[dj_mocok]

I just sold my old Video card (the 9600XT) from eBay.
And it was working properly (I took it out from my PC) and everything was alright, buyer sent money, I left feedback, he also left positive feedback (I think he did it before getting the product).

And then he sent me an email saying the video card is damaged, and he mentioned about the missing screw in the video card fan.

I didn't mention this on the auction, but actually I took out one screw from the video card in order to resolve the fan noise problem. If I put all screws, the fan will make noise, but minus one screw, it will be normal.

But the thing is, I think he claimed the video card is not working at all.
I was using it, so it was working before.
Is it still my responsibility? What should I do if he asked for refund?
I feel sorry for him, but I also don't wanna have my video card returned to me - damaged (can't resell it anymore).

What should I do? I'm not sure how it was damaged, could be he mishandled it, could be during delivery, could be when I removed it??


I offered him the screw that I removed from the video card, I can post it to him for free, but really, am I responsible for the damaged card? Because honestly, it was really working since I took it out from the PC, and he didn't seem like a jerk too.

WHat to do?

 

[Zorander]

Perhaps you can help him troubleshoot? It might just be a specific problem (compatibility?) on his end and who knows what a little bit of tinkering can turn up. I certainly wouldn't let him return the video card yet. It is also possible he just wanted to 'go back' on the transaction (just because of one imperfection - a missing fan screw) by claiming a damaged item.

Regards.

 

[ken36]

My policy is to always satisfy the buyer, no matter what. It is always good to sell only to a buyer with great feedback.

 

[nspindel]

How do you control who you sell to? I know you can reject buyers with -1 or -2 feedback, but how else? If I'm correct in understanding, if someone has 100 buyer feedbacks, 50 positive and 50 negative, his feedback would be zero, correct? But you'd still end up selling to someone with 50 negative buyer feedbacks...

 

[incognitoedleon]

Well, you failed to mention the screw and fan noise problem. That is your responsibility to do as a seller. What I would do is to try and troubleshoot the problem with the buyer. If that doesn't work, tell the buyer to ship it back. If it is indeed broken, refund all of the money as well as the cost back. If it still works, do not refund any money and have the buyer pay the cost of shipping back if the buyer still wants it. It could prove costly if it is broken, but that's what I would do.

It could have broken during transport, which could either be your fault for not packaging it safe enough or if the carrier really abused the package. If the carrier damaged it and you offered insurance, but buyer did not purchase it, then it is the buyer's fault.

 

[braillediver]

Put yourself in the Buyers position and what would you consider fair?


Mitch

 

[creyc]

Did you insure it when you shipped it? If it was working before you sent it, and not working after you sent it, I mean it's only logical to point at the carrier.

How was it packaged? Any major carrier will look at that first. Padded envelope and they'll tell you to get lost. Toss it in a box and tape it up, same thing. But if it was well padded or perhaps in old retail packaging that would protect it if dropped, crushed slightly or tossed, then maybe it's time to look at the terms of that insurance you may or may not have purchased.

In the mean time, ship it back, test it out and proceed from there. If it does in fact work then there's a compatibility issue on his end but the card is still valuable. If it doesn't work then you can suspect something happened during shipping, unless he accidentally broke it somehow while opening the packaging and is trying to lie about it.

 

[radrd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by incognitoedleon Well, you failed to mention the screw and fan noise problem. That is your responsibility to do as a seller. What I would do is to try and troubleshoot the problem with the buyer. If that doesn't work, tell the buyer to ship it back. If it is indeed broken, refund all of the money as well as the cost back. If it still works, do not refund any money and have the buyer pay the cost of shipping back if the buyer still wants it. It could prove costly if it is broken, but that's what I would do. It could have broken during transport, which could either be your fault for not packaging it safe enough or if the carrier really abused the package. If the carrier damaged it and you offered insurance, but buyer did not purchase it, then it is the buyer's fault.

Agreed on all points.

 

[dj_mocok]

Why you guys also mentioning about the screw.

The fact is, the screw has absolutely nothing to do with the fan not working.
Because a few months after I bought it, the noise appeared, and the remedy was to remove the screw, and I've been using the card since then for more than a year with 1 less screw and it had worked absolutely perfect - except from occassional restart which I found was not caused by the card.

So I removed the card (I was using it and worked just fine), took a picture, put it in a box, therefore it should be a working card in that box.

Is it possible that some AGP slot is not compatible with a card with a fan that doesn't require molex connector? My card has a fan but doesn't need a separate power, it is powered by the AGP slot itself. Maybe his AGP doesn't have enough wattage - if there is such thing?

Or maybe a constant slamming to the ground or laying something heavy on top of the box might damage the fan somehow? This doesn't mean that the box should be damaged - it can be slammed to the ground as long as it hits the base, it won't make a dent.

I know it's a bummer for the buyer - But I also don't wanna loose the money and ended up with a broken card - which was not broken at all when I sent it.

So what do you think?

 

[dj_mocok]

About packaging, the card was in the retail box, and then I put the box in other posting box.
And the buyer didn't ask for a registered post, but I actually paid $2.5 from my own pocket just to made it a registered post.

