Mr A and Mr B are friends and are both, in their own distinct ways, involved, with home cinema. As such, when Mr A upgraded his centre speaker, he offered his former speaker (a B&W CMC) to Mr B, at a not unreasonable discounted price. Mr B duly accepted and paid up.
Fast forward several months and we find Mr B falling under the spell of Martin Logan, so much so in fact he splashes circa £1600 on an ML centre. To recoup a little of the cost he decides to sell the CMC on e-bay; hopefully for around £150 + £10 delivery. So, up for sale it goes, and yes it does sell for around his asking price, but to a Mr C in Sweden!
Oh dear, Mr B now discovers a most important omission from his listing. As he didn’t quote the delivery price as UK only, he’s now in something of a quandary of how to get a 7.5 kg loudspeaker to Sweden for £10.00. He contacts Mr A for advice. He tells him that he has two options; welch on the deal and accept the poor feedback or mark the situation down to experience and absorb the cost himself. Mr B honourably, (in my opinion) chooses the latter option and also to be fair to Mr C, he, perhaps a little more aware of the problem, sends the equivalent of £170 as something of a gesture towards covering the additional transportation costs. Then the bombshell lands, the actual cost of delivery turns out to be around £60! Oh dear, feeling more than a little disheartened, seeing a significant chunk of his £150 disappearing into postage costs, Mr B packs up and sends off the speaker. It arrives a few days later, but alas disaster has struck; it’s been damaged in transit.
What would one do in such a situation? Personally, I would have asked Mr C to return it, refunded his money (including the return delivery cost), and then gone through the process of claiming compensation from Parcefarce. Ooops! Sorry, I meant Parcelforce. Mr B, however, had other plans.
Knowing Mr A was well known at B&W, he approached him, informed him of the trouble, that one of the bass/mid drivers was broken beyond repair, and asked if he’d be kind enough to use what influence he had, to acquire a replacement. Obviously Mr A wasn’t too happy at the prospect of calling in a favour for someone else’s benefit, but then Mr B was, after all, a friend. So Mr A duly did the decent thing, approached B&W on Mr B’s behalf, and did manage to acquire a new drive unit; gratis.
Having done so, however, he then discovered, during the course of further conversations with Mr B, that not one, but both bass/mid units are kaput. He then becomes aware that Mr B is now trying to pressurise him into obtaining a second drive unit. At this, although friends, Mr A felt unable to oblige, stating had he been told at the outset that both units were faulty, he might have been able to do something. Now, however, having already called in a favour, he felt that he couldn’t go back and ask for a second unit.
Naturally Mr B was a little miffed at this seeming rebuff and felt that had no other option than to purchase a replacement. He asked Mr A to forward the drive unit he’d already obtained, though Mr A, in an extremely charitable gesture (obviously a little upset himself) said why add cost, he would send it to Sweden himself. This he duly did, which cost him a not inconsiderable £16, but is this the end of this sorry saga? Oh, no.
As already mentioned Mr B did proceed to purchase a drive unit, at around £30. He sent it to Sweden; £16. Did it work? Err . . . no. Apparently he somehow managed to purchase a bass/mid drive unit for a CM2 not a CMC (though he blames B&W for the mix up). Cue another desperate call to Mr A.
Don’t mean to sound harsh, but by now Mr A doesn’t really know whether to laugh or cry. He did, however say that in this circumstance he might be able to help. He contacted B&W again and arranged an exchange. He has since taken delivery of, and subsequently sent off, a second CMC bass/mid unit (at a further cost to himself of £16, money that he can ill afford to lose at the moment). He’s now waiting on the safe return of the CM2 unit.
As for Mr B. Well, what can be said. The only person I know that’s managed to make a loss on the sale of a £150 second hand item. The lesson here. When selling, clearly state whether the delivery does or does not include international destinations . . . and don’t be a cheapskate if things go pear shaped.
PS
Just in case you’re wondering, I’m neither Mr A, Mr B or Mr C. I’m Mr D, smirking on the sidelines.
This message was edited by djy on 03/06/04 05:34.
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