Brompton Purchase woe.
Discussion
So I’ve been looking for a Brompton for a while now but don’t fancy paying the inflated prices for one. Yesterday a ropey one appeared on FB - £450 for an M3L with rust, flat tyres, broken chain and a general tired look. Not a problem I thought, I can spend a bit of time servicing it and polishing the thing, or replace worn parts. Either way, it should work out over the long term.
I contacted the seller and we agreed £400 collected the same day. Oddly the seller claimed to be at work and set a rendezvous for 7pm. Odd because it would be dark then and I wouldn’t be able to properly inspect. Not a problem I thought, It needs work whether I inspect day or night. Second oddity - he asked for my telephone number but didn’t give me his even though I’d asked. 3rd oddity, he just gave me a postcode to the rendezvous, no house number. Again I wasn’t concerned - the bike was ropey and needed work. The seller, a young white guy in the picture, had good feedback, so I set off.
To cut a long story short - I had to travel 2 hours across London for the meet, traffic was horrendous, and luckily I don’t read messages on my phone when I’m driving. Had I done so I would have picked up the message changing the rendezvous point - an address around the corner with a postcode and house number.
Arriving at the first rendezvous postcode, I was startled to see a police car parked at the exact spot. Not good I thought, so I drove on parked and checked my phone for messages. Then I drove to the second address, which appeared to be an HMO (bedsit type place) - 2 guys were chatting to a woman at the door and appeared to be waiting for someone. Spooked again, I chose to drive on and announced my arrival from a distance so as to see who would come out of the house. No one. The guys had gone into the property, but they weren’t coming out even though I’d announced my arrival. Where was the guy in the Facebook profile I wondered - what was going on? Why are they not coming out of the house to meet me?
At that point I decided to leave it. He kept on messaging, even claiming that he was now outside waiting for me. Are you the guy from the Facebook ad, I asked. Silence....
I had the £400 cash on me and was actually going to be meeting a couple of guys that were not as per the Facebook bio. I don’t believe there was any bike for sale - I would simply have been robbed on the spot, who knows what else would have happened. All because I wanted a Brompton project at a decent price.
I contacted the seller and we agreed £400 collected the same day. Oddly the seller claimed to be at work and set a rendezvous for 7pm. Odd because it would be dark then and I wouldn’t be able to properly inspect. Not a problem I thought, It needs work whether I inspect day or night. Second oddity - he asked for my telephone number but didn’t give me his even though I’d asked. 3rd oddity, he just gave me a postcode to the rendezvous, no house number. Again I wasn’t concerned - the bike was ropey and needed work. The seller, a young white guy in the picture, had good feedback, so I set off.
To cut a long story short - I had to travel 2 hours across London for the meet, traffic was horrendous, and luckily I don’t read messages on my phone when I’m driving. Had I done so I would have picked up the message changing the rendezvous point - an address around the corner with a postcode and house number.
Arriving at the first rendezvous postcode, I was startled to see a police car parked at the exact spot. Not good I thought, so I drove on parked and checked my phone for messages. Then I drove to the second address, which appeared to be an HMO (bedsit type place) - 2 guys were chatting to a woman at the door and appeared to be waiting for someone. Spooked again, I chose to drive on and announced my arrival from a distance so as to see who would come out of the house. No one. The guys had gone into the property, but they weren’t coming out even though I’d announced my arrival. Where was the guy in the Facebook profile I wondered - what was going on? Why are they not coming out of the house to meet me?
At that point I decided to leave it. He kept on messaging, even claiming that he was now outside waiting for me. Are you the guy from the Facebook ad, I asked. Silence....
I had the £400 cash on me and was actually going to be meeting a couple of guys that were not as per the Facebook bio. I don’t believe there was any bike for sale - I would simply have been robbed on the spot, who knows what else would have happened. All because I wanted a Brompton project at a decent price.
maz8062 said:
So I’ve been looking for a Brompton for a while now but don’t fancy paying the inflated prices for one. Yesterday a ropey one appeared on FB - £450 for an M3L with rust, flat tyres, broken chain and a general tired look. Not a problem I thought, I can spend a bit of time servicing it and polishing the thing, or replace worn parts. Either way, it should work out over the long term.
Inflated prices? How often do you see Bromptons discounted? Hardly ever. Why do you think that is?
I bought mine on CTW scheme and it paid for its self three times over. IMO they are incredibly well built an as far as folding bikes go, they are simply the best there is. Fold is far better than the Terns/Dahons. However the Terns/Dahons do ride better have superior v-brakes. Saying that my Brompton is equipped with standard brakes and swisstop pads and it stops pretty well.
