Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Damaged Cannondale Capo, What to do?

I purchased a Cannondale Capo off of ebay from a bike shop that had listed the bike w/ a "Buy It Now" option. The bike was listed as a NEW condition 2008 Capo. Here is what I received. I'm trying to figure out what to do to fix up the frame, so it doesn't look like crap. I have been thinking of having the frame sandblasted then having it hard anodized. Will the smoothed out weld joints look like crap? Does Cannondale use brazed on filler to give the welds a smooth look? Or do they grind down the aluminum welds?

Attached are my camera phone pictures. I will have higher quality pictures of the bike as it arrived this coming week. I'm very frustrated with the bike shop that sold me this bike. They won't cover shipping back to them if I want to return the bike. So I'm going to loose out on atleast $60 because they lied about the condition of the bicycle. To make things worse they poorly packaged the bike and additional damage was done during shipping. The frame, fork, and wheels all have some damage. Not what I was expecting...

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w346/Justin_Olson/Cannondale%20Capo/IMG00091.jpg

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w346/Justin_Olson/Cannondale%20Capo/IMG00092.jpg

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w346/Justin_Olson/Cannondale%20Capo/IMG00093.jpg

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w346/Justin_Olson/Cannondale%20Capo/IMG00094.jpg

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w346/Justin_Olson/Cannondale%20Capo/IMG00107.jpg

http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w346/Justin_Olson/Cannondale%20Capo/IMG00108.jpg
Regards,
Justin

That sucks, if it's just scratched i wouldn't worry about it too much but i'm sure you can file a complaint through ebay and something would get done

I've repainted a Cannondale and after stripping the factory finish I noticed it had filler in places....Like bondo. If your gonna strip it for anodizing... sand blasting is probably not the best bet 'cause it usually makes for a rough texture. Especially on alloy. You want a smooth nearly polished substrate for ano. I'd think powder coating or straight up polished would be the best bet. To bad the fork is scratched...
Sorry your ride got messed up and the shop is not willing to be cool.....I guess that's what insurance is for.

When I first contacted them about the damage they blamed it on the UPS. The exterior of the box was in perfect shape. UPS didn't cause the damage. The bike shipped me a damaged bike and poorly packaged it. This is what they told me to do:

" Hello Justin,
We received the pictures. They appear to be scratches from shipping. Given that being the case, we suggest you contact UPS. That will net you monies for damages which would be your best deal. If you prefer to not go that route, please send the bike back to us and we will refund your money. We are unable to ship you another bike and send an RA number for pick up. Once again, we are of the opinion these scratches are from shipping which is covered by UPS insurance although you did not pay additional for.
Please let us know which route you prefer to take.
1. Utilizing recovering monies for damages from UPS which brings the net cost way down.

2. Return the bike to us for a refund of monies upon receipt.

Sincerely,
Bobby"


I'm not going to lie to ups in an attempt to cover up there poor business practices. They offer to refund my money, but won't cover shipping charges back to them.

Definitely file a complaint through eBay, PayPal or both. If the seller doesn't work out the deal, he'll lose his money. It happened to me when a buyer complained about some minute detail on a bike I sold--PayPal had me f'd over for more than a year on that one.

yes, file a complaint with ebay/paypal.

I've told them that I would file a complaint with ebay, paypal and the BBB. I'm waiting to hear what they say, and if they will work with me. If not I'm going to get busy on trying to make this right through that method.

I just looked up on paypal that I have 45 days to file, and 60 days to file with ebay so I'm good for time. I just want this to be resolved. In peoples experience, what does paypal and ebay do in this sort of situation?

Justin

They should cover all costs to have it returned for a refund. This bike was totally misrepresented by the seller. Unless the box was full of bolts and bb's that damge did not happen during shipping.

Good luck!

Ride Safe!

File a complaint. My brother sold a Macbook Air and winning bidder he was sent a couple of textbooks in a box. Scammers are the SCUMS of the earth.

