CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

CIR Engineering · Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 8:58 pm Post subject:

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2002 Location: Cloverdale

downside - this guy might not give you more business - but are you wanting to do more business with this guy?

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2013 9:30 pm Post subject:

I agree with you guys, the less that's said the better, but I thought I'd address all the points in his letter. Frankly, I'm happy if he reports me to whomever, or attempts to reverse the Paypal transaction. Paypal will side with me.

No, I don't want to do business with him. Of course not.

BTW, with the first dispute earlier this year, Paypal did reverse the charges on me as I posted... and then mysteriously, Paypal found in my favor 90 days later. Seems like Paypal will go to bat with Visa if they think a customer is screwing you over. I almost fell off my chair. I know this guy paid via Visa as well, he emailed me as such, but with USPS showing delivery, I don't think Visa will find in his favor. It's not about the money this time, it's the whole 'entitlement' thing with the damages. I'd still send him a board once I get one 'just in case' USPS really didn't deliver it, but it all smells of a scam at this point.

Will cut the letter back some, and will send it.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

Wow. Just... wow. Let me play the Devil's Advocate here for a minute.

Curt wrote:
> It's not about the money this time, it's the whole 'entitlement' thing with the damages. <

Yeah, the gall of the guy. He's out the $250 repair charge, he's out the board, can't use his PJ at all, and best case scenario, he might get a replacement sometime around 2 months later. And he thinks he's entitled to be upset, and ask for damages! Sheesh. Who the hell does he think he is? It's not like he's the injured party or something.

Of course, he could be a lying scumbag out to scam Curt. That's probably true, for several reasons. 1) Curt's experience shipping via USPS has been fantastic: 10,000-15,000 letters and packages, with none lost or misdirected (that he can remember or admit to). Forget the fact that this could all have been avoided if Curt simply bought the $2.xx Signature Confirmation, which would prove who got the package. But by not doing so he's been lucky enough to save $30,000 x what ever %age of those shipments he mentioned were packages, vs. letters. Let's say 2/3 were letters(?), so 10-grand. That's a tidy bit of change. Of course, in this case it turned out the customer wasn't so lucky, but it hasn't cost Curt anything, so it's all good.

HogPilot is convinced Curt did nothing wrong, since he thinks Curt both insured the package and paid for a signature confirmation... though he did neither. And the customer should just get the USPS to help him track it down, even though they will do nothing at all, and simply hide behind the claim that their system says it was delivered. (There's not a lot more they can do, since their so-called "tracking system" is pure shite.)

And reason 2) the bit about the guy in Arizona sounds fishy, so of course it must be. A package would never be delivered to someone in another state. Even though it's happened to me, and others, both ways: with receiving a package not for me, addressed to another state, and having mine routed to a far off destination (which that time I did eventually get back here). But Curt hasn't experienced it personally, so it's not even a possibility. The guy is obviously lying. There's absolutely no chance he's just the innocent victim in all this, and justifiably upset.

Erik thinks Curt should "tell all customers up front that you're not responsible for anything lost in shipment and that they are responsible for buying insurance if they feel it's needed. "

even though the customer isn't the one doing the shipping on the return side, and can't possibly buy insurance or a signature confirmation. That has to be done by the shipper. But it's certainly good advice to tell the customer "that you're not responsible for anything". Excellent suggestion.

So screw him. Just tell him to go f himself. You don't want customers like that anyway. Damn trouble-maker. Mad

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:12 am Post subject:

Hey, that's why I posted here, to get opinions, and Tim, I appreciate it.

I've never said that I wouldn't either refund the repair to the guy or better yet, find a replacement board for him. Sorry, seems though that most of us think the whole Arizona thing is fishy, especially the way it's played out, with an untraceable email.. and a good Samaritan that drops off the face of the planet. I did note with interest that the original customer also uses Gmail. Hmmmm,.....

But whatever. Yes, the 'damages' part irks me. I don't think there's a court in the world that is going to find me liable for damages beyond the repair of the board. Let's play another devil's advocate, and say I give him damages. Is that going to find him a system board any faster? No it won't. In all likelihood, I'll be the one finding the system board, as I get offers to buy NEC XGs all the time, all of which I've passed on buying in the last 6 months, save for one new one in the box.

You're right, the set is useless without that board or any other board missing in the set. As I state in my reply (which I have not sent yet), system boards are hard to find, esp for the XG85. So what's your suggestion? I'll refund his $250, and he's still out the set. Or.. do as I've suggested, search for another working system board, which I will find sooner or later. My guess is within the month, the only slight snag is that I'm out of town for a month starting in 10 days.

If you have another suggestion, I'm all ears.

VideoGrabber · Joined: 09 Apr 2006 Posts: 933 Location: Michigan

zaphod · Joined: 16 Jun 2006 Posts: 2002 Location: Cloverdale

the customer has every right to be bent out of shape.

as the USPS.

they marked it delivered. they didn't deliver it. They said that even if insurance etc. had been bought that would not mean a dang thing as they have marked the item as delivered.

