Blue Maytags arrive Damaged !!!

[harvestgold]

Well its been a real sad day for me the blue vintage Maytag washer and dryer that i bought on E-Bay has a broken glass panel on the washer. Beltman shipping broke it when it arrived in San diego. They are asking for proof of value of replacement cost Now i ask where am i going to get that ?? I will never be able to find a replacement Glass panel and what replacement value do you put on a part you can`t get !!anybody in the club have and suggestions as to what i can do any help would be appreciated Thanks john

 

[brettsomers]

i want to see the answer to this one. ive had bad luck recently too, with bought items arriving broken, make me furious. my first instinct is call all around the country (or here, on forum) and get somebody that can provide a written document with the price of a replacement glass. was the item insured? what does beltman insurance cover? they need to be accountable for ruining this machine.

 

[neptunebob]

Temporary fix

For now, I would just take the glass out and super glue it back together. Perhaps the crack might not be that noticeable with the pattern. I know its not perfect but just till you get another glass. Nep

 

[launderess]

Still on the fence about filing a claim for minor cosmetic damage from when Beltmann delivered my washer. They put themselves clearly in the wrong when the item was NOT cushioned/blanketed as per the instructions.

Just for the record, Beltmann contracts out lots of their shipping, it's not like they own all the trucks and the delivery guys work for them. Rather they simply put things out for bids,IIRC from local truckers/shippers in a certian area.

How was the item supposed to be shipped? Crated? Blanketed?

As for replacement cost,did you specify to Beltmann when placing the order that the item was vintage and irreplacable?

Maybe you can take the entire glass panel to a glass place and have them cut another plate. Doubt if they will have an exact match, but at least something to keep until you can find another from a washer being parted out.

Sorry for your ordeal,,,,

L.

 

[petek]

Oh that is sad. Surely there's one sitting somewheres in a junk yard that still has some intact glass on it.
I received my first damaged Ebay purchase the other day. A little Kenmore sputnik can opener. When I opened the box it was cracked and broken in about 3 places. All the sellers did was stuff newspaper around it, the box was totally intact and didn't look to have been damaged. They refunded my money thankfully. well, minus the shipping.

 

[launderess]

Pete!

We have the same tastes, as I was "watching" that can opener! Sad to hear it arrived damaged, one would think what some sellers are charging these days for shipping, they'd go the extra mile for some good packing material. Most use any old box they can find, with the MOL sellers using USPS Priority Mail boxes, but little to no padding/filling. For goodness sakes, pass by any rubbish bin outside a store and usually one can find huge bin liners full of peanuts waiting to be carted away.

Oh yes, speaking of our "mutual" tates, how did that Hoover Pixie vac work out for you?

L.

 

[brettsomers]

in the last month, i got a Hoover floor-a-matic, buy it now and i lost my head and impulse-bought. it was shipped with the handle still attached with almost no padding and the handle broke off!! and pete, did i tell you about the ge toaster over, vintage NIB? it arrived hopelessly broken, and sold by "kitchenaid" no less! David

 

[spinout]

This may come as no surprise to some of you, but the shippin

Seeing this saddens me and I express my regrets. Unfortuantely, I am not surprised and I think it is pretty typical for trucking/shipping/moving industry. And worse yet, despite all the hype, they just don't give a sh**.

I have shipped a lot of industrial equipment and machinery. About 50% of the time there is damage of some sort and they probably get away with it 90% of the time because filing and following up on a claim is so time consuming, which forces you into a cost vs. benefit descision. Their insurers' will find some way to tell you that you're not entitled or otherwise wear you down. About the only time you'll get a decent settlement is if you are tenacious and persist--like an adjusters worse nightmare. VERY IMPORTANT: They frequently mistate the rules and regs to their benefit. Don't take what you are told for granted--do your research. You can collect more than the 10 cents a pound (or whatever it is now) for the damage without buying additional insurance. Insurers seem to have a lot of discretion in this area, if you persist.

Case in point: recently, I shipped an arc welder and it was destroyed in transit (by Roadway). I finally did receive full restitution, BUT only after refusing the first 2 or 3 settlement offers, calling every day for 3 months, providing back up documentation and writing several letters. Interestingly enough, they initially delivered it to another address--claiming I was closed--which wasn't the case. I believe that that the driver was [intentionally] trying to avoid having the delivery inspected for damage by the cosignee. Hmmm.... very clever. Come to think of it, even when there has been *obvious* damage, the drivers don't ever seem to notice it. Amazing.

If you are going to ship anything that is irreplaceable or that you value and want to minimize the likelyhood that it will be damaged, then, at a minimum, wrap it in heavy cardboard (sides and top) and band it to a pallet. Better yet, crate it.