Those dings definately don't look like anything from shipping. They look like the accumulated little dings you get from riding IMO.

Personally I doubt you're going to see much of a resolution from this, and a bike gets scratched if you use it. My advice is to name and shame the shop, then just ride your bike and forget about it.

paypal will take the money out of the seller's account and transfer it back to the buyer. he will have to return the bike, of course. paypal/ebay doesnt **** around.

So if I do file a complaint with ebay and paypal I'm going to still be stuck with paying shipping back to this POS shop?

Justin

If the frame isn't cracked I wouldn't worry about it.

So if I do file a complaint with ebay and paypal I'm going to still be stuck with paying shipping back to this POS shop?

Justin

they should refund whatever amount you paid via paypal.

So then the shop would have to contact me and pay to ship the bike back I'd assume?

Why don't you go read the eBay and Paypal terms and buyer's protection rules yourself instead of asking everyone in this thread

They tell you what you want to know honest

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/686/cupoca2qh2.jpg

Ride it to the ground

+1 for riding it to death. You'll get a ton of miles from that bike, but ebay and paypal should know the f'ed up. Those are not shipping damages.

paypal will take the money out of the seller's account and transfer it back to the buyer.

if there is any money in there...

they would rather have work it out if possible.

The cost of the repairs you are proposing are more than the shipping charges. If you planned on changing the bike's color or modifying it cosmetically when you bought it, then the scratches are academic (other than the fact that the seller didn't disclose them) because they would be addressed in the re-do.

I would file a complaint and let the process work itself. If you don't get resolution to your satisfaction, either make your cosmetic changes, ride it 'as is' or sell it. This is one of the perils of doing business with sight unseen purchases and trusting the seller. I would not recommend returning the bike unless you are credited first. Best not get burned a second time. If you have to pay shipping charges, that is the cost of the lesson. As a general rule, the best you can expect from the resolution process is a reimbursement for what you paid unless the seller is willing to be ethical.

Personally, I would let the resolution process work itself out. If there is no offer to resolve the shipping costs that meet your satisfaction, I would just ride the bike. It will get damaged like that sooner or later if you ride it enough. Then use the return shipping charges to customize it and put the experience behind you as a lesson learned.

Capiche?

$27 and change to send a 30lbs bike insured FedEx ground. also in my experience when you talk about getting eBay, PayPal or credit card company involved with addition to the BBB things get done. i have been going back and forth with a custom patch maker in Rochester for a month and a half now. after a dozen unreturned phone calls, probably more than 2 dozen unanswered emails and several attempts at live chat, i finally said "these are my options, give me a refund, give me my product or i will call my CC company and the BBB and file complaints, as well as eBay, who i found them through." and don't you know in minutes i had a reply. people fear the BBB, file a complaint.

edit:i got a call a little while ago, my patches came in the mail today. probably look like ****.

You could leave negative feedback and move on with your life.

Or, if you really want them to take the frame back and you paid through PayPal using a credit card, dispute the charge through your card. That will be a lot faster than going through the Ebay/PayPal resolution.

If you get involved with Ebay resolution, they might ask you to go through the process of having UPS inspect the damage, and officially say that it's not their problem. Thing is, if you go this route, it will take months to resolve the dispute. There's also the chance that UPS might pay up--if I remember right, you get $100 coverage even without insurance, which would go a bit toward a refinish, and might not be the worst thing in the world. You could either refinish it or throw the UPS insurance money at components.

slightly off-topic: what do you guys like is an appropriate amount of time to receive an ebay item? I purchased something on ebay 14 days ago and it still hasnt arrived even though the seller is 2 hours away (USPS usually takes about 3-4 days). I have emailed him twice and have not gotten a response.

slightly off-topic: what do you guys like is an appropriate amount of time to receive an ebay item? I purchased something on ebay 14 days ago and it still hasnt arrived even though the seller is 2 hours away (USPS usually takes about 3-4 days). I have emailed him twice and have not gotten a response.

