Buycycle.com , a heaven for scammers and fakes?

[Roadie72]

I will paste here a thread I started on another platform, I am sure many of you would be interested to find a genuine experience with buycycle, not faked or AI “reviews”
Started to use buycycle in February-March, looking for a decent second hand bike, with a warranted (by buycycle) sale process. Using the platform I experienced: dozens of unresponsive sellers/listings, either, bikes were sold or listings were totally outdated; a lot of replica bikes (Chinese fakes) sold as original (especially S-works). I checked with Specialized brand security a S-Works SL6 frameset sold as genuine by a seller in Belgium, Specialized confirmed that serial number was registered to another type of frame, after I confronted the seller, next day listing was erased..I also found a fake Factor Ostro Vam, the shape of the frame does not fit any model from Factor, the listing is still on. I became a bit reluctant to search further, but then in April, I said I found my bike, a Canyon Ultimate CF from 2020, good communication with the seller, a bit of negotiation and we made the deal. The seller recognized that he crashed the bike one time, there were evident marks on the left rear quick release and saddle, but insisted that there are no other damages and I appreciated the sincerity and the fairness. Recieved the bike in the shipping time window, box was ok, checked the bike visually for the marked scratches, just a small scratch on the left upper arm of the rear fork.

Bike was deposited at my home, not used waiting for the service works. After two days, I took it to the bike shop, but before I confirmed the sale, to help seller be payed. At the shop, the professionals, investigated closely the scratch and decided it’s better to peel of some parts of the clear coat, to inspect the carbon layup. We found a small crack in the structure, it’s not big but its enough to be unsafe to ride. A carbon structural professional confirmed that the crack matches exactly the crash location previous owner had and that it could not be done by shipping without traces on the shipping box.

Contacted seller, of course he denied, claimed that his photos does not show anything, also contacted buycycle, they only repeated the policies of the selling process, denying responsibility, even though only two days passed between receiving the bike and identifying the crack

I would say its an unsafe market place for the buyers, but a profitable one for the sellers, full of untrustworthy sellers and shady listings, fake bikes.

[MyNameIsJeff]

There’s so many threads on /r/cycling that would point to the fact that buycycle is just really bad to use.

[Deleteme]

Sounds just like ebay…

[Twowkg]

That sucks but why release the funds before inspecting the frame, especially since you knew it was a crashed frame?

[Roadie72]

Doesn’t sounds like Ebay to me, ebay has a rating/reviews system for each user, any seller that pulls out funny sh**t like this will suffer consequences. Also, the time to contest transactions is longer. Buycycle doesnt have any of this, just a 48 hours confirmation period, I recieved the shipping on Tuesday, I was out of the city until Thursday afternoon. So much for inspecting the bike

[Roadie72]

For me the area looked just like a minor scratch, only find out the severity at the bike shop, after peeling of a bit of the clear coat

[Laker]

I bought a bike from Buycycle, a Basso Astra. It was from a bike shop, an ex-hire bike, and not a lot of money. I took the risk and I think it paid off, but it’s not a site I’ll be using very often, if at all. As you say, just too many risks for a buyer.

[Deleteme]

But the seller gets more support than the buyer, and I had some horrific ezperiences with sellers, and getting refunds.

One ‘professionally cleaned’ turntable looked like it was stored in a chicken coop!! The seller pushed it all the way, but in the end I prevailed, but it was ridiculous. Another seller ‘sent’ the item, provided a tracking number, and I got an empty box. Another ‘sent’ the item, and never actually sent anything, the tracking number was never used. They blaimed the carrier. Just insane BS.

Bought a ‘personally autographed’ item that had a printed signature.

Maybe it was the items I was buying (but a turntable?) but I’ve stopped using ebay, and Craigs List is asking for a bad experience around here at least. Yikes…

[Twowkg]

Presumably that was the same for the seller right? It’s a risk you take when buying a crashed bike but ideally you would have been able to get a refund or return if you had it inspected when you received it.

