Hi all,
I found a "too-good-to-be-true" off-topic bike a few years ago - used a service called escrow.com and everything worked out. The way it works: you and the seller agree on a price. Buyer sends the money to Escrow.com. Seller is notified, and sends the bike. Buyer receives the bike, inspects, rides it, etc. - if all is good - buyer releases money from escrow to seller. If not - buyer sends the bike back and gets all the money back. Seems fail safe, and it worked for me!
https://www.escrow.com/
Damien Roohr
Canton, ct
Hi Kevin,
That's scary. My friends tell me that when the economy is sour, the crooks seem to surface out of the woodwork. What ever happened to just a simple honest individual? We try and check everything we sell from our addiction hobby of vintage cycles, but when someone comes up with this "Hey it is not what we expected" or, "Why were you trying to pull the bait and switch on us for"? and the classic one was "The frame is cracked why did you pull that on us"?? (Was the frame really cracked when we sent it?) We try and make it right, but the dishonest are both in the selling and the buying. The greed of Ebay that we often talk about stems from their huge overhead with claims. Sometimes, more often than not, it might be best we just trade within ourselves and be happy with what we have and not be hungry for more. My wife says "Honey, how many bikes can you ride at a time"? I say "At least a couple dozen"!
Best Regards, John Proch La Grange, Texas
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Mon, April 19, 2010 7:44:08 PM Subject: [CR] Scams appeairing on Craigslist and eBay once again
Seems like the scam sales and auctions are becoming more commonplace on both Craigslist and eBay once again (at least I thought they weren't as commonplace as they once were).
Ray Dobbins Colnago Mexicois currently being featured for sale on Craigslist for $500.00:
http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/
A Rene Herse keeps popping up on eBay with direct BIN option offered in the description.
Also discovered a 1962 Paramount track bike on Craigslist that was lifted off a legitimate eBay seller, and offered for sale via a Florida female seller for $800.00. She claimed she was deaf, thus could not talk about the bike over the phone, and was away from the bike and couldn't meet with anyone to personally inspect the bike's condition.
If it's to good to be true, then it probably isn't.
Sad world we live in due to these crooks. Hopefully honest folks will not fall prey to them!
Regards,
Kevin Kruger - Grantville, PA