Doing something about E-Bay/Gumtree/Brick Lane

[odieboo]

Search on the seller's mobile number. You'll often find three or four names each selling a different bike.
I suppose you could have some fun by phoning & asking for Fred, who's apparently selling a Brompton given to him by a mate, then ask about a Condor being sold by Andy, who's apparently leaving the country.

Exactly. I have seen some with same phone number, all different contact names, more often than not, chav style descriptions, bad english/spelling. and "selling my girlfriends bike because no room in our flat" and a search of the phone number you can find that the girlfriend must have had about 10 bikes sold.!!!! ummmm need I say anymore. All I can say if you find an ad you are interested in then do a quick google on the phone number to see homany bikes are being sold and check the decriptions.

ugggg it drives me mad.

 

[odieboo]

I'm a newbie, it's sort of rocket science to me, actually. How do I tell, which bikes are "obviously" stolen?

Do a google search on mobile phone number for starters.

 

[swee'pea99]

I'm a newbie, it's sort of rocket science to me, actually. How do I tell, which bikes are "obviously" stolen?

When I complained to ebay, I pointed out that delboyrules had three bikes currently listed - all popular modern hybrids, two years old or less - that the listings were clearly worded in such a way as to make each of these bikes sound like a much loved personal possession, and that clicking on feedback showed 40 or so exactly similar bikes as having been sold over the last month, mostly with feedback saying great value nice bloke, but two saying 'don't touch this seller - bike was clearly stolen'.

Click on 'feedback' and draw your own conclusions. As someone's said, these people are seldom subtle.

 

[jujubi]

Thanks everyone. Great advice about the phone number.

Though, aren't there also legal traders, who buy used bikes, get them back up to scratch and sell them on?

And then there are also some crude/incorrect descriptions by authentic private sellers who just don't care much about bikes, bought what the shop assistant suggested and then never rode it. Actually, I can see my Dad trying to sell his bike with the line: "It's pretty big and it's grey"...

 

[swee'pea99]

I've never had anything more than #18 above, which is far from 'substantive' in that sense.

 

[ttcycle]

Having had a pretty crud experience from both ebay and the Met in relation to multiple stolen bikes, I am pretty certain a lot of attitudes need to change before the theft of bikes get taken seriously at all. I do know that TfL have a team directly involved in cycle promotion - Ben Plowden I think is the person to contact and there are some discussions around safety and theft- however, whether anything materialises from these discussions will be interesting to see - there is also a unit in the Met that investigate internet theft from ebay/gumtree- I think there's a lot of thumb twiddling going on in this department but I hope that maybe once a year they reunite someone with their bike but doubt it.

Posting on gumtree as to the details of your bike may be a deterrent for casual thieves but not the ones who operate this on a business level.

Hope you get some form of feedback about this.

 

[trsleigh]

Thanks everyone. Great advice about the phone number.

Though, aren't there also legal traders, who buy used bikes, get them back up to scratch and sell them on?

I would expect a legit trader to manage to remember his/her own name from one ad to the next.

 

[mr_cellophane]

Advice I was given about buying cars from small ads still holds for bikes. When you call just ask about the bike for sale, don't mention the make or model. If they are genuine then they will only have one and will know what you are talking about.
As someone else has said, people only steal bikes (or almost anything) because other dishonest people will buy them.

 

[odieboo]

I would expect a legit trader to manage to remember his/her own name from one ad to the next.

Exactly my point about 'it ain't rocket science'