Remember that these guys get paid whether your item arrives intact or not. Their goal is to stuff as much freight into a given space as possible and to move it as quickly as possible. As a result they often move or scoot freight around by "nudging" it with the forks [of their forklifts]. This frequently results in dents, breakage or punctures. They will stack things that are not intended to be stacked, etc.. Anyway, it is routinely considered as collateral damage resulting from inadequate packing which will likely be deemed your fault. And remember, if you are shipping LTL (less than full load) it is likely that your item will get handed off, perhaps several times, before it gets to your destination. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

[christfr]

have a glass

i think i have a glass that will fit mail me at [email protected] let me know .. chris

 

[bobbyderegis]

John,
there are spares out there. I think I have a set in NY. One thing that goes bad is the gold dots rub off after a while with detergents and pre-wash sprays. I will check for you when I get home to NY.
Bobby in Boston

 

[petek]

Hi Laundress, The Pixie vac is another story, I won it on Feb 23 or there abouts, on March 2nd the guy emails me that his puter was down and he'll mail it tomorrow (the 3rd?) and I'm still waiting for it. It's not even caught in customs because the seller is in Canada. Now I'm trying for 3 days to make an "item not received" claim on PayPal and it's been "temporarily out of service", no response from PayPal on that problem. My gut feeling is the guy selling the Pixie vac wasn't thrilled it went so cheap, I think I got it for $11, so he never did mail it to me.

 

[duetboy]

Ebay's unhappy sellers

Recently I purchased an item on e-bay that went cheap. VERY cheap. When the auction was over, the seller e-mailed me and from the tone of the e-mail, I felt like he was cussing me out as he indicated he was hoping for at least 3 times the $$ that I paid. I really wanted to e-mail him back and say just remember, some day's your the dog, some day's your the hydrant! But I kept my fingers in check!

duetboy

aka jeff

 

[harvestgold]

Blue maytag washer

Hey guys Thanks for all the good words and morale support thats what a club like this is all about!!! any help for a replacement glass would be a miracle i may try gluing the glass an see what happens john

 

[duetboy]

And it continues

Next ebay purchase arrived today, broken in 3 places and dented. I can't win for loosing!

duetboy
(with a broken vintage coffee pot!)

 

[launderess]

What type of coffee pot was it then?

 

[jasonl]

I got a coffee pot (Silex glass vacuum) and the thing was wrapped SO damn tight, I broke the bottom piece trying unwrap it. Never got to use it.

 

[launderess]

Post me a snap,

Have lots of Silex and Cory vac pots/parts lying about spare (vintage vacuum coffee makers were a passion, before vintage laundry),so maybe able to help.

These days really only use my SS Sunbeam C50 pot, as the glass pots are just too much bother early in the morning. One false move and one is mopping up coffee/sweeping up glass bits.

Launderess

 

[fixerman]

There are people who repair glass. Looks like it was a clean break. There was a one man business in a building I rented a number of years ago who repaired glass. He used a special ultra violet glue and put it under an Ultra Violet light. Saw some of his repairs and were barely noticeable. Maybe with some research you could come up with this process and repair it yourself.

 

[fixerman]

Here is a glue to consider.

http://www.glass-etching-kits.com/uv_glass_glue_orders.htm

 

[bingwsguy]

broken glass

I was on Marcone.com, Repairclinic.com, and Appliancepartsworldwide.com, and I believe one of them had the glass inserts....when I have a little more time I will look at all 3 and see if I can help you further...until then check them out...good luck.
Joe

 

[duetboy]

Coffeepot

Sunbeam CoffeeMaster C30a. It WAS in mint until the seller didn't pack it well enough!

duetboy

 

[goatfarmer]

For now,get a piece of PlexiGlass to put in there. You can cut the curve very easily,cut it to the right size. Paint it white on the inside,you're good to go.I did this on a 906 years ago,worked great.

kennyGF

 

[mint46]

Cost of shipping verses seller's mood for the day

I recently got three vintage manual can openers from Ebay and paid $13.00 to have shipped. When they arrived I find they are only shipped in a shoe box with the lid taped down only on two sides. The bottom of the box was boasting a 6 inch hole and two of the corners on the box were completely ripped out. Inside the box was only "packed" with the paper that comes wrapped around your shoes, just that paper laid across the openers for "padding". I mean, these openers are HEAVY and shoe boxes aren't thick. The box was never wrapped on the outside or anything. I was so upset in what she charged. I could have lost all three items through the holes in the box due to the seller's neglegence. Her response to my email was that she must have been having a bad "packing day"!! UGH. Ebay is such a gamble anymore, turns my stomach when I search for vintage items there these days.

