Model Forum / General / Railroads / November 2009

On 11/19/2009 6:58 PM Twibil spake thus:

Good story.

Now excuse me while I drool over just the *thought* of that Overland
brass ...

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I had a similar experience a few years back on eBay. I ordered what
was advertised as a cd (data) from a guy in Great Britain. What I
received was a DVD. At that time, my computer had no dvd drive. I
informed the guy and suggested that he correct his ad so others would
not have the same problem. A few days later, I received a dvd drive in
the mail! Almost unbelievable!

Bill
Bill's Railroad Empire

If I ever have a problem with an e-bay seller, it usually happened with
shipping  duration. Many sellers  have used the Amazon business model
and actually don't stock anything. So you pay and wait. Either they only
go to the post office once a week, or their supplier takes longer to
drop ship the item.
Dealing with individuals who sell a few items, seems to be easier than
those who use  e-bay as their main business.
I did have a problem recently with one seller who took 3 weeks to ship
after payment. He used a recent train show first as an excuse and then
his supplier messed up and did not ship on time. Basically he was
screwing up and just would not except the blame. Nice thing about Pay
Pal is that if you use your credit card, you can call Visa, MasterCard
or Amex and ask them to reverse the charge if a seller plays games. You
don't have to deal with Pay Pal.
Mike M

After having sold and bought over 50 locos and numerous cars, I've gad only
one poroblem.  The guy was basically a troublemaker from what other reviews
of him that came up later.  He got 3 locos from me in one box and one of
them shifted init's box.

--
Bob May

rmay at nethere.com
http: slash /nav.to slash bobmay
http: slash /bobmay dot astronomy.net

I've bought a good bit of MRR equipment off Ebay.  A couple of locos,
including one that wasn't advertised on Ebay, but I got from an Ebay
seller who had something else that I bid on and he mentioned having
this one too.  I have also gotten a number of out of production
freight cars that I'd been looking for.  One or two arrived with some
minor damage...such as a cracked ladder rung or one loco had a bell
that'd popped off..but nothing that a drop of superglue and a touch of
the paint brush wouldn't make look good as new.  

I've bought a lot of other gear off ebay too.  Some for myself and
some for others.  I've gotten my wife a purse and perfume not to
mention just last night ordered a GPS for christmas for her.  I also
bought a webkin for my son and a stuffed siamese cat for my Dad who's
in a nursing home and can't have a real cat in there.  

I decided to get back into music recording after nearly a 20 year
hiatus, so I have bought quite a few pieces of music gear off Ebay.
Mostly well-used and out of production older equipment.  I've gotten
one or two new items from vendors too.

I had a couple problems with some of the audio gear, but everything
was resolved quickly.  One item had a malfunctioning channel, and the
seller not only refunded my purchase price (minus shipping) but also
told me to keep the unit if I could use it in any way, or just toss it
out if I couldn't.  The auction price was so low it wasn't worth
returning.  Another unit had a display backlight that was burnt out.
You could read it as long as you had plenty of light, but in dim light
or dark you'd have to shine a flashlight on it.  That seller gave me a
partial refund.  I had another unit arrived heavily damaged by FedEx
and rendred useless.  That seller had FedEx come back and pick it up
and he issued a refund minus shipping once the claim was adjusted by
FedEx.  That seller also kept constant communication...many voice
calls included.  

I have one other piece of audio gear that I got a fairly good deal on,
that has just started having problems...but it's well beyond the point
of contacting the seller about it...and I'm not too sure it isn't just
the power switch acting up.  I might be able to open it up and either
use contact cleaner, or rewire the power switch to just stay on all
the time.  I keep the unit in a rack on a power strip anyway.

But overall, I've had good experiences with Ebay, and I do recommend
it to others.  I've had a couple seller throw something extra in with
the items I'd purchased.  Two sellers even included a small refund on
shipping charges, because the actual charges were less.