What would you do: Buyer claims board does not work

ArcRevival

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What would you do: Buyer claims board does not work

This is purely hypothetical. If you had a working board or deflection board and packed it up nice, shipped it out, and the buyer got it and claimed it did not work, what would you do ?

Would the sale be as is ? would you refund the money ? Would you offer to repair it ?
 
If you have the ability to test it, and I'll assume you hypothetically do since it was sold as working, have him ship it back so that you can retest it.

If it works, let him know the problem must be on his end and give him the option of getting it back for postage or just getting a refund of the sale price minus what you paid to ship it.

If it doesn't work, fix it if it's simple or just refund the purchase price. You've got no idea if it broke during shipping, if he screwed it, or if it's just one of those things.

Not sure if you should say 'as is' unless you said 'as is' before the sale.

K
 
I had it happen. MVS cart. Worked 100% on my neo geo, my friends and family both saw it working and we used to play it. Put no returns, etc, on the ebay listing. I put pics of it playing. Guy gets it, says no sound. Wants money back (like 25 shipped) I say no, he files paypal claim, I escalated to dispute, and they found in his favor even though clearly stated no returns/refunds/etc. All in all he got about 8 bucks back after paying return shipping. Got it home and wouldnt play sound on mine after that. I figured a board swap inside the cart. The sticker was already cut originally. Oh well. I chucked it.
 
That's why you sell as-is no returns. I would offer to help troubleshoot it a little bit but there's no way for you to know if he fried the board by accident or if the board got fcked up in transit.
 
i secretly mark my boards. then they cant ship back a different board to scam me.

no telling if they have a static free environment and know how to handle PCB's.
no telling whats up with their power supply output.

if the board i sent was known working 100% then they are out of luck. sorry.

ask them if they used a wrist ground strap when they handled the PCB.
 
i sell vintage electronics all the time, and even if it works i still sell as is no returns. how can you guarantee a 20+ year old piece of electronics as working? i always say "i tested it and it is working, however, due to its age i have to sell it as-is". sometimes if theres something i overlooked or its DOA i will offer a partial refund. no problems so far, been selling 5 years or so with 100% positive feedback.
 
I never offer returns on eBay auctions whatsoever.

Yeah,
Are you the same guy who sells a working tron board tested and working buy it now for $160 and in another auction at the same time sells a tron board "it worked last time I tested it but have no way of testing it now" for $90 bs. Sure half the components are missing and there is acid damage everywhere but you remembered it working but no guarantees. What a bunch of morally bankrupt crap. If you are claiming a board to be working you have an expectation to get a much higher price for it. With that there is the burden to do all in your power to rectify any issues that may come up. Even if you claim that there is a possibility it works you owe your best efforts which include returns. These sellers ruin it for the honest people. There are two types of people in the arcade business. Those that are total scumbags and those that are really good people. There seems to be no in between. The only time you can get away with no returns is if you qualify the auction with the statement, "Selling as not working"...and don't even hint otherwise. Anything else and you're just a douche.
 
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I post pics of the board and pics of that board working. I would also make them buy insurance just in case. I also state no returns and out of my control once it ships. If the buyer is cool and mentions it doesn't work I'd work with him, if he's a dick he can piss off. - Barry
 
Yeah,
Are you the same guy who sells a working tron board tested and working buy it now for $160 and in another auction at the same time sells a tron board "it worked last time I tested it but have no way of testing it now" for $90 bs. Sure half the components are missing and there is acid damage everywhere but you remembered it working but no guarantees. What a bunch of morally bankrupt crap. If you are claiming a board to be working you have an expectation to get a much higher price for it. With that there is the burden to do all in your power to rectify any issues that may come up. Even if you claim that there is a possibility it works you owe your best efforts which include returns. These sellers ruin it for the honest people. There are two types of people in the arcade business. Those that are total scumbags and those that are really good people. There seems to be no in between. The only time you can get away with no returns is if you qualify the auction with the statement, "Selling as not working"...and don't even hint otherwise. Anything else and you're just a douche.

Um...hooolllyyy shit.

First of all, Hi. My names Drew. Glad to meet you.

Second of all, I mainly sell game systems and old computer parts. I dont believe I have ever sold a PCB. Arcade game parts? Of course. PCBs? No. And if I did, I make sure I describe it to a tee and take pics. Good ones. With an actual camera, not a cell phone. No questions asked about what one would get.

Feel free to look me up on eBay: thedrewster08

So to answer your question, no. I am not the same guy.
 
Good to know. Sorry for the venting, sort of. Obviously I had a bad experience or two. Still, I stand by my views that if as a seller you inply that something is working or could be working, every effort should be made to make things right. You might not come out ahead on that one transaction, but over time you'll build a good rep and will do well in the long run. So anyway, after leaving negative feedback on the crook, he retaliated in kind. He had the nerve to say "what part of untested and no guarantee don't you understand". The part where you convienently hide the acid damage and missing components in your pics and description. Untested my ass. One look would confirm that it is visually tested and confirmed not working. I didn't necessarily expect a working board, but I wasn't gonna let him get away with that clear attempt at fraud. So he can test one board as working and is somehow unable to test the other? This was years ago and I didn't catch that the 2 boards were from the same seller. You live you learn.
 
thats clearly fraud, but still, sometimes shit does happen.

i recently sold a 12 year old studio quality EQ on ebay as tested working, no guarantees. got just over $600 for it. i know the thing works because its the nicest EQ i ever had in my possession, and i spent at least 6 hours using it while converting old cassette tapes to digital.

so i sent it to the guy and got an email back right away, the gain knob doesnt work right. he said there was crackling noise when adjusting it. well, i have no idea whether there is an issue or not, i sure didnt notice one but its possible i might not have really cranked on that particular knob, i check the guy's recent auction history and see he has bought many big ticket items in the past without a problem, so i emailed back promptly and offered a 50% refund, which he accepted.

if, however, the guy had been an asshole i might have handled the situation differently. i certainly have told people to go pound sand before. yes, when the item is fraudulently described or pictured, that is wrong. however, there is a grey area. not everyone who sells a working item and the buyer has an issue is a scumbag. the guy i sold to, i have no idea what he hooked up to the thing or if he knows how to use it. yes, an auction stating something works means people will pay more for it, but if it is listed as-is, the seller has to assume there is the possibility it might not work for them. its tough to say with shit that is decades old, and misunderstandings are possible without people being fraudulent.
 
I'm not sure there are only two types of sellers of Arcade stuff. I am only a douche 2 out of 7 days a week. The other 5 I give everything away for free, but as "non-working".

:p
 
If doesn't matter if you say as-is if they use paypal. They always side with the buyer.

Not so. About a year ago, I bought a pinball CPU board that was advertised as 100% working. The board I got had 5 transistors missing, all of the power resistors missing and the flipper relay was busted. I took pictures of it and the picture of the board on Ebay, emailed the seller saying that this was not the board he offered for sale and politely asked for the board I had bought. He replied that the picture on Ebay was "representative" of the boards he sold. I sent back the copy of his ebay listing and nowhere did it say representative and it said 100% working. The board he sent was neither. He stopped answering emails. So I filed a Paypal dispute including the pictures and the email chain. I was told basically that "You bought a board, you got a board. Case closed.". The seller now no longer states 100% working and says pictures are representative.

I did fix the board, but it pisses me off that he could get away with that bs. I used to email him when I would see one of his boards and ask how many transistors were missing so I would know how many to buy to fix it when it came in. lol! Most of the time he would pull the auction a couple of hours later.

ken
 
This is purely hypothetical. If you had a working board or deflection board and packed it up nice, shipped it out, and the buyer got it and claimed it did not work, what would you do ?

Would the sale be as is ? would you refund the money ? Would you offer to repair it ?

I have sold a couple dozen boards on ebay, always advertised as working 100%, and I feel I should stand behind that claim.

Only once have I had someone claim a board didn't work, a Ghosts and Goblins board which unfortunately was shipped to Canada (expensive!). I happened to have a second board, which I sent out to him with instructions to send the original back to me, and I would reimburse him for the shipping. He ended up sending the original board back at his own expense, being pleased with the second board I had sent him. The original board did end up having a problem.

In an ebay problem situation, reverse the roles of buyer and seller, and imagine how you would like to be treated. I know I wouldn't have liked to have purchased a board and have it not work, and I wouldn't have liked to pay extra shipping on top of that. Sometimes being a good seller means eating the shipping costs and giving a refund, or working out a deal with the buyer.
 
If I sell something as "working 100%", it means I tested it minutes before it goes in the box for shipping. I add insurance to cover the cost of the board + the shipping, with delivery confirmation to make sure it arrives where it's supposed to.

If there is a problem, I ask the buyer to send it back so I can retest it. If I find a problem, then I will refund his purchase price and his return shipping if he wants. Or I'll fix it and resend, paying the shipping back and refunding his return shipping. If I have a replacement, I will send that.

And I also secretly mark everything I fix or sell so that I can identify it later as mine...
 
I guess my concern is if a buyer puts a board in a game that has power supply problems and ruins the board. Or maybe has bad chassis transistors on an XY monitor and blows something on a deflection board you just sold him. If you get it back and find something wrong, it could have been caused by the game it was put in. You fix it and send it back or send another good one and it will happen again. So now you probably lost money on the deal or broke even at best. I am just having a hard time deciding what is fair to both the buyer and seller.
 
I think that's the big issue. Most buyers don't have the know how to make sure that another problem within the cabinet doesn't exist. A lot of new collectors will buy a dead machine, and plug in a tested working board in an attempt to fix it. If the power supply is faulty they may toast a few board sets before they catch on...
 
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