Ok, I won a set of (4) 2 liter Fuch alloys on Ebay and they arrived today. I open the box and pull them out one at a time. They were neatly packed with thick soft blanket type pads in between each one. I pull out the first one and look it over, very nice! I pull out the next one and look it over, also very nice, I pull out the next one and its a little dirty but no scars, I look in the box and to my surprise, its empty. No more wheels. I think, wait a minute, There is supposed to be four wheels. I look around again and count the wheels, 1,2,3. WTF? So I go back and read the auction, it clearly states 4 914 aluminum wheels. I send the guy an email asking where the other wheel is. He replies back that the box was 59 pounds when he shipped it, wiegh one of the wheels and let him know how much it weighs. I weigh the wheel and its 13 pounds on the nose. Times 4 would be 52 pounds plus the box and padding would probably be around 59 pounds. So I am supposed to call him tomorrow and see what happened. Do you think someone would steal one wheel and seal the box back up? Or do you think the guy is trying to pull a fast one on me? It actually looks like there were four in the box at one time. You can see where the wheels left their marks on the sides on the box. I dont know what to think. I am a little pissed that I only have 3 wheels now. This aint no Citroen that can run on only 3 wheels. Any suggestions?

File a claim with UPS.

you are not obligated to keep the wheels and you have recourse through ebay, or UPS. i would try and renegotiate the price with the seller. if he does so, you may get your answer and/or a great deal on 3 wheels. look at the glass as half full.

e-bay recourse is worthless, it takes weeks, possibly months if you get results at all,
Hopefully you had the shipment insured through UPS (its really cheap) so just file a UPS claim, its not the sellers fault, he will probably want to help you file the claim, I know I would.

What would the seller do with 1 wheel? Use it as a spare?

I dono, You could sell the other three wheels as a nice factory spare... what, 75, 50 each? Thats not that bad..

Dono..

Andrew

Scott,

The way UPS handles packages it would not suprise me if they busted one open in the truck and a wheel went loose. Unloading it, they would see a split box and should make a notation. The "fourth" wheel is floating on a dock somewhere marked "unknown".

I would ask a UPS Representative to track the stops on the shipment and see if there is in fact a loose unkown rim in some terminal.

OR

The seller stiffed you.

If you paid by PayPal, they are usually good about it.

Well, I have this PayPal credit card that I used to pay for the wheels so I guess it is through PayPal. I looked at the box and it really looks like there were 4 wheels in it at one time going by the ring marks left on the inside. He swears all 4 were in the box. I will find out more tomorrow. Thanks for the advice though. I will check with UPS tomorrow and find out what is going on. In the mean time, I have 3 very nice 2 liter fuchs. I didnt want them in the first place, I bid on them to replace Joes wheels that were stolen. When he found another set I figured I would get outbid and forgot all about the auction. A few days later I got an email saying I won the auction. So I went ahead and paid for them and had them shipped thinking I could just clean and ploish them and turn around and sell them. Now I am stuck with 3 wheels instead of a set of 4. My kind of luck. One wheel short of a car.

Scott,

This won't help much. I shoot digi pics of packages "of value" that arrive at the house. And I shoot them as the package is unpacked. (I shoot pics of packages sold during packing as well) Digi-pics cost nothing.

It seems unlikely to me that you're making this up -- you got 3 wheels. It also seems to me that, given they were shipped as a unit, that it is unlikely that one of the wheels "dropped out of the shipment'" and it sounds like it wasn't visible to you when unwrapping the contents. (Look at the packaging -- does it look like a wheel was "deleted" in transit? -- I've had 4 wheels shipped to me. If you removed one of them, you would at least have to work to make it look it was different than shipped.)

kim.

Scott,
I hate to say it, but your fucked. I had purchased a full set of wheels from Bob O just to have 1 1/2 boxes arrive. So I call UPS and they tell me that since I didn't ship them I have no claim and offer to come pickup the wheels for return (with no compensation). So I call Bob and tell him whats up. UPS said that they would not be able to locate 1 wheel and that they would only compensate the original shipper. Bob and I figured that after all is said and done that I should just shipp them back and get a refund while he plays with the UPS asses. You will likely have to do the same thing, unless they were uninsured, then I don't know what you will do. I will never ship wheels via UPS again, thats for sure. I was lucky that Bob was such a good guy, I got my refund quick.

Scott,
Did you check his feedback? Frequent sellers with positive feedback want to protect their rating. Work with the seller and try to make him be responsible for the missing wheel, by taking them back and claiming the loss with the carrier.
Felix

YEAH!!
Dr. Evil (Mike) only got 3 damn wheels....that was messed up!
He also was VERY nice about the whole thing, not accusing me of ripping him off or anything.
I did eventually get a check for $427. One replacement wheel ended up being $300, so, came out okay. But guess what, in the end they REFUSED to reimburse me for the shipping!! All in all I may have come out a couple bucks ahead, but NOT worth the headache.
They admitted their fault but said it was imposible to credit me for shipping because 14 days had pased.
I doubt the seller pulled a fast one, get the seller to file a claim YESTERDAY- call UPS and have them return the wheels and get your money back from him- or keep the wheels and get some kind of compensation from him. Generally the Shipper must file the claim because I'd guess you actually have no proof the 4th wheel ever existed, and you didnt pack them- he was the last person to see them.
It's a tough fight, but maybe the only way.
good luck!
-Bob O

Batboy is awesome!

While I hate UPS, we are a commercial account and I have had claims with them. Through all their bullshit I stood steadfast in my claim. They have paid them all, even when they claimed packagaging was at fault. My line to them is, "I have been in the trucking business for longer than you have been alive. I have seen your operation and

know how you operate

so don't hand me your corporate bullshit line". Has always worked

Scott,

Were you able to verify whether or not this was the original shipping box that the seller sent? Having worked at UPS through college, they do repair or repackage broken parcels. If it isn't too late, take a couple of pic's of the shipping box, and send it to the seller. This could give you some leverage with UPS should the seller verify the package was in different condition than when he shipped it, or it was a different container all together.

Andy

This just happaened with something I sent to Brad..... A box left with a crank and set of rods inside it, but arrived empty.

Take a look at the UPS label, I believe the paid-for shipping weight is printed on it. If it's a UPS thermal-printed label (and it's 59 lbs like the guy sez), then you probably have a UPS claim. If it's a home printed label (probably ink jet and thus smears when wet), then the guy could be hosing you.

I could see some guy needing one wheel, buying a set (check recent ebay auctions for your seller buying a set of wheels), snagging one, then playing the "you must have lost a wheel in transit" scam. The truth is out there...

"Take a look at the UPS label, I believe the paid-for shipping weight is printed on it. If it's a UPS thermal-printed label (and it's 59 lbs like the guy sez), then you probably have a UPS claim. If it's a home printed label (probably ink jet and thus smears when wet), then the guy could be hosing you."

This is correct, if the guy went to the trouble of weighing the package, the weight or the value (as determined by the weight of the package) must be on the shipping label. You should be able to determine from this if the 59lb statement is correct- IE the dollar amout for shipping must correspond to the weight of the package. Also, if it's not, than scan the label and send it to the seller, if it doen't match the copy he has, than you know that UPS scammed you and switched out a broken package.