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Hi, on the 23rd Dec I swapped my bicycle with a guy for his on a straight swap deal just keeping our own forks, handlebars and brakes. When I went to do the swap I didn't check the bike over very well as I met the buyer at his house so thought he was pretty trustworthy as he can't really do a runner, he told me a few odd bits like some tired bearings but that was about it. Over the weekend I decided to do some maintainance on my new bike and get it rideable, at this point I found at some point there had been a crack under the downtube which had been welded up. I messaged the seller on the forum where I had made the deal (I know the forum is reliable as I'm a moderator on there) to ask about compensation or a swap back as I wasn't happy with a frame that could break at any moment and seriously injure me, the seller then went on over a lot of messages to say he had only had the frame 5 months and hadn't noticed a repair and basically plead innocence. He told me whilst he had it he had snapped a pair of forks and never heard the frame creaking so it can't be that bad. I tried to get some more information out of him regarding where he got the frame in hope of finding out the truth behind the break but he fobbed me off saying a friend who's name he can't remember and no longer rides bought it for him when the buyer wasn't registered on the forum.
Obviously I didn't believe this and stated so only to be met with abuse from his friend telling me the seller "is a sound guy" and wouldn't scam anyone. Anyway, early this morning I was scanning through the sellers facebook page to find more evidence and found a picture posted on 1st August of him holding up the bike and the forks he had told me he'd snapped, in this picture it is easy to spot the area that is now been repaired is not damaged and no crack or weld can be seen. I saved a copy of the picture and took a screenshot of the page showing the date with the picture in case he removed it or blocked me in future.
My question is, where do I stand with regards to getting some compensation back? I don't want my old frame and parts back as he has since ridden with them and they too could be damaged so some money towards a replacement frame is the only thing I feel is fair?
Do I have any legal rights, especially with him denying the damage when I have clear proof he knew, or have I blown it cause I missed it when we initially did the swap?
Obviously I didn't believe this and stated so only to be met with abuse from his friend telling me the seller "is a sound guy" and wouldn't scam anyone. Anyway, early this morning I was scanning through the sellers facebook page to find more evidence and found a picture posted on 1st August of him holding up the bike and the forks he had told me he'd snapped, in this picture it is easy to spot the area that is now been repaired is not damaged and no crack or weld can be seen. I saved a copy of the picture and took a screenshot of the page showing the date with the picture in case he removed it or blocked me in future.
My question is, where do I stand with regards to getting some compensation back? I don't want my old frame and parts back as he has since ridden with them and they too could be damaged so some money towards a replacement frame is the only thing I feel is fair?
Do I have any legal rights, especially with him denying the damage when I have clear proof he knew, or have I blown it cause I missed it when we initially did the swap?
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