Another eBay selling experience..............

[DSM10000]

The 2003 C320 had served me very well in the nearly 8 years I had owned it but like many MB vehicles of that time the bodywork was becoming a significant issue.

As well as all 4 wheel arches showing signs of corrosion it had started to take hold on the boot lid, door bottoms as well as scabs appearing on the roof, A pillars and bonnet.

Mechanically it was running well but with the MOT due at the end of this month and the significant chance of work being needed there it was time to go.

It also had a new high capacity battery and 4 almost new tyres fitted recently but they were not suited to anything we currently drive so if nothing else the parts would be useful to someone.

I thought of scrapping it, easy, cost free, no hassle etc and had quotes ranging from £0 (yes zero!) to £200. Having those offers to hand I thought I would try eBay as it might be that someone else with bodywork skills etc may get some further use out of it.

I set a reserve of £200 and within 30 minutes had contact asking when could they pick up the car!

One person sent 8 eBay messages overnight, another wanted to come the very next day and I agreed he could come to look at it but not buy it.

He called next morning to say he was on his way to collect the car. I pointed out no agreement existed and the auction was running, he was rather upset and claimed he had taken time off work and hired a recovery truck and I had to pay his costs!

I will not trouble you with my response as I am sure it is self evident

Eventually the auction ended at £422, fair enough, double the best scrap offer and hopefully to be of use to someone.

Arrangements were made for the buyer to come and see / collect the car on Friday, they were coming from London and intended to travel by train so I offered to pick them up from Salisbury station.

Confirming this on Thursday evening I am contacted from a different number saying "I am the person picking up the car tomorrow, can you pick me up from the bus station?"

This was no problem and so I picked up the "Gentleman" as agreed.

He briefly looked around the car and got in as I suggested I drive out of the city to some quieter roads where he may drive it and also use dual carriageways etc. He said yes to this so we duly changed over but after 5 minutes or so asked "Where are we going?"

He then became mildly aggressive telling me I was wasting his time as he had to get back to London and he buys many cars and does not need to test it! He was not bothered about the car as long as it drove because.....................He was exporting it to Nigeria.

I pointed out that we needed to go back close to home to sort the paperwork etc, that also did not sit well.

"You have the V5 here so do it here" was the retort.

By now I was back in the driver's seat and made it clear I needed to drive it home to carry out the deal or he could get out now (several miles in the countryside from a rail or bus station )

His 'phone then rang and although I do not speak any African languages it was not hard to know he was complaining about me to whoever had rung.

By now my patience was so thin it was see-through!

I made him fill in the V5 and also show me some i.d and copied down his licence details, he then tried to insist I fill in the Vehicle exported section but as I am not exporting it I refused. I gave the the New keeper supplement and said I would transfer it to him on-line immediately.

"No no! Do not do that, just post it it is easier for you" he said. Again I told him I am transferring it to him the moment he left (I also made him sign a dated and timed receipt).

He was still complaining as he handed me a pile of notes, on counting it I found it was £42 short.

He just looked blankly at me and said he had no more money. "In that case I hope you bought a return bus ticket" i said

The other £40 was produced, I graciously let him off the remaining £2 as the car needed re-fuelling

His parting shot to me was "Please leave your insurance running until I get back to London"

Surprisingly I declined this as well and it was cancelled within 5 minutes of him leaving.He seemed most unhappy with that as well.

 

[Smart320]

I would have happily have scrapped it to avoid the stress of trying to get the cash out of an unknown Nigerian , a wonder you did not get a machete in the back

 

[DSM10000]

I would have happily have scrapped it to avoid the stress of trying to get the cash out of an unknown Nigerian , a wonder you did not get a machete in the back

A little dramatic for a £400 car, this not the wild west of Wales you know!

I never turned my back on him and, by chance a tyre lever happened to fall into the car before I drove out to pick him up. The deal was done with madam watching and our lovely cuddly dog on his lead, just in case

I know cheap cars can bring all sort of low life out of the woodwork but I wanted to give someone the benefit of the doubt.

 

[WOODYTHEWISE]

Well done David.

 

[DSM10000]

Well done David.

Thank you John
It has been quite a weekend overall with this and the A/C scenario

 

[m80]

I'm guessing you are large enough to offer a good deterant to such attempting abusers.
Well done, although I'm not sure it will stop such a try one on with little guys like me.

