More Ebay Madness

Hi Tom! You're the nice one- and I am sorry to find you in such a pickle. At this stage, you haven't told us of just how much you have paid out. Without knowing more, you can do what insurance companies do and that is sell on or break and sell for scrap with specific items on perhaps E-bay.

Without more details, I infer that the car was worth putting back on the road after its previous problems and therefore had 'value' over and above taking it to the scrap yard. Our crashed Merc was brought more than 700 miles back from the Alps after a crash. Despite what we thought, there were bits with certain value.

My son has just got back from darkest Africa on some safari lark. He found vehicles which were there which still had not only the transporters names- from here in Newcastle but had local Newcastle plates still on them. Now my son, is a boss of a Worldwide Transport Company and knows his vehicles. He laughed about the Peugeots with French plates from an era when he was in france and a French friend was flogging Pugs there.

It may not be the answer but I am sitting with Northern Rock's Head Office within a stone's throw(?) of my desk. More of a problem, I fear.

Good Luck

Norm

Is the seller a private individual or a trader? Note that being a trader means selling more than about 4 vehicles a year. If the seller is a trader, the vehicle must have a valid MOT unless it is being sold as scrap. Contact the local trading standards office if in doubt.

Mark Rand RTFM

As I haven't paid for the car yet, and as I could be left with a car which I will not be able to insure (as it is a previous write-off), would I be allowed to back out of this without any comeback from the seller? This is causing me a hell of a lot of stress and worry, and I feel very much ripped off. Ebayers car buyers beware. I.B.

If you don't pay for the car, what's the worst that can happen?

I'm worried that Ebay could blacklist me (for none payment) and land up with a lawsuit by the seller for none payment !!!

Tell the vendor that your not going to proceed with the purchase as you consider the description incomplete. The chances are the worst you'll get is one bad feedback mark. You'll have to swallow the loss of =A36.99.

"If the listing has ended and you?d like to withdraw from the purchase for any reason, you should explain the situation to your seller and ask them to agree to mutual withdrawal from the sale.

If they agree, they can file an Unpaid Item Dispute and state that you both agreed to withdraw from the sale. They?ll then receive a credit for the fees they were charged when you won the item. In addition, as long as they state you both agreed to withdraw from the sale, and you confirm this when asked by eBay, you won't get an Unpaid Item Strike against your account."

Politely explain to the buyer why you aren't intending to pay and walk away from it. If they start a buyer non-payment process, you get the chance to explain why and both sides get the chance to back away with all fees returned. Otherwise, both sides end up with negative feedback and the seller loses his fees. If he chose to sue, it would be worth going to court for a laugh :-)

Mark Rand RTFM

If you still have your money and he still has the car and didn't declare a major defect - I can't see why you have a problem. The problem would arise if he had the car AND your money!!!

A quick email enquiry to Ebay resulted in plenty of information of how to settle my situation. The first way is a Second Chance Offer where the second highest bidder is made an offer. The other is Mutual Agreement not to proceed, where the seller can have their Final Value Fee's credited when they re-list the item. In otherwords, there ARE ways out of purchases if both parties agree. I'll keep you posted as to the outcome in my case. What is still bugging me is that I feel that ALL information, particularly about vehicles, should be made available in the main write-up and without having the be charged £6.99 to see 'hidden' details in the Vehicle Status Reports. These 'hidden' details can only lead to more and more disputes, legal complications, stress and worry. So, Ebayers be aware and learn from my mistake !!!!

Buying/Selling a car on ebay is not that different from doing it in person. You could turn up in person and find the buyer doesn't mention things like the car having been an insurance write off, just as easy as they can lie on ebay (ok, it's easier to lie behind a computer screen). But at least by looking at the car in person, you may find some clues as to what's been repaired.

Did the VSR list what category the write off was (should be categorised A-D)? It may of just been due to cost/value reasons with damage only being superficial, but how it got categorized when written of would let you know.

There's a lot of people who buy insurance write offs, and repair them using second hand parts. Things like front end smashes, which when costed to insurance repair standards could cost in the region of several thousand to sort (by the time you add up a bonnet, front bumper, wings, grille, radiator, front cross member and the various bits of plastic trim in that area, then add the cost of painting on top), can be repaired for under a thousand using second hand parts. Now at least with the insurance write-off, you know it's had the work done. If the insurance company didn't write the vehicle off, then it would of been repaired with no record on any VSR.

