How we bought our Caravan

We bought our new (to us) van last December, 2 weeks before Christmas. We were told that this was the best time to buy as they usually go a bit cheaper.

We bought it ‘blind’ on Ebay, we had never seen it, just some pictures and a description. This is perhaps not the best way to buy but the chap had 100% feedback, we wanted to get away in the van for Christmas and we have not had, unlike some, any problems with Ebay purchases. We had a proviso that the van would be ‘as described’.

The van is a 2003 Lunar Lexun 530 EB in vgc. The van was on auction with some 16 bids up to £3700 with 3 days to go. We emailed the seller and asked if he would take £4500 cash as a buy now price, he agreed, much to our delight.

The next day, much to our dismay, the van was still on auction and was up to £4100. We contacted the seller and asked why he had not removed the van from auction. He said that he had been let down so many times on Ebay before that he would not remove the listing as this gave him the option of a ‘second chance’ offer should we not buy the van, he also said that he would up the reserve price (hidden) to £12000 so nobody would be disappointed.

We were not happy in this predicament, it seemed we had done a deal and as such it should be removed from Ebay, equally, we could see things from his point of view too. Perhaps he should not accept an offer if he’s not willing to remove the item. The price kept going up and we felt we were in limbo.

Another couple of anxious days and the auction ended. It had reached £5400. We were gutted, all our Christmas plans were out the window, we had no van, it was depressing.

I phoned the chap up, expecting to be told ‘no sorry’ etc etc, but to our amazement and delight  he said ‘a deal is a deal, come and collect the van when ever you can’. He had stuck to the deal. Here was a man who would rather lose 900 quid than be a cheat.

Its so nice to know that there are decent, straight and honest people out there.