Caveat Emptor!

A salutary lesson in trust, honour and integrity.

I have, of late, been casually looking for a T3 900 Daytona to add to my 'collection' and during my regular searches happened on the perfect bike - yellow, 900 Daytona, good condition, and a reasonable 'classified ad.' price/make offer on ebay. So, I made some enquiries via email with a number of questions about the bike. All of my questions were answered and the bike sounded good so I made an offer and got the following response:-

Morning Adrian and thank you for the offer. Since our initial communication I have received two verbal offers, both are the asking price of £2250. One of the potential buyers has requested a viewing this afternoon. I will obviously let you know if he turns up and the result of the viewing. Adrian, you made first contact, so have first refusal. If you can meet the other offers of £2250, I will happily sell to you. Please feel free to call me anytime today (Jack has requested a viewing at 1400hrs this afternoon) Respectfully, Will

My italicisation/enlargement to emphasise the point.

I immediately responded by text message and asked to speak to the seller - my plan being to confirm, as quickly as possible, that I would meet the asking price, take up the 'first refusal' offer and aim to find out how best to make payment and collect the bike. The seller responded to my text and agreed to take my phone call - his text read :-

"Morning Adrian - Yes - Free now - Please call when ready"

I made a number of attempts to call him and every one was rejected so I texted to say that I couldn't get through and ask if he was available to speak. His response :-

"Hi Adrian - Call you back asap"
"Call you back asap"

I then waited ........ and waited ........... and waited. It shouldn't be at all difficult to imagine how and what I was feeling.

I sent several texts asking if he was available and stating that I really did want that 'first refusal' commitment that I'd been offered.

Well, you can, of course, guess the outcome. I got a text at 16:14 saying that

".... the guy from Camberwell turned up on my doorstep this morning with cash - Really sorry, but the Daytona is now sold ...."

When I was a child I was a wolf cub then a boy scout, and a fundamental tenet of being a part of the organisation was integrity. I went to a very old fashioned grammar school where pupils were divided into 'houses' - Spartans; Romans; Etruscans etc., the idea being to add history, structure and principles - like honour; integrity and ethics - into everyday life in school. They helped shape a view of how to treat your fellow pupils, whether or not they were your friends, and how they would/should treat you. It helped instill notions and perceptions of honourable behaviour, respect and ideas such as an Englishman's word being his bond. Old fashioned now, but outdated? I don't think so.

A number of things really hurt about this whole episode, not least that I'd missed out on a very good bike at a very good price. But it was the manner in which I'd missed out that was most distasteful. I would have found it so much easier to accept if I hadn't been spontaneously OFFERED that 'first refusal' - I hadn't asked for it and wouldn't have even known if I hadn't been told!! But, to have had that offered and then been deliberately reneged and ignored suggests that the other interested party had, perhaps, called and said "I'm only a few minutes away, I'll be around in 10 minutes with the cash .... and a bit extra!"? Perhaps. I guess there really is no honour among thieves.

The seller still has a black Daytona 1200 so, who knows, he might pop up on here one day and get to read this? I hope so. It won't make things any better for me, personally, but perhaps others will remember it and realise he's a hypocritical, mealy-mouthed, deceitful, dishonourable lying git.

So, for the seller - 'WILL' of WEST WICKHAM (ebay seller "fivesargents") - I kind of hope your conscience plagues you for a very long time and that the old adage of "what goes around, comes around" proves itself to be the eternally bitter aftertaste of your sweet deal.

 

Thanks Dougie. I think you're absolutely right about the seller's lack of conscience. I guess I'm going to have to rely on the whole 'karma' thing to kick in at some point in this man's life. For their sake I sincerely hope it affects only him and not his poor, innocent family.

Good point Mrs. V - especially as it's 200 miles away. But, and part of the whole point, I had resolved to pay the asking price, collect the bike and live with my decision ..... good or bad; right or wrong. The seller had even suggested it would be cheaper and easier for me to 'ride it home' rather than get a 'man-and-van type deal!

Thanks Oldskool. Yes, I understand the 'meant to happen' philosophy and I'm trying to accept that with some (if not much) equanimity! I could live with the episode more easily if the seller had been more honest and more .... I want to say 'honourable' ......... but I can't put the two words "seller" and "honourable" in the same sentence without getting a very bitter tatse in my stomach right now! I do hope the right one will come along - even though it IS very much a "discretionary" purchase. The problem is that this one had very low miles (<10k) and there really aren't going to be many left like that any more.

Hi Sandi. Many thanks for that. I think you are absolutely,100% spot-on about the perception that the "me first/me only" behavio(u)r is more prevalent these days. Society does change, of course, and I'm sure that nobody would expect that all of the kind of societal "norms" of, say, the '30s; '40s or even '50s would be practical today.

But, that said, I do think that basic principles such as honour, respect, integrity and honesty stand to serve and to benefit everybody in society. I have to wonder what Will teaches his children - and how HE would feel if his next door neighbour's kids treated his kids in the way he treated me?

Guess I'm old AND old fashioned!! Live and learn?

 

Thanks Wayne. Yes, strange though it may sound, I WOULD 'want' to give my cash to him. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I'd still (even now!) be willing to give the cash to him for one important reason - to me, what he was selling was worth the price he was asking! I would have happily paid that much sight unseen - and was actually going to do so on the strength of his replies to my questions - and lived with both good and/or bad consequences. If he'd wanted more he should have researched the market and asked for more. If he'd wanted to risk getting the highest possible price he could have listed it in an ebay auction rather than classified but, clearly, he wanted the certainty of being paid and, perhaps, ratcheting the price once he had two or more interested parties.

No honour among thieves?

Thank you SO much for your kind words, Wim. I'm not sure that I deserve the epithet 'gentleman', however! But, I'll take it with pride and gratitude.

I can't help but feel it will be little short of a miracle for another opportunity like this one to come up any time soon - certainly not at the price he was asking - so I have to doubt that this "loss" (you can't really lose what you never really had, I suppose!) is for the best ....... for me at least.

I do have to admit that it is very much a 'first world problem' - I already have 5 T3s so I can imagine people saying "WTF is HE moaning about? He's got more bikes than anyone could ever need and is crying about not having been able or allowed to buy another! Whingeing old git!" But, a huge part of the whole posting (quite apart from the catharsis) was to emphasise what I personally perceive to be a real societal issue and, perhaps, warn others in case Will ever comes onto the forum to sell stuff. Long shot, I know and, perhaps, self-reinforcing behaviour on my part?

Thanks Daniel - that's all sound advice and very well put.

In some way I guess I was looking for some release of a pent-up frustration built following the epsiode - 'venting'?

It would be nice to think that something will actually come along and be as good or even better is nice and re-assuring, but more than a little unlikely. Still - hope and expectation, and all that! If there's one out there, then there could be others, right?