Off course, if it's been written off due to major structural damage, then avoid at all costs. I can't remember what way round the write-offs are categorised, but two of them require them to be inspected before being fully road worthy (structural/major damage write-offs), while the other two just need to be repaired (superficial/beyond economical repair write-offs).

The car being a write off doesnt mean it's not any good. I was involved recently in putting a 56reg fiat back on the road after it was cat D written off. The damage to the car was pretty minor really: One front corner's suspension components replaced, The steering rack (more precautionary really), Front bumper, Bonnet, Front wing & headlight, Pretensioned seat belts. The door & rear wing needed some minor dents sorted. No structural damage at all. Repaired to a good standard with mainly secondhand parts at a massive saving over a straight one & the new owner knows the whole deal. I can only think it was written off due to it being so new & the owner was likely given the option of a new car. If you want the car, can satisfy your self that it's been properly repaired & can come to some agreement on the value then mabye it's still worth a look. Then again if the seller knew it was on the written off register but it's all above board why not advertise it as such?

The car being a write off doesnt mean it's not any good. I was involved recently in putting a 56reg fiat back on the road after it was cat D written off. The damage to the car was pretty minor really: One front corner's suspension components replaced, The steering rack (more precautionary really), Front bumper, Bonnet, Front wing & headlight, Pretensioned seat belts. The door & rear wing needed some minor dents sorted. No structural damage at all. Repaired to a good standard with mainly secondhand parts at a massive saving over a straight one & the new owner knows the whole deal. I can only think it was written off due to it being so new & the owner was likely given the option of a new car. If you want the car, can satisfy your self that it's been properly repaired & can come to some agreement on the value then mabye it's still worth a look. Then again if the seller knew it was on the written off register but it's all above board why not advertise it as such?

That is the main point, why didn't the seller mention that it was a previous insurance write-off in the main write-up? The seller has since been in touch and sounds quite genuine. The damage WAS (apparently) superficial and it was repaired at a coachworks with bills as proof. This I can believe. What he can't explain is why there is a discrepancy on the mileage !! and the Vehicle Status Report doesn't give any details either. At the end of the day, all those important details should have been all above board for all to see in the main write-up on the auction. As the details were absent when I placed my bid, I feel mislead and cheated, simply because the car is not what I expected. at the time of the auction. I would certainly would not have placed a bid knowing those 'hidden' details in advance. Ironically, the car has similar damage to the car I have at present, including the possibility of mine being written-off. Therefore, I might as well walk away from the Ebay one (with good reason) and get down and do the work myself on my own car. Thanks for all the contributions so far but I'm sure the story doesn't end here !!!!! Cheers.

Two write-off stories to put it into perspective.

A friend of mine built a Ford Mustang convertable out of two written off cars. One had been destroyed in a head-on collission, one had been rear ended. Much cutting and welding was involved.

As such he did what was legally required of the system here, and when he sold it on, it went with a recorded statement that informed anyone that looked, that the car had been in a crash and rebuilt. Niether of these two wrecks had been entered into the registration database, as unrepairable.

The other story.

A friend of mine had his minivan broken into and vandalized. The rear seats were slashed. The insurance company declared it a write-off, as the seats were unavailable from the dealers, and were worth about as much as the van, if they were able to get them. That van was unsellable, as it had been entered into the system as unrecoverable, salvage only, and it could not be legally registered in Canada, once it had been entered. No way to get that off the books.

Go figure.

There are write-offs and there are write-offs.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Slightly OT, but one of my kids once bought a car "as seen" at a conventional auction which (we found out afterwards) had been an insurance write off, but it MOT'd no problem and was a good cheap reliable runner for several years. Less than half the price of a dealer sale and well under "private" sale price.

Tom Don't get the hump but *do* get somebody to show you how to indicate quoted text in your messages! --

Chris Edwards (in deepest Dorset) "....there *must* be an easier way!"

Oh, so we're not allowed to make mistakes now, sorry, I'll be perfect in future !!!!!!!!

Good.........

You seem to have trouble recognising your mistakes, perhaps you'd like to take them elsewhere where they may be more germane?

Tom