Romini off eBay had too many faults :(

[Sobby 2711]

Just travelled to pick up the Romini. Was very disappointed with the condition of it as on ebay it said it was in excellent order.
The body work was damaged and chipped in parts, and the bumper looked like it was not the original and was badly damaged in parts. The seats were all damp underneath, the fibreglass had been mended under the seat, lights were broken and stuck on with tape and no door window. Wheels needed replacing.
Just too much for me to do. I'm sure it will be great for a DIY person.
Luckily it was only an hour's drive away. Lovely man who was selling it and jIf Ihas known about all the faults I would not have bid on it. He said he will probably keep it and do it up and sell it at a later date. I know it is an old caravan but I expected it to be in as good condition as the other one I bought after reading the description on eBay.

[pamsicle]

Romini

Just travelled to pick up the Romini. Was very disappointed with the condition of it as on ebay it said it was in excellent order.
The body work was damaged and chipped in parts, and the bumper looked like it was not the original and was badly damaged in parts. The seats were all damp underneath, the fibreglass had been mended under the seat, lights were broken and stuck on with tape and no door window. Wheels needed replacing.
Just too much for me to do. I'm sure it will be great for a DIY person.
Luckily it was only an hour's drive away. Lovely man who was selling it and jIf Ihas known about all the faults I would not have bid on it. He said he will probably keep it and do it up and sell it at a later date. I know it is an old caravan but I expected it to be in as good condition as the other one I bought after reading the description on eBay.

What a shame. But at least you didn't have to pay. Obviously the seller wasn't too good in the description area. But there are others with ypur name on out there Pam

[Twolitre]

Just travelled to pick up the Romini. Was very disappointed with the condition of it as on ebay it said it was in excellent order.
The body work was damaged and chipped in parts, and the bumper looked like it was not the original and was badly damaged in parts. The seats were all damp underneath, the fibreglass had been mended under the seat, lights were broken and stuck on with tape and no door window. Wheels needed replacing.
Just too much for me to do. I'm sure it will be great for a DIY person.
Luckily it was only an hour's drive away. Lovely man who was selling it and jIf Ihas known about all the faults I would not have bid on it. He said he will probably keep it and do it up and sell it at a later date. I know it is an old caravan but I expected it to be in as good condition as the other one I bought after reading the description on eBay.

Such a pity Sobby. The "lovely" man must have known he was mis-describing it though.
Fortunate though that you were able to rescind your bid without a long and unpleasant fight.
Better luck next time! I'm getting sure there WILL be a next time.
Jim.

[Sobby 2711]

It was a pity, just hope he doesn't leave me negative feedback I don't think he will as he was okay about it. He said it had been used for fishing, yes it looked like it.
Anyway a trip out to see the view of Wales...
I am so honest on my listing. I'm selling my mobile home at the moment on eBay and have mentioned everything.
OH was quite relieved. My sister won't be when I tell her
maybe one Romini is enough and I will look out for a Fisher Holivan I can do up instead

[jayjay]

I would have gone and looked at it before I bid on it if it was only an hour's drive away. However, at least you did walk away! That is said in retrospect as I did go and look at the Kip caravan I bought and couldn't see anything wrong with it, so I bought it...

The faults with my caravan only became apparant after I had paid for it and brought it home. (actually when it rained... ) I've since paid out in excess of £600 putting it right over the past two years, so you were right to refuse it. I contacted the bloke who sold me mine and he wouldn't give an inch!

The mobile engineer who came out to mine would rather have made out a report so that I could take the guy to court. However, I kept the van, paid him to make it safe (new gas pipes, new electrics, new spare tyre, and installing a fridge) and all (well nearly all!) is well now. It was an expensive mistake on my part.

[Twolitre]

It was a pity, just hope he doesn't leave me negative feedback I don't think he will as he was okay about it. He said it had been used for fishing, yes it looked like it.
Anyway a trip out to see the view of Wales...
I am so honest on my listing. I'm selling my mobile home at the moment on eBay and have mentioned everything.
OH was quite relieved. My sister won't be when I tell her
maybe one Romini is enough and I will look out for a Fisher Holivan I can do up instead

I got caught once, buying a Ford Escort Cabriolet on ebay. Like your purchase only about an hour away in Stoke.
I was not happy when I collected it, but it was obvious I was going to have a battle with the seller so I took it home. I was even less happy with it when I got home!
The car was for my wife and she only drove it once and would have no more to do with it.
Luckily, with my experience and abilities as a motor mechanic and a fair amount of time I was able to remedy the problems with little expense, though my wife refused to even drive it again.
I put it back on ebay and sold it for about the same as I had paid, so really all I wasted was my time and effort. But I will never again buy anything with more than one zero in the price without inspection. Which really means nearby.
Hindsight the hard way!
Jim.