Also you complain about the 'inflated prices'. Have you considered the money they will save you vs using the tube or train? Even when I factor in a few new wheels/tyres/servicing, its still saved me a lot of money.
My brother “Won” a car on EBay which I said I’d collect. I turned up and there was no car just a Lithuanian gang who hit me round the head with an iron bar.
Fractured my skull, lost an eye, broken leg, broke jaw in 5 places, ear ripped off and took the cash £4500.
I was on life support for 3 days, intensive care for 2 weeks.
It was recreated for national TV (crimewatch)
So it does happen.
Fractured my skull, lost an eye, broken leg, broke jaw in 5 places, ear ripped off and took the cash £4500.
I was on life support for 3 days, intensive care for 2 weeks.
It was recreated for national TV (crimewatch)
So it does happen.
Thankyou4calling said:
My brother “Won” a car on EBay which I said I’d collect. I turned up and there was no car just a Lithuanian gang who hit me round the head with an iron bar.
Fractured my skull, lost an eye, broken leg, broke jaw in 5 places, ear ripped off and took the cash £4500.
I was on life support for 3 days, intensive care for 2 weeks.
It was recreated for national TV (crimewatch)
So it does happen.
Fractured my skull, lost an eye, broken leg, broke jaw in 5 places, ear ripped off and took the cash £4500.
I was on life support for 3 days, intensive care for 2 weeks.
It was recreated for national TV (crimewatch)
So it does happen.
Thankyou4calling said:
My brother “Won” a car on EBay which I said I’d collect. I turned up and there was no car just a Lithuanian gang who hit me round the head with an iron bar.
Fractured my skull, lost an eye, broken leg, broke jaw in 5 places, ear ripped off and took the cash £4500.
I was on life support for 3 days, intensive care for 2 weeks.
It was recreated for national TV (crimewatch)
So it does happen.
Thank you my brother for pointing out the serious issue that I was trying to highlight here. I really feel for you. I’m sorry that this happened to you because I can understand how folk can get caught out by these crooks.Fractured my skull, lost an eye, broken leg, broke jaw in 5 places, ear ripped off and took the cash £4500.
I was on life support for 3 days, intensive care for 2 weeks.
It was recreated for national TV (crimewatch)
So it does happen.
My reason for starting this thread was partly to warn folk to be vigilant about the risks out there, but also as a form of therapy for myself. I honestly think I dodged a bullet on that day. Had I turned up on foot, alone, expecting to pay for the bike, fold it and return to NE London by tube, they would have spotted me as I arrived, weighed up the risks from their perspective and then robbed me - at gun point, knife point or whatever. The £400 cash that I had on me might have been enough, or they could have gone further - who knows.
These chaps - a couple of young black guys in their late teens, early 20’s, had gone to the trouble of setting up a FB account. They’d managed to chalk up 12 feedback scores and posted a picture of a white male aged between late 20’s, early 30’s as their profile picture. They then advertised a bike that needed work, a project, so the price of £450 although slightly cheap, was not that cheap as to be suspicious. I budgeted £100 plus a few hours of polishing, cleaning and general maintenance of the bike and was up for the challenge. I did not suspect anything.
But there was no bike. It was a trap, to lure me to a meeting point and then rob me of the cash that I intended using to pay for the bike that I thought I was buying.
On that day I was very lucky. Firstly, seeing the police car at the first rendezvous point helped me to focus and approach the whole thing with caution - in my mind it was a sign. Secondly, seeing a couple of young lads - lads that didn’t look anything like the FB bio, hanging outside the second address and the disappearing, and the address being a bedsit/HMO type address, made me even more suspicious. Then they wouldn’t come out when I’d said I had arrived - presumably because they wanted to weigh me up before doing the deed.
This is just a cautionary tale. Folk can attack the thread, me, or go down the rabbit hole of wasting energy on the mere mention of race, but it is not about that - it’s about sharing experiences and making sure that what happened to this kind soul does not happen to you.
Facebook show how long someone's been a member for so I immediately discount anyone who hasn't been on it for under a year, I've also regularly noticed on sales pages that some sellers use their other half profile to sell the parts, I find this odd and wonder if it's perhaps because they are a trader in disguise or they think that they may have more luck with selling if it looks like it's a female selling the part?
maz8062 said:
This is just a cautionary tale. Folk can attack the thread, me, or go down the rabbit hole of wasting energy on the mere mention of race, but it is not about that - it’s about sharing experiences and making sure that what happened to this kind soul does not happen to you.
