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What to do when buyer claims sellers item broken?

I recently sold a Bottlehead Paraglows amp with AVVT 2A3 meshplates on Audiogon. The tubes were triple boxed and shipped separately via USPS Priority insured. The amps bases were shipped separately via Fedex Ground insured. I was very careful with all my packaging. I know these amps work perfectly before I shipped them out. Now the buyer received the amp and the tubes, and claims the tubes glow up then died. This is the first time I have had problem with selling my equipment, and I am not sure what to do here. If the amps and tubes arrived without any visible box damage, how can they be broken? There are minimal circuits in the amps to be broken, especially inside a wood box covered by thick foams and double thickness box. Please understand that I am not saying my buyer is doing anything to it, I just need advice on what to do next to rectify the situation. I don't sell a lemon, and I don't want a negative feedback from any buyer, ever.
PT
pt999
pt999 OP
9 posts
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I will first ask the buyer to check for loose wires, components fallen off, and the little C4 boards for shorts. Then locate a local technician to try and fix it at my expense. Since the circuit is rather straight forward and the all manuals are included, any competent technician should be able to figure it out. It's even easier when they are monoblocks, one working unit should provide good reference to compare against. Worst come to worst, if nothing works out, I will have to refund his money and get back a broken amp. All the shipping expenses and 3% Paypal is kinda painful to swallow.
dekay's avatar
dekay
5,704 posts
 
Did the new owner know how to properly install the 2A3's? If both amps failed upon power up, it would seem to me that they were not (properly installed) and it would not take very long (a few seconds, as described) to trash the amps.

If so, this should be easy to determine upon inspection by a tech.

Sorry I do not have a solution, but this is what I suspect may have happened (based on the new owner's description of the event).

I own the Paramours, by the way, and yes, there is not much to go wrong if they are properly used.
rockhead
83 posts
 
Man, what a tough situation. I agree with taking it back and filing an insurance claim. The last thing a good seller needs is negative feedback.
I recently sold a CDP I had for 5 months. The buyer informed me the balanced outs were distorted. My pre is only RCA's so I had no way to know of this situation. I immediately refunded his money via paypal and included money to ship it to the manufacturer. I will pay for the repair, have it shipped back to him, then he will pay me the original price. He was a good sport about it as he could have just sent it back to me and bought somebody elses.
Good Luck,
Patrick
gboren
143 posts
 
I had a similar situation with a pair of speakers I sold a few months ago. Fortunately the repair cost was relatively cheap ($42.00). Because I wanted to protect my feedback rating, I paid the repair bill on the buyer's promise to cooperate with me in attempting to get the money back from UPS. Two months and a small amount of paperwork later, I got a check!
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
YES! YOU should arrange a technician who will examine the units and tell YOU what realy happened. If it's the fault of the buyer than you have no worries. Make sure to arrange the telephone conversations while the unit will be examined.
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