Gerbil

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 Buyer 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.

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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:
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"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."
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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

XFX GeForce GeForce 7600GT Kingston HX 1gb

Gerbil was the Seller on May 27, 2009 AnandTech

Excellent communication. Buyer paid promptly and informed me of shipment\'s arrival. Will deal with again!

Athlon XP 2000+ Palomino

Gerbil was the Seller on July 6, 2003 AnandTech

He paid by MO and let me wait until I'd recieved payment before I shipped the CPU. Quick payment, and excellent communications. It was a pleasure doing business with him!

I bought a USB 2.0 PCI card

Gerbil was the Buyer on January 25, 2007 AnandTech

He shipped the card VERY quickly. I think it took all of two days to arrive. Fine communication, really simple deal. A++

I bought an Athlon XP 2000+ retail w/hsf.

Gerbil was the Buyer on October 28, 2004 AnandTech

Great trader! I asked if he'd ship first since he was a fairly new member at AnandTech, and he had no objection. He shipped very quickly. Communication was excellent, and the package arrived sooner than expected. Packaging was good, and the processor works perfectly. I paid as soon as I'd inspected it. Thanks!

4 Port USB 1.1 Hub

Gerbil was the Seller on June 29, 2003 AnandTech

Great trader. Quick payment and good communication. Thanks!

Athlon XP 1700+ TBred A with a Speeze 80mm hsf

Gerbil was the Seller on June 12, 2005 AnandTech

Jeff communicated and paid very quickly, and he let me know as soon as the items arrived. Excellent buyer!

Western Digital WD400JB 40GB 8MB cache hard drive

Gerbil was the Seller on August 2, 2005 AnandTech

He responded to PM's and paid very quickly. Excellent buyer!

I bought a Linksys WRT54G four port 802.11g router.

Gerbil was the Buyer on December 23, 2005 AnandTech

He shipped the router and provided me with a DC# very quickly. If it wasn\'t the week before Christmas, the package would\'ve arrived in only two days. The router was packed perfectly and works equally well. Excellent trader!

WD 1600JB hd, Audigy 2 ZS

Gerbil was the Buyer on January 4, 2007 AnandTech

I needed a hard drive by Friday, and he delivered. Both items were packaged extremely carefully and communication was top-notch. Fantastic seller!

nVidia Stickers

Gerbil was the Buyer on February 24, 2002 Other/Unknown

Thanks!

I bought a SB Live! Value.

Gerbil was the Buyer on February 18, 2004 AnandTech

Communication prior to payment was excellent. Once I\'d PayPal\'ed the money, contact was essentially lost. It took him 3 days to get back to me, and he shipped a couple days after I paid him...it\'s nothing major, just a bit scary slow to work with (people do have things to do though). The card arrived on time and was packed in a bubble *envelope* in an anti-static bag, wrapped in the side of a Kleenex box for support. At first, I was thinking, \"uh oh.\" No shipping damage occured though, and the card works fine!

Overall, he didn\'t do bad. I\'ll give this deal a \"B\". I got the product, and it works great. I hope the questionable communication and packaging were a one time thing, and I sent him a message in hopes of conveying that many traders expect a bit more, which resulting in him being insulted. I\'m very sorry about that!

I\'ll have to give him some credit for giving me the price I asked ($15 shipped) and not the amount he wanted. In my opinion, this is a very fair price, as I sold an identical card for that price months ago, and I saw a few going for $10 and $15 shipped the day after I bought his SB Live. Thanks!

I bought an Athlon CPU for $28.

Gerbil was the Buyer on March 6, 2005 AnandTech

Great communication! Since he's a fairly new trader, I asked him to make sure the CPU was packaged safely (I've received quite a few busted items from new traders). He decided to wait for a couple days to get better packaging before shipping, and he kept me well informed. The CPU arrived when expected, and in superb condition. In fact, this is one of the cleanest used CPUs I've bought. I wouldn?ÇÖt hesitate dealing with him again!

Bought a PNY GF4 Ti 4200 64mb AGP 8x

Gerbil was the Buyer on January 8, 2004 AnandTech

Very quick communication, good packaging, and almost brand new item! Highly recommended!

I sold him some 64mb PC133 RAM

Gerbil was the Seller on April 12, 2002 Other/Unknown

Good buyer.

Kingston 2x512 MB HyperX PC3200

Gerbil was the Seller on May 25, 2005 AnandTech

Great trader! He claimed the RAM on a Wednesday and promised that he could pay on Friday. He kept his word. Unlike many buyers, Adam kept me updated with PMs to ensure a smooth deal. We had no problems. A++

AMD stock hsf

Gerbil was the Seller on July 9, 2002 AnandTech

I sold him a stock AMD hsf from a 1.2 GHz Duron. Deal went smoothly! A+

Maxtor 120GB 7200rpm 8MB cache hd

Gerbil was the Buyer on August 5, 2005 AnandTech

I paid on a Wednesday and SPQQKY was unable to ship until the following Wednesday due to life getting in the way. He informed me of the delay, so it was not a problem. The drive was packed VERY well and clean too. Great trader!

Stock Chenming 80x80x25mm case fan

Gerbil was the Seller on June 26, 2003 AnandTech

He paid by PayPal and I shipped it by USPS Priority. Great trader. Thanks!

Sold him a VIA C3 900MHz CPU.

Gerbil was the Seller on August 11, 2004 AnandTech

He communicated well and payed by PayPal. No problems!

Senao 2511MP Plus mini-PCI WiFi card

Gerbil was the Buyer on February 20, 2007 AnandTech

He shipped very quickly. The card was packed well and works perfectly. Excellent seller!

Blue Orb

Gerbil was the Seller on June 20, 2002 Other/Unknown

Good buyer. Responds quickly.

Athlon Thunderbird 1ghz AXIA w/266FSB.

Gerbil was the Seller on January 25, 2002 Other/Unknown

He paid immediatelly and notified me when he received it. Very good buyer!

I sold him an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard.

Gerbil was the Seller on July 5, 2005 AnandTech

Deathkoba PM'ed me and paid quickly. He contacted me again once the motherboard had arrived and he'd tested the board. Communication was quick and easy and the trade went very smoothly. Thanks for another smooth deal!

Sold motherboard to this guy...

Gerbil was the Seller on March 5, 2012 AnandTech

Sold for the cost of shipping. Really quick payment. Thanks.