FarleyEquipment
ArboristSite Lurker
Thank you for taking the effort into such a well thought out post and playing devils advocate. I've discussed it with the buyer and he's supposed to send it back, but with eBay's crappy return policy, I'm guessing he'll use it for the next 14 days and ship it on the last day. I'll address your points with my counterpoints.
To preface everything, obviously if I knew of any damage, I would've included it in the description.
1. I didn't purchase the saw as a flip, it was purchased to help raise money for an acquaintance of mine who unfortunately got dealt a bad hand in life, I had no ultimate use for it, so that's the reason for the sale. Saying the saw is nasty is a bit of an exaggeration, if 90% of the saws I've worked on looked like that without being touched I would save a ton of money on rags and fast orange. The determination on "good shape overall" was based on my personal definition of good shape, and to each their own, it's subjective. My personal definition is from Kelley Blue Book which is some repairable cosmetic defects and free of any major mechanical defect. Which the saw does have some flaws, but it runs and operates with no problem, so in my opinion there is no major mechanical defect, the saw operates fine, and the bar bolt is secure, it's not like its wobbling around. Without everyone physically inspecting the crack, its subjective as to what extent the damage is around the bar bolt, his shop says it needs a new case, did he actually take it to a shop, or self determine that or did a guy down the road come to that conclusion? We don't know for sure, my point with this is, the case potentially could need replaced, the metal plate might just need replaced, or heck you could probably use some loctite and be fine.
2. I agree, I cannot prove that the buyer caused the damage, which is ultimately why I didn't fight him on it. I'm confident that he did do the damage, but with no proof its a mute point as many of the other members have commented, eBay will always side with the buyer. Similar to what I stated above, there's so much unknown that there's no reason to fight. After talking to some people in private messages. they all assured me that even if I knew 100% for a fact that he was the one that damaged it, unless I had a picture of it eBay would side against me, and even if I had a picture they'd still probably side against me, that's just their prerogative.
3. I am taking the saw back, but to say the saw is unusable is axiomatically incorrect. To be usable, it has to do what it's supposed to do, which it does. The saw starts, runs, and cuts wood, it does everything a saw is supposed to do. The former owner used it everyday until he had to quit working due to his diagnosis, they cut wood with it at the sale, and I even started it and cut a couple cookies with it.
So in summation, I will agree that I was negligent by not taking the time to clean the saw and fully inspect it, but my description of the saw was accurate, (the only debate here is what defines "good condition" it will vary from person to person). After further talking to the buyer since the initial post, his story is starting to have some inconsistencies, so at this point, I'm just hoping the saw gets returned in working order so the matter can be put to rest.
I hope nothing I said came off as condescending or angry, I appreciate your input Stihl99, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this.
Once again, thank you to everybody who replied and messaged me, I appreciate all your input and feedback, and sympathize with those of you who have had similar problems.
