Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements

girlpeta
Community Member

I have had no problems with any sellers or buyers before this last month...something is in the air.

 

I bought a mini bike (Pocket Rocket) from a seller in Sydney...imported from China I now know.

 

$206 for the bike.  Mixed Premium Unleaded Fuel with a 2 Stroke Oil as per the mixing bottle provided with the bike.  Followed all other instructions.

 

The day it arrived, the bike was ridden for about 30 mins.  The next day it was ridden for not more than 60 mins when it spluttered to a stop and would not restart.  The pull start cord was fixed and not able to be moved.

 

I emailed and advised the seller the next morning, I was told I must have mixed the fuel incorrectly. They told me to empty all the fuel and the carby, clean out the tank and try mixing the fuel correctly.  I was also advised if this didn't fix the problem I may need to replace the motor.......Pffft!

 

I packaged the bike back up and returned it to them within the 7 days and advised them of the tracking information.  I followed up every couple of days to ask for an update.....

 

After the item had been back with the seller for 2 weeks, they have advised that by leaving the mixed fuel in the tank overnight, the fuel/oil mixture had "separated and crystalised" clogging the carburetor...they were deeming the issue misuse.

 

It's now at the point where I have advised them I am fully aware that fuel/oil mixture does not separate overnight as they would have me believe and also that a mechanic friend was with us during the 1.5hrs of use we had of the bike....and that I respectfully requested a full refund of the purchase price.

 

No reply

 

I have followed all the links of the automated process to try to raise an issue with a returned item...but I am getting nowhere!

Message 1 of 31
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Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements

let us know how you get on.
Message 21 of 31
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Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements

In response to my final request for a refund.....

 

You are not entitled to a refund
The item was misused and you damaged it
That is not covered by warranty
You want the item back please come and pick it up


Sent from my iPhone
 
I have now raised a complaint with Fair Trading.
 
...what a douchebag!
Message 22 of 31
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Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements

Good for you. I hope they can help you out.
Message 23 of 31
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Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements

OP, a couple of things...

 

The 7 day time limit the seller told you for returns is exactly the same as the story they told you about the fuel crystalizing overnight, complete **bleep**. They are no different to many other businesses who only give minimal time limits for returns/refunds for faulty goods that were purchased new, they know full well that for items such as that bike, their legal obligation under Australian & NSW consumer guarantee laws to accept returns & either repair/replace/refund extends considerably longer than just one or two weeks.

 

They are merely trying to dupe uninformed buyers into believing those minimal time limits they give (along with also trying to bluff buyers like yourself with the bogus claim the item was damaged through misuse) They get away with this because it's technically not illegal of them to do so. Firstly, in the case of warranties they can say it's only 1hr to return if they wanted, and that's all you get, but warranties are voluntarily offered by suppliers/manufacturers so they can set the terms of it however they want (they can’t change those terms after the fact though). But warranties do not supercede statutory obligations regarding consumer guarantees, and the relevant government authority/laws set those terms.

 

Even so, under cg's the seller can still advertise any time limit they want no matter how unrealistic it may be, or how much BS it is in practice... simply because the cg regulations do not stipulate an actual time limit for accepting returns to repair/replace/refund, they merely state it's to be a 'reasonable' period of time. When push comes to shove the seller/manufacturer doesn't get to decide what constitutes a reasonable period of time, that decision is made by the relevant authority, or their inspectors. It is subjective and can differ considerably depending on the type of goods it is and/or the circumstances of the transaction & problem/fault, and who the seller/manufacturer is.

 

As Harley said, In NSW it's the NSW Dept of Fair Trading, and for a pocket bike purchased new from a business seller, you are most probably looking at between 30 - 90 days for returns for r/r/r. 30-60 days is what I would usually expect though. If the seller is/has been on FT's radar due to numerous complaints (and I can assure you a good many established B&M sellers of pocket bikes are very liable to be) you will find the FT inspectors will be very generous on the time limit in favour of the buyers. They don't usually feel too kindly towards repeat offenders that keep wasting FTs time because they keep trying to dodge their legal obligations by attempting to dupe their innocent victims (customers) out of their legal rights.

 

 As Harley suggested call the NSW Dept of Fair Trading (if you have not already done so) and lodge a complaint with them about the seller. Usually FT will simply give the seller a 'friendly' call to discuss the situation & more often than not... hey presto the seller will suddenly be only too happy to help you, & it will be sorted right away. They're just trying it on in the hope you don't know the score, it's just business... nothing personal (there's some huge retailers that do exactly the same)... but the moment FT calls they know the gigs up and you'll find that they can't make good fast enough. If they're a veteran seller of pocket bikes they'll know FTs next move is to have an inspector or two drop in on them for a 'chat' which 9 times out of 10 will also include an inspection looking (ie. knitpicking) for breeches, and @ a minimum of $500 per breech, well... let's just say a veteran seller knows it's in their best interest to avoid FT dropping in on them like that.

 

 


 OP, one thing I very much suggest, if at all possible do not accept a repaired pocket bike back... & only accept it back repaired if you've first contacted FT and they insist that's your only option. These bikes are notorious for having a high proportion of them prove to be lemons. and any fixes performed on them are often bandaid fixes that mask an inherant defect for a brief period only. This is because the cost of the bikes to the importer is so little that anything other than a bandaid/simple fix is almost certain to exceed the replacement cost of the bike for them.That doesn't mean though that they'll readily replace a faulty bike with a new one if they can help it, as the new one represents a $200 sale to them, whereas your used bike has little/no resale value to speak of for them. 

