There is an used car parts seller besteile24
in ebay. I bought (2021-09) an used car motor from 'them' with few thousands euros, had it hauled across the
Europe to me and found out that it was not that was listed in sales advertisement. Our local
authorized brand repair shop said it was junk and not 66k kilometers driven, more like 250-300k based on
his experience.
- It was also missing internal parts.
- Its camsaft was covered with deep rust that could not have been restored.
- Its one camsaft was out-of timing that implied, that it had either slipped
one teeth - or it had been dismantled and put back together in out-of-sync position.
We cut our losses short and did not waste any more time to it. It was probably worse.
I tried to start ebay return process and they told that this kind of item is not part of their
return policy and cannot be returned.
Based on everything I learnt during the process, I came to conclusion that
it's not a kind of company one would expect selling used car parts. You might
think they have a yard somewhere where they dismantle, clean and stock
these parts they're selling. That's not the case with this.
Here are the facts:
- seller has only office address
- business owners are polish
- they only deliver inside Germany
- I asked their pick-up address for my cargo company, no answer
- I asked more pictures, no answer, just silence
- I asked more information, no answer, just silence
- I initiate the purchase since there is not much choice out there
- Sellers ebay-feedback is 99,999% good. That's why I was willing to continue.
- I asked their business contact details etc for invocing, no answer
- After multiple requests, I tell them I will cancel the deal if they don't answer.
- After no answer, I cancel the deal in eBay.
- Then I get multiple messages why did I cancel the deal.
- I found their information from net. Asked verification and they confirm. Why not answer first time?
- We continue the deal.
- At some point they ask some information like accurate names and addresses for invoice.
- I asked for invoice. Didn't get any answer.
- After couple days they ask already answered information again.
- Seller is very keen to get ebay-return process cleared even ebay told that it doesn't matter.
- Engine arrives on pallet. Well cleaned externally. Looks good.
- I let them know it arrived.
- Still no invoice even I asked multiple times.
- Local authoriezed repair shop says it's junk, too expensive to repair.
- Camsafts are covered with very thick rust, beyond repair.
- There are signs that engine has been rotating without oil, axels have deep metal-on-metal cuts
- Some internal parts are missing, thou listing was UNCOMPLETE
- UNCOMPLETE typically means that external components (starter, generator) have been removed
- I let ebay to know that item will be returned. ebay refurses to reopen return process.
- I told to the dealer engine is junk, cannot be used and will be returned.
- They ask who am I. What is the invoice number. Told them never got any invoice. Silence again.
- I asked return address, they say that office cannot be used, no answer for address
- They ask more information about the engine. (for next buyer I presume)
- They ask more pictures from engine.
- Engine was eventually picked up from cargo logistics center in Berlin by them.
- they always operate at cargo company logistics center, because they only have the office
- After whole mess was behind, they started to sell an another engine for me. I ignored.
- Engine is listed again with 66k kilometers, only picture is engine attached in car.
I just sent it back to seller's official address and asked them to return my
money, which they eventually did after weeks of waiting. My loss was months of delay of getting that vehicle
repaired (renting cars in parctise) and hauling expenses.
Assumptions and open questions:
- Seller don't have the items they are selling, they could not provide asked info even wanted to do so.
- When they don't want to answer to questions, they go silent or lead the discussion to another topic.
- Seller wanted information and pictures from it for next buyer? So they proabably didn't get to see it in return?
- Feels like at their end there is a chaos, nothing is organized like in normal business.
- They ask the same questions, maybe because there is more than one person and no information sharing
- ebay's feedback is fabricated. Seller is a good customer and negative feedback doesn't get through. I never left any feedback but wrote this page that cannot be deleted. Hopefully everyone will find it with search engines.
- Apparently item appears to delivery process at logistics center, without seller. That implies that it's third party supplied.
- I've information that implies that supplier is always or often a different a party
- Where do they get their items? From other dealers? Private people?
- If the items would be sourced from private people in such volumes, how that would happend? Not likely option.
- If the items are from difference sources, why whouldn't actual owners list them in ebay? They would certainly do it better.
- Why do they lie, don't answer honest questions if they're not doing anything suspicious or illegal?
Whatever is their role and part of whole process and it adds value for endcustomer, why not be open about it?
Maybe someone finds all this useful and is able to avoid similar.