eBay -- where to get ripped off

Greetings -- The last five bikes we had in our shop from eBay "deals" :
1 fit the rider and worked well.
4 were the wrong size.
2 had mismatched, botch bottom brackets.
1 had a homebrew "fixed" hub -- a freewheel hub with a BB lockring jammed onto
it--may hold, may not!?

1 had a bunch of parts that wouldn't work together.

Hey, no problem--just take it to the local bike shop and yell at them when they
can't get it to work. And if all else fails, just eBay with a sunny description
and offload the problems.

And if that doesn't work, there's always the swap meets twice a year, where all
the eBay mistakes go to die.

best of all are the guys who make a fake letterhead and convince distributors
to sell to them.. they stack the stuff in their garage and sell to their
buddies and the local club... they can be cheaper because they offer no
service, pay no employees, cheat by paying no taxes, rent or insurance, and
when they get tired of the whole deal, they just blow it off.

Oh yes, eBay just sent me a form letter showing me how to set up a slick,
pre-fab eBay "storefront" in 15 minutes, so that any goof can look legit. Ah,
progress.

signed,
--Michael McGettigan, trophy bikes philadelphia
(yeah, I buy and sell on ebay, but very carefully)

Mcget wrote:

(ebay-shopping customer rant snipped)

signed,
--Michael McGettigan, trophy bikes philadelphia
(yeah, I buy and sell on ebay, but very carefully)


As the old saying goes, you'll attract more bees with honey (professional
attitude) than with vinegar (whining).

Matt O.

"Matt O'Toole" wrote in message
...
Mcget wrote:

(ebay-shopping customer rant snipped)

signed,
--Michael McGettigan, trophy bikes philadelphia
(yeah, I buy and sell on ebay, but very carefully)


As the old saying goes, you'll attract more bees with honey (professional
attitude) than with vinegar (whining).

Matt O.

Michael McGettigan is not whining. He is merely expressing the same
frustrations shared by most LBDs.

Michael makes several valid points in his post. The cycling industry is not
economically healthy for a number of reasons. The number of LBDs - the
foundation on which this industry was built - has dropped considerably for
an alarming number of years in a row as small shops fail. Annual profits,
never excessive, are at the lowest point in the industry's history. This is
not an industry to be in if you hope to become wealthy. At best, most shops
merely provide a modest living for their owners and staff. We do it for our
love of cycling.

The industry itself has changed dramatically. When I opened my first shop in
1993, I had to jump through many hoops before being able to get an account
with a distributor, including but not limited to the following:

1. Proof of a retail storefront - many distributors and manufacturers
required their outside sales rep to verify this in person. Others required a
set of photos showing the outside (including signage and address - VERY
important), inside, and surrounding neighborhood.

2. Copy of business license - many distributors called the local business
licensing department to verify

3. Proof of commercial telephone service - consumer service not allowed
(hints at operating out of one's residence, or at best, cheating the phone
company)

4. Proof of accounts with other manufacturers and distributors - kind of a
Catch 22 situation until one has established the first few accounts.

5. Business cards and letterhead - professionally printed, not off one's
home computer

Now, the situation is much different. Bicycle Retailer & Industry News
(BRAIN) used to be a staunch supporter of the LBD, advocating the industry
to stop the proliferation of illegitimate shops, grey marketing of product,
and other practices deemed harmful to the industry. In the past year,
though, BRAIN ran a series of articles by a shop owner who admitted starting
in his garage as an illegitimate business, a guest editorial by a guy who
admits to operating out of his apartment/storage unit - selling solely on
eBay - and trashing the traditional "bricks & mortar" LBD as a dinosaur in
today's high tech world marketplace, and a former employee of an
importer/exporter who opened a new on-line store (no retail storefront) and
sells only the products carried by his former employer - the website
contains no prices (one must email for prices - this raises suspicions of
violating msrp pricing policies) and the importer/distributor direct ships
products to his customers. I doubt his former employer would drop ship for
my shop... to be fair, we are checking into this.

eBay's accommodation for fraudulent practices is well documented on RBM...
no further discussion is necessary. Looks like we can add promoting the
establishment of illegitimate businesses to the ever growing list.....

Stuart Winsor
Ground Zero Cycles

I save 50% off the local bike shops prices by using EBAY/mail order. 2 bikes
for the price of one. A lot of the stuff I buy on EBAY is brand new still
factory sealed. Your charging the people coming into your shop to fix their
EBAY bikes so I don't understand the sour grapes about Ebay. Did you work on
those bikes for free?...I didn't think so. Based on your post you should
LOVE Ebay. Just my 2 cents. just like your 4 cents...but 50% off :-)