I have sold loads on eBay, always been praised for packaging, indeed this guy has praised the packaging of the bits that actually arrived. The lathe was dismantled and individual parts wrapped independently, the whole box was stuffed to the gills with additional packaging and bubble-wrap.
Today he has contacted me saying this problem is between me and the carrier (which is also eBay's thinking unfortunately), he thinks I should just refund his whole £77 now and deal with the carrier myself.
I have replied that I am not happy to do anything at all until the carrier has had a chance to respond. his money is safe (eBay/paypal have it) but that he has made the situation much worse than it need have been by signing for it 'undamaged' and so he needs to wait and see.
*IF* the carrier pays out then he will get his money back of course, but if not then I intend to argue that he should have refused the delivery, failing that he could have accepted but marked it as 'packaging severely damaged, contents not inspected'.
I think the most likely outcome is eBay will give him his money back and I will be left to argue with eBay and possibly fight with the carrier using info from this thread (thanks) regarding signatures being about delivery, not condition. I may lose that too. :(
I have seen the inside of so many delivery vans that not matter how well the items were packed they would have arrived damaged.
Night Freight, the same company who delivered our fireworks years ago, were delivering a corner wall cupboard for an MFI kitchen that didn't turn up with the rest of the kitchen.The back of the van looked like a bomb had gone off in there. The driver was stepping on parcels, throwing them around trying yo find what he was looking for. When he did find it he threw it from the front of the van, over some other parcels, to the back door. Surprise surprise it was damaged
oh, and just to amuse you guys, I also sold an old mini on the same day for £107, the buyer drove 326 miles each way to collect, taking a total of approx 14 hours and said "Absolutely brill purchase so pleased very friendly and helpful"
I've seen that too, I once saw a PO van 'loaded' by ramming a giant wheelie-bin full of parcels into a bar bolted to the floor for exactly this purpose - the wheels hit the bar, the whole thing tips over and most of the parcels land in the back of the van...
He said he was going to restore it! I had offered to remove the plates and VIN if all he needed was the ID I could have posted that (surprisingly legal to do)
Yeah, pretty much all of the scrap yards in that area have two high stacks. The car I was taking a brake caliper off was on top of another which made things a lot easier (apart from nearly getting brake fluid all over me).
Yards around here you're not allowed to climb on or around the stacks. They make you take an employee with you to do it. They told my old man it has to do with their insurance.
If they're stacked more than two high, an employee has to get what you're after. You're not even allowed near the stack. You have to stay at least twenty-five feet away while they get what you came after.
