Now I’m madder at the USPS than the stock market or ebay! They lost my equity line payment. I had rolled my USAA credit card interest free balance to the equity line to take advantage of another interest free USAA offer. So I when USAA was paid off I mailed my equity line payment with a check from my USAA account. USPS seems to have lost it (or Wachovia is sitting on it somewhere). Everyday I wait for someone to find the check, it costs me more. If they don’t find it soon I will have to stop payment ($29) on the USAA check. I did call USAA to raise my limit so I could payoff 1/2 the Wachovia equity line with a check at the branch today. I figure I’m going to end up paying $30-100 just because I thought mailing it would be better than taking 5 minutes to go to the branch to make the payment. Add this to the difficult shipping insurance catch with my ebay experience and I’m totally off the USPS. Hey Obama, sell it to UPS, Fed Ex. or Apple.
Fixed Capresso Ultima 121 in 5 Minutes
Published September 16th, 2008 in Paypal Unfair To Sellers. 0 CommentsYes, a single wire connector was loosened in shipping. Cost me $20 postage, $1.25 ebay listing fee and a $140 sale. I can’t blame anyone but the USPS, paypal, ebay and the temporary buyer. All contributed to making something simple in to a minor disaster. Please avoid all of them.
A now working Capresso Ultima 121 video.
The symptoms of the Capresso Ultima
The bottom of the Capresso Ultima 121 is held in place by three small torx security screws.
This picture shows the machine from the bottom with the bottom cover now removed. In the exact center of this picture are two connections attached to the left of a square shaped object. The lower one with a blue wire and the upper one with a white wire. The connector with the white wire was off the terminal when I opened the machine. I think this must control the valve that lets the high pressure water flow to the coffee grounds. By not opening the valve the water had no where to go but through the pressure release mechanism and in to the overflow tray.
Capresso Ultima 121 Coffee Machine Returned
Published September 15th, 2008 in Paypal Unfair To Sellers. 0 CommentsThe coffee machine was sitting on my door stop this afternoon. Took it out and tested it. It has just the damage described by the buyer that she would not assist filing a claim for. Water runs in to the drip pan from somewhere inside when you try to make espresso. Hot water and steam work fine. She mentioned some other problem about the red light not working but I think she didn’t know how the machine worked as the lights are functioning as designed. I’m going to get the special tools to remove the security screws to see if it’s something easy to fix like some loose pluming. Confirmed with Capresso that there is a flat rate $75 repair for this machine that also covers shipping both ways. Not a bad deal but not something I’m interested in fooling with.
Dealing with Ebay about Coffee Machine
Published September 15th, 2008 in Paypal Unfair To Sellers. 0 CommentsIn order to avoid paying ebay fees on the Capresso Ultima
Unfortunately she responded quickly. I was surprised to then be able to choose to end further conversations, get a refund of all but 1.25 of my ebay fee and give a “not paid strike”. I imagine with some whining she will be able to get out of the strike but ebay probably keeps a special double secret count of it.
Latest 2 emails from Paypal in my ongoing problem with them being unfair to sellers and on the side of ridiculous buyers.
September 9, 2008 - email from Pay Pal
We have determined that your buyer is entitled to a refund for this transaction. To receive this refund, the buyer must return the item to you and provide us with their shipping information. Once we verify this information, we will issue the buyer a refund from your PayPal account. Please note, the buyer is responsible for the cost of returning the item to you.
We apologize for the difficulties you had with this transaction and truly hope that you find this resolution to be fair and reasonable for everyone involved.
Sincerely,
PayPal
Oh yes, I’m sure I think it’s fair to impose the buyer’s will on the seller no matter what. No, what they “sincerely” think is that a nice sounding note will sucker me in to using Paypal for anything ever again. Not going to work on me.
September 13, 2008 - Email from Paypal
PayPal has received online tracking information for the return of your
item(s):Tracking Company: USPS
Tracking Number: 03062400000146519795You can resolve this case faster by logging in and indicating that you have received the returned item. This will release the refund to the buyer automatically. If you do not report the item returned, PayPal will verify the tracking information and release the refund for you with no penalty.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Protection Services Department
Oh yes, I’m highly motivated to let you know I got the item so the buyer can get their money faster. No, the only way I will contact you is if the item comes to me with any sort of damage. Actually I may contact and hold paypal accountable for her returning the item with the internal damage she described. I will certainly make official complaints to paypal, ebay, their states officials, the USPS and any federal agencies I can think of that are somewhat appropriate.
As an interesting tidbit, I got a spam email from somewhere trying to get me to claim my Paypal refund of some other transaction gone bad. Maybe the spammers follow obvious disputes and after so many days send something out?
