One of the ever present concerns of buying something online is the risk of fraud or buying stolen goods. Perfecto’s system, though, links a seller’s Strava account to their listing, letting your check out the person offering that dream bike and linking a real name and face to it. They also request each listing to have the serial number, which is checked against the Bike Index listing to see if it’s been reported stolen or missing. Combined, the two measures should offer a good measure of security and confidence. Of course, those two features are optional on the seller’s part, but there are other safeguards in place, too…
Find the bike you like and you can open a chat with the seller to learn more about the bike, ask questions and/or negotiate. Once you’ve decided to buy it, you make an offer and the seller (who can also link their Facebook account if they don’t use Strava) has four days to accept it. If they do, they mark it as sold and ship the bike. The buyer’s credit card is then charged and the funds held in escrow until delivery. The buyer has 14 days to mark it as received or file a complaint. Assuming all’s good (or 14 days have passed), funds are released to the seller, less a 6% commission. Perfecto claims that’s less than half what eBay would charge a seller, and the focus of the site is bicycles, so we’re betting the quality and quantity will both end up here. Like any other online exchange, it’s buyer beware, but we like the features put in place to protect both parties.
From there, options like being able to sort by price, proximity and frame material, etc., make it easy to narrow down the search.
