Maxiy said...
Hi everyone
I have just had a very disappointing experience purchasing a second hand kite from a person on seabreeze. I purchased an 08 model 12m liquid force havoc for $400 dollars. Now for that price and that year model i was not expecting the best kite in the world HOWEVER i was expecting a kite that i could actually fly when i got it. Now this is what was posted on the advert
"kite\ bar\bag couple small pro repairs......... offers........"
i contacted the seller and he sent me some pictures, the usual top back and sides deal. The kite looked in decent condition from the pics (no pictures of the repairs however). Now i should have been more cautious and asked for more pictures and pictures of the repairs, that was a misjudgment on my part.
I bought the kite and a few days later got it in the mail. To cut a long story short, there was more than a few repairs, most were small but a number were over 20cm in length. There was a number of tears that were not repaired, and i would not say they were repaired some repair tape had been put over the tears, most of which had sand under it and was falling off. The bar was not the original bar and both the bar and kite were covered in sand and salt so were in my opinion terrible condition. Then to top it all off i didn't even get to fly it for more than 2 minutes before the kite had deflated due to a bladder puncture in one of the struts.
I contacted the seller to tell him my frustrations and disappointment, and his reply was " that's kiting mate you need to fix your gear some times, you will need to learn how to repair bladders. you can repair the bladder quite easily" (he told me how to do this) Then he said, "Repair the bladder, go kite surfing and get over it, im not going to loose sleep over it"
Top bloke
So to sum up i payed $400 for a kite that does not fly, was in horrible condition and the seller was blatantly dishonest about the kite.
I hope this can be a warning to anyone purchasing second hand gear. Have your whits about you, Most people are honest good people, but not everyone, and like me you can get stung
Regards
Maybe your thread should have started something like this:
Hey All, I am interested in buying a kite from 'Location' but as I live in 'Location' I am unable to view before purchase, so if anyone who lives local to the seller can inspect for me I would be very grateful. Please pm me if you can help.( a carton should be forthcoming).
Pro active beats reactive hands down. This is a small yet widespread community. May as well take advantage where you can.