Contact ebay and have them send an email to him asking whats's up? Also tell him yourself your ready to give bad feeback. Fast shipping is expected in the world of ebay.

those are not shipping scratches. take photos of box and email them to the shop to show theres no damage to it. Plus UPS won't cover if box is in good shape for that type of damage.

lol i wonder how paint got chipped behind the brake caliper.

oh yea that's shipping alright. :rolleyes:

x99 file a complaint with ebay/paypal. A lot of the times they'll side with the buyer.

slightly off-topic: what do you guys like is an appropriate amount of time to receive an ebay item? I purchased something on ebay 14 days ago and it still hasnt arrived even though the seller is 2 hours away (USPS usually takes about 3-4 days). I have emailed him twice and have not gotten a response.

if it s a high ticket item, i would drive up there and get it, then make him refund your shipping cost plus charge him a handling fee for you coming to get it! haha

I filed a complaint with paypal/ebay. I've asked for a partial refund to repair the damages done to the bike. I really just wanted a nice bike to ride around, as I have other beater bikes to ride into the ground. I'm a bit disappointed as this is my first "NEW" bike I've purchased, and it comes in all scratched up. I won't be posting the name of the shop just yet. I want to give the process a chance to work itself out prior to me dragging their name through the mud.

The box wasn't damaged and I'm not going to deal with trying to falsely file a claim with UPS. I just want the shop to make this right. So far they haven't responded to my paypal dispute. We'll see.

In the end if I do keep this bike I will have it stripped down and hard anodize it. I'm going to replace the fork as I don't want to ride around on one that has defects in the clear coat. Who knows what other abuse it has been through. Composites are difficult to diagnose from a failure analysis standpoint. They don't form cracks on the surface like metals. I don't want it to fracture on me while going 35+mph.

This is a interesting lesson for me as I've never really purchased much off of ebay. The shop had a 100% rating in the last 12 months. I just didn't expect it to be a problem. I guess I can start by calling the shop and heckling them until they make this right if they ignore my paypal dispute.

Justin

I would not let this pass by, and I would not file a complaint through UPS. Contact ebay and paypal and things will get done. They both pride themselves on protecting the buyer, and they go to extreme lengths to do so. I would do everything in my power to not let the bike shop get away with this. If it happened to you, I am sure it has happened to other people in the past. If you really give them hell about it, maybe they will be more reluctant to do it in the future, and other bikers may not get ripped off. Misrepresenting an item on ebay is taken very seriously.

That said, I will tell you a previous experience that proves how serious ebay handles matters like this. I was selling a monitor on ebay that was in perfect condition. No scratches or blemishes on it at all, and no broken pixels whatsoever. The guy received it and I guess decided he did not want it. He filed a complaint with ebay saying it was misrepresented and the contrast was dull and that it had scratches - both of which were not true. Ebay did not ask him for any pictures for proof, but instead contacted me ordering that I give him a full refund, plus pay for it to get shipped back to me. So I did as told, got the monitor back in the same perfect condition I sent it out in, and resold it to someone else who loved it. This all happened in the time period of a week.

Link to the auction.

It's one thing to take your word for how they listed it, it's another to see the actual listing.

Personally, I think if people complain about buying their first 'new' bike and it having scratches, they should just buy it at a bike shop and actually inspect it first.

It's good that your not using UPS as the scapegoat. A lot of bike shops and sellers on eBay use this tactic for there bad skills in packing and item description. I keep hearing this happen.

I purchased a really nice fillet brazed track frame on eBay, it came with a bad dent in the downtube. It didn't look like it came from shipping and the guy wouldn't take fault and instead tried to pass it off to UPS. Granted UPS isn't great at shipping fragile items but they shouldn't take blame for things they didn't do. Pretty soon none of us will be able to get insurance when shipping bikes due to fraud if this keeps up or it will be extremely expensive.

