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I`ve been guilty of that, I once put a car on there that I needed £2000 for, someone won it for £1150, I made a terrible excuse and fortunately he decided not to neg me. I`ve also been messed about by people and decided not to neg them. People expect too much out of ebay, it probably only started as a poxy little site created for fun, it isnt the bargain generator/money tree people expect it to be, why would it be, everyone likes using it because theres no hard work involved. Dont know why anyone would feel the need to draw blood over this, sh*t happens.I know his reply was a bit shirty and the kind of thing a tithead would say but there are a lot of titheads out there, they cant help it. I wouldnt even bother negging him he hasnt really done anything wrong in the grand scheme of things and he`ll have to pay charges on that sale.

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I won a volvo 240 saloon on ebay a few years back for £12. When I went to collect the guy explained that hed listed it for a friend and was hoping to get a little more- He was pretty embarrassed by it all. I gave him £20 in the end I think. It was missing the steering rack too!Loaded it with rubbish and weighed it in for about £110 (scrap was really high) I felt pretty bad for the bloke at the time but looking back I should have held him to £12, especially seeing as the steering rack was missing! £8 not exactly a big deal though.

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Funny really, people used to take the joys of buying/selling cheap cars and all the nobheads that went with it with a pinch of salt, now its all gone electronic and has a joke auction format everyone suddenly thinks its all going to be clear cut and that there`s going to be all this action they can take when it goes wrong, but it`s still the murky business of buying cheap cars off dickheads so I dont see why it should have changed.The same tossers are still out there, the difference is you waste your time clicking a button instead of travelling 30 miles to go and see something.

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vicsmith, you have a valid point about buying used cars generally, even off ebay.At least with ebay you have a chance to leave feedback and warn other people about bad buying experiences.As with buying cars the old fashioned way, first impressions count for a lot. You can tell a lot about a car and its vendor by the listing.

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Talking of ebay muppets, here is the response i got to the question of whether a phone was new or not as in the item title it says new, but in the description it says otherwise:

hi there, condition wise the phone is new and i think it is used a bit. i bought this item from ebay but i did't used it coz on the same time i got an upgrade.phone is in perfect workig order and condition. hope that answar ur question. dont hesitate if u would like to ask more. thanks

Twunt :evil:
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Hadnt realised the Transit was yours -they are talking about it on the Ford Transit Owners Forum -as 'Daisy'.I could use a camper -how bad is it -they are suggesting it needs a lot of welding....

It will need some welding, yes. Depends what you class as "a lot". As Mk1 Trannies go I don't think it's bad. Cab steps etc. are all solid - have been welded up in the past but holding together OK for now. What welding I've found will be on outriggers/front crossmember etc. - the usual Tranny places that even my 1993 Mk3 needed patching up for its ticket. What are the Transit forum people basing their comments on? Do they know the van from elsewhere or are they just reading my listing and fearing the worst?
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Some of the comments:- baconsdozen wrote: Wasn't this supposed to be rotten as a pear last time round?. a bit bikerwitch13 wrote: It seems that Daisy may be a little beyond me now for repair. She has gone in for her MOT and it seems that she has been plated on to top of old plating and the garage has said they cannot repair her. I am absolutely gutted. She is taxed until the end of this month. I have put so much love into her and never really got to use her! I am getting a second opinion but if she has to go then she has to go quickly, ie by tuesday so no reasonable offer will be refused. She is just outside of Bristol if anybody wants to come and take a look, it would be my dearest wish that she go to somebody who has the capability to get her back on form.

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Well that's no great surprise - garages are notorious for refusing to undertake even relatively straightforward welding work on old cars. I've had it happen to me several times. I'll have another look when I get home from work but I really don't think it's as bad as all that. If it is I'll obviously have to update the listing accordingly. I'm probably going to have to do that anyway - I've already had one plonker email me asking "has it ever had any welding done?" :roll: . It's a fcuking 30-year-old Transit van, of course it's had bloody welding done. Some people...

