There have been three seperate threads exposing fraudulent auctions on E-Bay on this forum this week for merchandise that did not exist with photos taken from other sources.
Let’s review: On the E-Bay website user’s guide it mentions the term “Caveat Emptor” or, “Let the buyer beware”.
So what we have learned this week is: Let the buyer beware.
Speaking of buyer beware…and keeping in mind your rant about companies with warranty issues…I noticed whilst cleaning the carbon on my nearly new (a staunch TSRer to the core…bought em used) Zipp 404s…a crack has developed on either side of the valve hole. Doesn’t look to be a structural issue…yet…but how are the guys at Zipp for taking care of things like this? Am I going to send it back to them and have to wait for them to decide A)not structural it’ll be fine here ya go or B)pay another arm and a leg (good thing I live in the steel city and I mutated a few extra) to have the rim replaced? Not too happy with my first forray with Zipp so I’m wary. Bought a fricken expensive decal kit from them and never did get the complete set…dirty rotten so and so’s
I sent a quick note to guy selling the aerobars here is his reply:
Mr. Cotter,
First off, eBay email regarding goods/auctions is only supposed to be used for questions regarding the auction/goods. You posed no questions nor identified yourself as being a representative of eBay or Bikesport Michigan. The Bikesport Michigan site has no mention of an author or of the review being the sole property of the site (I checked before I used it). It states that the reviews are to be used by customers with the disclaimer of the review being an opinion…guess what? I am a customer and bought the bars from their store. I would advise that you find more constructive uses for your apparent profuse quantity of free time instead of searching eBay trying to stir up trouble.
Oh, yes…fuck off.
let that be a lesson to me for posting a link like that…my bad
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Such a nice guy he is! I just said that he should name his sources. Serves me right, It wasn’t my fight anyway.
I follow the Trek 5900 auctions regularly. Well over half of them are clearly frauds. Most of the ads get taken down way before the end of the auction, presumably by eBay. Now the posters have taken up doing short auctions, like one day. I guess they are hoping to get the auction closed before the ad gets flagged as a fraud.
I was ripped off once on eBay, but I don’t think it will happen again. You just need to be careful.
to answer your zipp wheel question, see the thread i just started about this topic: zipp saga.
we’ve learned to make up fake seller names, steal photos, and sell merchandise we don’t own. the other thing I learned is making up fake names and bid super high bids, say $5900 on a trek $5900 just to f*ck w/ the bad guys!
In defense of ebay: My wife and I own a small ebay cycling store where we have excellent customer support. We almost exclusively sell cycling and triathlon clothing. I know there are plenty of frauds out there but lets not throw out the baby with the bathwater. We provide a pretty good service to our customers.
Jon Bergmann
that is a pretty funny countermeasure.
is it easy to make up an ebay identity? anyway, tell us the next time there is good fake item for sale and then we can all jump in and make a hundred fake bids!