Should I file a paypal claim? Yes/No?

[GrandmaSideways]

So I bought a set of Ferrari wheels with racing slicks on eBay for a pretty fair price.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=270351557343

So they showed up, and better and worse than I had really honestly expected. I have mixed feelings.



YES! TRUE THREE PIECE WHEELS! Awesome!
However, there's no markings on them as to what they are. I'll scrub the back of one of the centers REALLY well and see what I come up with. Interestingly enough, the PCD marking is simply 'G' - There's a blank spot for the offset, and a blank spot for the wheel width. Hmmm.
Only hint as to origin is this:

Made in Japan is a good sign, and there's a stamp saying they're from 1985. This would put them around the time epsilons were made. They seem quite well built, and I'm not worrying about them bending like a 1980's taiwanese wheel or a newer, aftermarket chinese rim.

Also these wheels had stick on weights put on them rather than the usual over the edge weight. And then what looks like heat tape (like what you put on the joints in ductwork) was placed overtop.

The tires are a pair of 7 year old R3S03's in 225/50/16 - but they are cracking -

Not sure if they'd be safe to run. Might be okay, but... Yeah...

Other pair is a set of 5 year old R3S04... One is a 225/50/16, But the other... A 245/45/16

Great. 3 225/50/16's and one 245/45/16 - Fan freaking tastic. The ad said they were a 'set' of 245/45/16 which I took as meaning 245/45/16 all the way around, not three 225/50/16 and one orphan 245/45/16.


Also not sure about the life. He said they have 'a couple' races left in the original ad. But I'm not a racer, maybe someone here knows better?






Finally, I got a little hosed on shipping. He quoted me 'About $200' for shipping initially - then I found out fedex had them for less shipping cost, at $140 roughly. Well okay, great! So I forwarded the info. When the time to ship them came, fedex had jumped to $210 and UPS was down to $175 - huh? But whatever, told him to ship them via whatever was cheapest - Which he's now claiming was $229.xx -
I still have yet to pay him for shipping costs - But should I? I'm very tempted to open a paypal claim as the wheels are not really accurately represented. First of all, ceaveat emptor, I'm not worried about the condition, the overall condition is okay (though I have no idea how true the barrels are?) and I'm not too worried about that as for the price, even with the lack of photos, I wasn't too worried.
The dry cracking on the tires bugs me. Also, I'm not sure if I feel the tires truly do have 'a couple of track days' left in them. To me a couple is like, two. Maybe three. These look like they might last one and I'd be pushing it...
Finally - the pictures were cleverly taken. Only three of them have the ferrari domed caps stuck on them, and one is just yellow paint. LOL. And one of those domed caps is scuffed. One barrel has a tiny amount of curbage too, nothing worth worrying about.

I am thinking they might be only good for refinishing and then using them as winter tires on my 1993 Volvo turbo estate.

The ad:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270351557343&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&viewitem=

So what does everyone think? File a paypal claim?
Of course, I will first contact him, though I've not completely decided if I want to or not. He called me a few days ago on sunday asking for the shipping cost, but I hadn't yet received them and I told him that I had missed his email because I'd been dealing with a family tragedy. Which is true. That's why I picked them up 5 business days after they came to my door from the UPS shipping depot at the airport - I was in England and my girlfriend who hadn't known they were coming didn't want to pay UPS' outrageous brokerage fees, and told them I'd clear them through customs myself.
But does anyone know if I call UPS whether they'll tell me the actual price paid for shipping? If they were sent with USPS they'd have the exact cost right on the box...

anyways, I dunno what to do. I'm not overly upset about the purchase, but I'm not 100% satisfied.

Someone on another board I frequent told me to drop the shipping argument. In his words:
The actual shipping cost is only part of the equation -- shipping materials are far from cheap, plus time and effort to ship it out. No argument on shipping cost is likely to stand up unless its one of those $10 auctions for something tiny with $100 shipping, which isn't the case here.

-While this is true, At the same time, he said flat $200 shipping in a message and said he'd only charge me actual shipping costs. No handling. I also don't think he'd have any right to be upset about the final bid amount, since they went for over his reserve, so... you know. I'm not going to give in to a story about how I shouldn't be complaining because they were such a good deal, blah blah blah.
I'm not trying to shaft anyone but I also don't want to be grossly overcharged. and the wheels and tires were sorta' misrepresented.
He was really nice though in that he marked the wheels as $40 each - I only paid $10.xx in GST at Canada Customs. At the same time this would be a problem if one was lost or damaged in transit in terms of fighting UPS.

What I'll do is I'll email him tomorrow and politely ask for a discount on shipping, due to the expected cost being roughly ~40-45% more than expected and quoted before hand, the tires having some cracking going on, and being mismatched, and only one of the four being the correct size.
I need to call paypal tomorrow and ask if I should pay for shipping or hold off until after a dispute is finalized. I also need to take them to my tire guy tomorrow and get a solid answer on his thoughts about the cracking, and his thoughts on the true tread life remaining in a racing environment...