Did you report him for driving w/o insurance?

 

[WOODYTHEWISE]

You do appear to attract both those needing assistance, and ne'er do wells in equal numbers David. As a gentleman you will be well versed in dealing with both.

Thank you John
It has been quite a weekend overall with this and the A/C scenario

 

[brucemillar]

Scary and could have gone badly wrong. I’m pleased it did not and that you are okay. This is one of the plagues that puts me and others off selling cars on the bay or similar.

I was threatened with injury when selling a lovely Toyota that the buyer was short of the agreed amount for. He made it clear “ he knew where I lived” well he did. I stood my ground but did not sleep well for some time.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[zipdip]

Well this is what you get when selling cheap cars that are runners on Ebay,you get the african's turning up and yes they will export them back to their home country,some of the things that they export seem crazy,about 20 years ago I did a favour for a friend and agreed to take one of his artic trucks with a empty 40 ft box on a Sunday to Rainham Marshes in Essex,I arrived at what was a breakers yard a whole load of african's started to load flattened car bodies and old TV's into the box all this was manhandled what should have taken about a hour took 4 hours because they had not crushed all the cars and the crusher had stopped working and the weight was crazy,I contacted my friend he said sorry and contacted P&O who said this customer was well known for over loading the containers,I was worried that I would not be able to drag the truck out of soft earth in that breakers still I got it out took it to Tilbury and got home,never again.

 

[DSM10000]

I'm guessing you are large enough to offer a good deterant to such attempting abusers.
Well done, although I'm not sure it will stop such a try one on with little guys like me.

Did you report him for driving w/o insurance?

He said he drove a BMW so assumed he had insurance and despite him asking me to keep my cover running this is not proof of him not having insurance. Would you check someone who was buying a car from you?

I did check and took the details from his licence for address verification..

 

[Yugguy]

Wouldnt have made any difference if you had kept your insurance running, unless matey boy was planning to claim to be you.

 

[clk320x]

Wouldnt have made any difference if you had kept your insurance running, unless matey boy was planning to claim to be you.

It would allow him to drive insured through his own policy (third party cover) the car needs to be insured elsewhere for this cover to be in place though.

 

[markjay]

When buyers ask the seller to 'keep the insurance', they know very well that they are in fact uninsured, and that they won't be covered in the event of a claim.

The reason they are asking this is simply because they want to make sure that the car is not flagged-up as uninsured on ANPR, or if stopped by police for other reasons.

So if the seller does not cancel the policy immediately, chances are that no one will know that they are in fact driving without insurance.

And yes the police can investigate further and check on the spot if they are a named driver on the policy, but this is less likely to happen without probable cause e.g. if they become involved in some sort of a road traffic incident.

 

[wu56Shoozz]

Here's a little spin on this..

Many years ago.. on a highway far far away..

I had a massive blow out with the missus.. and I mean a real Humdinger of an argument.. so I stormed off, jumped in the car and went for a drive to cool off.. I was heading up the A9 towards Perth, a crackin' sunny day.. and starting to enjoy the drive and calm down..Out in the distance was two females "hiking" up the roadside. Nobody was stopping, everybody kept going... so doing the gentlemanly thing I pulled in and offered them a lift to the nearest stop.. turns out they were going to Perth. So, the one in the realllyyy short skirt ( Or was it a handkerchief?? It was hard to tell..) jumps in the front and her blonde pal in the back seat. Both were not to bad looking either... I set off and start up the road.. and " Oh how grateful.." they were that I stopped.." they'd been out the night before and used up all their money "Having a good time" and this was the consequence. Stupidly I commented that it was rather dangerous doing this, with the way their dressed etc and what type of testosterone was out there.. "Oh no.." said my front seat passenger "..that's why June (the girl in the back) has her trusty friend with her.." The next I knew I had a 6" blade thrust into the side of my neck. It wasn't cut but I could feel the point and the sharpness of the blade rasp against my skin. I was terrified... the end of the journey couldn't come quick enough and its tone had changed dramatically..

Gladly I survived to tell the tale.. dropped them off at Perth Bus Station and sped off. But it made me wary and I've never done it again..

 

[clk320x]

Here's a little spin on this..

Many years ago.. on a highway far far away..

