CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

penticton102 · Joined: 27 May 2006 Posts: 137 Location: penticton B.C

well it sucks to be you have a nice day.....

Sonynut · Joined: 08 Aug 2006 Posts: 367 Location: Bradford,PA

Hmm.. Panasonic PT-105... I had one of them, now my friend has it.. NOT the easiest of sets to work with. Why anyone would choose to spend a good $$(even if its a cheap good $$) on a rare video only set with no parts base, and limited community knowledge, when a few bucks more could have yielded a common set with none of the problems I just mentioned is beyond me.. Maybe this should be a lesson in better judgment ESPECIALLY when the dealer, with years of expertise, suggested the better set in the first place.

BTW, the PT-105 I got was FREE-- otherwise the $100 he wanted for it(I bought another PJ off the same guy that had it, and when I got there to pick it up, he threw in the Panny because he couldn't find a buyer) wouldnt have been spent by me anyhow...

PJMoore · Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 99

Hello Heath - Why indeed! a cursory review of the complaint clarifies the answer painfully.

Stonefool · Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 253 Location: Sweden

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 1:29 am Post subject:

The issue isn't about repairing the set, Walter emailed me within a few days of getting the unit that it wasn't working for him. The issue is that I have no parts for this unit (I told him that up front) so I can't do board swaps. The set has to come back here to be so I can go through it. He hasn't brought it back to me (Pentiction is 5 hours East of Vancouver), and for whatever reason wants me to cover shipping both ways. I can't do that.

As soon as he brings or ships it to me, I'll look at it right away. If it's not repairable, I'll credit the purchase price less shipping towards another set.

Oh, and BIG updates on the original reason for posting this. Keep tuned on MOnday late PM...

PJMoore · Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 99

Curt - this is like TV serials when I was a child, that always ended with the hero's car going over the cliff, and then....Stay tuned next week for the chilling conclusion! What fun!

Stonefool · Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 253 Location: Sweden

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:49 pm Post subject:

Nope, that's my opinion as well, that's pretty much the policy that I've had all along. The lat time I had a major problem with a projector that I sent out, a local 'pro' (not of this forum) went to the guy's place and gave the customer a bunch of misinformation about the projector I had sold. The customer was livid, so I agreed to cover the cost of shipping one way and give him a full refund.

I get the set back (in good shape), and it turns out that a fuse had blown on the power supply. That was it. It also turns out (as I found out a few months later) that the 'pro' had a MArquee ready and on hand to sell my customer. Which apparently he did. Since that's another scenario that I have no control over, I don't give refunds on sets. That's also why I offer a massive amount of tech support before the sale, to make sure the customer knows what he's getting up front.

As everyone knows, a projector can work fine here for days, I ship it, then it can die right after the customer gets a hold of it. You can also have a customer that does everything he's not supposed to, such as tweak controls in the set that you're not supposed to (I'm not accusing Penticton of anything), but as I've stated before, this PT 105 has to come to me in order for me to repair it. I've never scrapped one before, so I have no parts for it in stock. I believe I did tell Penticton that via email before he bought it.

Regardless, I'll look at the unit as soon as it gets here, to me his issue is not an issue, unless I do find that boards and pots have been tweaked with.

Back to the original reason for this post.

On Thursday morning before I left out of town, I went to my website address PO box to get the mail. There was the 8500 from the pub sitting there, they had sent it back without my knowledge... and without packing, or the remote, transcoder or screen. The set got a bit banged up in transit (dunno how it got to the PO box, there was no courier slip or anything. I have not fired the set up yet, but the case is a lot more scratched when I put it in, and the BNC connectors are bent on the VIM. THose are a bitch to change out, and without the remote, the set is useless.

As expected then, the postdated check for the remaining $3750.00 had a stop payment put on it by the pub. Not a good thing for the bookkeeper to tell me when I'm 750 miles out of town.

So.. I have back a projector that to me is worth well under $1000 at this point, I sold it with the screen (that they kept), the transcoder, projector, remote and installation for about the $3750.00.

So that's where it's at now. I'm livid to say the least.

Stonefool · Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 253 Location: Sweden

I only do computers, but I hate whiners, and bullshiters, because everything is apparently my fault, and it doesn't matter if it is 7 hours, 7 weeks, or 7 month's after the install, it is still my fault it _now_ doesn't work and this is the end of the world right this very moment, and the user never ever did anything wrong, but in the end it is almost allways something the user did wrong, like disconnecting the CPU fan because he thought it was too loud.

I can understand people getting worked up and frustrated, but probability kind of dictates it is the user that screwed up, so why do some people have to be an arse when they're complaining? I cannot fathom that they actually beleive that they think they will get any better response time, support, that way.

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

Hey Curt. Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Sad

I got pissed at this guy just reading your last post. Well good luck in what ever you decide to do next. Twisted Evil

(court Monday morning!!!)

Dave Lister · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:05 am Post subject:

I would hazard a guess and say that they never shipped it back to you, they brought it back themselves, no shipping company would drop it at a PO box.

You could still get your money, they have no proof that you have received the PJ back, most likely no proof of having shipped anything either.

Surely even with the PJ you can claim the difference in condition between when it was installed and when they returned it in a banged up condition as well as parts from the install missing.

Maurizio Prandi · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 8:32 am Post subject:

Agreed with Dave.
Item never returned.
0 understanding for bullies who think they can always have it their own way. Thumbs Down

Cheers!

kschmit2 · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:53 am Post subject:

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 1:04 pm Post subject:

Nope, I won't BS anyone. If I take this to small claims, I think I have a good case to get at least 75% of my money. Timeline:

June 2007- install system, customer is happy
July/Aug 2007- chase customer for final 50%
Sept 6 2007- sends final $7500 via checks dated for Sept 6 and Sept 21. So everything was fine as of Sept 6, right?
Sept 11 2007- says projector has a problem, but the 'problem' varies from phone call to phone call
Sept 20 2007- sends projector back and puts stop payment on check.

I'm pretty sure that the pub is not taking off the way they expected it to, and they are simply looking to cut costs at this point.

THe problem is that there's usually a 6-8 month waiting period to get into small claims, plus I'd have to go out of town to go to the settlement conference and the court date. I don't know if the courts award expenses for travel, esp. if I was the one getting screwed.

It says right on our invoices: 'All equipment remains property of Sound Solutions until fully paid for', so it's really tempting to go over and remove $3K worth of equipment to recover the costs. He'd end up having to spend about $3K to get running again, but I also don't want to get nailed with a theft charge if he says I stole his equipment. It was also kill any chance of a court case of course.

Other optiions are to put a lien on the property which I will do today, I've got every right to do that. I could also call the head office of the hotel chain. I'm sure the Ramada (oops, I said it) head office would NOT be pleased if I linked them to this thread, letting the world know how a franchise owner is trashing their name.

mp20748 · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 1:52 pm Post subject:

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 2:21 pm Post subject:

Nope, the pub and hotel are one and the same owner. It's lien time as soon as their offices open, and I'm checking the Ramada site right now for a phone number/contact for operations.

mp20748 · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 2:35 pm Post subject:

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 2:36 pm Post subject:

Sweet, good advice, thanks!

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:29 pm Post subject:

Well that didn't work so well. Ramada head office has no franchise overseeing managers according to customer service. They apparently don't give a crap how each hotel does business. The friendly customer service reps says that I need to take this up with the hotel. This doesn't seem right to me, but hey, we all know not to stay at a Ramada now, right?

ChrisWiggles · Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:11 am Post subject: