[modeleng] A Cautionary Tale

Fellow model engineers, the following is my experience with a seller
from eBay, albeit this transaction took place outside of eBay.

On the 1st of June I bid for (and won) a cast resin replica of a GWR
Signal Box Door sign.  This was duly paid for an it arrived in good order.

Just over a month later I had an e-mail from the seller letting me know
that he was about to start selling on eBay a "Beware of Trains" sign and
as I had purchased previously, would I be interested in one at a reduced
price before it went on eBay.  (In fact that also turns out to be a 
partial scam as the stated "higher price" has never appeared on eBay, he 
starts at the price I paid.)

Anyway, I agreed and sent the money off, a couple of weeks after the
e-mail the sign arrived - looking like this

http://www.lmandwr.co.uk/sign/beware_of_trains.jpg

this was simply because the packaging was totally inadequate to protect
the sign inside and whilst it had "Fragile" on the outer wrapper, that
just seems to be a challenge to the UK postmen!

Since then I have tried to get in contact with the seller to request
either a refund or a replacement but as yet he has not replied (just
about a month).  It is worth noting that more of these signs are
appearing on eBay (so I assume that he is still around).

Therefore I have a damaged sign and due to the poor packaging, no
comeback from the post office and a seller who is ignoring this problem.

The seller trades on eBay as joewiles8

I know Caveat Emptor, but at least you may learn from my mistake!

As a secondary issue, if the sign I have is typical, the resin is not
that thick, it is uneven across the width and breadth of the sign,  it
does not have a flat "back" to it, so it would need some additional
support to mount it and to be honest I don't think that it is worth £25.

Cheers

Peter







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