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Yep -I'm busy welding up my Frog one. its not difficult -they are pretty straightforward -although there seems to be more curves in it than make sense. Easy -as a pressing -a right pain with a sheet of flat steel....I like it - at a different time I'd probably have had a punt- but I'm a bit mechanically constipated right now.But -if it doesnt go.......

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We've had eBay tossers the other way.My wife used her account to sell my son's K plate Polo which we had loads of interest in. One chap travelled to view it and spent an hour poring over the matching numbers, and assuring himself we were the legitimate sellers. He kept bidding, and it got to 250 quid when a bidder from further away started with the questions at 30 hours to go. I answered as well as I could, but did tell him to come and view the car. He won it, and paid 280 sheets for it. Drove away, then complained his arse off that the car was worse than described.................Why did he not come and view before bidding? The other bloke was very happy with the physical state of the vehicle, and wanted it for a second car. It was dented, scraped, and the exhaust was blowing. There were other faults, but none serious. It started, drove and stopped well and had a long test. But still this kid and his pompous parents rattled on about poorly described. I maintained in my communique that they did not view before bidding so took the risk. All known faults were listed and described accurately, and there were plenty of photos to back it all up. We now have a neutral feedback on the eBay thing, and it looks bad against all the other positives. Why do they do it? I travelled to Ipswich a few years ago to buy a Land Rover which did not need a "weeks worth of welding" like described, no, it is currently receiving a new replacement chassis. Did I neg the guy? No, I paid and smiled, cos it was what I wanted. A 10 hour round trip with a bloody big trailer and a grumpy wife for the next 4 years...............................It's all worth it for a big boy's toy.

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  • 2 months later...

Well, I've had another one. Buyer this time. Well, two of 'em actually. The person who won the bidding on my DS got in touch and said he would be collecting the car on Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. I emailed him on the Saturday and again on the Sunday to confirm this and he didn't reply to either email. By Wednesday lunchtime I still hadn't heard from him so, given that I really wanted a quick sale (the car's sat on a mate's lawn at the moment as it was too big to fit in the space we'd earmarked for it, and understandably he wants it out of the way) so I offered the car to the next bidder, who was much more local (near Bury St Eds when the first bidder had been in Durham) and had much better feedback - nearly 200. Well, you know what they say about inbreeding in Suffolk? This man was living proof that the practise is still alive and well. He turned up on Sunday morning with an 11' trailer (after I had quite clearly told him that the car was 16' long and 14'6" from front bumper to rear wheel) and buggered about for half an hour and then left promising to return with a larger trailer. This afternoon he sent me an email saying "i don think i will be buying your car. sorry for any inconvenience." (Yes, he actually spelled "inconvenience" correctly, even though he couldn't manage "don't"). When I ventured to ask him why, he came up with all sorts of excuses about how he thought he had been run up on the bidding (no basis for that accusation whatsoever, and if he thought that then why the fuck did he take up the second chance offer?) and how he'd wasted all this money coming up with a trailer that the car wouldn't fit on (he seemed to be trying to imply that it was my fault the car wouldn't fit as I'd offered a dubious "maybe" when he told me about all these huge American cars he'd had on his 11' trailer and about how he was sure the DS would fit. If I'd known the trailer had fixed ramps on the back I would have told him straight off that he was wasting his time). I've emailed him back rebutting all his arguments and basically calling him a timewasting cnut, in the politest way I knew how, so I somehow doubt I'll get any joy out of him. Meanwhile, though, the first bidder had suddenly decided that he was genuine after all and emailed me on Wednesday afternoon (despite his excuse that he had a funeral to go to on Wednesday morning - as far as I'm concerned that's the oldest excuse in the book and anyway it doesn't explain why he hadn't responded to either of my emails). He was deeply pissed off when I told him I'd sold the car to someone else and left me a negative feedback - I'm not sure I understand quite what he was trying to say about me but I think it is probably fortunate for him that he ran out of characters before he finished whatever comment he was making about my parents - so he's out the window too. So I've had to relist the chuffing thing. I'm thinking of adding a bit on the bottom stating that any timewasters this time round will find themselves subjected to a Bickle-esque round of legal proceedings, but I'm worried that this will make me sound like an arsehole. Bloody cars! Why do we bother?Sorry, I don't expect anyone to actually read all this, I'm just peed off and felt that I needed a rant.