[Tentpeg]

Sorry but I think ebay is a dreadful medium for buying a car/motorhome... more like a car auction UNLESS you have good mechanical knowledge and can see the vehicle beforehand.

Personally if I bought privately I would use the RAC/AA service designed to check out the vehicle before I bought it and make it a condition of sale that this had been done before the deal was finalised. Ebay it is not practical to do this at all! Then you would need to do the checks to make sure there is no finance deals on the vehicle concerned.

If I was buying a caravan I would go armed with a damp metre and somebody that knew how to use it!

Okay I know there are some of you out there that got bargins but for every one person with a bargin there are 5 others with disappointments it seems to me! Only gamble with what you can afford to lose and generally big purchases like cars do not fall into this bracket. Other way to do it is to pay a mechanic to come with you to view it.

[NomadSue]

Sorry but I think ebay is a dreadful medium for buying a car/motorhome... more like a car auction UNLESS you have good mechanical knowledge and can see the vehicle beforehand.

Personally if I bought privately I would use the RAC/AA service designed to check out the vehicle before I bought it and make it a condition of sale that this had been done before the deal was finalised. Ebay it is not practical to do this at all! Then you would need to do the checks to make sure there is no finance deals on the vehicle concerned.

Absolutely right! The AA do a background check on the vehicle as well, to make sure it is not 'hot'.
I was in the process of negotations with the vendor of a beautiful-looking car a year or two ago, but, strangely, he failed to make it available at the appointed time for its AA inspection, and then informed me, that, 'much to his surprise' , something major had suddenly failed when he was out on the road with the vehicle. Ok, I was out of pocket for the price of the (not made) AA vehicle inspection, but consider I got off quite lightly.

Just goes to show, once again, one shouldn't judge anything or anyone just by appearances.

[Twolitre]

I did do a history check on the car I bought on ebay, but my error was lack of any prior mechanical inspection. Always well advised too for most people.
However my technical qualifications probably far exceed those held by any RAC or AA inspector and I have in the past carried out formal inspections for other parties where there has been a dispute between buyer and seller.
Always with the disputes settled in line with my reports supported by my formal qualifications.
Jim.

[Donk's Dad]

I have bought two vehicles on e bay both with no problems.

One was a Rav-4 for my wife. We caught a coach from Dover to Victoria then another to Stansted. We stayed overnight in an hotel then flew up to Newcastle the next morning. The Man picked us up from the airport and took us back to his house. We paid the money and exchanged documents and we drove it back to Kent. I looked under the bonnet the next day...!
I knew from all of the correspondence, telephone calls and how the man and his wife was that everything was OK and how it should be.

The second was my Suzuki pick up (Donk) We flew up to Manchester from our local airport Manston and met the man at the airport. Paid the money and exchanged documents and drove it back to Kent. He had even taxed it for us and we paid for that on collection.

If it has been missadvertised and you are not 100% sure you can always walk away and not buy it. eBay will sort it out under their claims sysyem. Bad feedback is better than loosing money. But there are a lot of genuine people on eBay (my feedback is 100% and i have a score of over 1600)

[Vanderella]

But there are a lot of genuine people on eBay (my feedback is 100% and i have a score of over 1600)

I second that! There are lots of really lovely genuine people on Ebay. Sometimes you just know that the deal is going to be good Our feed back is 100% and 9000+!! (Beat that!!)

[Sobby 2711]

Wow Mary that's fab feedback, I have bought loads of eBay and only had a problem three times since i started right in the early days of ebay. I have bought two cars and othe were fine.

[Donk's Dad]

what do you sell Mary?

[Sobby 2711]

Bet Mary sells Rominis

[Tentpeg]

Of course there are a lot of decent people on ebay but there are also a sound sprinkling of crooks. If you have dodgy merchandice it is much easier to shift it via an auction situation... it is buyer beware in capitals.

There are plenty of stories on here and on other forums that have ended up with expensive disasters! You need to be mechanically aware or have somebody with you in such a situation.