It's not Curt's fault that the USPS messed up. It's not Curt's fault that their tracking system is, in your words, shite. Damages are awarded to the person who suffers paid for by the person who caused the suffering.

To put my money where my mouth is, when it happened to me I chased after the FedEX, not the person who shipped me the cable.

CIR Engineering · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 3:05 am Post subject:

The part that I don't get, and that irks me is his arbitrary deadlines. Why does he get to decide when and exactly what is going to happen? I could see it when you are dealing with a commodity item that is in production and another part can just be sent, but Curt can't just pull a board out of thin air no matter who the client is or how hard he presses.

Whatever, I'm tired and cranky and I shouldn't be typing. If I were Curt I would probably do the same thing and ship him another board as soon as I could come up with one. It's really the only reasonable thing to be done.

craigr

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 5:09 am Post subject:

Done guys! Will rewrite the letter tomorrow, remove my attitude, that I thought had dissipated after 24 hours, but reading this second page, I guess not. I'll tone it down, will offer a replacement board ASAP, and will hunt for one while I'm on the road as well.

I'll bet you a donut though that he'll continue his rant regarding damages, but I'll ignore it. Cooler heads shall prevail. I'm glad I posted this. Smile

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado

why can't it be tracked? USPS typically shows the progress of the package to some degree. If it shows that it headed straight south ,then the AZ story might be plausible. If it shows it heading to Chicago then that would be a pretty good indication that the AZ story is BS.Curt post the tracking number or call the Washington state Seattle postmaster and ask him what the chances of are of a box going to the wrong zip code?

James Schiller 253-874-7393 james.c.schiller@usps.gov

The average person would have simply put a note on the box saying " wrong address" and put it back in the mailbox. The story here from the buyer is definitely strange.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 6:30 pm Post subject:

it can be tracked, and you're right, if it shows a route to NC, how would it get to Az?

YOUR LABEL NUMBER
SERVICE
STATUS OF YOUR ITEM
DATE & TIME
LOCATION
FEATURES
9534610425763217480829
Package Services
Delivered
August 10, 2013, 12:25 pm
RALEIGH, NC 27615
Scheduled Delivery Day:
August 12, 2013
USPS Tracking™
Out for Delivery
August 10, 2013, 9:42 am
RALEIGH, NC 27615
Sorting Complete
August 10, 2013, 9:32 am
RALEIGH, NC 27615
Arrival at Post Office
August 10, 2013, 6:19 am
RALEIGH, NC 27615
Depart USPS Sort Facility
August 10, 2013
GREENSBORO, NC 27495
Processed through USPS Sort Facility
August 9, 2013, 9:58 am
GREENSBORO, NC 27495
Depart USPS Sort Facility
August 6, 2013
FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003
Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility
August 6, 2013, 1:57 am
FEDERAL WAY, WA 98003
Dispatched to Sort Facility
August 5, 2013, 3:05 pm
BLAINE, WA 98230
Acceptance
August 5, 2013, 1:21 pm
BLAINE, WA 98230

I did send him a short reply this morning offering a refund on the $250, and/or to continue looking for a replacement board. We'll see if cooler heads prevail all around today.

HogPilot · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:00 pm Post subject:

km987654 · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:11 pm Post subject:

At the risk of having missed something how is any of this a concern to anyone other than USPS?

You did post it.

If you want to help this guy that's up to you but it's a choice not your problem.

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:43 pm Post subject:

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 11:03 pm Post subject:

Well, after a couple of semi heated emails between the customer and I, we both calmed down.

I refunded him the $250. turns out the reason he wanted $500 is because he didn't want to wait an indeterminate amount of time for me to find a spare system board. He found one.. at some high end A/V company.. for $500. So that's where the 'damages' part comes in.

Also, he claimed that Paypal doesn't accept delivery confirmation notices from USPS as 'they are too unreliable' For S&G, I called Paypal, and they said they do accept delivery confirmation, but signature confirmation is preferred.

So, from now on, unless I have multiple working spares in stock, I send everything out with signature confirmation and full insurance, and everyone's repair prices just went up $5.00 to cover that.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 11:06 pm Post subject:

Oh, an as for the postmaster.. yeah, good luck with that! His voicemail specifically says not to contact him re lost packages, to call the 800 number. Riiiiiight.

I do have another case right now where 5 of my LCD projectors are lost in transit. Fully insured of course, but the customer is pissed... and for good reason this time.

km987654 · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 11:37 pm Post subject:

**kal** · Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 12:58 pm Post subject:

+1 to ecrabb's long list above... right on the money and saved me a lot of typing. Wink

Kal

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 1:00 pm Post subject:

Made sense to me too! Smile

draganm · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 8990 Location: Colorado