Anyone have a problem shipping a game board?

freeplayinc

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I recently sold a 100% working game board that I have had in my personal machine for about 3 months, I tested it one last time before I shipped it as I always do and I get a PM that the board I sold is DOA?? I packed it well and even used a anti static bag so I'm at a loss of why it would be DOA. I'm putting the shoe on the other foot and thinking what If I bought a working board that arived DOA how would I feel, but at the same time it's hard to fathem that it died in shipping so I'm sharing my story and seeing how many times this may have happend to you??

I have never sold any board without testing it before I list it here then retest again before shipping to buyer and I have never had anyone claim a DOA board before and I have sold a ton of boards. I do know this stuff is 30 years old and shit happens but it leaves a bitter taste since I know that board worked flawless when it left my house and I sold it for less then I had into it to start so I'm pretty upset about it.

So I'm looking for your stories in a similar situation and how you handled it to hopfuly feel better about this situation :)
 
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I think a generally accepted practice is the buyer pays shipping to send the board back to you, for testing. If you confirm it's your original board and it is not working, you can either fix the board, or refund him at that point.


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I have always offered to pay the return shipping myself. If when I get the board it is working, I would then expect the buyer to reimburse me for the shipping both ways.
 
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A point that some don't think about:

If you sold a JAMMA board that requires -5v, and the buyer plugs it into a JAMMA cab that doesn't have -5V on the connector (like some don't) - then the board will not work.

But as stated, tell the person to send the board back to you. When you receive it, you will test in again. If it is indeed dead, you will refund. if it works, you will send it back...
 
A point that some don't think about:

If you sold a JAMMA board that requires -5v, and the buyer plugs it into a JAMMA cab that doesn't have -5V on the connector (like some don't) - then the board will not work.

But as stated, tell the person to send the board back to you. When you receive it, you will test in again. If it is indeed dead, you will refund. if it works, you will send it back...

Not a jamma board so I know that's not the issue, and I have already had him test a few things with no success and I have already offered a refund before I started this thread and now just waiting for a reply.

I would never sell a DOA board as working and yet I never had anyone claim it was DOA but I guess there's a first for everything and again I do realize we are dealing with 30 year old parts that can fail at anytime, I have the luxury of living about 5 miles from the Mighty Dick Millikan so I can have him look at it/repair it if indeed it's now DOA.

I started this post more to see how often this happens and if it's just one of those unsaid things that hapens in the background without being talked about. Like I said before I have sold at least 25 boards on this group and only one I sold had a small glitch when they received it but it seemed it was more of something I never noticed then something that "happend" and we worked it out very easily.

I have too bought a few boards that arived DOA and again I have the luxury of being close to a pro that can fix it but for a $cost$, so I have been able to resolve those issue with ease & not need to return the board.

I guess I'm just a little bent out of shape on the fact that I know that board worked fine when it left and it was packed well with a antistatic bag to boot and I have a hard time beliving it's DOA but I too have have been on the other side of this fence but I have a great resource that most don't.
 
A long time ago i decided to secretly mark all boards i sell as working, just to make sure the board I get back is indeed the one I sent. I mark the undersides of the socketed chips, too, just to make sure someone doesn't just swap non-working ROMs on and keeps the working ROMs for his board.

Luckily, I haven't had an issue yet...
 
I've never had this problem, but I always wonder about the machine damaging the board. There are threads about a board problem where the owner gets it repaired/replaced and the working board is immediately damaged when hooked up.

This is not an easy call... If it was a KLOV regular, I'd probably give them the benefit of the doubt.
 
I have repaired, burned in and re-tested boards prior to shipping and have had a few arrive DOA or with issues. It happens. Parts decide to fail later. The post office also jostles the boards quite a bit. And yes, some of the boards are failures and some of the boards are "user error" including improper connection or even worse, mis-applied voltages from a mis-wired cabinet.

And I do make special marks to the boards I ship so no shenanigans - only one duped me using the excuse that the board was damaged during shipment. I got back half of what I sent and it was not the one I sent and said - "hey just make a claim and you'll get your money back". I try to do business mostly with people I know or at least have a presence in the hobby or on KLOV.

99% of these are worked out amicably. The two I hate are folks that won't admit they unintentionally fried the board and it is very obvious when I get it back. The other one is "my other board works fine in the cab and yours doesn't." I get the board back and it is fine. Who's telling the truth? We could both be right. There are a couple of ways to handle that including sending both boards to me for correlation.

Long winded answer but yes, the post office does have some mysterious ability to turn working boards into non-working boards during shipment. :)

Bill
 
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