Buying GPS receivers on eBay

[nemo]

I have never bought a new GPS receiver from a store. I prefer to pay
for used equipment online. That said, I have bought two Meridian GPS
units and each of them last two or three years before konking out.
The first unit I think may have gone bad when I had it open to deal
with a battery contact problem. I likely took apart more than I
should have and it turns out the LCD is a *very* touchy beast. Once
you disconnect it, it never works right again. The second Meridian
developed a problem with the keypad because of a leaky case and when I
had it open to fix that the screen also stopped working.

So recently I bought my third Meridian online (I've got all the
software and cables and such, besides, it's actually a pretty good
unit). I got a good price and the shipping included insurance. I
received the item and opened the box to find that the seller didn't
use *any* packing material, the GPS was floating around loose in the
box with the cable and manual. Well, it should be alright because it
is built to be rugged, right? I open the back to insert batteries and
it already has batteries in it... leaky batteries that have corroded
the contacts and filled the compartment with green crud!

This ticks me off of course, but the question is what's the best way
to handle this? The listing didn't actually say that the unit wasn't
full of battery gunk. Still, it is pretty obvious that the seller was
pawning off a dud GPS, so I don't feel any compunction to give him the
benefit of the doubt. The choices then are,

1) contact him and for a refund which can leave me open to being
stiffed.

2) contact the listing outfit and report this as a seller
misrepresentation issue, again possibly leaving myself vulnerable to
him managing to stiff me.

3) claim I didn't receive the unit since the deliveryman didn't get a
signature.

4) just whine here and keep the unit without taking any action...
yeah, right!

Choice 3 has the advantage that it can't be refuted. Since the
shipment was insured, the seller is the only person who can make a
claim with the carrier. So I am out of the picture an should receive
an immediate refund. Hopefully the shipper won't make good on the
claim and the seller will get what he deserves!

Any opinions? Am I being too cynical in thinking that this guy will
do whatever it takes to stick me with this crappy unit?

Oh, I initially contacted the seller about the unit not appearing and
he immediate response was to contact PayPal about it. So I believe
that he was prepared to contest any action that I would have made
about the condition of the unit.

[Dan]

If you paid through paypal why not contact them for help. Haven't they got
somesort of insurance against dodgy deals. I thought that was part of the
deal when they started charging a percentage on the transaction.
Cheers,
Dan
"nemo" <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote in message
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[rickman]

Like I said, the seller could argue that I didn't "ask" if the unit
was corroded from the batteries. It sounds like a pretty poor
argument, but I don't want to take that chance. I will be giving the
seller a negative evaluation. In the old days, giving a seller a
negative eval meant you would get one too. So I always thought they
were pretty worthless. Now there is no reviewing by the sellers of
the buyers, so the buyers can be as honest as they want.

BTW, this *is* going through PayPal as the seller insisted. I guess
he is thinking that PayPal will cover the loss rather than him dealing
with the carrier to put a claim in on the shipping insurance.

[Kazz]

Contact E-Bay and paypal

They have been most helpful in solving my copule of disputes.

good Luck

"nemo" <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote in message
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