How do you handle payment on a shipped bike?

I see lots of threads on shipping bikes, but no one talks about how they handle payment. How do you look out for both the buyer and the seller?

 

Buyer pays all shipping.

 

I guess what I meant was...I have sold my bike to someone who lives in California and he is hiring a shipping company to transport the bike. I want to be paid before the bike leaves my house. Is this the way it is normally done and what is there to protect the buyer if he just sends me the money?

 

US Postal Money order, bike does not leave until that money order is cashed.

 

And how is the buyer protected?

 

The buyer isn't protected.

If he's worried about it, he shouldn't be buying a bike that needs to be shipped, he should find one locally instead.

 

What I do about money I get is I spend it Have the shipping company have him sign for it with the bill of laiding...cover thy rear and make sure you get copies of everything

 

Is this the general concensus, then? Anyone else have experience with this?


Thanks for the feedback everyone

 

Yep that is what I have done with a bunch of bikes I have sold and shipped.

 

ditto,

I'm with Thunder.

 

If the buyer is really concerned ship it c.o.d.

Have the buyer prepay you the shipping charges, then the rest is due upon receipt, payable by money order. Make sure you are prepaid on shipping because if the buyer rejects it you are still covered. Shipping companies make you pay for shipping charges up front so you don't want to get stuck.

 

Thanks All

 

Yes generally the buyer takes the risk. Fair? No, but that's how it is.

There are escrow companies that will hold the money for a fee (that the buyer would pay). Not sure how the conflict resolution works if needed though.

I bought a bike long distance once (from overseas, even!) and it really comes down to dealing with a seller you can trust.

 

Joe,
Which bike did you sell?

 

The R6, man - need the $ to get my gixxer set up.

 

Cool man......yeah, don't ship that thing until you have cash or money in hand!

 

The last bike I had shipped to me (bought on eBay), the seller and I used www.escrow.com to broker the funds, and split the escrow fees.

They're fairly reasonable in terms of the fee, and explain up front how the process works, how dispute resolution is handled, etc. I also used them to buy a domain name from a guy in CA ... once again, the protection is well worth the escrow fees.

As a buyer, I would insist on using an escrow service unless I was picking up the bike in person.

- Roach