eBay etiquette - bought damaged snare drum

[permanent hearing damage]

So I won a used Mike Bordin signature copper snare. It looked like an awesome drum despite being a little banged up - some scrapes and scratches, though it looked to be in pretty good shape.

Upon opening up the package, it was pretty clear that the drum had been dropped (unless there is a practice I don't know about where drum manufacturers bend the shell in at the snare throw?). The throw is also rubbing the rim a little if engaging/disengaging snares. That said, it still sounds pretty good. Though I feel it was pretty misrepresented and have offered to accept a partial refund. If I shelled out $400, what do you think is fair to ask for to get back?

[kslight]

I don't think that eBay supports partial refunds anymore...I could be wrong but I believe it is against policy.

My personal recommendation, if you aren't happy AND it was misrepresented in the auction, then send it back for a total refund.

[vvv]

And "etiquette" be damned; if they breached the contract, specially thru an intentional misrepresentation, screw 'em; demand your money back plus all shipping and don't be afraid to use the feedback, and complaint, process.

(I have had numerous issues in the last year of this sort, and won all but one dispute, and that with a large commercial seller (centrix) who offered to pay replace the item but reneged on return shipping and compensation for the delay in use of the product, a computer/TV interface, and breach of its quick-shipping promise. I now refuse to purchase from any large commercial seller on Ebay - I feel the fix is in.)

[Marc Alan Goodman]

eBay's a dangerous place. I was a member for sixteen years, and I had mostly good experiences but a couple really bad ones. A few that stand out?

I bought a U47 for $4k, paid via paypal, only to have the guy never ship it. Paypal gave me my money back. It was a friggin miracle.

I bought another "untested" U47 for $5500 and it turned out to be in great condition with a VF14m and clean K47. I'd be hard pressed to say there are many deals like that left floating around this world.

I bought a pair of capsules marked NOS by the seller (a K47 and a K87) for a premium price. When the capsules showed up they were used and both were damaged. I filed a complaint with ebay, but the seller said you could see any damage in the photos. You could see some dust, but it looked like it was on the outside of the packaging, and he said he didn't want to open the packaging due to them being NOS. Paypal sided with him and the guy kept my money.

But where I really got screwed was selling. I recently sold a 1081 module to someone in Spain. The buyer asked me to lie on the customs forms in order to keep his charges down, which I happily did. Unluckily for him the customs agents are hip to that move nowadays, and they made him bring his paypal receipt to pick the module up, and promptly charged him $850. He asked me to split that cost with him. I told him he was crazy. He then followed that up by filing a complaint with eBay saying the item was not as described. In turn ebay put a $4200 hold on my paypal account. The issue is that I often used to receive payments from clients through paypal, so four thousand dollars of our income got tied up for two months while some jerk tried to extort money from me, and paypal and ebay played along happily. At one point I spent a solid 45 minutes on hold only to be told that no one could help me and they would need to call me back. They of course never called. It took two months of phone calls, emails, and aggravation before I could get eBay or paypal to give me any sort of human response. In the end their own complaint system timed out and the money was returned to me. After sixteen years of giving them my money I felt it was a painfully inappropriate way to treat a customer, and I've sworn off both of their services.

It has made my shopping life a little harder though :) Luckily we're pretty well stocked nowadays.

[kslight]

The buyer asked me to lie on the customs forms in order to keep his charges down, which I happily did.

Absolutely a terrible idea, I'm sure in hindsight as well...why I rarely ship internationally.

[digitaldrummer]

to the OP - are you sure it wasn't dropped in the package during shipping? if so, then take pictures and have the shipper/seller file a claim. you can then send it back and get a full refund or you may have to take it down to the local shipper's office for them to examine first (and then possibly you won't have to ship it back). You might be out some shipping cost, but better than $400.

Mike

[Randyman...]

Are you sure this is not just the "Snare Bed" bearing edge recess you are seeing? Any good snare has two small recess/indents on the bottom bearing edge to allow the snares to sink into the head for maximum responsiveness and minimal buzz. The "snare bed" always lines up with the strainer. These can look a little odd on metal drums with bent/shaped bearing edges - but they are supposed to be there. On wooden shells, they are cleanly routed into the bottom bearing edge and look like they are supposed to be there more so than on a metal shell IMO.

The batter head (top) bearing edge should be true and flat w/o any of these distortions or recesses.

Is the shell out-of-round (oval), or just not completely level across the bearing edge? Or are there symmetrical "indents" at each side of the bottom bearing edge that line-up with the strainers?

If the strainer is actually rubbing when flipped or if the top bearing edge isn't true, sounds like it might have been damaged (bent/dropped) as you suspect.

Pics should put an end to any assumptions...

[permanent hearing damage]

thanks for your replies, folks. yeah, the drum is def out of round. it's clearly flat at the strainer - dropped on the throw for sure.

and it was packed brilliantly. box was in great shape. to do this kind of damage to a 2mm thick shell, the box would have to be destroyed.

i first put it on a new head - the tension rods seemed strangely difficult to turn (granted, this could be unrelated) and hit it once as i started to tune it and it just had an awful ring no matter what i did. when i started looking at the shell, i noticed the flat part of the shell and then the strainer was rubbing the top rim. bummer, but i've learned a hell of a lot about snare shells in the last week, researching some alternatives that may even prove to be more of what i'm after.

seller has apologized and sent a return shipping label. it sucks and is annoying, but at least i shouldn't be losing any cash on it.