 

[launderess]

What one will find on eBay these days are quite a few people eeking out a living/running a business selling items for profit and or to put meat on the table. The larger interets like the "ISoldIt" chains and truly professional sellers tend to go the extra mile in terms of packing/shipping. However have had very bad experiences with those whom troll estate sales, attics, thrifts and from the looks of some items even rubbish to find items for sale, only to skimp on packing supplies. Seems that things have gotten worse now that the USPS has cracked down on people taking scores of priority mail packing boxes for their own use.

What really get's my goat is people who charge a vast sum for shipping, only to have the parcel arrive poorly packed (usually with any cheap old box found in the rubbish), with only less than half of the shipping cost shown as postage. These sellers when caught out on this will say "oh I have to charge extra to cover my "shipping" costs, driving to the post office, blah, blah, blah". Well correct me if I'm wrong, but unless told otherwise,those costs come under "costs of doing business".

When it comes to vintage appliances, think pretty soon it will be only self pick up, unless the auction is from one of the "big guys".

They have no shame some people.

Launderess

 

[mint46]

Cost of business

I agree. I know most people are just trying to make a few bucks, but some people have these mini enterprises now and they expect you to pay three times what could be considered reasonable just to "handle" the merchandise for you. It kills me these actual businesses I keep seeing on Ebay who don't charge a handling fee if they ship to you, but if you go pick it up from them, there's a handling fee tacked on.
I could go on and on about the nerve and no shame that emanates from some of those people. YOu just dont' know anymore.
OMG, I almost forgot, actually I did forget....Harvestgold, that is one GORGEOUS maytag up there at the top of this thread. I hope you find some glass soon. It sounds like a few of the members here can help you out, hopefully you won't be in dispair too much longer. Good LUck!!
*damns the shipping company on my way out the door*

 

[whirlcool]

The wife(mainly) and I do a lot of selling on Ebay, and we have never had a damage claim yet. We usually use USPS Priority Mail or Federal Express for the larger/heavier items. We make sure that we pack things very well. Larger items are double boxed.
Our feedback (Concept70)is spectacular to say the least. And we can lay claim to the fact that we have broken several Ebay records for maximum price for an item. Here is our "fine print" that we put in every auction:

Bid with confidence as we have had many happy customers and we are one ofthe few sellers on Ebay that offer the following:

100% Satisfaction Guarantee!

1. A most generous return policy: If for some reason you find that the item isnot to your satisfaction, just return it to us in the same condition you received it in and we will refund your money to you (minus the shipping fees and the Ebay
listing fee (usually a dollar or so)) in the same form in which you have sent it tous. We do from time to time run “As-Is” auctions, but those are very clearly marked as such.

2. Highly accurate shipping charges. We use United States Postal Service or Federal Express Ground as they seem to get items to their destination in greatshape and are cheaper than UPS, which usually damages items. We haveshipped out these type of items before and we know what it costs to ship them.
Our packaging is excellent. We don't use "shipping charges" to boost our profits,which I noticed a lot of sellers have been doing lately. Plus, there is never a "handling charge" If there is more than a $2.00 difference in shipping from quoted to actual, we will refund the extra to you via PayPal. (You must have aPayPal account for this feature). How many other sellers on Ebay offer this feature? We want our customers to be totally satisfied with any of our auction results!

3. We Don’t Play the Feedback Game. It seems to us that more and more sellers on Ebay are playing what we call “The Feedback Game” How this game is played is that if you are the seller you don’t leave feedback for your buyer until THEY have left feedback for you. Here at Concept70, we have names for those
games. How about “If you damage me, I’ll damage you” or “You’d better leave me positive feedback, or else” or the best name for it “Seller Blackmail”. We base OUR feedback on how quickly the buyer pays, how freindly and communicative they are during the buying process. We leave our feedback usually within 24 hours of the time of receipt of payment. No exceptions.

4. Excellent communications: We keep the winning bidder informed with tracking numbers, what date and time their item was shipped out from the shipping location. Please note that tracking numbers are only issued with Priority level shipping. We usually ship within hours of the time of receipt of payment, not days. Check out our feedback! We auction items at low volume so that we canoffer this superior level of service to our auction winners!

Thanks for Looking and Happy Bidding!

We started these policies after experiencing shipping charges that were way too much! After paying $8.95 shipping for an item that came in an envelope with $0.87 postage (of course I left negative feedback for overcharging!) we developed our refund program.
We even include a Thank You letter in each and every package.
We don't use bubble wrap for our larger items, we use new carpet padding!

To us, being a "Power Seller" means that all you care about is getting the "cr-p" out the door without regard for how this happens.

