Item arrived damaged in Denmark

Soldato
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Finchley, London
I've just had a message from someone I sold an item to in Denmark that it's arrived damaged and now I've got to honour my word and send him the money back. :( Not only will I have lost any profit but will be in deficit to the tune of about £120 if he sends it back to me, since I'll have to cover his return postage, plus I already covered some of the postage myself sending it out ( it was £64 insured but I charged him £50 and covered the remainder myself), plus a large roll of bubble wrap, plus about £20 (4%) that paypal took from the proceeds.

I sent it via myparceldelivery.com and DPD were the couriers. I packed it as well as I could in a sturdy 5 mm thick cardboard tube, tons of bubble wrap on the outside, and a load of gaffa tape.

This was his message "Hi,Just unboxed the unit.
Im sad to say that there are two things wrong with the it. The power supply end got shattered along the way. Also, it sounds like there is a loose spring inside the unit which is falling around and rattling up and down. I'm not sure this plays a role when in use but I can't get it to work without power. What should we do from here? Can I send the unit back to you? I wish I had the skills and time to fix this but I don't unfortunately :(
Sorry for the bad news and thanks for your understanding...

Best wishes.
."

It's a rare vintage spring reverb unit shaped as a drainpipe in a grey plastic shell, an old analogue piece of studio equipment that basically adds reverb to guitars. It worked when I tested it and yes you can hear a spring if you shake it, but I didn't suspect it as broken when I sent it as it can't be seen. Don't remember thinking it was falling around. So I've actually no idea if it got broken in transit or not. The power supply I wrapped in bubble wrap and there was just enough space at one end of the cardboard tube to slot it in. I made a lid by cutting two cardboard circles and gaffa taping it thoroughly over the end. Bubble wrap went over that. I thought it would be sufficient but I guess not.

I need to make a claim as I added up to £500 cover and the sale was £425 plus £50 shipping. Do you think I stand much chance of getting anything back? They say "If your parcel was damaged by the courier, you can claim for the repair cost, or the cost of replacing the item if a repair is not possible. This is available up to the compensation value purchased with your booking. You must be able to prove the value of the item and any repair costs."

I suppose worst case scenario is I get nothing, he sends it back and I can sell it cheap as needing repair to just recoup my losses.

I want to reassure him that I will of course pay him back the £475, and that I will also put in a claim. It might have been easier to ask him if he could get the power supply repaired and I'd cover his costs but the spring seems to complicate it further.
 
Soldato
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You'll get your money back if it was insured, surely?

Who knows? You know what insurance companies are like, any excuse to weazel out. But even regardless of my cynicism, surely it depends on their investigations as to whether they think I packaged it well enough at the end where the power supply was. Also, they might or might not take responsibility for the spring breaking.
 
Soldato
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21,257
Get photos, don't get him to send back yet. Get photos, and then contact the delivery folks, make your claim. They will probably want to collect from the delivery end, sending it back means it can be claimed it got damaged in the second transit not the first.
 
Caporegime
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Get photos, don't get him to send back yet. Get photos, and then contact the delivery folks, make your claim. They will probably want to collect from the delivery end, sending it back means it can be claimed it got damaged in the second transit not the first.

This. A second trip means you will have people arguing over which trip caused the damage.
 
Soldato
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Ask him to keep hold of it and supply good photos.
They need to include the packaging. Then you can put a claim in.
 
Soldato
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Thanks guys, I asked him not to return it yet. He sent me these pictures. Seems to me he should at least stick a danish plug on the end and see if it works. For all we know, the crack in the PSU might be superficial. For someone that runs his own recording studio, you'd think he could wire a plug.

I asked him if there's anyone he knows who might be able to quote a repair for him and that I'll cover the cost. He's told me there's a couple of engineers he'll speak to.

Here's the pictures he sent me.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/03ojzzg9tm7vxsq/AACcJ-JjN7FZAts47sMaqM1pa?dl=0
 
Associate
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Suffolk
Assuming it works that looks perfectly repairable. Worst case would be buy a new plastic housing and drill a couple of holes in it.

Should be able to claim the repair/compensation cost from the delivery company.
 
Soldato
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Assuming it works that looks perfectly repairable. Worst case would be buy a new plastic housing and drill a couple of holes in it.

Should be able to claim the repair/compensation cost from the delivery company.

Thing is, I don't know if I should ask him to repair it now or even just stick a plug on the end to see if it works, before I've contacted myparceldelivery.com tomorrow and before they've seen it in it's current state.
 
Associate
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Loogabarooga
Yep, I just had someone message me today to say they never received their ebay item I posted them so I looked on the courier website and it says item received and signed for so just waiting for a POD now.

So many people out there trying to scam sellers
 
Associate
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i had an issue with hermes once, they wasnt interested that the item was broken they wanted to know what the packaging condition was like.
its as if they were saying the item was already broken.
contacted the buyer and fair play he could have lied or not assisted but he said the box was pretty badly damaged and sent me photos of how bad the item got to him.

hermes then refunded me + postage..
i then refunded the seller..
 
Soldato
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15,929
That looks like someone has crushed that. How that has happened inside the packaging I have no idea. That's been brutally done, that's not done during shipping......

get pictures of the box/wrapping as well but that's way to much damage to be "damaged during shipping"
 
Soldato
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19 Jun 2012
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5,273
Aye, that looks like excessive damage to be caused to a well packaged item.

Methinks this buyer is dubious, and perhaps is trying to scam you out of a perfectly working unit by sending you back a smashed one he had lying around.
 
Soldato
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I honestly don't know guys. I don't think he's trying to scam me. It wasn't through ebay, it was via a gear forum.

About my packaging, here's some pics of the unit and the box it went into. At the end where I put the power supply, there was no lid. There was a plastic lid at the other end. So what I did was cut out two cardboard circles the diameter of the tube box and taped them down over the end with plenty of tape and then bubble wrap over that. Do you think that can be considered sufficient or too soft?

http://s4.postimg.org/o26wznw3x/Packaged.jpg


http://s11.postimg.org/6ltly8w77/image.jpg
http://s11.postimg.org/hmor39og3/image.jpg
http://s11.postimg.org/bzse5slxf/image.jpg
http://s29.postimg.org/bpc3wt6mf/image.jpg
http://s29.postimg.org/5mzvskssn/image.jpg
 
Soldato
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4,735
Location
King's Lynn
got to be honest here, I'd go with him trying to pull a fast one too... have got any pictures of the tube after it arrived because that would have had to be seriously squashed for that to happen in my opinion.

I know you say you put cut cardboard caps on the end but unless they fell off and everything fell out of the tube the odds of that happening are very slim.
 
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