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Rams - Red Flag...Read inside, then you decide...

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weamdog

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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
"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!
 
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weamdog

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Update 5/28: A partial refund has been offered through the paypal dispute arbitration process. This was declined. Why would i want to pay less for something that I didn't want to begin with not to mention it is broke? This has not been taken seriously from the day my funds were transferred. It may be time to file a claim under 18 U.S.C. § 1341 for mail fraud.
 
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weamdog

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Update 6/3: A full refund minus return shipping was offered. ZAR-127 was packaged up (much better than originally) and sent via UPS insured with signature required. If I would have trusted this seller I would have forgone the signature required, but considering all the trouble I had no choice but to document the damage with UPS and require a signature to prevent any additional fraud.
 

ryan265

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Yea...some really shady sellers out there. Glad it worked out for you. I will be posting my own debacle with a seller shortly.
 
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weamdog

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So here were are going on 48hrs since the wrong and busted reactor was received and signed for and no refund. He was supposed to get back with PAYPAL when he received the package but hasn't. I have a date in mind that I will file a complaint with the postmaster general should I not receive my money back, this dude deserves some jail time. He may want to move across the border where they have the catch and release policy in effect but not sure that holds for federal crimes.

When i started this thread, i left it up to the readers to decide about doing business with this person. However, there is no doubt left in my mind that this dude is a crook. If this were my site he'd get the boot.

Update: 17mins after this post PP closed my case and will be issuing the refund. Not long now (only days).
 
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Rams

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You got your money back and not sure why you did this.I will never do shipping again because of this. I never had bad experience with any buyers when I did locally. You called me crook? give me a break man. Learn to give respect and take respect. Who knows you broke the item and bluffing for money?
 
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weamdog

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Give it a break man. I'm not the first person who was not been satisfied with their transaction with you. This tread speaks for itself. If I broke it why did it get lost for a couple of days and arrive with a bunch of post office stickers over a gaping hole in the box once I contacted the post office? This forum will be a better place without you shipping. Remember, it was your choice to ship, your choice to not insure, your choice to skimp on packaging for something that is fragile and it was you who falsely advertised.

You don't need to lecture me on respect. Respect is given freely until such time as it is no longer deserved.

Being that you continue to blame me even after PayPal ruled in my favor, my crook assessment stands. Especially after accusing me of trying to scam you for money when I had to spend $30 to ship your the broken equipment back to you.
 

Rams

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Give it a break man. I'm not the first person who was not been satisfied with their transaction with you. This tread speaks for itself. If I broke it why did it get lost for a couple of days and arrive with a bunch of post office stickers over a gaping hole in the box once I contacted the post office? This forum will be a better place without you shipping. Remember, it was your choice to ship, your choice to not insure, your choice to skimp on packaging for something that is fragile and it was you who falsely advertised.

You don't need to lecture me on respect. Respect is given freely until such time as it is no longer deserved.

Being that you continue to blame me even after PayPal ruled in my favor, my crook assessment stands. Especially after accusing me of trying to scam you for money when I had to spend $30 to ship your the broken equipment back to you.
Everyone seen who is desperate and spoken bad here.Good luck man. You taught me a lesson by not shipping to anyone. Who is not satisfied with my transaction? You got your money back and doing bad mouth by disrespecting me? Hope you are educated person.Thanks
 

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