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I'm thinking of adding a bit on the bottom stating that any timewasters this time round will find themselves subjected to a Bickle-esque round of legal proceedings, but I'm worried that this will make me sound like an arsehole.

It's not you that's the arsehole though, is it? If I were you I'd dream up some "small print" that was designed to show that I wouldn't take any s**t. It won't put all the muppets off but hopefully it'll make them think twice.
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I do hope you're not calling me an Arsehole?

Nope. I think the way I phrased that paragraph was a bit unfortunate. Your name was only mentioned because you're the only person I know who has successfully taken court action against eBay idiots. What I was saying was that if I include threats of legal action and other dire consequences in the auction wording it's probably going to put a lot of people off as it makes the whole tone of the thing rather unpleasant. It certainly makes me think twice when I look at a car that has that kind of thing in the listing as it makes me wonder whether the seller is going to be the kind of person who is going to insist on seeing two forms of photo ID and proof of address before he lets me take the car, or is going to refuse to let me leave because I have a brake light out on the trailer. Most of them are probably not like that at all - they're probably just fed up with muppets like everyone else is - but it does make you wonder. When you sell stuff on eBay do you put that kind of warning in the auction wording or do you wait until your time is wasted and then threaten action? The problem I have is that I want to deter messers but without putting off genuine bidders, and I'm not sure how best to go about that.
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I have sold one car and baught a car on ebay and considering I am the unluckiest person to walk the earth both transactions have been great, although I was nervous about buying because I had visions of turning up and finding the car had been photographed on the good side!! :oops: and the other side was caved in, however as said you take the risk and I would have gone through with it.The baught one is still going strong 2 years later and has always gone through an mot me more modern shite failed! :x The guy said he wanted to get more of the folding stuff but stuck to the deal, the one I sold and was described as a shed full of rust with no mot(mini) and the guy who baught it was on the motorway to pick it up before the auction had ended (amazing) :wink: He cut the front off and turned it into a bar at an ITALIAN JOB club.Heres to good Ebayers. :mrgreen:

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Most people are decent and sensible. Thats the way I see it. So my listings just ask for contact within 10 days, collection within 21 -unless we make PRIOR alternative arrangements.nearly all meet the criteria -thank god , but I'm very happy to ratchet the proceedings up -if someone pisses me off.The Cort system holds no terrors for me -its fair and commonsense.if I've been turned over -it'll show -and the miscreant will get his just deserts.So no. Nothing in the ad

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I must have sold about a dozen motors on eBay, never any problems. Mind you I've never sold anything without MOT - my brother's 740 came close with about 10min left on the ticket, but the boys who bought it for a charity banger rally were well pleased.My descriptions do tend to go to town and I wonder by showing every single fault and defect (I am a picky bugger) if I get less money than the "CAR IS EXCELANT CALL GAZ FOR MOR DETAILS" one-line-and-crappy-pictures merchants. But such is life.How's the 304 going?

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Most people are decent and sensible. Thats the way I see it. So my listings just ask for contact within 10 days, collection within 21 -unless we make PRIOR alternative arrangements.

