Advice on amp repairs and costs

[uk_lefty]

I sold my little SWR Combo on eBay. It was fully working. I posted it to the buyer and he claims it had zero output, he tested it using an external speaker and the amp is all fine. He has since done some poking around and sent me this message:

 

"Ok, as I said earlier it wasn’t well packed enough and was able to move around inside the box. Here’s the problem.

The speaker connection panel has broken off. I suspect the cables that attach to the coil are damaged, hence no output.

I’d rather keep it but will need to get a new speaker.

Are you willing to compensate me for that?"

 

Two questions... Does this sound likely/ reasonable and is it a new speaker required? For a 10" bass speaker for a 100w combo what kind of cost would be reasonable here?

 

Thank you!

[bigthumb]

I’m a little suspicious. If I was the buyer of something DOA I’d return it for a refund. Secondly, I’m surprised that the panel being referred to (if it’s what I’m thinking of) would be damaged in transit. Was the amp loose in the box? 

[Lozz196]

Yep, that would get a “Please return it, upon receipt I’ll refund the postage costs” response.

[Reggaebass]

Have they sent you pictures of the part that’s broken off 

[uk_lefty]

Yes... These are the pictures. 

 

The amp was well packed in my view, it may have had some small room to move in the box but not a lot. 

[Chienmortbb]

It has half the weight of the cables on the tagboard, more chance of me getting to the moon that that coming adrift on  its own.

[JohnH89]

Agreed . Return amp and refund postage . No other option IMO .

[Reggaebass]

I don’t know much about the technical side of things but if the wires are still attached and it’s just the plate that’s come off wouldn’t the speaker still work?, I think in this situation I would just pay for return postage and sort it out my end 

[lemmywinks]

Strong possibility this is a chancer, definitely send them a return label through eBay. Do not send them any money but do send them a polite message apologising for the shipping damage. EBay read these if it gets escalated so just follow procedure.

 

There's also a chance he has a broken one and has swapped the driver out for yours, basically looking for you to cover the cost of his repair or replacement. This happens quite a lot with other categories (vintage video games is a notable one) and there's nothing you can really do about it. Hopefully the courier doesn't have speakers on the excluded items list although you should be ok if you shipped through eBay.

 

 

Earlier this year I sold a laptop (just a £35 Chromebook so borderline e-waste) for a mate on eBay, thoroughly tested (I used to buy, refurb and sell laptops quite a bit) and packed in a proper laptop air pouch inside a decent box. Got a message when it arrived that it had a faulty touchpad, in fact it would be more accurate to say I got about a dozen messages every day about it even though I paid for a return label immediately. Basically the guy wanted almost the full amount back to allegedly get it repaired privately, then changed his story to say he'd already had it repaired and I now owed him the money after I told him it was a £7 part and a 10 minute repair for me. Eventually had to block him and he never sent the item back so no refund.

Edited October 24 by lemmywinks

[uk_lefty]

I took the advice here, thank you all. And this is the result...

 

 

[Dan Dare]

"I get back to you tomorrow"? Sounds the sort of thing a chancer would say.

 

Then, in the same breath and as if by magic, "I've fixed it. Took 2 hours". 2 hours to pop rivet a tag board back into the hole on the chassis (which you can see in the photo)? Yeah, right, sunshine.

 

Bullet dodged, I reckon. I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to bill you for 2 hours of his time next. Suggest you offer him 20p for the 5 minutes it actually took him.

[Phil Starr]

My two pennyworth. I've been building and reapairing speakers for 50+ years and I've never seen one of those rivets broken, though they aren't very strong so it's no totally impossible. The acceleration/force needed to break it in transit would cause dameage elsewhere in the cab so the chances of this being genuine are really very small. If they were to corrode and weaken I'd expect some white powder around the break which looks fairly clean in the not very good photo, however if he has repaired it you can't examine the damage. If he had bought it new his repair would invalidate any warranty.

 

FWIW I bought a Takamine guitar on fleabay. It was DOA with no output from the pre amp. I was assured it was working when it left. I asked permission before I investigated, without prejudice and the guy agreed. Turned out that the plastic jack sockets on the pre amp had crumbled. I got a quote for replacement and offered to do it myself for half the price of the quote. It's a difficult negotiation, he probably mistrusted me and I couldn't know if he even checked the guitar before it left, as an acoustic it was fine and more or less in tune so it had been played.

 

If he's genuine and has repaired it then he's saved you a lot of hassle. You could offer him the return postage and thank him for making the repair. If he is after more than a token amount then he has altered your amp without your express permission and needs to return it at his cost with compensation from him for the bodged repair.

 

Good luck, even if he is genuine people can be a bit weird in these situations

[bremen]

I've had that rivet fail on an Eminence beta 10. Can't remember how, but it was a piece of piss to rivet it back on and there was no further damage.

[Dan Dare]

As a matter of interest, do you know whether or not the speaker in the photos (which I assume the buyer sent you) is the one from the SWR? As lemmywinks suggests, might he have photographed a damaged one he had lying around?

 

How old was the combo? The speaker in the photo has a "RoHS compliant" sticker on it. As far as I can find, the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) Regs came into force in 2006. If the combo is older than that, you wouldn't expect to find that sticker.

[agedhorse]

I've seen it before, specially with rough DIY repair handling.

 

If lucky, it can be pushed back onto the rivet with a little 2 part epoxy to keep it there.

 

I would compensate him for the damage rather than spending at least that much for the cost of the return shipping plus eating the initial shipping charges too. It's the least of the evils IME, and you will come out way ahead.

[agedhorse]

1 minute ago, Dan Dare said:

As a matter of interest, do you know whether or not the speaker in the photos (which I assume the buyer sent you) is the one from the SWR? As lemmywinks suggests, might he have photographed a damaged one he had lying around?

 

How old was the combo? The speaker in the photo has a "RoHS compliant" sticker on it. As far as I can find, the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) Regs came into force in 2006. If the combo is older than that, you wouldn't expect to find that sticker.

RoHS was in effect when SWR was shipping those combos, most of us in the industry began to migrate well before 2006 to get ahead of that curve.

[uk_lefty]

On 24/10/2024 at 17:22, lemmywinks said:

definitely send them a return label through eBay. Do not send them any money but do send them a polite message apologising for the shipping damage. EBay read these if it gets escalated so just follow procedure.

Just used this tactic on a different buyer who was sending passive aggressive messages about a screw missing from the battery compartment on a very old effects pedal. His comeback, I unsurprisingly was "well, I'd like to keep the pedal. Do you have another offer?" My answer: "No." Unbelievable how much effort people can put into trying to save £1 or £2 here and there.

[BigRedX]

My tactic with anyone complaining hoping for a discount is to offer a full refund for the return of the item, only this, and absolutely no shift from my position.

 

I've a few buyers try to get money off for supposed "problems" with items I have sold, but only one return. Most disappear silently when they realise that they won't be able to scam me out of a discount.