I just "love" sellers like this. One thing you as a buyer need to do as
soon as you figure out that the deal is going south is to request the
eBay seller's contact information from eBay. The seller is made aware
that you have this information by eBay and this tends to increase the
cooperation level several orders of magnitude. And if it does not then
at least you know who you are dealing with.
On 12/04/2010 04:07 PM, Andrew Baron wrote:
Hi All ~
A customer of mine bought an Edison cylinder player and horn from this
seller. It was packed extraordinarily poorly with minimal and haphazard
filler -- may have been crumpled newspaper. The machine arrived with a
broken cabinet top, and the horn had some end-to-end compression damage.
He asked me what he should do and I told him to bring everything over so
I could see it, with the boxes and packing just as he received them. I
wanted to get a sense of the extent of the damage, the relative task of
repairs, general reduced value so he could try to get some compensation,
or if he should just send everything back and be done with it.
I couldn't believe how the horn was packed -- one large box that could
only contain about 2/3 of the horn, with a small box taped on top to
cover the narrow end. No inner box, just these two taped together like a
two-layer cake. Just imagine how an arrangement like this must get
toppled and battered during the typical UPS transfer station and
stacking situations. In emails that my friend bcc'd to me, the seller
claimed that he has shipped horns for years packed like this and has
never had one damaged. Yeah, right!
I advised that the machine and horn should be sent back, which my friend
reluctantly did.
The seller made promise after broken promise to compensate, benignly at
first and persistently evasive as to how much or when, but never came
through. And time was passing. I pointed out to my friend that he was
entitled to buyer protection, but was in his last couple of days before
the deadline to file a complaint. My friend is a nice guy -- not good
with confrontation, was allowing this seller to take advantage of him,
and was giving the seller every possible benefit of the doubt, much to
my frustration. The seller had managed to string him along, I'm sure
while counting down the days until his own liability disappeared. It was
maddening to helplessly watch from the sidelines, and so clear what the
outcome was shaping up to be.
Finally on the last day he could do it, my friend filed a complaint with
Ebay. At this point the seller turned vicious and accusatory in private
emails to my friend, blaming him for damaging a perfectly good machine
and horn, while at the same time claiming to eBay that the horn was
packed properly, etc. The eBay mediator my friend talked to apparently
told him that the seller even tried to claim that the buyer had kept the
perfect phonograph and sent back a damaged one. It was just bizarre. The
guy would say anything.
To make a long story short(er), eBay paid my friend in full, shipping
and all. I must assume that this is far from an isolated story with
regard to this seller, and it chagrins me that he's still able to sell.
I believe that when eBay pays a buyer protection claim it precludes a
negative feedback being left for the buyer (correct me if I'm wrong on
this, if anyone knows better). Something wrong with the system?
A final note is that I too was wondering what the guy's full name was,
and recall looking at the "from" name and address written on the box
flaps. He was using someone else's name, a woman's name if I recall, and
using a different shipped-from address. I think he might have signed one
of his emails "John". Who knows if even this is his name?
Andy
On Dec 4, 2010, at 1:17 PM, [email protected] wrote:
Greetings Dave:
I actually don't know the Pittsburgh Phonograph Pirate's name.
Whenever I have tried gently to enlighten him he responds with nasty
responses telling me I don't know what I am talking about. Luckily he
has never had anything I need for my collection.
When I started collecting in the early 1960's there were more crooks
around. Today we are far more educated thanks to MAPS, CAPS, Phono-L,
etc., and that makes it much more difficult to con us.
Regards to all,
Al
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