Horror second hand buys

[Trashy]

9 minutes ago, abrooke said:

I get a lot of great stuff from good people through the Bikehub community.  Certainly over a hundred excellent deals.  And of course a few not good deals.  My concern with a thread like this is that everyone shares the "bad news" and this creates a negative impression, instills fear and in some way depreciates our tremendous community.   Hopefully readers will realise that for every bad story there are literally hundreds of great results from the Bikehub network.  And it is way better than any other marketplace.....  

If you read all the responses so far, it doesn't seem to be heading that way.

The fact that a number of guys have shared how they have unknowingly sold damaged items and have made good to rectify the problem, just goes to highlight the benefits of dealing within a community like this.

I doubt many Gumtree sellers would have gone to the effort of making right in such a situation.

 

[Jewbacca]

38 minutes ago, Trashy said:

If you read all the responses so far, it doesn't seem to be heading that way.

The fact that a number of guys have shared how they have unknowingly sold damaged items and have made good to rectify the problem, just goes to highlight the benefits of dealing within a community like this.

I doubt many Gumtree sellers would have gone to the effort of making right in such a situation.

 

In all honesty I expected it to get way worse way quicker!

[TyronLab]

54 minutes ago, Albatross said:

Will be selling a carbon MTB in the near future. I'm considering taking it to LBS for them to inspect and write up a letter of sorts indicating no major problems with it. Hoping this will convince any hesitant buyers that bike is "as advertised".

While I agree that is a good idea in principle, I very much doubt that any LBS will have the right equipment to truly be able to say whether a frame is completely free from defects or not. They'll do a visual inspection at best, same as you can at home. I often find that bikes will generally be homogenous, that is to say that if one part is a bit shoddy, there'll be some other niggle too. If you're inspecting a potential purchase and the wheel bearings feel rough, or the headset is a smidge loose, or the BB has a bit of play, you can safely assume that at least one other part of it needs attention too. Nobody's going to replace all their pivot bearings every 50hrs but leave their fork unserviced for two years.

I've been very fortunate with my deals on bikehub so far. I've only dealt with good, up-front guys that have been accommodating and easy to deal with. I've been trading online for a while though (computers used to be my jam), so I've gathered some experience in spotting a bad deal, just from the ad.

Some of my personal red flags:

• No photos / only one or two photos / no close-up shots of the known questionable areas (fork stanchions for instance) or photos of a dirty bit of kit immediately raise a red flag. If the seller doesn't give enough of a crap about his equipment to at least clean and take some decent photos of it, odds are they didn't look after it in the first place.
• Over-selling. If I see an ad that tries crazy hard to tell me how good of a deal it is it I'm instantly worried about the legitimacy, especially if there's nothing negative in the blurb. Nobody's going to give something away for bottom dollar because they just like humanity a lot.
• No detail/specifications in the parts list.
• Not stating any flaws. Unless you're selling a demo bike you've only pushed out of the LBS, took a photo, and posted it on bikehub, something has happened to it. If I see anything for sale that is obviously used, there will be something not-perfect about it.

[Blue Monster]

2 hours ago, abrooke said:

I get a lot of great stuff from good people through the Bikehub community.  Certainly over a hundred excellent deals.  And of course a few not good deals.  My concern with a thread like this is that everyone shares the "bad news" and this creates a negative impression, instills fear and in some way depreciates our tremendous community.   Hopefully readers will realise that for every bad story there are literally hundreds of great results from the Bikehub network.  And it is way better than any other marketplace.....  

I think the thread has been quite balanced up to now.

I did however sell a rockshox dropper, off my own bike that I was sure was working, but wanted a more setback seatpost. Purchaser sent it in for a service and told me it was not usable. I refunded him the full purchase price, and he returned it to me. I then sold it on the hub for parts. Everyone happy, I assume.

I have made some awesome purchases off the HUB. My replacement & current Sworks frame, carbon wheels that were cheap with white spokes. Had them painted black and have been using them for about 7 years now. Very light and strong as hell.

I also got a Fox Kashima dropper post that was brand new (almost) for a bargain. I was not in the market for a dropper again, but it was the right size, had the Kashima coating - to match the forks, and got it for about 30% of the new price.

There are a lot of honest people out there in Hubland, just make good decisions.

I have just purchased a M9020 stages LH power meter off a guy in Australia, from Facebook, and it works well, and looks better than the pictures. I might just have to play LOTTO this weekend.😁

[alleyne]

I sold a helmet to a fellow hubber that I wasn't using anymore as I had one a new one. He contacted me and was pretty upset as it had some small cracks on the inside that I had never noticed. 

I refunded him in full + shipping, in the end I think he left a 5-star rating. 

 

[Shebeen]

On 2/11/2022 at 9:40 AM, abrooke said:

I get a lot of great stuff from good people through the Bikehub community.  Certainly over a hundred excellent deals.  And of course a few not good deals.  My concern with a thread like this is that everyone shares the "bad news" and this creates a negative impression, instills fear and in some way depreciates our tremendous community.   Hopefully readers will realise that for every bad story there are literally hundreds of great results from the Bikehub network.  And it is way better than any other marketplace.....  

R250m+ in recorded sales in 2021

https://forum.bikehub.co.za/articles/news/bike-hub-2021-year-in-review-r8359/page/4/?tab=comments#comment-3851155

[Martin PJ]

I have bought some rubbish here. Second hand sales has it's risks. I have bought a lot on Bikehub over the years and intend to buy a lot more in the future.