UPS Claim On Damaged Amp

[PLX]

Part 1: The fuckening begins

I sold an amp on an <unnamed online gear selling site> on August 2nd. Three days later the buyer receives the amp, and within several hours of delivery he starts messaging me on <unnamed online gear selling site> telling me the amp "does not make any noise".

So I walk him thru some basic troubleshooting over the messaging app on the <unnamed online gear selling site>, fuse, cord, tubes, yadda yadda..

He's saying all that's been checked. Ok, so I call him on the phone. No answer. Leave voicemail. I few minutes later I get a call back from his number.

The guy on the phone is not the buyer.. It's a guy who works at a music store where the buyer has taken the amp to have it checked out...



So, the "music store guy" starts telling me that he is checking out the amp on the behest of the buyer. He said' "he checks out all the gear this guys buys off the Innerwebs".

So, as part of this troubleshooting he tells me they hooked the amp up to another speaker (or speakers)..



Then he says, "I'm not an amp tech, but there's another guy here who plays guitar, and he says, "It's probably the output transformer.""

So, right then I get that sinking feeling. A fully tested and working amp, that was packed by UPS arrives with a blown output transformer..



I tell him, the only way the output transformer could be damaged/destroyed would be if you tried to play thru the amp with no speaker(load) connected, or with an incorrect impedance speaker(s) connected to the amp.


The guy goes quiet for a few seconds..




So right then, I know pretty much what has happened. This idiot, or him and his "friends" have blown the output transformer within a few hours of getting ahold of this amp. Probably because they've never worked with a tube amp before, or maybe they're just really fucking stupid.

And now they're going to try to play dumb about what happened to a perfectly good, working, vintage amp and demand a full refund thru the <unnamed online gear selling site>





to be continued..

[harddriver]

There are so may scams going out there right now. I would only sell in person for cash with the selling climate in the state it's in now.

The buyers today are using the generous return policies for buy and try or they are morons and when they screw and amp up they can say 90 days later after playing it for 90 days that the amp's broken or it was damaged in shipping and the seller must take a return.

I'm sorry for your dilemma... but I think you already know how things are going to transpire next.......

[PLX]

Part 2: Protect your butthole

So.. I paid UPS to pack and ship the amp. I also paid for full insurance on the online sale value of the amp ($1,000 US).

Also, I have some protection from the site.. or so I hope. I immediately start communicating with UPS, and with the online site to find out exactly my recourse is, and what I should do at this point.



I tell the buyer, "Look, you have done your due diligence in checking out the amp. UPS is instructing me to instruct you to re-package the amp exactly as UPS had packed it - using all the packing materials, and UPS will come pick it up."

Mind you, this is all being done verbally, over the phone. Once we have had that whole conversation - completely unsolicited, the buyer starts going into this diatribe about how, "He was shocked when I accepted his online offer, and his credit card wouldn't work, so he had to go get his father to pay for the amp.. yadda, yadda, yadda.."

Now I'm thinking.. maybe this is just a case of buyer's remorse. And there's nothing wrong with the amp.

After him needlessly telling me this whole ridiculous fucking story, I'm starting to think he just wants to punt the amp back to me, and get his money back.




to be continued..

[Watson503]

Jesus Christ....this has my blood pressure up just reading it...

[PLX]

Part 3: Stupid is as stupid does

The nice lady that manages the UPS Store told me that when UPS picks up the amp from the buyer, they will perform an inspection. Basically they have to determine who is at fault before they're going to shell out $1,000.

So she tells me it's gonna take up to 2 weeks for UPS to come back with an answer on the claim. OK.. So I wait.



Two weeks go by, and I stop by the UPS and ask for an update. They tell me they have the amp, and they cannot let me see it. Ok, fine.

I ask them if they can tell if the amp was damaged? Can they see any signs of damage on the outside of the amp?

The lady tells me that the buyer removed all the packing material when he re-packed the amp, and then to make up for the empty space in the box (where the packing material should have been) he cut the box down, folded it over, and taped it closed.




She then says to me, "If it wasn't broken before, it is now."


to be continued..

[RockyStar]

Logic tells me you should be fine here. Who knows how these yahoos think though. I am sorry for your situation. I am betting it is buyers remorse. Hopefully your ad was as is and no returns. What a frustrating situation though.

[PLX]

Hopefully your ad was as is and no returns.

Nope.

The site required me to accept the return of the amp, and agree to issue a refund.. but with caveats.

According to the rules, I have 48 hours from the time I receive the amp to issue a refund. I have made the online site and the buyer (both) aware that I do not have the amp, nor am I likely to ever have the amp in my possession again.

The online site has basically told me that since they did not insure or ship the amp, it was insured and shipped by UPS - they are leaving it up to me to handle it with UPS and simply keep the buyer informed with status updates via the messaging system on the site (which they have access to read).

So, that's exactly what I've done every step of the way.

The UPS Store told me they are probably going to keep the amp.

[RockyStar]

So what happens in this scenario? You keep the original money, the buyer gets money back from UPS and UPS gets a busted up amp? Is that how this situation rolls?

OR

Do you keep the original money, UPS ships the dude a busted amp back to him and he now gets no money back and is the proud owner of a broken amp he packed wrong..?

OR

?


Maybe buy the amp back for parts at a massively lower rate. What is UPS going to do with it?

[harddriver]

All around fuckery IMHO,please excuse my language.

UPS won't let you see the amp? Why didn't the buyer take the box and amp into a UPS store and have them repack it? WTF WTF WTF!

I have heard so many of these stories in the last two years I've lost count. People sending rocks back the sellers and then relisting the amps on Ebay, Reverb. There is no more moral/natural law and no one is held to any accountability for their actions any longer............A society not held to account for it's actions cannot stand.

Fall of the Roman Empire REDUX............

[PLX]

So what happens in this scenario? You keep the original money, the buyer gets money back from UPS and UPS gets a busted up amp? Is that how this situation rolls?

OR

Do you keep the original money, UPS ships the dude a busted amp back to him and he now gets no money back and is the proud owner of a broken amp he packed wrong..?

OR

?


Maybe buy the amp back for parts at a massively lower rate. What is UPS going to do with it?

Now you get my dilemma.. I have no clue what is going to happen here.

Personally, I don't want the amp back now because I don't know what level of fuckery has gone on with it. I just want the money.

I'm never gonna recover the lost time I have spent futzing around with this debacle.

And.. if I were to get the amp back, I'm gonna be out money & time for parts, shipping costs to be able to repair it. Worse then - it is no longer a stock, vintage amp.. so the re-sale value goes to shit.

It's starting to look like I'm gonna get screwed no matter how this plays out.