Anyone have an email for Martin? I had agreed to buy a Bates from Ray and had gone to a lot of trouble to arrange a wire transfer in £ as he demanded, only to have him renege, saying he needed to arrange for US product liability insurance. I hope Martin bought the Bates rights also and will be a little more eager to actually make a sale.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Donald Dundee wrote:
> For those of you who are not aware of it, Ray Etherton has sold his business
> (Classic Bikes) to a new proprietor, Martin Coopland. This is a blessing to
> me. Having done business with Ray for many years I have to admit that it was
> usually a frustrating experience. ray would often list items for sale and
> then take months to consummate a deal, only to fess up in the end saying
> something to the effect of "well, i had to search for your items". Bottom
> line is that he never did have items that he published on his periodical
> list, but used it as an oportunity to find a broad range of interested
> enthusiasts. Hardly a "straight up" guy.
>
> It was never so simple as identify-component-on-list-PAY-SHIP_RECEIVE. No,
> Ray was always in a state of frustration. It was rare to catch him in a
> relaxed mood and enquire about something without fear of getting your head
> chewed off.
>
> He did have some good deals over the years, I'll say that much. And Martin
> Coopland will (hopefully) listen to his customers and provide a much better
> service. Let's hope he doesn't do EBay (as he told me he won't for a couple
> of years anyways).
>
> Martin can be reached at 011 44 1324 559571. Take note of this number.
> Classic bikes has been a great resource for me and it can only improve. I'm
> not sure what happend to teh Bates name, which Ray owned.
>
> Ken Denny
> boston