At the same time, taking everything into account, how much should I really ask for back? Opinions?

[GrandmaSideways]

Also, someone suggested that Those tires were over heated, & probably will have worse grip than a pair of regular street tires of the same size. Unless I get one of those tire prep discs to knock off the glaze.

[GO DAWG GO]

Grandma,

The only slight complaint you have is the missing stallion on one center cap. You assumed they all had one. It would be important to me, if I owned a Ferrari. Thats it, Period! The tires don't look too different than the original pictures and he didn't state the tires were "New". Also, your complaining about shipping...WTF...he stated it was your responsibility. Its incumbent upon you to always assume the worst and ask allot of questions up front.

I don't think you have a case... The pictures don't show 4 center hubs with horses...You just assumes the other one was their.... I agree you are left to assume its there.

I would ask to reimburse you for one used Ferrari center cap....

My 2 cents

Bob

[DasBoot]

Originally Posted by GrandmaSideways

I'm very tempted to open a paypal claim as the wheels are not really accurately represented.

From the auction: The wheels are in great shape....they just need a good wash...

The wheels were accurately represented. You do not have a claim.

[Dave L]

Originally Posted by DasBoot

From the auction: The wheels are in great shape....they just need a good wash...

The wheels were accurately represented. You do not have a claim.

+1.


THis is exactly the reason why I dont sell stuff on ebay. too many scammers.

[Tishabet]

I agree with DasBoot and Dave L.

Even if we thought you had a right to beef about the wheels, why wouldn't you speak with the seller rather than going to Paypal??

[KaptKaos]

If you are unhappy, send them back and ask for a full refund. I think asking for a discount at this point is problematic. If you want the wheels, keep them and pay the amount and chalk it up to a learning experience.

Good luck.

/quit following me dammit =)

[the]

A little bit of a mixed bag, I guess. The tires clearly were not the size the said they were, the ad says 245s and they are not all 245s.

But, me, personally, I would not have paid a penny extra for some junk used track tires, which is what I would have presumed them to be.

The whole thing was being sold as a set of track wheels, not concours or even "street car" condition. The pictures in the ad are obviously incomplete, but you apparently bid anyways without asking for more pictures.

Seems to me you got roughly what you bargained for - a set of track wheels and some junk used track tires.

He said roughly $200 shipping, then charged $229, big deal.

You only paid $380 for the whole mess, what kind of a "discount" are you looking for? $50? $100? That's really worth your time and energy? You got roughly what you paid for, just move on.

[fingpilot]

I have filed an eBay and a PayPal claim before.

Complete waste of time. Both cases, there was no money. Once the money has been delivered to the seller, it is gone.

You have to understand that any transaction on evilBay (I have a perfect feedback with over 700 items) is a crapshoot. I try to ACCURATELY represent everything, even going conservative on descriptions and overdoing the pictures.

All I can hope for is no surprises.

Don't waste your time on claims. The one that I filed I got a letter saying PayPal had investigated the claim and I was completely correct about the seller (I never got the item ordered). They said (after 6 months investigating) that the $170. I had paid, and they had delivered was gone, and nothing was left to collect back on my claim.

Sorry.

[rnln]

if you are legitimate... and don't want the wheels/tires as they are not as he decribed, talk to him. If you told him to use any shipping company which is cheapest, why not pay him now after he shipped? The high price might be because it's high at that time when he shipped, and can be because he added insurance or tracking and such.
I think he's a nice guy for shipping the wheels/tires even before you pay him in full. You have the right to ask him for discount if there is a reason. Not paying him now, or turn to Paypal is not cool.

[Arizona_928]

I would at least contact him about the tire sizes not being all the same, that is totally misleading. And as bob put it with the horse.
I would politly ask for a discount after mentioning the items above. As a sort of win-win, so you don't ship them back for his bending the truth on the tires, and he still keeps his money minus, $30 or so dollars for the problems. btw i can see this get pretty ugly really fast, so keep your cool and be polite.

[nynor]

you can file a claim. i worked in ebay fraud for a while. however, unless the wheels/tires are worth less than you paid, you cannot claim a loss. they may be misrepresented, but it is not fraud, exactly, unless you can demonstrate that you have suffered a loss.

[911pcars]

If a seller requires PayPal payment for a big ticket item (you decide the "bigness"), use your credit card to pay via PayPal. That way, you can request a charge back should the item not be represented accurately.

if this is a direct PayPal purchase from your account, you still get a refund, but PayPal requires both parties to jump through some hoops (e.g. communicate to each other) before continuing.

One important thing for all purchase returns. Insure the return package, maybe even require a signature of receipt. That way, the seller can't claim they didn't receive it.

Sherwood

[Don Plumley]

The tires are seven years old. You shouldn't take them to the track, so big deal if one size is off. You got a fine price on the rims, the shipping expense was 15% off - seems to me to you should be happy with what you have and focus your energy on something else.