So
you've taken the time to research information on these ever popular
pocket bikes. Beware of retailers we in the industry call "box
pushers." These are fly-by-night companies that have no knowledge
of pocket bikes whatsoever. They see a hot product, get the cheapest
sourcing available to them and then they literally "push"
these sales onto anyone who would buy them. The "box"
part comes from the bikes that are neatly packed in its boxes.
Back several years ago, ebay was full of box pushers. But as the
sport of pocket bikes was still new at the time and the general
public needed technical support, these box pushers moved on to
the next latest and greatest item to generate fresh lines of profit.
They left pocket bike customers high and dry.
Because of ebay's much improved feedback system for sellers, these
box pushers can no longer play in the ebay arena without getting
exposed by negative feedback. So these people have moved on to
building over-night web sites that pump-and-dump these pocket
bikes on the market. Their warranties are promised, but they are
never around long enough after the sale to actually uphold their
end of the bargain. These web sites usually pop-up right before
the Christmas Season and disappear shortly afterwards. Obviously,
this is a ploy to gain the most profit during the shopping season.
But if you are new to the pocket bike scene, how would you know
if the web site recently just popped up? Or if it has been around
for years and years?
Some things to look out for are misspellings and bad
grammar and punctuation. Bad quality photos and
ill-functioning web pages are also a good indication. Fly-by-night
pocket bike web sites tend to use Toll Free Numbers from a free
voicemail service. It gives the appearance that they
are legitimate. Go ahead and give those numbers a call to verify
that there is an actually person on the other end of the phone.
See if it is a real phone system or some forwarded cell phone
loop around. Talk to the sales person and see if they actually
have the pocket bikes they say they do.
These sites also claim to have been doing business for years and
years, even though their site just went up for a few months. It's
easy to check when the website was actually registered. Just Google
"WHOIS" and pick any link. You can search on the web
site you suspect and you can see exactly when it began.
