Launch Control assembly and a couple of other bits). The seller has responded and, in fairness, he seems pretty decent.

I have responded to him to say that I would have got the forks serviced anyway (hence the reason I didn't contact him straight away when they didn't work), but because he'd stripped the threads on the LC2 assembly and damaged another bit inside the forks, then I feel that he should offer a part refund to cover the cost of these parts.

The standard service would have cost £81.95, but the additional work cost an additional £30.00. I've asked Tim (Fork English) to state what additional work needed doing as a result of the damage, and he's putting this on the bottom of the invoice so I'll be able to submit it to eBay if needed