Key to getting damage reimbursement from UPS.
Tell them you'll sue and then supeona their damage claim records which, if allowed in court, will become public record. Then tell them you will demonstrate to the court that they are accepting money for insurance claims with no intention of paying. Their own records will prove this. This is in violation of decptive trade practice acts. They usually pay off the same day.

What USPS has done is they now have you order the Priority Mail boxes via their website, they ship to you free of charge.
This also prevents the little old ladies from going into the Post Office and asking for 500 large Priority Mail boxes. Yes I did see that one time!
All the boxes we use are NEW. No old boxes here. Sure it costs us a little bit of money to provide all of this for our items, but we believe we get this back by bringing in a higher price for each item.

 

[mint46]

Whirlcool

I should have been buying stuff from you all this time! I am not knocking ALL people who sell on ebay, I'm just not satisfied with the ones I've been dealing with lately. As for the feedback game, I was just talking to my husband about that. I have a paypal account and I pay the day I win the auction, yet I still don't get feedback until I've received my package and posted feedback about the seller. It's insane. I did my part straight away by communicating and paying promptly, yet I get nothing until I leave feedback. I see so many wars between buyer and seller left in feedback, why can't they just take it to email and be done with it?? OY!
It looks like you have an EXCELLENT policy and you stick to it. I always read the fine print, I see loads of that too. Items relisted because someone didn't read the whole auction. GAH.....*runs away from EBAY for a long time*

 

[whirlcool]

Thanks for the compliment
We kind of fell into the Ebay business when a freind of ours shuttered his stereo store and kept all the old inventory. He was actually throwing away a lot of complete items. Once he told us this we calculated that he threw away about $30K worth of stereo equipment, much of it new in box! He dind't know about Ebay! So we bought the lot and started to auction if off. We have been at it for a couple of years now.
Being an Ebay seller is not that hard at all! What gets me are people who take fuzzy photos, or no photos at all. Short descriptions, like "This is Model 2737. It Works". Don't these dumba**es know that they are just throwing money away when they put up an auction like that!
I guess its just our way of doing business on Ebay that results in no buyer disputes. Believe it or not we have NEVER had anyone return anything for a refund under our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee! We find that if you are open and honest up front, you'll attract those kinds of buyers.

 

[mistereric]

ebay feedback policies...

I dunno guys. I almost never leave feedback for my buyers until they have done so for me. In my About Me page, I explain why. I don't believe its blackmail. If you don't want to leave me any feedback, you don't have to. Feedback isn't required.

I used to leave feedback right away for my buyers but stopped after I got burned by buyers who would rather leave a negative feedback for me if something didn't go their way, instead of communicating with me. I find that waiting until I know my customer is happy is a very good idea. Sadly, there are too many people out there who won't do the right thing unless someting is held over their heads. The buyer is more likely to work with me, and we are both more likely to get satisfaction with the transaction if we both have something to loose.

That being said, I think my policies are VERY customer friendly.

I charge around 50 cents over postage for expenses like packaging material, tape, labels, toner, electricty, gas, time, and eBay fees.

If something never arrives, I just ship out another item, no questions asked, or refund your money. If both arrive, you can keep both.

If you get something and its broken in shipping or DOA, I will just ship you a new one, no questions asked, or refund your money. You can dispose of the first one.

If the item doesn't work the way I said it would, I'll refund your money and the shipping, and you can keep the item.

Everything is USPS Priority, and its all insured. Only take PayPal - no checks, no money orders, so no fraud.

This formula works well for my auctions, because most of the items I sell generally go for 50% of retail, and most items are under $5.

Now, if the item was larger, like, lets say, a washing machine or a laptop computer, thats a different story. If I am earning more than a few bucks on an auction, I am more than willing to eat any costs and just charge the auction amount plus str8 shipping. Or you can pick it up and pay cash. Or you can use your shipper.

I don't like having to hold feedback over peoples heads. I'm not in this for the feedback, I'm in it for the money - so I don't care if the transaction earns me a positive feedback. At the same time, I don't want some jerk sullying my reputation because they are not willing to be civil and play by the rules.

Oh, and HarvestGold... thats a beautiful Maytag... I'm so jealous! Poor thing. Hope you can get it ship shape soon.

 

[mint46]

item descriptions

That drives me up a wall when people list something and there's either NO picture or it's a crap one. Then have the nerve to ask $1,500 on the premise of "I've seen others like this on here go for $2,000-5,000, so you're practically stealing this from me." I just want to email and say, "Do you realize if you actually include a photo or one that's worth a shoe, you might bring in another group of bidders? And I'm not paying $1,500 for something that is solid orange with rust on the outside and "worked when it was unplugged back in 88' but hasn't been run since"
Oh, I digress....