Wow, my First EvilBay Nightmare

For some reason I am not surprised by my own story, I knew my evilBay luck would some day run short.

Surprisingly, my OB-8 arrived unannounced today. To be more specific, it was just sitting on my porch in the sun when I got home. It had probably been there for at least 6 hours, so I guess I am lucky it was there at all.

It was in a carrying case that apparently the seller thought would make a good shipping case. Well, maybe with some internal packaging! The poor blue monster must have been tossed around like crazy because the whole left side wood panel is cracked through from front to back allowing the top panel to flap around.

I chanced plugging it in expecting smoke to come pooring forth and, well, 7 of eight voices seem to work fine. -That at least, I can expect and can probably be dealt with.

Anyway, gonna see what the sorry excuse of a shipper has to say. Probably some screwed up BS with "as is" being the subject or intent. I already told him that would not fly.

In any case, it still sounds good. hopefully, I can swing something like WLR and ship it off to get repaired with some compensation from the seller.

Not really complaining or asking for solutions (but willing to listen). Just wanted to relay the story.

Actually some new end panels would look pretty spiffy, and a little techincal TLC and think this thing will be good as near new!

The midi rocks!

geez, I cannot stand looking at my own avatar....

Wow, that sucks. Hopefully the seller won't be a doof. Keep us updated.

Luckily, the only eBay mishap I've had is some tubes that got broken when shipping a guitar amp. I simply reimbursed the buyer for a fresh complete set of JJs

Yeah my "mint condition" Korg Z1 actually had 2 broken keys, that I didn't find until a month later. Yep, you can't always see it at first glance, you hear and feel it in the keybed. One end panel is cracked and I'm still waiting on that panel from Korg Japan. So, I think it's sometimes better to just fix it yourself then deal with the seller.

Often times, if you get insurance from the post (and you should with anything expensive or delicate) the post will pay the other person for what they lost. I had sold some glass wear of my GF's and it broke. I had insurance, I sent the insurance sheet to the buyer and told them to go the post office,who told me they will refund your money with the receipt.

Insurance! He didn't get any I take it?

I know this will be my case, but I am gonna let him prove me wrong.

WLR, where did you get your OB serviced again?

Besides the one voice not currently working, one knob/pot is sort of froze and some other stuff is kind of loose. Did not get a bargain, but I think its gonna be alright. It came with some spare parts: a set of CEM chips and a new potentiomenter. I could, potentially, fix it myself.

Any ideas for some cool end caps. Wish I could get the whole thing repainted too, that'd be interesting.

Got the original manual and cassette of factory presets, and did I mention the MIDI mod? Original keybed aint too great but feels incredible playing it from my X-station

It has a Rush Rezz Preset!

sorry to hear it BillyWa. Hope it works out for you in the end.

IIRC, WLR had Wes from Analogics refurb his OB.

No need to be sorry!

Considering how beat up it got, it works quite well and, of course, sounds amazing! She shall clean up quite nicely. Once I stopped fretting over a piece of wood and started playing it .... well, I may take off work today due to lack of sleep...

I'll be posting my 'Jump' demo soon.

Analogics, thanks, IB!

Out of curiosity, anyone know of an OB repair in the Denver area?

{censored} Billy, I can't believe it...

But yes, I used Wes with Analogics and he got everything working except that I do have a flaky voice 1 also, so I just disabled it with page 2, but I'm not sure that the Xa has that option. At any rate, I'd go to his website www.analogics.org and tell him Mike Thompson referred you I would spend some time taking to him about the issues over the phone and get an idea of the rough estimate. He also sells the wood endbells that he makes in his woodshop (really good, too!) They're about 90 bucks I think.

That really blows - I was actually hoping yours would arrive in one piece and that you wouldn't have to deal with this {censored}, but at any rate get on the phone with Wes and get that seller nervous about what you're gonna do to his knees!

BTW, every now and then Wes comes on the forum here, under the moniker "flattop". It would be nice to see him more often; he is very knowledgable.

Originally posted by WhinyLittleRunt ...and get that seller nervous about what you're gonna do to his knees!

I'm in.

Originally posted by BillyWa For some reason I am not surprised by my own story, I knew my eveilBay luck would some day run short...

man, that sucks, sorry to hear that. i'm dreading the day my ebay luck runs out... and i got an Electribe coming in the next day or two via USPS!

please post pics once you get things in order.

Hint of the day/week/month/year - If you insure something for less than $1000, UPS will leave at door without signature. Since it is potential fraud to insure for more than market value, you can try requesting a signature. It may be of an inconvenience, but may prevent a theft possibility or sitting in a rain storm.

Second hint of the day/week/month/year - If the damage occurred in shipping, a claim may be in order. Ups insures up to $100 without charging you. That means there is always $100 of insurance. UPS doesn't really want you to know this, but if no extra insurance was paid for, this may pay for shipping to and fro to a service provider such as myself.

Wood endbells and other wood kits/products - http://www.analogics.org/product.html

Different wood can be selected for a nominal charge depending on the species.

If you would like to call and talk about your issues, feel free to call 1-440-466-6911.

Wes Taggart

Analogics

http://www.analogics.org

Thanks guys!

Hi Wes, I'll be giving you a call soon!

The shipper got back to me and seems nice enough. I think he does not ship big ticket/fragile items much, but is willing to work with me. Not sure that more than the end plate and some extra scratches resulted from the shipment. I may just glue the endplate together for now and order new ones.

that sucks yo, did he offer any compensation? did you know about the bad voice?

Hey Billy I forgot you got an OB-8 i thought it was an OB-Xa (I was thinking of someone else's thread).

Yeah, it sounds pretty sick though, huh?! BTW, what rev is it and do you have the crappy panasonic keyboard or the P&R one?

Must be the crappy keyboard...I thought it was going to fall off when I opened the case.

Did I mention it has MIDI? I plan to use my ensoniq vfx to play it. (My favorite keybed of all time.)

Brokebay strikes again.

I've noticed a trend of this kind of thing more and more...past few times I've shipped something, UPS has been more critical than usual, ripping open my box and making sure I'm using the proper packing materials. There's two things happening in my belief: 1) Most people don't know how to pack things, 2) There's alot more fraud, i.e. people selling merchandise they know to be faulty or not as advertised, then trying to blame it on the shipper after they've got your dough.

I believe option one in this case - shipper does not know how to pack things, just threw it in the case with some loose items.

Working with him now to negotiate the repairs. Seems like a nice enough guy.

Update for anyone who cares. The ebay seller has been quite nice to work out a deal to fix the shipping damage. Once I get it to Analogics I'll tell the gruesome climax to this horror story...