Re: "untested" PCBs... (LONG)

Ok , I guess it is time my story is told. The comments put forth by Al and Roy
were from my story of horror that I told them on Saturday. For those wanting
the Readers Digest version of this story; Assume anything that Krazykatt1 is
selling to be DOA and bid accordingly .

How I got kicked off of Ebay.. Chapter one

I too was interested in Krazykatt1’s auctions and won 8 of them. The bill came
to $407 and change and the money order was in the mail the day after the last
auction ended. A missile command, one space duel, crystal castle, 2 domino
man boards, 2 wacko boards and a Tron.
A few weeks went by and I know that Jan had received my payment since he left
Email and positive feedback on Ebay but still no package. The same week I
received an Email from another winner of Jan's auctions. He had won a missile
command board too but had not received it and was wondering if I was having
better luck. I told him that I had received nothing but would be Emailing Jan
for a status report.
Jan responded with an apology and promised the boards would get out within
the week.
 The following week I received another Email from the guy waiting for the
Missile command.
He said :
"Just to let you know I finally received my missile command
board from krazykat yesterday and sent it back 1 hour later, it had
most of the electrolytic caps with one leg cut , it was missing all
the -5 volt and +12 volts filter bypasscaps, the ones that stand tall
on the board like C 25 threw C42 , just the broken leads where there.
Also had the usual pin 1 burnt badly at the edge connector and not much
material was there left. seems his first reaction was ,"hay, its
insured."

I received nothing in the mail that week ether so I Emailed Jan again asking
for my boards or my Money back The response was:

Hi Mark,

You should have received your package by now. It's a quite large box. I
don't see how they
could lose this one, but it figures. In lieu of filing any paperwork with the
post office, I
can replace some (but not all) of the boards you won. I can send them out
immediately and
refund on the ones I cannot replace. In the meantime, we can wait another
week or so to see
if the first package turns up. If it does, let me know and we can arrange
send-back, etc. If
it does not, let me know so I can file with the USPS. They always make me
wait a few extra
weeks anyhow to see if packages turn up. Priority mail is great exepct that
they do not
guarantee delivery on time. I once had a priority delivery turn up at my
address about 1-1/2
months late. That is simply ridiculous. Anyhow, I'm sorry about this mixup,
but I have no
control over the post office and their practices.

Have a good day,
Jan

Jan did send the second board box right away and I received A crystal castle
board (resets every 3 seconds) A missile command board (DOA) and the Space
duel board (missing x y pots so who knows)
Jan also sent a Money Order refund a week later so I was happy to get some of
my $$ back. The same day I received my returned money order I went to log on
to Ebay for some snooping but found I was no longer registered! To make a LONG
story short, Jan put in a request for credit for the boards he got paid for
but did not ship or got lost as he claims. Ebay read this as non payment from
my end send me this letter:

You were a winning bidder for item number 169434883, Bally/Midway Domino Man
Arcade Game Boardset. The seller for this item has requested a credit for
this auction, indicating that you did not complete this transaction.

This is your fourth notice for this type of offense. Unfortunately, since
this is your fourth notice, your account has now been indefinitely suspended
from eBay.

As our User Agreement explains, if you bid on an item and your bid is accepted
by the seller, you are obligated to complete the transaction. On March 1,
1999 we implemented a Non-Paying Bidder policy to help enforce our User
Agreement in regard to non-paying bidders. Details of this new policy can be
found at:

http://pages.ebay.com/services/safeharbor/safeharbor-npb.html

We do realize that there may be extenuating circumstances which didn't allow
you to honor your winning bid. It is also possible that the seller made a
mistake when they requested this credit. If you believe this report was made
in error, please review the Non-Paying Bidder appeals instructions within our
online Help desk at:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/appeal-npb.html

In order to assist you, we may need to ask you to provide proof of payment or
other information to process your appeal request.

Regards,

eBay SafeHarbor Team

Ebays policy for non payment is as follows:

Bidders reported for non-payment via our automated online credit request
system face the
 following warnings and suspensions:

   1.First offense; warning
   2.Second offense; warning
   3.Third offense; warning and 30 day suspension
   4.Fourth offense; indefinite suspension

It took me a week and a half to get this straightened out since everything had
to be done via Email as Ebay does not have any phone numbers listed for the
public. Meanwhile I lost good money on auctions I was running as who will bid
on a auction by a "Not registered user" and Ebay would not halt the auctions
nor could I cancel them. If what I did receive WAS tested… Tested in what
century? Missing components does not qualify for a tested board in my mind.

In a nut shell be warned! I received junk I would have bid lower on if it was
really not tested or not working. If the deal does go bad you may get a refund
(a good thing). You will wait forever to get you stuff but then Ebay may screw
you over in the process. A for me .. Ill stay clear.

-=Mark=-

Josh McCormick wrote:

> I had a question regarding an eBay seller "krazykatt1". It is appropriate
> to this forum because this seller deals a lot with Vector boards. It seems
> that "tested" and "untested" boards of the exact same time are sold
> side-by-side. But I've never seen any "defective" boards listed.
>
> I'm wanting to tap into the experience of others who have dealt with this
> dealer and purchased an "untested" board to find out what the hit-and-miss
> ratio of working to non-working boards are. Does anyone have an experience
> they can share?
Received on Sun Nov 28 23:42:03 1999