[buycycle]

Hey Roadie72,

Thanks for sharing what happened, really sorry to hear you had this experience!

Let’s talk about fake bikes concern first. Counterfeit goods are a strictly forbidden on buycycle. If we catch wind of something like that, the user gets blocked straight away, and our buyer protection has your back. This means if you were to buy a bike that was listed as original but turns out to be a fake, you wouldn’t lose your money.

Regarding our reviews:
All of our 7840 reviews on Trustpilot are fully verified, which means Trustpilot ensured that these are authentic. No AI or fake reviews to be found here. We care about our customers and want potential new users to have an accurate impression of how others felt about their experience with us.

Now, regarding your specific order:

First of all, this is of course far from the kind of experience we want our customers to have. As a marketplace, we do everything we can make sure that both you, as the buyer, as well as the seller are fully protected. As a buyer, you can check the bike before any money goes to the seller and raise a claim in case anything differs from the description/photos. As you did, we also encourage everyone to use the chat with the seller to check if the bike is as described and to evaluate potential risks.

Our policies are in place for a fair balance between seller and buyer interests.

I get that even though the bike was declared as a crash bike, you didn’t expect any structural damage, and most likely the seller was not aware of the this themselves.

To protect you as a the buyer in cases like this, you have 48 hours to check the bike once it has arrived to make sure everything is okay.

Unfortunately, since you informed us about the damages 10 days after delivery and you already having actively confirmed the bike is okay and as described, raising a claim was no longer possible in this case.

If there is anything else I can help out with, please feel free to reach out to us anytime!

All the best,
Boris from buycycle

[Roadie72]

Dear Boris, you at buycycle put a lot of effort to defend your image in all social platforms channels, this is very obvious, as soon as a bad review appear somewhere.
A lot of advocates of your word at involving immediately in any negative thread and aggressively defend you.
It is still my opinion that the vast majority of your reviews are contracted by you. The most important proof is the number of the reviewers with only one review, with accounts made just to give your image satisfaction. The other part of them are written by users with a lot of reviews, only that they are all made for buycycle (one trust pilot user caught my attention with 8 reviews total, all of them for buycycle, that is a very satisfied customer )
I am just telling you this because, instead of paying so much for online image, you could instead research and put in place policies to better protect the buyer on buycycle.
Regarding my case, no, I did not notified you after 10 days, this is totally false and not ok you disinform in such way, I have noticed you and the seller, at exactly 62 hours after I received the shipping.
More, this kind of hidden or latent defect, can’t be certified in 48 hours. So your policies does not offer enough protection for the buyers, instead they are very good for a seller.
Regarding the faked brands on your web market place, I must tell again, I encountered on buycycle the highest number of faked bikes than any marketplace I use (eBay, OLX and many others), I go further and say that even on AliExpress you won’t find so many and at least they have the decency to mark them as replica.
Even when I have noticed you from my account you didn’t took measures only in one case, the other ones are still live on your platform.
Do your diligence and make a better protection for buyers and you will not need so much “on line reputation management” action…
The buycycle model could work, you just need better listing moderation and better buyers protection policies.

[teddygram]

I bought my wife a Felt IA through BuyCycle last year, and the experience was seamless and straightforward. In my opinion, we got an excellent deal, and it seemed like the seller was satisfied as well.

I’d definitely recommend BuyCycle—provided you find a bike you want at a fair price. Ultimately, it’s up to the seller to follow through and ensure the bike is shipped to you safely, but in our case, everything went smoothly.

[Roadie72]

I asume you are not a member of the buycycle virtual army, still, if one individual, like me who rides, buy, build and sells bikes from 15-20 years now, the first transaction on buycycle happened to be a major fail, some questions must arise… Again, I use several online marketplaces, I bought and sold several bikes, parts and equipment, this kind of problem NEVER occurred. So, against all that and against hundreds of other very bad experiences, your willingness to “definitely recommend” buycycle is a bit off…i am guessing you are tha kind of person who favors the fate, to make decisions for yourself

[Roadie72]