Recently I bought a used Pioneer laserdisc player on eBay. When it arrived, I hooked it up and it doesn’t play laserdiscs or CDs. According to the troubleshooting guide, it’s gotten moisture build up and you have to wait for it to “dry out”. It was shipped UPS and the driver apparently left it sitting behind my house on the patio. Apparently, it had been sitting there since the 13th!. How it wasn’t noticed I can’t begin to explain.
Now, I certainly can’t blame the shipper for what UPS did. Normally, if a signature isn’t required, they leave packages by the front door. Luckily, I live in a pretty decent neighborhood and have never had a problem with this.
My predicament lies in how to leave feedback for the seller. He did ship it and it did arrive in a timely manner (despite me not knowing about it). The case it was shipped in is a fairly sturdy one with foam padding. The player does not work as promised in the eBay description:
The player not working is not the fault of the seller assuming it was working when he shipped it.
I’ve emailed the seller to let him know the player doesn’t work. I didn’t find out until after that email how long the player had been sitting outside. The case was sealed pretty good and it doesn’t appear that it got rained in.
The seller has not left feedback for me yet.
I have since emailed him with the above information.
I hate buying on eBay for the reason you stated. Sellers always wait for the buyer to post feedback first which is crap. Whenever I sell I always post feedback as soon as I receive payment. I have a few auctions where I never received any feedback from a seller because I refused to post feedback.
Since it seems that the seller hasn’t posted feedback even though he/she has already received payment you just shouldn’t post anything. If the seller does post positive feedback then you don’t have a choice but to post positive feedback also. It was not his/her fault the package was left out for so long.
Are you sure its moisture? Are you sure its just not that the unit was DOA? If it is DOA then the seller is at fault since the auction stated the machine wsa working.
The unit comes on as normal. When I put in any type of disc, the “play” light blinks a few times and then stops. I know there is video output because when I hit “audio select” button, I can see the choices cycle through on the TV.
I may pop the cover and let it air out for a couple of days.
The seller has a 98.6% positive feedback rate. I going to assume at this point that the player was working at the time of shipment.
If the player was truly damaged due to it being left outside so long then it has nothing to do with the seller. You may not be satisfied, but this is a situation where no one is at fault, an “act of god” sort of speak. Unfortunately, someone always suffers a loss, but it certainly shouldn’t be at the seller’s feedback expense. If you believe the unit was good when it was shipped, and the shipping was fast, then theres no reason why you shouldn’t leave positive feedback. I do agree that you should leave him feedback only after he has left you feedback. I also hate sellers that don’t leave feedback right away.
I never said it was the seller’s problem. My problem is with what kind of feedback to leave. I am not happy that the player doesn’t work, but it isn’t the seller’s fault. I can’t honestly leave positive feedback because I am not happy with the transaction. I can’t leave negative feedback because the seller is not at fault. I could leave neutral feedback, but it would look negative even though UPS was at fault.
How would I approach UPS with this? I got an email from the seller today and he says the package was insured (but he didn’t say for how much. I’m assuming the default $100).
Since I had nothing to lose, I pulled the cover off the player. I was immediately able to see the main problem. The entire laser assembly w/guide rail had come off its mounting posts. I was able to figure out how to remount it, but the player still does not work. I also found a small piece of plastic that had broken off of something, but I am unable to figure out where it came from. Also on the laser part, there’s an LED in a small segment that appears to be missing a screw. It’s possible the screw has become lodged somewhere inside the player, but I’d likely have to completely disassemble the entire unit. I’m not that brave.
I have emailed the seller and have decided to leave positive feedback despite what has happened. I’m going to call around town tomorrow to see if the player can be repaired for a reasonable amount. I figure a minimum of $50 just to open the box.
Still, it is a Pioneer industrial model (CLD-V2400) and I think it’s worth fixing.
Good onya for leaving positive feedback for the seller, but I think you’re gonna find some blank looks around town when you ask to have your player fixed. (Especially in Savannah. :D) They may just tell you to buy a whole new unit/DVD player as opposed to fixing what’s wrong with the Pioneer
Quasi (who is having his own probs with pixelling on his rented DVD’s!)