- Joined
- Jan 4, 2020
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This post officially documents one forum's members experience dealing with @Rams for a Skimz ZAR-127/157 Zeolith Reactor posted here.
BLUF: Advertised one thing, shipped another with inadequate protection and insurance via USPS. Item arrived damaged and unusable. I've tried to work this out with the seller over the course of four days but there continues to be a lack of willingness to accept responsibility. I have been more than patient with this seller and
Summary of events leading up to this post.
1. 5/11/20 Monday. Reached out via R2R PM. Still available, what is shipping? Response: prob $20 more. Checked myself, insured UPS would have come in just under $20 so i agreed.
2. 5/11/2020 Paid via PayPal
3. 5/11/2020 Payment acknowledged, will ship tomorrow.
4. 5/12/2020 Wednesday comes no tracking number. I'll send tomorrow but tomorrow came after the post office closed.
5. 5/14/2020 Shipped Friday for Monday delivery USPS (3hrs away). Pic of receipt for shipping (looks like maybe $12 for 2-day)
6. Monday came and went, Tuesday came and went still not showing any tracking movement beyond acceptance in NJ.
7. 5/20/2020 Filed missing package claim Wednesday and it showed up later that afternoon with the box in pretty bad shape.
8. Took pics, opened box to reveal a filthy broken ZAR-127 (note, paid for and was expecting a ZAR-157). My guess is media was tossed in the box as there were a few pieces left rolling around inside.
9. Filed a claim with usps and paypal. Notified seller of the damage and the mislabeling of the sales thread. Was told that BRS sold him a 157 and had receipt if i wanted to see it. In the words of the worlds most famous law officer Buford T Justice
10. Attempted to test the electronics, plugged in power supply (sparks flying out of the wall). Tested power supply which is at least part of the issue (no output volts), no way to test the controller and pump. Of special note the model of pump doesn't match QP4 on BRS nor does it match what is listed for the 157 (QP6), this pump is a QP5. Did I get shipped a mixed box of parts that didn't line up? Was the power supply under powered for the pump and did that cause the power supply to fry? At this point the transaction is a complete farce, but read on...
11. 22 May, USPS agrees with claim which is when i discovered there was no insurance to cover a product that was claimed to be 4mo old and if in fact was a ZAR-157, would have been worth significantly more than the default $50 of insurance.
12. Upon notice to seller of the USPS decision (note that I'm the one out of money here and doing all the work, there has been no evidence of any sort of action performed on the sellers part) seller decides to scold me and say that he instructed me to wait for USPS before escalating. Not sure what that means since I filed the claim before making contact with the seller and forwarded him the claim request.
13. 5/24/2020 There has been no acknowledgement via PayPal of the issue by the seller. This will be escalated to PayPal for resolution at the completion of this post.
14. 3.5 days after delivery (sun 24th), received txt stating that the listing was in fact wrongly advertised as a ZAR-157 (could be considered mail fraud)
15. There is still no acceptance of responsibility for the packaging and inadequate insurance on the ZAR-127. This leaves me no choice but to escalate.
What went wrong with this transaction:
- Potential mail fraud (cannot personally determine whether or not there was intent here, not my job).
- Lack of proper protection for fragile package contents.
- Lack of proper insurance even though there were sufficient funds (shipping USPS is a risk in and of itself)
- Damage summary (as far as i can diagnose):
- No communications from seller as to intentions to resolve the issue.
I have full documentation that goes along with all these facts, but being the nice guy that I am I chose not to post at this point in time, but I am reserving the right to "go there" should my integrity be challenged. This post comes after a brief discussion this morning that ended in silence after my disagreement to the packaging and condition of the item which again is not necessarliy "german" (see above if you missed it). There were more than five hours of silence since my last txt and it would be foolish to think that I'm just going to let this go. So, here I am clicking "post" hoping that other R2R members can learn from this experience. Shields up!