The same accusations were levelled at people on here who had experienced the Romanian oil scam first hand whilst selling their cars, it was only when it made the headlines of national newspapers a couple of years later that a few of the prolific posters on here finally comprehended that it wasn't multiple people making up the same story.maz8062 said:
Thank you my brother for pointing out the serious issue that I was trying to highlight here. I really feel for you. I’m sorry that this happened to you because I can understand how folk can get caught out by these crooks.
My reason for starting this thread was partly to warn folk to be vigilant about the risks out there, but also as a form of therapy for myself. I honestly think I dodged a bullet on that day. Had I turned up on foot, alone, expecting to pay for the bike, fold it and return to NE London by tube, they would have spotted me as I arrived, weighed up the risks from their perspective and then robbed me - at gun point, knife point or whatever. The £400 cash that I had on me might have been enough, or they could have gone further - who knows.
These chaps - a couple of young black guys in their late teens, early 20’s, had gone to the trouble of setting up a FB account. They’d managed to chalk up 12 feedback scores and posted a picture of a white male aged between late 20’s, early 30’s as their profile picture. They then advertised a bike that needed work, a project, so the price of £450 although slightly cheap, was not that cheap as to be suspicious. I budgeted £100 plus a few hours of polishing, cleaning and general maintenance of the bike and was up for the challenge. I did not suspect anything.
But there was no bike. It was a trap, to lure me to a meeting point and then rob me of the cash that I intended using to pay for the bike that I thought I was buying.
On that day I was very lucky. Firstly, seeing the police car at the first rendezvous point helped me to focus and approach the whole thing with caution - in my mind it was a sign. Secondly, seeing a couple of young lads - lads that didn’t look anything like the FB bio, hanging outside the second address and the disappearing, and the address being a bedsit/HMO type address, made me even more suspicious. Then they wouldn’t come out when I’d said I had arrived - presumably because they wanted to weigh me up before doing the deed.
This is just a cautionary tale. Folk can attack the thread, me, or go down the rabbit hole of wasting energy on the mere mention of race, but it is not about that - it’s about sharing experiences and making sure that what happened to this kind soul does not happen to you.
Why mention their race then if you want to avoid the rabbit hole that people quite rightly go down as it's irrelevant to your warning! The lession I've learnt here, PH should introduce a post word count limit.My reason for starting this thread was partly to warn folk to be vigilant about the risks out there, but also as a form of therapy for myself. I honestly think I dodged a bullet on that day. Had I turned up on foot, alone, expecting to pay for the bike, fold it and return to NE London by tube, they would have spotted me as I arrived, weighed up the risks from their perspective and then robbed me - at gun point, knife point or whatever. The £400 cash that I had on me might have been enough, or they could have gone further - who knows.
These chaps - a couple of young black guys in their late teens, early 20’s, had gone to the trouble of setting up a FB account. They’d managed to chalk up 12 feedback scores and posted a picture of a white male aged between late 20’s, early 30’s as their profile picture. They then advertised a bike that needed work, a project, so the price of £450 although slightly cheap, was not that cheap as to be suspicious. I budgeted £100 plus a few hours of polishing, cleaning and general maintenance of the bike and was up for the challenge. I did not suspect anything.
But there was no bike. It was a trap, to lure me to a meeting point and then rob me of the cash that I intended using to pay for the bike that I thought I was buying.
On that day I was very lucky. Firstly, seeing the police car at the first rendezvous point helped me to focus and approach the whole thing with caution - in my mind it was a sign. Secondly, seeing a couple of young lads - lads that didn’t look anything like the FB bio, hanging outside the second address and the disappearing, and the address being a bedsit/HMO type address, made me even more suspicious. Then they wouldn’t come out when I’d said I had arrived - presumably because they wanted to weigh me up before doing the deed.
This is just a cautionary tale. Folk can attack the thread, me, or go down the rabbit hole of wasting energy on the mere mention of race, but it is not about that - it’s about sharing experiences and making sure that what happened to this kind soul does not happen to you.
AyBee said:
Why take cash in this day and age? Easy enough to do a bank transfer.
Good point, but how much would you transfer if you had a gun at your head or a knife at your throat?As for the comment about introducing race - it was fundamental to the story. If the profile picture was that of a black guy, I’d know I was meeting a black guy - if a white guy then turned up with a mate and without the bike, under the same scenario, I would have been equally cautious.
You know, I was still keen to see how things played out, and still wanted the bike, but only from a distance. Had the chap stood on the street near the address, holding the bike as advertised, I would more than likely had met him. It was the fact that he didn’t come out, there was no bike, and I couldn’t figure out whether the whole thing was legit.
Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff