I don't have any experience dealing with an A-gon customer who claims the glass is cracked on a Mac integrated I sold him. I provided pics to him and the Mac was boxed the same way I got it from Mcintosh. Box in a box with it attached to the plywood. I find this very hard to believe.
What I'm wondering is how should this have been handled by the buyer. Shouldn't he be taking this up with the carrier? Btw, it was shipped on April 21 and just today he sends me the e-mail.The box was delivered 4/24 or 4/25. I'm just now finding this out. I also had sent e-mails to him asking if he got the tracking number and there was no response. Last week I sent an e-mail asking if he got the Mac and in both cases he never sent a reply of any kind. I need a little guidance on this.
Classic Audio Loudspeakers used to be called Classic Audio Reproductions, and did things like replacement glass for Macs. If its an older Mac you might check with him (John Wolff).
An alternative would be to locate a company that specializes in plexiglass products - a new cover should be easy for them to fabricrate, cost far less and last longer than factory ordered. You could also split the costs.
I would want to know why there was the delay in his responding and advising. Maybe he got it, excited, slid it in the rack, rocked out for 10 days and then his audiophile buddy came by to check it out and pointed out the crack to him. You need to discuss all your reservations with him. If he can overcome them, I may be more willing to consider his claim.
The quality, amount and length of time the buyer has garnered feedback, and the same criterion observed from those who left feedback for the buyer might be insightful.
Right now fb has nothing to do with it. It is not your fault that he took so long to get back to you- not your fault if the amp sat damaged in a box until he got around to it or back in town or whatever. Its irrelevant.
If the claim time has elapsed that is all that matters at this point. If you packed it incorrectly it does not matter, unless you know that and want to make it right. If he unpacked it correctly it does not matter. What matters is that 10 days elapsed before he contacted you!
We do a lot of shipping and occasionally we get a damage claim that we have to sort out. I can't think of a time that has happened wherein the customer took more than a day to let us know there was a problem! IOW the time frame is fishy.
How can fb be irrelevant? What else are you to do to find out if this person is honest and all the other things I like to know. Would you sell or buy from someone with negative fb? That is your right though.
After the Mac I shipped (in factory box etc) was damaged I started taking detailed pictures of the packaging process for my records until the unit is received and I receive the all is good email.
I never thought about taking pics as I packed the gear but, that sounds like a very good idea. The buyers fb is very short on each transaction. I have to take that into consideration. What I read of his fb were 6 or 7 words. It's as if he had someone give fb as it's all very short.
I agree with Atmasphere here. Ordinarily the shipper is responsible for safe delivery. As far as 24 hours, etc.. It's quite possible that someone else signed for it while the original purchaser was out of town, it might have been delivered late on a Friday and/or a weekend/Holiday might have delayed response, and the damage wasn't discovered until the purchaser opened the package. However in this case, there seems to be way too much time elapsed between delivery and claim of damage. The Audiogon feedback history of the buyer might be insightful here.
I agree on the time lapse of reciept to claim. In my business, if we don't catch the damage at time of reciept we have 24 hours to file a claim. But that delayed claim is then investigated before and if payment is issued. You will most likely be faced with a lot of resistance from the shipper given the time delay. And that time delay in my opinion would default to the recepients responsibility.
As the shipper its your responsibility to make the shipping claim. However, given the time it took for this to come up is highly suspicious, and there may be a sunset on the time allowed for claims.
If that sunset has already occurred, you are off the hook entirely.
Assuming you insured the item and shipped the Mac to the purchaser then I believe its your responsibility to make a claim. If the claim is paid, the payment is sent to you the shipper. With that said I don't understand why the purchaser waited so long to report this to you, and I would be suspicious. I'd like to a good answer to why they waited so long to contact you? I've purchased and sold a lot of equipment using Audiogon. I've had a total of two items that I've sold get damaged in shipment, once by FedEx and once by UPS. I had to jump through all their hoops but I refunded the money to the purchaser and luckily I receive payment through the insurance that covered my expense. In both cases the purchaser had contacted me the day of delivery or the next day. BTW; one of the items was cracked glass on a Mac tunner. I was emailed photos of the damage and we had several discussions on the phone.
After owning a number of McIntosh Amps and PreAmps and unpacking them. And if you had original McIntosh packing, I say in all confidence that the glass could not be broken unless (A)there was a hole through both boxes aligning with the point of impact or (B)the boxes showed unmistakable evidence of damage suffered from impact of dropping, crushing or abuse.
If this buyer waited more than 1 hour after opening the box to alert you to the damage, then he had to have done it during unpacking. McIntosh designs their packing to be overly protective to a fault.
What does this guy want you to do? Buy it back? Pay for the repair? Reduce Price? Has he sent you a picture of the broken glass?
I'll bet anything that he did it himself while he was handling it after unpacking. He may have turned it on it's face, or done something else accidentally. It is not hard to do. A repair person experienced with Mac once did it to my amp. Also, if it arrived that way, he would have informed you right away. If you want to assist, as the other poster suggested, you can call the shipper on his behalf, but they are going to be very suspect of such a late claim, and I wouln't get deeply involved. You certainly don't owe him any compensation.
Either it's been mishandled during shipping or after shipping.
I don't think you're liable personally, but as an incentive, you can offer buyer to help in insurance claim.
You can also say that it's been quite a while after it was shipped and who knows or who should really know what was happening with amp between date of delivery and over 10 days after, but instead you let insurance company say same thing and politely remove your personal liability.
P.S. I'm experienced retailer and sell vinyl records online and off the store front and dealing with cases like that almost on daily bases.
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