Customer Claiming Cassette Player ate her tape

[jamie]

Hello All, I just received this message from a customer about a cassette boom box I sold her last week.
Hello there, we weren’t able to unpack the cassette player until just now 5:00 PM on Tuesday the 20th due to being away for a few days. I just now found the cord, plugged it in, put a cassette in and rewound it till it stopped as it’s supposed to, pressed “play” and….. nothing….. no turning of the spindles inside, nothing at all except a hum. So I pressed stop and the hum stopped, pressed eject (“stop” button again) and it wont come out. Door is somehow jammed and no other button works either. Know any tricks to get this to work? We were hoping to listen to some Christmas music we only have on cassette. I’m afraid of forcing the door open as it might break it but I want my cassette back also. Needless to say, this is very disappointing.

So I told her I would gladly accept the return and I will try to retrieve her tape or replace it for her if I can’t. Everything was in working order before I shipped out. And the cord was in the battery compartment, so not sure why it took her so long to find it. Anything else I can do?

[Jay]

Best thing to do is ask her to return it. That’s what eBay would expect. Not sure what to do about the tape except apologize.

[jamie]

Now it’s getting thick. This is her response.
And I too am sorry we (both you and I) have to deal with this right now just before Christmas. But I suppose little nuisances must be taken in stride. If it was working and actually playing cassettes before you shipped it then the only thing I can think of is the fact that it was bouncing around loosely in the oversized shipping box, though tightly wrapped in bubble wrap. Could have jarred something internally. I’ve been looking on the internet to see if anyone out there has an answer or a fix but haven’t found anything helpful yet. I would like very much to get the cassette out as it’s a recording made for me by a relative, from an LP many years ago, and not very easy to replace. Not sure what to do. Any more suggestions? If I send it back to you without forcing the door open do you think you could retrieve it and send the cassette back to me? Just not sure what to do. Should I open it up? As in taking the
screws out that hold the back to the front of the whole machine and investigate? I’m not a newcomer to fixing things.

So if she goes messing around with it and then trys to return it can I deny her return? I’m just telling her to return.

[kellysprague]

I would ask buyer not to try to fix it and just return it. It has been my experience that when a customer wants to fix something it can cause more issues .

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by kellysprague.

[Retro Treasures WV]

How much did you pay for the item and how much did you pay to ship it. Now weigh that against the mounting headache you are dealing with.

I recommend you just tell the lady to keep it and refund her. Let her tear the crap out of the cassette player to get tape back. If this is a vintage player then it could be very likely that a belt broke in shipment. Many of the rubber belts in these older players are already liquid gunk anyways.

[jamie]

Yeah I decided the $3 bucks I paid for it wasn’t worth the hassle and just told her to keep it and refunded. She left a glowing feedback.

[Ryanne]

good idea. you always have to weigh how much headache you want to deal with. stinks, but sometimes you gotta do it.

[Author]

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