I am getting NO replies from the seller regarding images. Not looking good in that respect. He is quite happy to avoid the issue and just ask 'when is the courier coming' and assorted questions back to me, which have already been answered. His answering machine has no message on it, so it's one of those stupid situations where you are not 100% sure you are actually leaving a message or not. Deliberately evasive me thinks! However, the courier assures me he has picked up from this guy in the past, I am therefore just going to assume he is a bit unwilling to waste time talking to people when they've spent a mere £100.00 on something. A crap attitude agreed, but understandable if he's running a busy business. People from outside of the UK will be shocked at the lax attitude to customer service. In the UK this is pretty standard fair. Some people simply don't give a monkeys!
That's easy... Him: When is the courier coming? You: When are my photos coming? I'd just be blunt with him and straight out ask him, i.e. an e-mail and/or telephone message saying - I've asked you for photos and you ignore me. Are you going to provide these or not? If you can't / won't, please have the courtesy to tell me. Then you could add - When you answer my question regarding photos, I will answer your question as to when the courier will be coming. If they're going to be twats, just be direct with them, but polite. Of course, technically speaking, you've 'signed' a contract saying you'll buy, so photos should have been asked for before, but that's not the point ;-)
He sounds like the typical lazy bas you sometimes get on eBay to me. A few months back I bought (or at least thought I did) a BNIB ADSL2+ modem off the bay. Instead of the thing I bought he sent me one of his other ADSL1 modem lots sans cables and microfilter and that looked like it had the shit kicked out of it, then something heavy dropped on putting a vertical kink in the I/O. When I raised it with him he told me he didn't even look in the box before he sent it. For all he new I coulda been getting a pound of whale baleen apparently. SO I asked for a refund, his response was I should sell it on and he'd pay the fees: 'I had a lot of interest before you bought it'. Right. You had a lot of interest in something completely different you mean? Then it was: 'Can't you just make use of it anyway?' If I bought a colour TV and got sent a mono set, I could make use of it sure, in the same way I could have made chips if you sent me 3 spuds. I did get a refund in the end and a lesson in eBay shopping that cot me £10 in P&P. It's REALLY hard not to lose patience in these kinda situations, but important not to I think.
The photos are so A: I can confirm that the unit is the one being auctioned and B: so I can establish whether any damage occurs in transit. I wanted to nail this weird second video issue for one. The question being why he had blanked it out. If he's not sending the actual item in the image and it's a stock image then I wonder where I stand with eBay as I paid by PayPal. Not wanting to rip the guy off, but if I am offered a different machine in poor condition, with damage to it then I guess despite the size of the unit I am entitled to complain. Yeah I am refraining from getting pissed off with him because he could simply be typically lazy and uninterested. You get them! The last thing I need is him doing some damage to the unit.
Yeah, that's fair enough. I'd explain that to him - it is in everyone's best interest, really. If something happens in transit, you can provide proof in case the carrier gets arsey. Is he anywhere near you? If you can, I'd visit before collection. Or maybe you could find someone on Jamma+ who would go and take a shoofty (and camera) for you if it isn't local? To be honest, if that's the quality of his camera (phone maybe), then you're not going to see the detail that you want. Sounds like an op. Take a look at his feedback - see if anyone else had any issues with him shipping machines/descriptions in the past.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=280324846283 Sega Raid twin cabinet on the go in Northamptonshire if anyone fancies joining in the fun! Personally I'd just plum for the spare parts and the Raid ROMs!
Twin cams/cylinders, methinks. Although ejectors might be usefull, what with the all the loony motorists out there. (Sidenote: Ever see that discovery channel prog where they made an air-bag equipped set of biker leathers? It actually seemed to work pretty well!) Indeed. Even allowing for the shipping hit & the sellers non-communicativeness, this still seems an acceptable gamble to me. Me too! I hate to think of the money I dropped into these things...
The seller of the Manx TT unit got back in touch. Apparently having internet issues (Hmmm?!) so no images until Friday when he is offloading it from the back of his van (why would you carry it around everywhere?), but frankly I am going to stop giving a monkeys until it turns up.
Finally managed to get through to the seller. It's NOT the item pictured in the auction (which I thought there were eBay rules about), however he described it in better condition than the one in the image, although he probably would! I'm away for a few days, so I'll let you know when it lands and whether I've got £100 worth of spares to sell on to other people or indeed my wife turned up a bargain!
You can put up a stock picture - lots of people just grab a pic off a website. There doesn't seem to be much ruling on pictures, although it is a good idea to state it isn't the item pictured!! As its already on the van, I'd ask him how much he'd charge to deliver it :110:
Where is it coming from? £100 or not, at this point, considering the responses I'd take a day off and drive to look at it before anything continues, really doesn't sound good.
Don't panic, even if the whole thing is pretty much trashed, the mere fact 1 side is described as working is sufficient to warrant the patience and hassle. The Model 2A CRX boards inside the machine are worth more as spare parts than the cost plus shipping. If it arrives looking really ropey, then I'll take it completely apart and sell spares on eBay or whatever. It's located in South Wales so traveling down isn't an option for me. I'm in London this weekend, but not got the time to nip over to Wales before it's already en route!
Well, the Raid has gone up to £300+ and there is a Manx TT fully working, with a spare unit for parts currently listed at £400+ £100 worth must be a rats ass.... or a bargain.... anyone care to make a bet as to which it might be lol?
Arrived... let's just say the wife said 'I'm sorry!' in a rather sad way and the unit truly looks like a rats ass lol. For £100 I can't complain and the wife was being really kind. I've assured her it's ok, that she wasn't to know, the seller was clearly aware that he was telling porkies and for £100 he didn't care. I'll take images later. This comes at a bad time as I have a million other things to do right now so the images will be of the unit prior to cleaning. There are parts missing, bolts missing, the keys are missing, no map in the middle, one bike is clearly stuffed as it won't even stay up-right, the units are rusty, bashed, scratched, scraped and without plugging it in I suspect screen burn will be at a premium! Well, I like a fixer-upper! This is another LOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG term project that frankly is still a bit of a bargain, but I'm going to avoid that seller in future like the plague. I'm wondering just how difficult it would be to construct even a single cabinet from this and have some spare parts.
bummer, i hope you can get it all fixed and at least have some fun doing so. i'll keep my fingers crossed for you!
The images actually look ok, that's the beauty of a flash - nothing looks too dirty. It is filthy, to the point I don't think it's had even a wipe down since it was placed in the original arcade. Touching it leaves you with grease, oil and dirt all over. My hands were black, so it will polish up nicely I think. However, the bikes kitted out in the crappiest 1980's liveries are getting sprayed for sure. Easy to obtain motorbike decals after a respray. One of the bikes, the spring has gone so it doesn't right itself. It comprises of hundreds of parts. It's actually a very complex piece of hardware. Both monitors are needing attention, but the video boards and motherboards are fine. The controls all test as ok, I can play the games through the fog and lines. I have the floorboards, but they take up too much space. Missing are bolts and the middle map. That can be reproduced I am sure.
