Dec. 25, 2015, Christmas Day — I suppose the fact that some Christmas gifts don’t live up to expectations shouldn’t be a surprise to me now that I’m a kid well into middle age. But yeah, I’m disappointed, I’ll admit it.
No, not disappointed by a gift from a family member or friend … for most of them, just getting to spend time together during the holiday is gift enough. I’m referring to the Christmas “gift” I received from the seller of the 100th Anniversary Vibroplex Original that recnetly arrived with damage.
When I first contacted the seller, she let me know she would pay for the damages and then file a claim with USPS for reimbursement. With the seller having such a low number of eBay sales, I thought to myself, “Self, this is an eBay seller who really has the customer’s best interest at heart!”
That lasted about 36 hours.
I received a follow-up message Thursday stating that the seller had changed their mind. I was told I would need to file the claim.
I think part of the problem is the seller found out that the maximum automatic insurance on Priority Mail is $50, and the claim would be bigger than that. She did not insure it for the purchase amount (a newbie mistake in my opinion).
Now I admit that maybe I’m just being a grumpy old Scrooge about this whole matter, but from where I sit, if you distill this problem down to its essence, it really is a matter of inadequate packaging. Period.
And frankly, I feel a little sheepish making a claim for damage against USPS when it wasn’t their fault. I know, I know — my rather warped sense of right and wrong doesn’t mind the seller making that claim against USPS … well, the truth is I just want the repair costs, I don’t much care if she files a claim or not.
What’s a grumpy-ass key collector to do in this case?
I sure as hell hate to eat the cost of buying the lever outright when the fault lies with the seller. Its Christmas, I should cut the seller some slack, right? But why give her a gift that only means she’ll continue to pack items like my key in an incompetent manner?
The seller does not take returns, though you and I know that PayPal will force her to refund the purchase price if I file a claim that the item didn’t arrive in the condition as stated in the eBay listing — and I think I won’t have a problem should I decide to file that claim.
So the first thing I’m going to do this weekend is to send Vibroplex an order for a replacement keying lever. This way I can get the broken parts off my office desk and get repairing the key behind me (quite literally behind me, as my office desk is opposite of the “ham shack” side of the room that serves as both my office and shack … as you might expect, over time the shack has just about forced the “office” out into the hallway, hi hi!).
I have several options here … I could:
A. Purchase the repair parts, file the USPS claim and let it runs its course (knowing that USPS did nothing wrong in the handling of the Priority Select package);
B. Purchase the repair parts and ask the seller to file the claim and to refund a portion of my money to cover the repair parts;
C. Purchase the repair parts and write a carefully worded email explaining the damage (IMHO) is due to packing that failed to protect the key (and also the fact the seller left the bug tamer attached to the weight rod); I would explain that I can’t in good conscience file a claim for USPS damage when I don’t believe they did anything wrong. I would ask her to pay part of the cost of the replacement parts, and then she can file a claim if she wishes. Feedback on this transaction will be determined by the seller’s response, naturally (though I wouldn’t use that as a direct threat).
D. File a PayPal claim on the item, get a refund, then ship it back to the seller.
E . Purchase the repair parts and just shut the hell up about this.
In reviewing the USPS guidelines on insurance claims, it appears I can go ahead and order the repair parts, and then submit that with the claim, since repairing it is easier than submitting a repair estimate from a “qualified” service person.
Actually, I’ve just sent an email to order a new lever and pivot screws. Now where I’ll go from this point, I’m not sure. One way or the other, I’ll let the seller know about the damage .. mostly likely after I attempt to request the seller to kick in some dough.
I’ll need some Christmas luck to pull this off, hi hi.
Well, here’s looking forward to Straight Key Night next week.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z … SK … dit dit