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10-10-11, 07:48 PM
I bid on a bottom-of-the-line fixed-gear conversion on a famous server. I reconciled the Cromor tubing with self-assurances it wouldn't whip on descents, although the second thing to shock me about the frame was the ugly dropouts. The seller emphasized it was a Colnago and opened at $250. On unpacking I instantly noticed it was a hit-a-brick-wall frame, which I won't explain further here. Despite the tone here I'd like some objective opinions about whether this bike isn't safer than I thought.
[revision]
I'm sorry about my writing, having repeated English comp up to where I need toes to keep count. The following paragraph recounts my resolution with the seller; the resolution process isn't binding, it just spares "the server" having to deal with the dispute. When I initially complained that explicit answers by the seller, whom I call "Norma," about whether the frame was dented and whether it could be reverted to derailleur use were wrong because of it hitting a kerb or a wall, Norma said to send it back on her dime. After I asked Norma if that meant they would pay return shipping I read yes, I get refund and return shipping and then I started to read the "no problem"'s. So I replied that I would repack it, send Norma a tracking number billing Norma for the cost: "No problem." Then Norma complained that they only paid $50 to ship me the bike, not having told me my payment, which was knocked down from $86, included $25 non-bikeshop packing job. I was surprised, -no, angry, because "Brown" was going to charge me $85 to return without guarantee of not having the bike at the bottom of a pile of parcels. So I went to FedEx, and paid $74 to send it back with signature and $277 insurance. Since Norma stuck it to me, i.e. reneged on their promises in resolving the dispute, I used "truthful" to describe the attribute their listing lacked in complaining about how I shopped around for shipping of an item I wouldn't have bid on ("touched") had I known it hit a wall. Norma, having been supplied a tracking number, wouldn't even return what I first paid for shipping, because I overpaid %9 of this deal to freight carrier, apparently worse than not detecting some buckled tubes in a bike frame bought for resale. Norma has since relisted the item without any revision which induces me to be a peckerhead [Re:feedback] purely on the lookout for others. (Since being burnt to a crisp by vintageparts1978 and forfeiting leaving feedback because his frame took so long to arrive, I have simply left no feedback when burnt, if SoMEThing actually arrives.)
So much for 2nd, (now 3d) paragraph hopefully, although this must be a stale thread. When I refer to "customer service executable," I just mean that "the server" and its funds transfer agent are "processes," running computer programs which are inflexible and only work when the parameters are ideal to the parties and the process both. Hence the sarcasm about Norma's "fear" of the dispute resolution service; it cost me $75 to be enticed by this frame, (because of the chrome, albeit Colnago is most certainly a [mass?] producer where the value is emphatically based in the fabulous paint and graphics, (something I communicated to the seller before knowing I'd been had, forwarding a link to the same model with red paint.)) Buyer protection, my but! The frame I bought from vintageparts1978 took so long to get here that the day of the deadline I filed a case because it hadn't arrived; accordingly same deadline revoked my privelege of leaving feedback. (wouldn't YoU prefer incoherent to verbose?) Anyhow, the frame arrived a few days later, and vintageparts1978 was bird-dogging me because "the server" had confiscated all the money. When I unpacked this item which had filled vintageparts1978's eyes with dollar signs I noticed the fork was a heavy knockoff where the dropouts were ground for a total of 2 seconds to remove the fender eyelets. I thought when looking at the frame that "the server" had not dealt fairly with vintageparts1978 while being po'd about the fork, and negotiated what I thought was a fair payment for a real frame with bogus fork. Forward to my finding out the frame hadn't any prep and bottom bracket threads were trashed by Mavic cartridge BB which is supposed to be installed with chamferring which is a modification but reversible. Instead the frame isn't usable even with modern external bearing BB's, and here I willingly paid higher than market for a production marque of junk, where the finish and chrome must be destroyed if any repair is to be effected. (I took it to LBS's with my tail between my legs to get written assessments that it was (undetectable) junk; the pro shop had to be demonstrated the lack of grip in the threads and wouldn't write down anything.) I can find no contact information for any customer service at Paypal outside the dialogs and buttons accessed with browsers; peripherally to my rant, I do not think that packaging a market in a database and managing the database qualifies a person to rule over millions of people, and the income of the database would warrant maybe more employees or flexibility and fairness in contract enforcement. It's a moot point, but it sort of makes my rant more objective if it's incomprehensible, because the pictures "do the talking;" I just thought I should cut a "lay person" some slack, but now that Norma is relisting without even mentioning my griping, I think more that Norma is "disingenuous." I promise other posts will be more patina and less whine.
I threw in another $75 to return it, at the second shipper I went to, to save $10; the seller was so fearful of the resolution service they promised those funds and everything I'd sent up front, but that's fallen through because I paid too much to make it go away, according to them (within $2 of what I paid but they added handling.) This just means I now have to click buttons to try get my money back.
