Damaged in shipping!

[fire!fire!]

I just received my new beautiful heavy-sixer in the mail and the dingleberries didn't wrap it in bubble-wrap! How could someone list something knowing that it is old and wonderful and in perfect pristine shape and not wrap it carefully!?!

 

It has a half-inch chunk broken off the sexy black front curve! WHY WHY WHY?

 

What really bites is that if I turn in an insurance claim the post office says they confiscate my game in return for the insurance money.

 

Is it just the red-neck in me that is getting out the super-glue and keeping the damaged goods? Or the Atari Lover?

 

OK thanks for listening, I just had to vent.

 

I encourage everyone to remind/ask the seller to wrap our classic gaming consoles really carefully. Seems sad that we have to tell them such a simple concept.

[Famicoman]

Does it work?

[Mindfield]

If it makes you feel any better, I had an entire heavy sixer mailed to me in a padded envelope. To make matters worse it didn't work and had significant water damage besides -- so much so that the center screw in the bottom was so rusted it had virtually fused with the plastic, so I couldn't even open it up to assess the damage.

 

Some people are just completely stupid.

 

Incidentally, I don't know how it is with USPS, but Canada Post will not honor insurance claims if the reason the item was damaged was due to inadequate packaging.

[fire!fire!]

Does it work?

914949[/snapback]

 

 

YES! It works great, and it is really cool to see the difficulty switches on the front. I play more games on NOVICE than I thought. And all the joysticks look brand new and all the games work.

 

Dang! Mindfield: that is terrible what happened to you! I just have a flaw on an otherwise cool machine. Guess I should not be complaining...and it did cross my mind that the USPS might not want to pay for a poorly packaged item. Get this - it was in a very small box with Publix shopping bags wadded around stuff. Sheesh......

[Famicoman]

At least it works. Thats one thing you can be thankful for.

[shadow460]

Forget warranties of any kind. Any Atari equipment you get--any at all (even FB2), if it's damaged, fix it yourself.

 

My 7800 was slightly damaged when I got it, but there's no way the seller could have known. No one would know a screw hole was broken off inside, though, til I opened it.

I fixed that right away once I finally found it.

 

By the way, it came packed in a ginormous box with plenty of newspaper for packaging. I read the Pennsylvania paper for a week!

 

If it makes you feel better, I purchased a sealed One on One cart. when I broke the seal, I found out the end label was folded in half.

This was on a cart that was sealed in 1987 by the Atari factory.

Edited August 20, 2005 by shadow460

[Christophero Sly]

I had an entire heavy sixer mailed to me in a padded envelope.

Wow!

[+RichG1972]

That's ok, I got a bad Atari system from someone on Ebay back in March of 2002, half the screws were missing, it was missing 2 of the 6 black circular protective pads, that go over the 6 switches, the anti-static foil strips were also missing, and the switchplate was badly dented, mangled, bent and cracked. The switches were missing springs (reset switch and select), the adaptor only operated at half power for about a week then died, then after I replaced the adaptor with a 9v 800mA Radio Shack one, a few months later THAT one burned up completely and was melted and smoking and the power jack came loose and the switches were so black you would have thought that the Atari had been in a fire or something. The ebay seller told me it was in "mint" condition, well the cartridges I got with it were in pretty good shape with the exception of one missing a front label, one missing over half the label and some having very loose labels. I restored it completely and then someone's kid my fiancee and I were babysitting started banging on the Atari and snapped off the sound coil which left my Atari without any sound, I then asked a friend of mine to repair it, and he took it to repair and I told his ex wife where I had moved to so he could get the system to me pronto, but he ended up dropping it off on the porch of our old trailer, so I no longer have that Atari system. But I am told by the ex-wife of the guy she is gonna replace it with one I can work my magic on yet again. If you want to see what the previous system looked like before and after the restoration process, here is the link to the thread of pictures of my handiwork:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13823&hl=

 

RichG1972

[fire!fire!]

WOW! Thanks Rich for the interesting link. Today I was playing my new 2600 and the game select switch was skipping numbers - it was kind of like trying to stop a gas pump right at $10 LOL. Always goes to $10.01. Gonna keep that thread for future use, I think I will need it.

[Osbo]

did u email the seller? I won an auction with a 6switcher and a 4switcher, and the 4 came mess-up because the guy didn't packed ir properlly, and he refunded me 16 bucks out of 20 for shiping.

[ozatariprincess]

I have got numerous atari systems off ebay that have been broken . The worst one was a woodgrain console that had no screws in it , so was in peives and was poorly wrapped to boot!!! Obviously it didn't work so I just had to throw it out.

 

The seller had listed it as a fully working console in good condition.

[fire!fire!]

did u email the seller? I won an auction with a 6switcher and a 4switcher, and the 4 came mess-up because the guy didn't packed ir properlly, and he refunded me 16 bucks out of 20 for shiping.

915813[/snapback]

 

 

Yeah I did email and they truly think that they packed it well. It had a little bit of that hair-thin foam paper around it (not covering the corners) and then the games on top, and then the joysticks and paddles with wadded plastic grocery bags around them. In a very very small box. When I picked up the box I thought that it was something different, the last game I got off ebay was in a much larger box to allow for packing materials.

 

No, when I emailed (very nicely I may add) they said just that they wished they could see the damage in person so they could help me with the super-glue.

 

Since I have 10 good fingers (on 2 good hands) I think I got the super-glue thing under control. It really could have been much worse, and I can tell these people are just those garage-sale hunters that go around and buy stuff to list on ebay. They don't understand what we feel about these old games. Then again neither does my family......

[Osbo]

did u post the feedback already? mine came packed with some newspapers, even after I send a note with my paypal payment to please, pack it good. I told the guy i'm a seller too, and I like to make sure my packages arrive in a safe manner, even if the buyer does not pay insurance, and that I had pay almost 20 bucks for shipping/handling.