Craigslist items not as advertised - can anything be done?
 

Hello,

I bought a set of wheels and tires from craigslist a while ago (style 230's for 3 series coupe) and at first the seller claimed the tires had good tread but upon inspection almost all the tread was worn. I still ended up buying it for a lower price then advertised but after replacing tires on them I noticed that the front passenger tire had been leaking air, and after having it inspected it turns out the rim is cracked as well.

It's happened before where I previously bought wheels/tires and they turned out cracked/bent or patched when they claimed they weren't, and of those times I've just left it and fixed it myself, thinking its my fault for risking buying on CL and not getting it inspected prior. But I was just wondering if anything can be done when people falsely advertise their items condition

Thanks

I think you're pretty much SOL.. That's what sucks about CL unfortunately

Yeah that's what I've figured. I might as well just pay extra for new rims and tires next time to not always go through this trouble, as its not really worth the risk

The seller prob looks like the guy in your avatar.

Caveat Emptor

You said it.

If you can prove the seller knowingly provided false information in the ad, that's considered fraud and you could try and take the person to small claims court.

But... that's a lot of work and you'd have to decide if it's worth your time, with no guarantee of actually winning your case if you fail to prove it.

Buying on craigslist comes with a degree of risk. Win some, lose some.

Dealing with scummy liars is just part of dealing with CL. Hate to say it but unless you have the time/money to take buddy to court - where you must prove that buddy had A) prior knowledge of the issues and B) actively misrepresented the items despite knowing they were damaged... a lot easier said than done, believe me.

Don't like it, buy new or from a reputable business. Hell, even buying from EBay is safer as you are given plenty of options for recourse as well as the ability to ruin someone's reputation as a seller/buyer if recourse is not enough...

CL is as-is man.

Inspect it hard before you buy, or else you get hooped.
Thus why it's always "buyer-beware"

i've bought some wack shit before...really not much that can be done

it's pretty damn near impossible to prove a seller had prior knowledge, i know of some people who mainly use CL to flip shit for a small profit and pretty much sell off everything they buy right away.

on the flip side, i sold my old psp a few years ago for a bargain price as i wasn't using it (probably used it like 10 times out of the box after owning it for a few months). Let the guy test it for a while. Thing was mint (i probably should've kept it lol).
guy who bought it messages me back like 3 weeks later and said shit wasn't working and demanded refund. Spammed me with messages for while and i'm just like...seriously, hire a fucking shrink and bitch about it.
So there are morons out there on the buyer side as well.

I sold mey set of stock Stagea wheels to some kid on CL, because the offset and bolt pattern worked for his application. But Nissan has an annoying 1mm centre bore difference from other companies with the same bolt pattern, so they didn't quite fit. This kid should have figured this out prior but he begged me to take them back. I could have easily said "F off" but I could tell he woulda been screwed so I took em back. Still annoyed as hell though, wasted a bunch of my time.

Bottom line, research and inspect when buying on CL. End of story.

What do you mean "can anything be done about it"?? You are dealing with random people and buying things at your very own discretion. What do you think maybe there is a Craiglist police patrol or something? People are fuckhead bastards sometimes. Such as nature. I DO feel for you.

Have you ever heard the expression "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me"? How could you allow yourself to be fooled twice? You as most people need to learn from their mistakes. Never buy a flat wheel tire combo from someone without knowing why its flat.....
Tip for anyone reading this when they go to buy wheel tire packages used. take a spray bottle of soapy water. spray the wheel down and look for rapidly growing bubbles. That indicates a leak.

So what was he trying to put them on? I'm guessing he was a 66mm and the wheels were 67mm.

Yup. Can't remember the car but that's what it was.

i bought 4 rims and tires from CL before. found out that 2 of them were not perfectly straight. found out the hard way, spent an additional 600 @ greens to get it fixed.


from that experience, i meet sellers at tire shops now so i can spin the tires first.

For buying used wheels, I'd take them to a shop to get them balanced. Worth the peace of mind. Unless it's your buddy then I'd take their word for it.