If it's any help: This is what he wrote:

fan not working cover over fan loose and broken.boxes had no dents so it wasn't australia post card is working .but i wanted fan working which it is not?like you said in auction card is in good working order? and iam not happy about fan not work at all,so fan was not working when you have taken from your pc




This is what I wrote:

Hi,

Can you please explain in more details what do you mean by "cover over fan loose and broken"?

About the screw, this is the explanation:
Around a month after I bought the card (I bought it new), the fan sometimes made a whirring noise as if it had a friction against something. Then I checked for the answer in the internet, it turned out to be a pretty common problem, all fan (even from most expensive cards) unfortunately wasn't made in high quality.

And I found out that the way to fix the problem is to remove one screw from the fan - This doesn't make the fan loose, because the other 2 screws will still hold the fan very tight.
So I removed the screw, and noise problem disappeared - And I've been using it like that since then for more than a year and the card has never ever given me any problem. That is why I think it's not necessary to mention it, because it works perfectly fine.

So the fact that the fan is not working has nothing to do with the screw whatsoever, because that is exactly what I am doing with my current card. Now I have 9800PRO with one screw removed as well, and it doesn't have any effect on the card.

And yes, the card was working perfectly fine until I sent it to you.

So is it only the fan that is not working - but the video card itself works? If nothing works at all - that means it must have been damaged somehow.
I always make sure that the card was handled carefully - I wore anti static wrist strap when removing it. Did you by any chance gave the card a static?

Anyway, if the video card works, only fan, my other suggestion is to try it on a different computer. (but don't turn on too long or it will overheat without fan)

I am not very familiar with electricity draw from an AGP slot, but usually, video card comes with either passive cooling (no fan) and active (with fan - but powered by a molex connector).
The card that I sent you doesn't require a molex connector, but is it possible that somehow your AGP slot doesn't give enough power for the fan to work properly? My suggestion is to try to connect it to different PC.
Well, if not, what you can do is, try to unscrew all the screws in the fan, and screw them back again. But make sure you know what you are doing or else you might damage the card.

But I am very positive that the video card (and fan) was working perfectly fine before I sent it. It really should be a simple case of plug-in, install and that's it.

You mentioned that cover fan broken, what did you mean? If you see the picture from the auction, the card SHOULD EXACTLY look like that, no fan coming out from the card, because it was tight when I sent it.

I am not blaming Australia post, but is it possible that they put heavy stuff on top of the box, therefore damaging the fan - but not necassarily break the box. Either that or constant slamnming (mishandling) the box?

When I sent you, the box is still without dent and should be flat on the top. Did you receive it like that?

My other solution is, if everything else fails, and you are absolutely SURE you know what you're doing and you didn't damage the card - because I am sure I sent a working card - That only leaves Australia Post between us. It must have been damaged there somehow.

I don't mean to be irresponsible, but if you look at my feedback, I got 100% positive, and I will never sell a broken item to people.

Well, just try to suggestion I told you and see what happens, and as I said, if you want I can send you the other screw, but I am quite sure it won't make any difference because that's not the where the problem from.

Let me know how it goes. Thanks.

Albert.

 

[dj_mocok]

I just read a few posts saying I have to satisfy buyer or what would I do if it was me - But the point is, I sent a WORKING CARD. And if it's damaged, I will try to help them, but having to refund the card and ended up getting my card back - BROKEN - is not really fair to me too.

I just hope that he didn't actually damage it by himself and blaming me for that.

I know I wanna be fair but satisfying customer regardless whatever happen is ridiculous - especially if I genuinely think I am not in the wrong.

 

[CRS401]

Quote:

Originally Posted by incognitoedleon What I would do is to try and troubleshoot the problem with the buyer. If that doesn't work, tell the buyer to ship it back. If it is indeed broken, refund all of the money as well as the cost back. If it still works, do not refund any money and have the buyer pay the cost of shipping back if the buyer still wants it. It could prove costly if it is broken, but that's what I would do.

I would do what incognitoedleon said. It just may be incompatible with his hardware.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dj_mocok Why you guys also mentioning about the screw.

I know if I bought something on ebay, I wouldn't want the item to have a missing screw. I probably wouldn't even think about buying it either unless it was really really cheap.

 

[dj_mocok]

Again, the screw has nothing to do with the problem - and I wished I have mentioned about it. Next time I will.
I can just say, the screw will be included if buyer wants to. And no, it won't drop the price extremely low since what I am selling is a card that works perfectly fine.


But then again, I told him I would post him the screw to him if he really want to.


Anyway, is there an AGP slot that is not compatible to power a video card with a fan that doesn't need power connector? If there is, then maybe that's what happened to him.

This is the auction. If you look at the last pic of the card, you can see the screwless fan there. And then again, there was no intention to mislead customer since the card works fine, and minus one screw won't affect anything at all.

Had it works fine, would you as a buyer, make that much fuss about the screw?

I checked his feedback, he got 3 negatives, and one negative actually mentioned that : he damaged item and then wanted a refund.

 

[mr_baseball_08]

Check out his items for sale.

JD

 

[dj_mocok]

Wow..

I didn't notice that before. Thanks for pointing that out.

I wonder why he decied to sell the item so quickly and concluded that fan is not working properly?

I just sent him that email ( like 1.5 hour ago) explaining to him what to do with the fan, obviously he hasn't tried it.

I wonder what actually he's thinking....