Review for user galois427 from Gerbil

  • Gerbil (143)

    I bought an NEC FE771SB 17" monitor that was supposed to be in "mint condition". It arrived broken. Final analysis: Be careful. Andrew intends well, but doesn't listen to shipping requests/advice, and if something goes wrong, don't expect him to help until he's in a tight spot (i.e. Troll Hunters).

    Gerbil was the Seller on September 29, 2004 AnandTech

    I hate to be giving my first negative eval :-/

    See this thread for details and pics: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=45&threadid=1389583

    Andrew Vo and I agreed to the following on 08-28-2004:

    -I'd send $103 by PayPal credit card funds after he confirmed the agreement

    -He'd package the NEC 17" monitor very carefully, as we'd been discussing, so that plenty of foam will surround the monitor and it won't get scratched, dented, or damaged; it should arrive in the "mint" condition as advertised.

    -He'd ship it on Monday, Aug. 30th by FedEx Ground, insured

    -If the packaging were to fail and damage the "mint" condition monitor, he'd send a full refund of $103 plus an additional $23 to cover return shipping.

    -I had to pay to his sister's PayPal account, but that was alright since I had Andrew's full address and phone number and had verified it.

    ------------------------------

    The monitor was shipped when planned. When it arrived, the package was VERY beat up, and the box even said "Lightweight Items such as plastic food containers, games, etc". A monitor should never have been shipped in such flimsy cardboard. Next, he packed it with foam peanuts, newspaper, and a few air bag things. In other words, no foam, no support, and nothing to keep the screen from moving around inside the box. When I opened the package, the screen of the monitor was against one wall of the box. I removed it and found that 3 of 4 corners were slightly damaged. I could have lived with that. However, when I tested it, there was MAJOR discoloration. The left and right bottom corners only produced red and green, respectively. One person who saw the pics described it as "an acid trip".

    I called Andrew within 15 minutes of receiving and testing the monitor. He casually, and in a disappointed tone, asked for me to send him pictures of the damaged monitor. He did *not* make an effort to apologize or tell me that I'd be refunded. When I told him I expected a full refund as per our agreement, he merely said "ok". Because of the tone, I had the feeling he wasn't taking the deal seriously, so I told him I'd take legal action against him if he didn't follow our agreement. At that point, he hung up!

    I received two e-mails within about an hour of the phone conversation. In one e-mail, he wrote that he'd refund me in 2-3 days. After that, however, he wouldn't respond to ANY e-mails or PM's. He didn't send a refund on the 2nd day, nor the 3rd day. By that time, Tates from TrollHunters had read my thread and contacted me. With Tate's help, I was able to get in touch with Andrew's sister (Andrew is under 18 btw). She quickly e-mailed me and said she would make a deposit the next day and would send me the full $103 + $23 refund by PayPal in two days (to allow the bank deposit to clear first). The PayPal payments were indeed sent as promised on 09-08-2004, but they didn't clear until 09-21-2004, which was almost 2 weeks after I'd been promised to get a refund!

    I packed the monitor in the same box it had been shipped to me in, but added Styrofoam and did my best to fix the box up. So, I checked shipping quotes. Yet again, I encountered trouble. It wasn't going to cost $23 to return the monitor...it was going to be a minimum of $29 by FedEx Ground, but the nearest real FedEx location is 70 miles away from here, and the only place that accepts FedEx packages charges ~$3-4 more (which would make it cost roughly $33 to ship). I checked UPS' site and they quoted $33.55. I e-mailed Andrew and told him that it would be nice if he would pay the difference. His response:

    E-mail from Andrew:
    -------------------------
    "it might sound unfair to you but why can't you just pay for the extra $11? when i shipped it, it costed me more than $23, and closer to $30 if i recalled correctly and i had to spend $8 on all the peanuts. i feel its fair if you can just chip in the extra $10 buck. how much is that compared to my lost? not much. you can't expect everything to be perfect. i'm taking most of the blunt; you have to bare a little burden you know."
    -------------------------

    I didn't want to make any more trouble, so I sent another polite e-mail hoping he'd do the right thing and resolve his mistake. Nope, didn't happen. I shipped the monitor a couple days later (after waiting for a response) and UPS ended up charging me $37! Now, I only received $22 of the $23 PayPal payment he sent me because of fees. I would have gladly ate the lost dollar. But $15 is a bit more significant, especially when factoring in the wasted time--I should have had a "mint condition" monitor on 09-03-2004.

    End Result:

    -I didn't get a working monitor.
    -Andrew had to be forced into resolving the matter (Troll Hunters).
    -I ended up in with -$15.

    I'll admit that refunding more than $23 for return shipping was not part of the contract. What I had implied by writing "$23 for return shipping" was that he would pay for ALL return shipping costs...I shouldn't have assumed his estimate was correct. Morally, I believe seller's should take all responsibility to make a sale right; a buyer should not end up with less than they began with.

    Andrew uses his sister's PayPal AND eBay account. Feedback like mine is also present on their eBay account: jessmikevo

    September 29, 2004