I purchased a set of brake calipers for my 2003 Jaguar XKR, as the items for sale were labelled as 'BREMBO BRAKE SET UPGRADE - Jaguar XK8 XKR XJ8 XJR 1996-2006.
Also, they were sold as being in "Mint Condition".
The caliper was therefore purchased and paid for immediately. £400 + £40 P&P costs.
I could write pages on this saga, but instead, I'll try to keep it short as possible .......
- The seller informed me that they would be posted the next day.
- Two days later, I had to remind him that they should be with me by now, his reply "Sorry mate, I've been busy" ...... Hmmm, warning bells started to ring.
-When they do finally arrive, the contents inside the box 'rattles' !!
-Once the box was opened, there was absolutely no packaging at all, with scratches and marks everywhere on the calipers, so I took pictures and contacted the seller, not only about the damage encurred to 3 of the 4 calipers, but why he charged me £40 P&P costs, when the postage label showed an actual cost of £10.15.
- His feeble excuse was that he had sold them to a previous buyer, who had sent them back to him and he was so stupid, that he didn't even bother to check the contents of the box, but instead, sold them to me and posted them 'as they were'.
-He did apologise and admitted that it was his fault for not opening the box and checking before sending them to me.
- Regarding the postal charges, he said that he couldn't be bothered to walk them to the Post Office, so he had the Post Office collect them from his house, and charged him extra for that service, so passed the costs onto me. I did ask to see the Post Office receipt for the full costs, so I could see for myself, but he had conveniently 'lost the receipt'.
- I contacted a local specialist (who is a friend) and asked how much it would cost, to have the calipers re-sprayed, if I were to do all the work and strip them down in readiness for spraying. The cost would be £200 'mates rates'.
- I contaced the seller saying that I was prepared to go halves on the re-spraying costs, with me puting in all the time and effort in stripping them down, but I wanted a refund on the 'over charged' P&P charges, so requested a refund of £129.15, to which he moaned about me being 'passive agressive' and stealing money from him.
-After me telling him that it was all his fault completely, for not checking them first and also over-charging me for the P&P costs; this took over 3 days and many to-and-fro messages, he finally offered me a £70 refund (£40 for the spraying of one caliper and £30 for the P&P excess charges).
-I gave it some thought and being a bit of a 'soft touch' I told him that I would accept £50 (for spraying one caliper) and his £30 P&P excess charges.
-He agreed to this, saying that it was a very fair amount, that was after him accusing me of all kinds of things and severely complaining about the amount, after me requesting a £129.15 refund ..... Very strange .... More warning bells ringing.
- He then told me that he didn't have any money and could I wait until he sold something else, before he sent the refund, I stupidly agreed.
-When I remind him that the late repayment of the refund was overdue, he pleaded that he needed another week, unti he's paid, again, I stupidly agreed, thinking that even after the wait for the refund and the
refurbishing costs, I still had a reasonably priced set of Brembo brake calipers for my Jaguar.
-In the meantime, I took the calipers to my friend's workshop, to discuss the strip down procedures and spraying them, for the refurbishment process.
-At this point, he takes a good look at the calipers and informs me that they are actually for Jaguar S-Type R and a Jaguar XJR, will 100% not fit my Jaguar XKR.
-So I contact the seller and told him that he's sold me something that's been wrongly described and mis-sold, so would be opening a request to be fully refunded.
-I did open a request with ebay, but two days later, the request was closed by someone, I assume by the seller, and I am now in a position where I'm now out of pocket by £440, stuck with 4 bits of aluminium that won't fit may Jaguar and can't get a refund.
-I've since contacted the seller, saying that I've been extremely patient with him and given him the benefit of the doubt so many times ...... As expected, no reply.
-As a result of this, I've had no option but to give him a very negative feedback, explaining all the reasons why.
Any suggestions anyone ....... ?
