caveat emptor
 

I'm writing to inform members of the Bike Forum and the Road Bike Review Forum of my recent experience with an unscrupulous seller of bike stuff called "the pros closet". Last week I took delivery of a classic frameset advertised on ebay as a Zunow with a "chrome fork". Upon delivery I was surprised to find the carton contained a Zunow frame with a Basso fork attached to it. When I contacted the seller I was told "we did not know what the fork was so we didn't advertise it as being original". Since the fork dropouts are clearly stamped "Basso" and the logos on the fork crown are distinctly Basso I find it hard to believe they were unable to identify the manufacturer of the fork.

Since then I had the frame and fork checked for alignment and have determined that, whatever caused the original owner to change the fork, the frame seems to be ok. I notified the seller that although I intended to keep the frame I expected them to adjust the price of the frame (since the value of a classic frame with a different manufacturer's fork is not the same as one with its original fork). I left the amount of the adjustment up to them.

Needless to say, I have not heard a word from them since. It's entirely possible they are incapable of understanding what a "sin of omission" is and think failing to point out the incongruity between the frame and the fork is just smart advertising. At worst, however, they realized the fork and frame were of different manufacture and chose to disguise the fact by merely referring to the fork as a "chrome fork" in their ad.

Although I doubt I will ever see a penny of compensation from the "pros closet", I thought it would be worthwhile to warn other forum subscribers about ethically-challenged businesses like theirs. Don't make the same mistake I did and assume sellers are honorable. In particular, review their language carefully for weasel words and similarly ambiguous terms and phrases designed to misrepresent the items they offer for sale.

This needs to be moved to the feedback forum.......

Can you please supply a link to this crook?

Never mind - I found it.

If it were a plain fork with no markings, it would be in the grey area of respectability.

But, to sell a Basso fork without noting as such is just plain weasely, if not outright dishonest.

No doubt in my mind they should have questioned the fork. I questioned them during the auction as to whether it was a Zunow fork. They gave me essentially the same answer you got. They do avoid coming out and saying it is a Zunow fork in the aution.

I am also curious if the measurements were correct. They said it was 51.5 c-c and I questioned that as the spacing between the top and down tube on the head tube is larger than on my three 52cm frames.

While I feel for you, I think you should have asked before buying. But I also believe they were deceptive in the way it was presented.

Another reason to not buy on ebay, or if you do, buy bikes you can pick up in person. By seeing the bike in person, I would have no problem walking at that point, keeping my money, and welcoming negative feedback (because my feedback in return would be much worse).

caveat emptor
 

Lynn:

I appreciate your sympathetic response. The Zunow's seat tube, c-t-c, measures 52cm and the top tube, c-t-c, 53cm.

Steve

I deal with those guys all the time, they are awesome.... I am sure they would refund you if you emailed them.... I have no idea how you would expect them to know that unless it was listed on the fork? I could be wrong... None the less I have had an awesome experience with those guys so I am sure there is two sides to the story... I do know they offer refunds on anything if you are not happy.

I just returned a set of bib shorts that was just too small for me and they refunded me in full and paid for return shipping.... that is 5 stars in my book

ride on
jp

They knew what they were doing. I would leave them very bad feedback, since they are lying crooks.

Honestly, I would read chrome fork as also meaning non-original fork. I also think it's unfair to assume the seller knows everything about the bike or fork in question. I'm going to disagree and say they did nothing wrong and that the wording would have acted as a red flag to me. I'm also going to say whether they owe you a refund depends on the selling price and value. If I were the seller, I'd offer to give a refund on the whole bike...but I probably would not offer much of a rebate. Maybe a small amount (depending on selling price) just for ease of transaction.

Old thread but....the OP said they did contact the seller and got no response. Also, the OP stated the dropouts were stamped 'basso' as well as having the Basso logo on the fork crown. How much clearer could it be?

Oh wait, you just signed up here to dispute this claim against "the pro's closet" and praise them....in more than one thread no less. :thumb: I can only take it you either: work there, own the place, or otherwise are connected to them.

I thought that was kind of fishy too...well, I guess that pretty much confirms what the OP said. Nice of the Pro's Closet to come on and confirm it!

This goes with the ebay territory... If one is not sure about something, one should not bid more than his/her comfort zone assuming that the item will need work or will not meet their expectations...

At least it is a Basso fork and not a Pyramid fork or a chromed Varsity fork... You could probably sell the Basso fork and recover some $ to get a Zunow fork.

We're looking into this recent rash of thread resurrections.

Closing thread for now.