See that's the kind of seller I wish I got to deal with more often. There have been a couple like that, but there have been many more who have suddenly decided (after the auction ended and with no mention of anything in the wording) that the car needs to be picked up from the other side of the country within two days or something equally ridiculous. If there is nothing in the listing about the car needing to be moved urgently and if the car is not local to me (which most of them aren't), I feel a fortnight is a quite reasonable time period to allow for collection - Saturdays are the only days I can really "do" collection missions (with driveable stuff at least) as I'm at work all week and on Sundays the trains round here are a joke. I'd be a bit worried about waiting ten days for contact though - I like to hear something within three days, even if it's just a quick email to say "hi, I've bought your car, I'll get back to you when I know when I can collect it". No point being too impatient though - I've had several sellers email me four or five times within 24 hours of the auction ending saying "Why haven't you emailed me yet?" (erm, because I've been at work...), and such transactions almost invariably turn sour. When I'm selling, I don't mind waiting for collection (I stored the Lancia Gamma I'd sold for three months free of charge, and eventually had to deliver it at cost to the buyer in London as he couldn't get a trailer sorted) and I tend to expect sellers to be the same way with me, unless they have a good reason for the car needing to be moved quickly and they say so in the listing (as I did with the DS).And yes, you're right, most people are decent and sensible - the vast majority of cars I've sold on eBay have gone without a hitch, even the ones I've been a bit dubious about (e.g. the bloke who came from West Wales for £180-worth of A40 Farina, or the chap who flew over from Germany to buy my clapped out diesel Range Rover. Or the rather odd gentleman from Cornwall who bought my Commer Walkthrough burger van and then drove it back 420 miles through the night (at its top speed of 49mph) with his mate sleeping in the back).So anyway, I'll take your advice and not say anything about legal proceedings in the listing. If the DS doesn't sell this time I'll have to get it transported down from my mate's and evict the Carlton from the driveway to make room for it. Then I'll have all the time in the world to take whatever action is necessary.Oh, and buy that Goëlette. You know you want to...
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My descriptions do tend to go to town and I wonder by showing every single fault and defect (I am a picky bugger) if I get less money than the "CAR IS EXCELANT CALL GAZ FOR MOR DETAILS" one-line-and-crappy-pictures merchants. But such is life.How's the 304 going?

Yup, I tend to do that as well - I tend to list every single issue I can think of, even with a car that's sold as a resto project, just to be on the safe side. Even then I miss the odd thing - like the chap who bought my Daf and found that the nearside inner sill had more or less dissolved in the time it'd been sat on my car park, but he was very reasonable about it and I think we agreed to knock £30 off the price of the car, which seemed fair to me. Then of course there was the German gent who bid on my Rayton which had the words "needs lots of welding" in at least two places on the listing, but who hadn't understood that this meant it would be quite rusty. To be fair to him though I think this was more a result of his poor English than anything else - he did make the effort to drive over all the way from Germany after all. Other than that though I've rarely had any problems, and my buyers usually seem happy enough.304 is running absolutely fine. Only problem I've found with it thus far is the wiper linkage - you remember how the driver's side wiper parked halfway up the screen? Well it turns out this is the only way it'll clear the screen all the way to the edge - I adjusted the arm so that it parked at a more sensible angle and it now misses the right-most five inches of the screen altogether. Not sure why - there doesn't seem to be any slop in the linkage, so maybe it's had a replacement motor at some stage which isn't quite right for the car. The only other thing is that that huge pop-up fresh air vent in the top of the dash doesn't quite seal properly, so when you're driving at over 60 in cold weather you get a cold draught coming through which the heater can only just keep up with. Apart from that I'm loving it. It's just sooo comfortable (might be less so in the summer though when all that brown vinyl gets the sun on it) and it handles surprisingly well. And then there's all that extra tax... :D
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Then of course there was the German gent who bid on my Rayton which had the words "needs lots of welding" in at least two places on the listing, but who hadn't understood that this meant it would be quite rusty. To be fair to him though I think this was more a result of his poor English than anything else - he did make the effort to drive over all the way from Germany after all.

What happened to the Rayton in the end then?
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