I got the frame for a very good price, luckily selling the parts on the frame will cover the I price I paid for minus $150 which the frame is probably worth at the most. I had it checked out and got the OK to use it around town softly (no jumps). I just finished building it up as a townie for the 100lb girlfriend but bummed I'll never really get to use it like it should be used.

Good luck with it.

Cheers,


PS. Don't get down on eBay, I've purchased 100's of items off eBay with only a small percent of problems but it does happen.

Here is the text and pictures from the ad:
"Description

http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s.gifhttp://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s.gifhttp://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s.gifhttp://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s.gifhttp://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s.gifItem Specifics - Item Condition
Condition: New



2008 Cannondale Capo Track Bike

We are excited to offer a minimalist machine with an elaborate history. The Capo frame is Cannondale's original track frame from over a decade ago. Winner of Indiana's Little 500 in addition to countless on-time deliveries in major metro areas. One of many cool things on this bike is that you can freewheel it or fix it. You can either coast or practice your track stand for stop and go traffic. The flat black with minimal graphics gives the bike the attitude it deserves while doing it in a stealth mode



Details


Frame - CAAD5 Optimo Track

Fork - Slice Ultra

Rims - Mach1 510 w/machined sidewall, 32 hole

Hubs - Formula Track, Flip-flop

Spokes - DT Swiss Champion, 14g

Tires - Maxxis Fuse w/nylon belt, foldable, 700c


Crank -FSA Vero, 48 (RPM)

Chain - KMC 8-speed

Rear Cogs - Shimano 17T freewheel

Bottom Bracket - Shimano BB-UN26

Handlebars - Cannondale C3, 31.8mm

Stem - Cannondale C4

Headset - Alloy integrated, 15 mm top cap

Brakeset - Shimano Sora

Brakelevers - Tektro Road

Saddle -Selle San Marco Ponza Lux

Seat Post - Cannondale C2 Carbon-wrapped

Size - 56"


http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w346/Justin_Olson/Cannondale%20Capo/cannondale1.jpg


http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w346/Justin_Olson/Cannondale%20Capo/cannondale2.jpg


http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w346/Justin_Olson/Cannondale%20Capo/cannondale3.jpg


http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w346/Justin_Olson/Cannondale%20Capo/cannondale4.jpg
"

The bike shop is located in Burbank, if I were you. I would posted this on LAfixed. I would be a bit suspect of a bike being sold by a bike shop but photo's look like they were taken at a house and then listed as new.

It's been relisted twice. Looking at the last auction with a buy it now of $650, the auction ended Nov.26 "the seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale". Was it re-listed or did you buy the bike outside of Ebay? This is all looking suspect.

There history doesn't show anything earlier than dec 8th and there's been no Capo's sold after that.

I purchased it off of ebay on November 25th. I'm not sure the other listing you are talking about is??

I will post this over on LAfixed.

Justin

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:VRI&item=190269353477

Does Cannondale use brazed on filler to give the welds a smooth look? Or do they grind down the aluminum welds?



I don't think this has been addressed yet, but they grind down their welds.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:VRI&item=190269353477

This isn't the auction that I bought the bike through. Interesting that it appears the bike was listed multiply times before I purchased it.........

Oh wow Burbank heh. I grew up in Glendale, one town over.

Definitely start out trying to work this out with the seller before going up the ladder. They're totally full of **** and both you know that. The listing suggests its New. Those photos are kind of crap but advertising a New item suggests you really don't need to worry about pictures ;)

I sort of sit on the middle of the fence. I'm a picky guy, especially with those hobbies of mine that are real important, like Cars and Bikes, but my Pista Concept looks worse than your Capo and it's from just riding it hard and not caring. It's probably a bit too much neglect actually heh, I need to clean it up a bit more and probably treat it a bit nicer. So I am also on the side of those suggesting, ride it hard. I also think that you fell victim to false advertising so the shop should be the one to take the fall for this, not you.