 

 These ($200) bikes arrive from China at a cost to a very large volume importer/seller of between $20 - $30 per bike (possibly less, it's been nearly 10 yrs since I last priced them by the 40' container load, so...). As the aboveThey are cheap AND nasty. The raw materials used are very low quality as are the production processes involved all along the line to produce the component parts & the finished product. Due to the poor quality of material & processes the steel/alloy components in particular very often contain defects (bubbles, stresses, hairline fractures, etc..), the machining is equally low quality, and quality control is virtually non existant through all stages of manufacture. Nothing is checked, nothing is tested (when you're talking about precision engine parts, a cursory glance with the naked eye to see if it roughly looks the right size/shape is not quality control). 

 

With pocket bikes, that old saying you get what you pay for is especially true.

 

Message 24 of 31
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Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements

Unfortunately no good news so far.

 

PayPal 'reviewed' my complaint and the response from the seller....and found in their favour, that the item was not misdescribed (which was my only avenue for complaint).

 

Dept of Fair Trading have contacted several phone numbers and emails for this seller, including the information I obtained from eBay...and have been completely ignored.

 

They believe the seller is not located within Australia (grrrrr) and as they cannot obtain any response they are also now not able to assist.

 

So again the seller has emailed me (gloating) suggesting I revise my feedback for a partial refund...to which I have advised I will do IF I actually receive a refund.

 

How incredibly wrong that a seller can behave in this way and eBay, PayPal allow them to continue trading.....and Dept of Fair Trading is unable to find them!

Message 25 of 31
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Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements

And where did you see this feed back info ? ,I'm sure poster didn't reviel the sellers ID  

Message 26 of 31
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Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements


@hotrodvideo wrote:

And where did you see this feed back info ? ,I'm sure poster didn't reviel the sellers ID  


Easy, look at OP's "feedback left for others", then click on the seller's id and have a glance at their collection of negs and revised feedback..................not pretty at all.

 

 

Hi stalks...............

______________________________________________________

"Start me up I'll never stop......"
Message 27 of 31
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Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements

Well to be honest, when I bought the bike there wasn't so many negatives that I saw...but granted I didn't look deeply enough.

 

eBay, PayPal and Dept of Fair Trading were all quite useless in assisting me with this. eBay palmed it to PayPal. Through PayPal the only option I had was to raise a 'misdescribed product' claim...which they found in favour of the dodgy seller.

 

The seller has come back to me smugly advising that they are trying to be reasonable and will send a partial refund if I revise my negative feedback.  I advised that I didn't have a lot of confidence that they would actually refund any monies even if I did revise my feedback...so agreed to do it once I received a refund.

 

The email I got back was....."you don't call the shots sorry.  It gets revised or your only option is to come and collect it"

 

Basically now knowing that I have already outlayed $207 for a dodgy bike, $50+ to return it to them ......I refuse to give in to them any further...so I reported them to eBay again for feedback extortion.

 

Now I'm getting emails from them asking if it was me that reported them.......so I reported that as harassment too.

 

It's not often I get this cranky...but I'm also considering small claims tribunal just to make a point. lol

Message 28 of 31
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Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements

girlpeta, you also have the option to leave follow-up feedback if the seller will not help you out, just keep it factual so that they can't get it removed.

 

To do it hover your mouse over "community" at the top of the page, then click on "feedback forum" and go from there, you can still do this even after a couple of years, but obviously it's more likely to be seen the sooner you do it.

 

Certainly do not revise your original feedback to them, as it's more than likely they will do absolutely nothing for you after it's revised.

______________________________________________________

"Start me up I'll never stop......"
Message 29 of 31
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Pocket Rocket with faulty carby...seller is making false technical statements


@girlpeta wrote:

Unfortunately no good news so far.

 

PayPal 'reviewed' my complaint and the response from the seller....and found in their favour, that the item was not misdescribed (which was my only avenue for complaint).

 

Dept of Fair Trading have contacted several phone numbers and emails for this seller, including the information I obtained from eBay...and have been completely ignored.

 

They believe the seller is not located within Australia (grrrrr) and as they cannot obtain any response they are also now not able to assist.

 

So again the seller has emailed me (gloating) suggesting I revise my feedback for a partial refund...to which I have advised I will do IF I actually receive a refund.

 

How incredibly wrong that a seller can behave in this way and eBay, PayPal allow them to continue trading.....and Dept of Fair Trading is unable to find them!


What a nightmare for you! The sellers listings say they are in Sydney. Is that where you sent the bike back to? Surely unless you sent it oversease, Fair Trading would be able to help?

 

I think they're a bit selective about who they help. We bought a new (second hand) car a few months back and the dealer offered a 2 year warranty with it. When the finance was arranged, my husband borrowed an extra $2,000 to cover exchange rego, insurance, all that other stuff you need, plus in case anything needed doing to it that wasn't revealed. The financier sent the full amount to the dealer.

 

The dealer said that when we picked the car up, they would give us a cheque for the difference. Banked the cheque and it bounced all the way around the country, multiple times. Called the dealer, who apologised profusely and asked for our bank details and he would do a bank transfer. We also asked about the paperwork for the warranty. He denied there was any warranty offered. Told him to check the ad on carsales. The ad had been taken down. What he didn't know was, I had taken a screenshot of the ad.

 

A week later, there was still no money deposited into my bank. Called multiple times, calls went unanswered. We suspected he could see it was my husbands number and was ignoring it. So, the next day he called from my phone and he answered. He demanded the money and the dealer said he would do it that afternoon. 2 weeks and multiple attempts at phone calls later, a call was made to Fair Trading. 

 

They got back to us a few days later and said there was nothing they could do as they couldn't contact the dealer. WHAT? You can't go to his car yard, or send a snail mail letter? NOPE! Useless sods! In the end, we threatened the dealer with the cops and he paid within 15 minutes.

 

Moral of the story, I don't have a lot of faith in Fair Trading any more.

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