This stuff doesn't photo, but the seller answered the question about dents with a reply that there were no dents, and they got to look up close, haggle, etc. The down tube manifests the incident with the appearance of internal reinforcement of the shifter bosses; whether it's bent is extent in buyer's and seller's eye. Have I got any right here or does this look (to customer service executable) like a bicycle in fine condition, albeit with about 1.25in sq chrome peeled off as well?
[revision]
I'm sorry about my writing, having repeated English comp up to where I need toes to keep count. The following paragraph recounts my resolution with the seller; the resolution process isn't binding, it just spares "the server" having to deal with the dispute. When I initially complained that explicit answers by the seller, whom I call "Norma," about whether the frame was dented and whether it could be reverted to derailleur use were wrong because of it hitting a kerb or a wall, Norma said to send it back on her dime. After I asked Norma if that meant they would pay return shipping I read yes, I get refund and return shipping and then I started to read the "no problem"'s. So I replied that I would repack it, send Norma a tracking number billing Norma for the cost: "No problem." Then Norma complained that they only paid $50 to ship me the bike, not having told me my payment, which was knocked down from $86, included $25 non-bikeshop packing job. I was surprised, -no, angry, because "Brown" was going to charge me $85 to return without guarantee of not having the bike at the bottom of a pile of parcels. So I went to FedEx, and paid $74 to send it back with signature and $277 insurance. Since Norma stuck it to me, i.e. reneged on their promises in resolving the dispute, I used "truthful" to describe the attribute their listing lacked in complaining about how I shopped around for shipping of an item I wouldn't have bid on ("touched") had I known it hit a wall. Norma, having been supplied a tracking number, wouldn't even return what I first paid for shipping, because I overpaid %9 of this deal to freight carrier, apparently worse than not detecting some buckled tubes in a bike frame bought for resale. Norma has since relisted the item without any revision which induces me to be a peckerhead [Re:feedback] purely on the lookout for others. (Since being burnt to a crisp by vintageparts1978 and forfeiting leaving feedback because his frame took so long to arrive, I have simply left no feedback when burnt, if SoMEThing actually arrives.)
So much for 2nd, (now 3d) paragraph hopefully, although this must be a stale thread. When I refer to "customer service executable," I just mean that "the server" and its funds transfer agent are "processes," running computer programs which are inflexible and only work when the parameters are ideal to the parties and the process both. Hence the sarcasm about Norma's "fear" of the dispute resolution service; it cost me $75 to be enticed by this frame, (because of the chrome, albeit Colnago is most certainly a [mass?] producer where the value is emphatically based in the fabulous paint and graphics, (something I communicated to the seller before knowing I'd been had, forwarding a link to the same model with red paint.)) Buyer protection, my but! The frame I bought from vintageparts1978 took so long to get here that the day of the deadline I filed a case because it hadn't arrived; accordingly same deadline revoked my privelege of leaving feedback. (wouldn't YoU prefer incoherent to verbose?) Anyhow, the frame arrived a few days later, and vintageparts1978 was bird-dogging me because "the server" had confiscated all the money. When I unpacked this item which had filled vintageparts1978's eyes with dollar signs I noticed the fork was a heavy knockoff where the dropouts were ground for a total of 2 seconds to remove the fender eyelets. I thought when looking at the frame that "the server" had not dealt fairly with vintageparts1978 while being po'd about the fork, and negotiated what I thought was a fair payment for a real frame with bogus fork. Forward to my finding out the frame hadn't any prep and bottom bracket threads were trashed by Mavic cartridge BB which is supposed to be installed with chamferring which is a modification but reversible. Instead the frame isn't usable even with modern external bearing BB's, and here I willingly paid higher than market for a production marque of junk, where the finish and chrome must be destroyed if any repair is to be effected. (I took it to LBS's with my tail between my legs to get written assessments that it was (undetectable) junk; the pro shop had to be demonstrated the lack of grip in the threads and wouldn't write down anything.) I can find no contact information for any customer service at Paypal outside the dialogs and buttons accessed with browsers; peripherally to my rant, I do not think that packaging a market in a database and managing the database qualifies a person to rule over millions of people, and the income of the database would warrant maybe more employees or flexibility and fairness in contract enforcement. It's a moot point, but it sort of makes my rant more objective if it's incomprehensible, because the pictures "do the talking;" I just thought I should cut a "lay person" some slack, but now that Norma is relisting without even mentioning my griping, I think more that Norma is "disingenuous." I promise other posts will be more patina and less whine.
I threw in another $75 to return it, at the second shipper I went to, to save $10; the seller was so fearful of the resolution service they promised those funds and everything I'd sent up front, but that's fallen through because I paid too much to make it go away, according to them (within $2 of what I paid but they added handling.) This just means I now have to click buttons to try get my money back.
This stuff doesn't photo, but the seller answered the question about dents with a reply that there were no dents, and they got to look up close, haggle, etc. The down tube manifests the incident with the appearance of internal reinforcement of the shifter bosses; whether it's bent is extent in buyer's and seller's eye. Have I got any right here or does this look (to customer service executable) like a bicycle in fine condition, albeit with about 1.25in sq chrome peeled off as well?