Products > Test Equipment

Resolving transit damaged TE

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MoreTEAplease:

Hello world… my name is Jim and I am a TE Addict…  :-[
Long time lurker, first time etc. I’d love for my first post to be delivering some sage advice but alas not…
 
Issue:
HP 5372a Freq & time interval analyser - significantly damaged in transit US to UK. Pictures had shown it to be in good condition; sold as ‘parts not working’ but shown as passing built in tests (Seller quite fairly saying could guarantee nothing as unfamiliar)

Current situation:
Have sent seller pictures of unpacking and description of main damage seen so far. No internal inspection yet. No response yet from seller but 100% positive of c200 sales; no reason to suspect they’ll be a problem.

Short request:
For learned members’ advice on what is a reasonable and fair resolution to request from seller.

Background:
TEA weakness led to eBay purchase pre-Christmas. Sent via Global Shipping Program so was £££ postage but evidently I was keen. Tracking number provided showed no movement for several weeks - a 'feature' of GSP I thought initially. Seller responded quickly to message and suddenly it started its journey - hurrah! Bit of a pain but whoever it was we’re all human and it’s a very first world problem.

Received yesterday. On shifting into house found two instrument rear feet sticking through well established holes in single skin cardboard box. Opposing face (thus front of instrument) better shape but two smaller holes. Became apparent due CoG shift that instrument was free to roam within box on one axis.

Got the phone out and took a load of pre-unwrap pictures. Then took video of unboxing (if I work out the posting of pics I’ll upload)

Opening up found:
- top panel protected by single sheet of soft foam, 2 in thick one end, 1.2 in other end. Compressed under moderate thumb pressure on callipers to barely 1/4 inch
- Instrument wrapped in two layers of large-bubble wrap done around sides, top and base
- Two layers bubble wrap orthogonal to first around front and rear of instrument.
- No further packing beneath instrument
- Sides packed out from box by good thickness of brown paper
- Nothing more than two layers of bubble wrap over front and rear panels with no attempt to better protect front panel corners , edges, connectors or screen  :palm:
- No padding to prevent instrument from sliding within box on fore-aft axis[/li][/list]  |O

Older / longer players of the game will have anticipated:
•   Front panel severe damage left hand edge around screen as it has been shifted down and left, such that it is now recessed beneath chassis top and partly to left of chassis right hand edge - overall entire front panel is warped (I’m touching nothing at this stage)
•   Ext Arm BNC minor dink; Channel A BNC ok; Channel B BNC major impact damage from 4 o’clock
•   Channel C’s type N is ok superficially but hole in box says it’s definately taken hits so damage behind unknown. Further hole in box correlates with upper right corner of front panel where most pushed in
•   Screen was unprotected standfast two layers of bubble wrap. Somehow front glass externally intact, whether what is behind has survived is anyone’s guess

Miraculously, rear panel intact, bar upper rear right foot came adrift during unpacking and upper left foot is AWOL, I think by traumatic amputation but as with one of the bottom feet, this might have been missing to start with.

Rest of top / bottom / sides appear superficially ok; handles intact. There is something small running around inside, maybe a fuse, maybe something more problematic.

Summary:
Significant damage. I can and have lived with broken feet and even the odd mangled BNC or minor crack to plastic (even if one maybe should not). I’ve only ever PM’d sellers to encourage better packing next time in these cases because life is short and worse things happen at sea.

Here however I have received pretty battered something which was advertised in good condition, albeit fairly ‘parts not working’ (description outlined it did fire up and pass built in tests)

What I have may be repairable but even if I don’t find obvious damage upon opening up, I worry there could be all manner of shock damage, (some life shortening?) which goes well beyond connector reseating etc. It’s already going to need several hours work. Wasn’t looking to sell on but some reasonable resale value is normal should the need arise –  also part of the TEA balance I feel! – yet this is barely scrap in present form and questionable even when ‘fixed.’

Question: - What would you suggest in your opinion / experience (perhaps as a seller too) that resolution ought to be please, and why?

Constraints / considerations:
•   Please be fair to both parties (as I’m sure you would be – not precluding ‘full refund’ if that is where I ought to head, just want to avoid any knee-jerk pile-ons that stories of woe can invoke, be it in the pub or on the internet)
•   I’ve necessarily paid VAT / Import duty on total cost (item + significant postage) – is there a mechanism to recover any of this, or is it a cost of playing the Import game? If irrecoverable / nails to recover then I need to factor this in.
•   Unless persuaded otherwise, postage back across the pond is going to be excessive – though I guess this is sellers call.
•   An agreed resolution pause pending a repair attempt is not realistic – I have no reliable capacity for this for many months at best (and given past history, several years..).
•   Bonus: I don’t need its capabilities immediately (did I say I am an addict?)

Thank you for reading so much guff… any thoughts gratefully received - Jim

Fungus:

--- Quote from: MoreTEAplease on January 17, 2023, 07:48:21 pm ---•   I’ve necessarily paid VAT / Import duty on total cost (item + significant postage) – is there a mechanism to recover any of this, or is it a cost of playing the Import game? If irrecoverable / nails to recover then I need to factor this in.

--- End quote ---

I don't know if they've changed anything but: Last year I bought a laptop for £400 that came with the wrong charger. Seller agreed to refund me £25 so I could buy a new one and eBay refunded me the £25 plus all the import taxes (which were about £100).

Win!

bdunham7:
Who did the actual packaging?

dorkshoei:
1. Please consider in future posts being more concise.  For such a simple issue this is a long post that is challenging to read.

2. You're allowed to attach pictures here and as they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words" :-)

It's hard to really tell from your description much about the sellers packaging but it doesn't sound terrible to me.

Bottom line, eBay guarantees you'll get the item in the condition shown in the listing.   It's not your job to worry about being fair to the seller.  They can stand up for themselves.     

Also I doubt the seller will have to cover it.   eBay's seller page for GSP (https://www.ebay.com/sellercenter/shipping/ebay-labels-services/ebay-international-shipping-services/ebay-global-shipping-program) states "Although you’re responsible for getting the package safely to the Global Shipping Center, in general you won’t be responsible if the item is damaged or lost during international shipping"

Whenever I've raised questions like this on eBay community I've found there are two very different schools of thought.  One is to message the seller and give them the courtesy of fixing.  The other (majority) advocates just opening a dispute.     

I believe customs fees are included in the total the buyer pays eBay for GSP transactions. I believe they are returned on any refund.  I had a really bizarre GSP sale to the UK (where the item was "lost", buyer was refunded in full including customs fees but then the item got relisted on eBay by a UK seller who claimed he'd bought it from an auction I guess run by whomever runs the GSP).  I stopped offering GSP after that.

EDIT:  My suggestion - especially since it is a GSP transaction - is to open a formal dispute and let eBay not the seller handle it.  Click on "return this item" and select "arrived damaged".  Attach the pictures.    I suspect you'll get a full refund. 

Fungus:

--- Quote from: MoreTEAplease on January 17, 2023, 07:48:21 pm ---Opening up found:
- top panel protected by single sheet of soft foam, 2 in thick one end, 1.2 in other end. Compressed under moderate thumb pressure on callipers to barely 1/4 inch
- Instrument wrapped in two layers of large-bubble wrap done around sides, top and base
- Two layers bubble wrap orthogonal to first around front and rear of instrument.
- No further packing beneath instrument
- Sides packed out from box by good thickness of brown paper
- Nothing more than two layers of bubble wrap over front and rear panels with no attempt to better protect front panel corners , edges, connectors or screen  :palm:

--- End quote ---

That doesn't sound too bad to me...

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