New Jersey - Skimz ZAR 157 Zeolith Reactor
4 months old like new Skimz ZAR 157 zeolith reactor for sale.must pick up in NJ 07080.Asking 200$.
www.reef2reef.com
BLUF: Advertised one thing, shipped another with inadequate protection and insurance via USPS. Item arrived damaged and unusable. I've tried to work this out with the seller over the course of four days but there continues to be a lack of willingness to accept responsibility. I have been more than patient with this seller and
Summary of events leading up to this post.
1. 5/11/20 Monday. Reached out via R2R PM. Still available, what is shipping? Response: prob $20 more. Checked myself, insured UPS would have come in just under $20 so i agreed.
2. 5/11/2020 Paid via PayPal
3. 5/11/2020 Payment acknowledged, will ship tomorrow.
4. 5/12/2020 Wednesday comes no tracking number. I'll send tomorrow but tomorrow came after the post office closed.
5. 5/14/2020 Shipped Friday for Monday delivery USPS (3hrs away). Pic of receipt for shipping (looks like maybe $12 for 2-day)
6. Monday came and went, Tuesday came and went still not showing any tracking movement beyond acceptance in NJ.
7. 5/20/2020 Filed missing package claim Wednesday and it showed up later that afternoon with the box in pretty bad shape.
8. Took pics, opened box to reveal a filthy broken ZAR-127 (note, paid for and was expecting a ZAR-157). My guess is media was tossed in the box as there were a few pieces left rolling around inside.
9. Filed a claim with usps and paypal. Notified seller of the damage and the mislabeling of the sales thread. Was told that BRS sold him a 157 and had receipt if i wanted to see it. In the words of the worlds most famous law officer Buford T Justice
"The god dang Germans got nothin' to do with it."
10. Attempted to test the electronics, plugged in power supply (sparks flying out of the wall). Tested power supply which is at least part of the issue (no output volts), no way to test the controller and pump. Of special note the model of pump doesn't match QP4 on BRS nor does it match what is listed for the 157 (QP6), this pump is a QP5. Did I get shipped a mixed box of parts that didn't line up? Was the power supply under powered for the pump and did that cause the power supply to fry? At this point the transaction is a complete farce, but read on...
11. 22 May, USPS agrees with claim which is when i discovered there was no insurance to cover a product that was claimed to be 4mo old and if in fact was a ZAR-157, would have been worth significantly more than the default $50 of insurance.
12. Upon notice to seller of the USPS decision (note that I'm the one out of money here and doing all the work, there has been no evidence of any sort of action performed on the sellers part) seller decides to scold me and say that he instructed me to wait for USPS before escalating. Not sure what that means since I filed the claim before making contact with the seller and forwarded him the claim request.
13. 5/24/2020 There has been no acknowledgement via PayPal of the issue by the seller. This will be escalated to PayPal for resolution at the completion of this post.
14. 3.5 days after delivery (sun 24th), received txt stating that the listing was in fact wrongly advertised as a ZAR-157 (could be considered mail fraud)
15. There is still no acceptance of responsibility for the packaging and inadequate insurance on the ZAR-127. This leaves me no choice but to escalate.
What went wrong with this transaction:
- Potential mail fraud (cannot personally determine whether or not there was intent here, not my job).
- Lack of proper protection for fragile package contents.
- Lack of proper insurance even though there were sufficient funds (shipping USPS is a risk in and of itself)
- Damage summary (as far as i can diagnose):
- Inner chamber broken from mounting plate.
- Chamber mounting plate broken into 2 pieces.
- Inner media grate broken into 3 pieces.
- Power supply dead.
- Looks like it was used as a cement mixer.
- Seller insisting that it was a ZAR-157 and that the customer was wrong.- No communications from seller as to intentions to resolve the issue.
I have full documentation that goes along with all these facts, but being the nice guy that I am I chose not to post at this point in time, but I am reserving the right to "go there" should my integrity be challenged. This post comes after a brief discussion this morning that ended in silence after my disagreement to the packaging and condition of the item which again is not necessarliy "german" (see above if you missed it). There were more than five hours of silence since my last txt and it would be foolish to think that I'm just going to let this go. So, here I am clicking "post" hoping that other R2R members can learn from this experience. Shields up!