[R-390] R-388 knobs, etc (LONGer Still)

[Barry Hauser]

Hi Jim:

Horror stories like yours really get to me.  I may have to take a walk
around the block to shake the palpatations, shakes and tendency to turn
green and burst out of my shirt.  (Also, everything looks red.)

Hot button -- Mailboxes Etc. -- on top of the ripoff artist and general
rotten b-----d in question..

Before I forget -- yes, it's the shipper who's supposed to file the claim,
however, if things were truly as you said, the MBE was the shipper of record
in your case.  I always cringe if someone wants to use one of them to ship
me something.  Despite that commercial they ran up to a few months ago --
experts in packing, hah! -- all they know from is flimsy overpriced cartons,
USED, pre-crumbled peanuts, and bubblewrap.  They charge for all three and
mark up the UPS charges anywhere from 15 to 100% over what you'd pay to UPS
directly.  The margin is actually higher because they are daily pickup
shippers and get a volume discount.  There is also now some ownership
connection between UPS and MBE.

Actually, $88 sounds cheap for them for 135 lbs.  Must have been a
relatively short distance.  Were you contacted by UPS for evidence of the
loss?  May be you should go after that MBE.  If they really shipped it
(would show on the label), THEY would have had to file the claim and would
have received the money from UPS.  Of course, their customer who ostensibly
paid them in the first place was your seller, and that's who they'd remit
to, but .... might be worth a try.  May still be a reach, I dunno.

It also tars me that there are so many sellers who are quick to sell heavy
relics at high prices and then just dump them in a box or trot off to an
MBE.  (Did the seller advertise -- "must be professionally packed"?)

I had a recent experience on a private sale.  A large open reel deck with
overhead console.  Negotiated a price and a more-than sufficient allowance
for shipping and packing materials.  Next I hear from him - he shipped it --
from an MBE clone place.  Needs another $100 to cover it.  Cost me double
what it cost you for coast to coast, but half the weight.  Never again.  If
a seller wants to benefit from getting a good price by offering his stuff
nationwide, or wider, vs. local pickup, then he should take the
responsibility for packing it properly himself.  The item = the item
delivered intact and whatever it takes to do that.  There was no damage in
this case, though the packing was the usual crap.  I saw the receipt.  Oh,
and yeah, the tape deck wasn't exactly up to snuff -- like 3 out of 4
channels worth and there was a major cosmetic "blem" that went unmentioned.
And this wasn't my wife ordering it -- silly me.

Next time I catch wind of "professionally packed", I'll pass, thank you.  As
for the gross misrepresentation involved in your case, Jim, ideally these
people should be handled along with the other "illegal combatants".
Military tribunal made up of disgruntled boatanchor vets after a bad day.
Tarred with ukkumpucky and PCB's, feathered with used peanuts and shoved out
the side door of a vintage restored Dakota at 10,000 feet, over a toxic
waste dump.  Or maybe more of a perfect-justice solution -- repackage/label
everything in their homes.  Like the orange juice gets swapped with the
Liquid Plumr, hot 'n cold pipes switched, DC at the wall outlets, swap the
tuna labels with the ones on the cat food, etc.  Good object lesson and
re-training on the consequence of things not being "as advertised".  Or
maybe, bubble wrap the jerk and throw him in a flimsy box with some peanuts
and ....

My apologies to the list for the self-indulgence here, but this hits a hot
button and it hasn't popped back out yet.  Also, this list is about care &
feeding of vintage gear, including repairs and restoration.  Let's face it,
the more serious damage and wear and tear lately is coming from
irresponsible shipping and 2-7 days in transit than 40 years of hard use and
bad storage -- not leaky caps or drifted resistors.  Then there's
mind-bending and heart-rending variance between the actual "item" and
"virtual reality".  Many R-390's and other gear are bedeviled by a case of
severe "cognitive dissonance" whereby the graphic pixellation and ascii text
descriptives don't quite correspond to the physical structure of the device.
(You do know everyone, that jpegs automatically smooth out sections as part
of the compression process?)  Naw, the graphic and textual representations
must be right - the "item" must have gotten itself re-transmogrified during
shipment, as if there was a malfunction in the Star Trek transporter and the
molecules didn't reassemble quite right at the delivery point, so arrives as
something not quite @MINT@.  Probably forgot to type the "@'s" at the
transporter console. ("Hey, it was working when I shipped it.")

ARGGGHHH!
Barry