I had a massive blow out with the missus.. and I mean a real Humdinger of an argument.. so I stormed off, jumped in the car and went for a drive to cool off.. I was heading up the A9 towards Perth, a crackin' sunny day.. and starting to enjoy the drive and calm down..Out in the distance was two females "hiking" up the roadside. Nobody was stopping, everybody kept going... so doing the gentlemanly thing I pulled in and offered them a lift to the nearest stop.. turns out they were going to Perth. So, the one in the realllyyy short skirt ( Or was it a handkerchief?? It was hard to tell..) jumps in the front and her blonde pal in the back seat. Both were not to bad looking either... I set off and start up the road.. and " Oh how grateful.." they were that I stopped.." they'd been out the night before and used up all their money "Having a good time" and this was the consequence. Stupidly I commented that it was rather dangerous doing this, with the way their dressed etc and what type of testosterone was out there.. "Oh no.." said my front seat passenger "..that's why June (the girl in the back) has her trusty friend with her.." The next I knew I had a 6" blade thrust into the side of my neck. It wasn't cut but I could feel the point and the sharpness of the blade rasp against my skin. I was terrified... the end of the journey couldn't come quick enough and its tone had changed dramatically..

Gladly I survived to tell the tale.. dropped them off at Perth Bus Station and sped off. But it made me wary and I've never done it again..

I was expecting a very different ending to that story!

 

[brucemillar]

I have to say here that the OP has done what I would consider reasonable in the face of an unreasonable set of circumstances. It could have ended up much worse (and I know of cases were it has) involving ebay and car sales. I bought a set of wheels for an X5 from a really nice chap in North London. When I arrived (I had agreed to pay cash) mistake number 1001. He asked me to follow him to his lock up. On the way there it became somewhat apparent to me that I was a grade A plonker. Driving to an unknown lock up with nearly £2.000 in my pocket and unknown contact leading the way. All went well. I would not do it again. Friend sold some Garage kit only to have his garage emptied out two days later (and I do mean emptied out).

It is a big scary world with big scary people.

 

[markjay]

Here's a little spin on this..

Many years ago.. on a highway far far away..

I had a massive blow out with the missus.. and I mean a real Humdinger of an argument.. so I stormed off, jumped in the car and went for a drive to cool off.. I was heading up the A9 towards Perth, a crackin' sunny day.. and starting to enjoy the drive and calm down..Out in the distance was two females "hiking" up the roadside. Nobody was stopping, everybody kept going... so doing the gentlemanly thing I pulled in and offered them a lift to the nearest stop.. turns out they were going to Perth. So, the one in the realllyyy short skirt ( Or was it a handkerchief?? It was hard to tell..) jumps in the front and her blonde pal in the back seat. Both were not to bad looking either... I set off and start up the road.. and " Oh how grateful.." they were that I stopped.." they'd been out the night before and used up all their money "Having a good time" and this was the consequence. Stupidly I commented that it was rather dangerous doing this, with the way their dressed etc and what type of testosterone was out there.. "Oh no.." said my front seat passenger "..that's why June (the girl in the back) has her trusty friend with her.." The next I knew I had a 6" blade thrust into the side of my neck. It wasn't cut but I could feel the point and the sharpness of the blade rasp against my skin. I was terrified... the end of the journey couldn't come quick enough and its tone had changed dramatically..

Gladly I survived to tell the tale.. dropped them off at Perth Bus Station and sped off. But it made me wary and I've never done it again..

How much of this did you tell the missus..............?

Just checking if she was sympathetic to your predicament... ahmm.

 

[wu56Shoozz]

Oh she was sympathetic alright - "Gaffa Taped" my nuts for a week

 

[Dryce]

So if the seller does not cancel the policy immediately, chances are that no one will know that they are in fact driving without insurance.

And yes the police can investigate further and check on the spot if they are a named driver on the policy, but this is less likely to happen without probable cause e.g. if they become involved in some sort of a road traffic incident.

More importantly if you sell the car but don't cancel the inusrance policy and there is an accident then your insurer may be liable -and may then chase you *personally* to cover their losses.

 

[DSM10000]

It would allow him to drive insured through his own policy (third party cover) the car needs to be insured elsewhere for this cover to be in place though.

Assuming his policy allowed this, not all do.