So the shop is trying to stick me with paying the shipping cost back to them. They won't cover any damaged I've incurred, and won't pay to ship the bicycle back to me. They will only give me a refund of my purchase if I pay the $60 shipping cost back to them. All around this bike shop has really proven to be worthless in handling my poor purchase experience.

The shop's information is as follows:

Bicycle John's
1038 North Hollywood Way
Burbank, CA 91505, United States

Their website is here:
http://www.bicyclejohns.com/

I would recommend that no one deals with this shop as they are a total pain. They were a great seller until they had my money. After the sale, I had this issue and they have done nothing to help me. They first blamed it on UPS. Then when it was clear that they were at fault, they offered the minimum they could, a refund if I foot the bill for shipping. So I'm out $60 for their false advertising. Stay away from this shop at all cost.

I will be posting this on all the bike forums that I can find. I will be taking hi resolution pictures of the damaged bicycle that I received. Please spread the word about this incident.

Justin

When I first contacted them about the damage they blamed it on the UPS. The exterior of the box was in perfect shape. UPS didn't cause the damage. The bike shipped me a damaged bike and poorly packaged it. This is what they told me to do:

" Hello Justin,
We received the pictures. They appear to be scratches from shipping. Given that being the case, we suggest you contact UPS. That will net you monies for damages which would be your best deal. If you prefer to not go that route, please send the bike back to us and we will refund your money. We are unable to ship you another bike and send an RA number for pick up. Once again, we are of the opinion these scratches are from shipping which is covered by UPS insurance although you did not pay additional for.
Please let us know which route you prefer to take.
1. Utilizing recovering monies for damages from UPS which brings the net cost way down.

2. Return the bike to us for a refund of monies upon receipt.

Sincerely,
Bobby"


I'm not going to lie to ups in an attempt to cover up there poor business practices. They offer to refund my money, but won't cover shipping charges back to them.




I ship tons of stuff via UPS at my work and in my experience, if something is damaged in shipping it's up to the seller to resolve the issue with UPS (which consists of them calling UPS and getting told that they didn't pack it right).

UPS is the seller's problem, not yours.

contact the BBB.
and continue the resolution process with ebay/paypal.

I'm going to contact the BBB, UPS, and Cannondale (which they are a distributor for). I'll get this resolved in one way or another. If Bicycle John's just wants to screw me over the least I will do is let as many people I can know about their poor business practices.

Justin

Good for you! Don't get screwed and keep others from getting screwed.




PS: Don't forget to give them negative feedback!

I'm going to contact the BBB, UPS, and Cannondale (which they are a distributor for). I'll get this resolved in one way or another. If Bicycle John's just wants to screw me over the least I will do is let as many people I can know about their poor business practices.

Justin

what is the ebay policy on the seller paying for the return shipping fee? have you gotten that far with their resoluton center?

Apparently ebays/paypals policy is to give a refund if the buyer pays shipping back. Pretty lame if you ask me. I'm at that junction with paypal, as they have offered to give me a full refund if I ship the bike back. They should be paying for the shipping IMO since they falsely listed the item. I'm calling paypal on monday.

Justin

Keep us updated ...

Apparently ebays/paypals policy is to give a refund if the buyer pays shipping back. Pretty lame if you ask me. I'm at that junction with paypal, as they have offered to give me a full refund if I ship the bike back. They should be paying for the shipping IMO since they falsely listed the item. I'm calling paypal on monday.

Justin

Again, if you paid this through PayPal using a credit card, you can dispute the charge with your credit card. You will certainly get better service from them than you will through Ebay/PayPal.

I transferred money from my bank account to paypal so I can't use the chargeback feature. I wasn't planning on getting screw on this deal. Guess I was naive.

Pay pal won,t do anything about them little scratches . If you want abike thatgs new by from your lbs

Pay pal won,t do anything about them little scratches . If you want abike thatgs new by from your lbs

says the drunk and/or illiterate guy.