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a cautionary tale when buying a welder...

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2015 11:22 am
by Captainbeaky
Hi all,

I did say that I would tell what happened when I bought my RTech welder...
Now it's resolved, I can tell all..

Like a good little shopper, I got the best price off the internet before I went to buy my welder...
I went in, and they reduced the price to £840, at which point I said:-

" but there is one up at £799 on eBay..."

And quick as a flash, they responded :-

" Yes, but the one we will sell you for £840 is not stolen!"

Turns out that the "best deal" on eBay was actually a machine that was stolen from them a few days earlier!
They knew all about it and were assisting police.....
Bullet dodged there then...

I paid my £840, and was very happy...
So - there you go - the moral of the story-

Buyer beware! That good deal is not necessarily...

Sometimes it's best to do the deal face to face with the manufacturers and designers of the kit in their headquarters ( as is the case with RTech )

Have a good one.

Mike.

Re: a cautionary tale when buying a welder...

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 4:19 pm
by Kentweld
If you bought it on eBay, would you get any trouble? The buyer can't tell if it's stolen or not

Edit: if you bought it without even going to the store, i mean...

Re: a cautionary tale when buying a welder...

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 4:34 pm
by hey_allen
Here in the USA, if it ever came to light that it was stolen goods and had been reported as such, you could loose it at the very least.

You could also be charged as having taken possession of stolen goods, trafficking in stolen goods, and possibly other offenses, particularly if you knew it to be questionable or that it was stolen.

I am not a law enforcement officer or lawyer, so do take this with a few grains of salt, but it is what I have been lead to understand.

That all said, it's definitely a hard area to negotiate, as there aren't any easily accessible lists of serials of stolen equipment that you can check used gear against.

Re: a cautionary tale when buying a welder...

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 4:51 pm
by Kentweld
Yeah it's nearly impossible to say if it's stolen, specially abroad..

But i wouldnt buy a welder from eBay anyways, i like em brand new from a store, or used by someone i know.. Dont want to spend 1000$ on a welder that is broken.. Trust issues maybe :lol:

Re: a cautionary tale when buying a welder...

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 5:39 pm
by TRACKRANGER
Captainbeaky wrote:Hi all,

I did say that I would tell what happened when I bought my RTech welder...
Now it's resolved, I can tell all..

Like a good little shopper, I got the best price off the internet before I went to buy my welder...
I went in, and they reduced the price to £840, at which point I said:-

" but there is one up at £799 on eBay..."

And quick as a flash, they responded :-

" Yes, but the one we will sell you for £840 is not stolen!"

Turns out that the "best deal" on eBay was actually a machine that was stolen from them a few days earlier!
They knew all about it and were assisting police.....
Bullet dodged there then...

I paid my £840, and was very happy...
So - there you go - the moral of the story-

Buyer beware! That good deal is not necessarily...

Sometimes it's best to do the deal face to face with the manufacturers and designers of the kit in their headquarters ( as is the case with RTech )

Have a good one.

Mike.
So did they manage to catch the eBay seller with the hot goods?

Re: a cautionary tale when buying a welder...

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2015 8:54 pm
by Otto Nobedder
Generally, if you bought it "in good faith", meaning you had no reason to suspect the item was not being represented honestly, you are not criminally liable, meaning you would not be charged with a crime. However, the stolen property is forfeit, and your only recourse to be reimbursed is to sue the seller for damages. Since the seller is a criminal, your odds of ever seeing a cent in restitution are extremely slim.

Caveat Emptor.

Re: a cautionary tale when buying a welder...

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 12:49 pm
by Captainbeaky
It's the same here in the UK.
If I did buy it - and I did actually get the welder, it is not actually my property, so I'd lose it...
Thing is, it looked exactly like an R-Tech reseller.

I haven't dropped back into Rtech to see if they got their kit back or not - I'll pop in next week and see...

I remember going to buy a bike - BMW R1150GS.
Bike was fine, but when I checked the history, it had outstanding finance - another bullet dodged there...