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Good morning everyone and welcome back to the ValorosoIT channel.
Many of you have asked me how the situation ended with the Commodore Plus/4 (Commodore Plus4) that I purchased on eBay and showed you in the last video.
So, the situation went very well and now I will explain all the details to you. For those who haven't seen the last video, I'll summarize the situation for a moment. I had seen this Commodore Plus/4 on eBay from an English seller. I quite liked the computer: it had some small stains on the keyboard, but they are minor things. It was tested and working. The seller had accepted my purchase offer and therefore discounted the price a little. In any case, between transport and import taxes from England, I had spent more money. In short, it wasn't exactly cheap but, for a tested and working Commodore Plus/4, the price was worth it.
The computer had already arrived with a certain delay: I expected it in mid-March, it had arrived at the end of April, so I had to open an initial dispute, to make sure they looked for where the package with my computer was.
When the computer arrived I was very happy: you saw, in the first part of the video I was quite happy. Then, afterwards, the mood dropped a little... and waned a little.
Here, let's put it this way: when I received the package, I opened it together with you. We saw it: it wasn't packaged very well. In reality, there was little packaging element, so the computer could hit inside the package and be damaged.
The first thing I did was test the power voltages of the power supply, before connecting it to the computer, of course. The fuse immediately blew. I say... if the computer is tested and working, it is unlikely that you will attack and blow the fuse directly, without even the computer connected.
After replacing the fuse, the power supply worked. However, when I connected the computer to the TV to see the classic screen of the Commodore Plus4 ... Nothing: black screen!
At that point, I guess you noticed my mood in the video… it just dropped! In fact, I didn't even know whether to publish that video, because, in short, it was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't expect a non-working computer, also because I had paid for it to work.
Many of you have suggested opening a dispute with the seller. Some said: 'maybe it's not his fault, it was the fault of the transport'. Others said: 'but the seller was in bad faith, he sent it to you already broken and he never tried it'.
So: I honestly have my doubts, also because the seller has never managed to send photos with the computer turned on.
But it doesn't matter, that's not the point. I opened the dispute on eBay in a rather kind and delicate way, without accusing anyone. Now I'll show you the entire list of messages, so you can check for yourself that I haven't insulted absolutely anyone!
Being the English seller, I wrote him a very quiet first message, right in his language, with my super English, that not even Shakespeare could have written such a thing!
Well, I'll translate it directly for you.
'Good morning, I am really sad to inform you that the computer is not working. I tried to connect it to the power supply and the television, but, even if the red light turns on, the image is not shown on the television. I actually expected a working computer because you wrote Tested and Working, but it's not. I expect a refund, so I can try to fix the computer if possible. Thank you and best regards, Amedeo.
In short, they message quite quietly, no insults. It simply tells what is the reality of the facts, which you have also noticed in the video of unboxing and try.
At this point, the seller replied: 'It was in perfect working order before shipping it. Fully tested. I suspect that the damage may be caused by transportation. Let me check, I assure you that you will be fully rewarded.'
Somehow, the seller reassured me. If the computer does not work, it refunds me. Perfect! Better this way! I answer him, thanking him. Moreover, he did not even but he said goodbye. He wrote the sentence directly, thus, without pleasantries.
Me: 'Good morning. I await your search. Let me know, I'm very sad about this Commodore. I actually expected it to work. Let me know as soon as possible. Greetings, Amedeo.
So, even in this case, as you notice, I behaved in a polite manner. In fact, many of you said to me: 'well, maybe it's not his fault, maybe he sent it working'.
In fact I started out very delicate. If these sentences don't seem delicate to you, tell me. Let me know in the comments: I'll make them even more delicate, should situations like these happen to me! I hope not, of course!
At this point, the seller writes to me without even saying hello: 'would you accept a partial refund?'
I stopped saying hello too at this point. 'It depends on the amount of the refund,' I told him, 'also consider that I spent a bit of money on shipping and import taxes and now I find a computer that doesn't work. Let me know.'
Enough, from this point on the seller never showed up again. After a couple of days I wrote to him, soliciting his offer of a refund. After another two days, so it's been 4, I started to worry. In short, he doesn't answer me anymore. First he tells me he will refund me and then disappears.
At this point I wrote to him: 'Hi, are there any problems? I haven't received anything from you yet.'
In short, at this point I'm starting to get impatient. Guess what? The seller opens a dispute against me! He asks eBay to intervene and writes: 'The item was fully functional, tested and in good condition when I sent it to the sorting center. The damage may have been caused by transport.
Of course, he may also be right that the product was damaged during transport, but I received it broken. At this point we deferred to eBay's decision. After some time, the email arrived, telling me that the decision had been made and that eBay had decided to refund me in full.
In fact, in the summary of the dispute, you can see that I was fully refunded: both the total cost of the computer and the shipping costs and import costs. A refund that therefore covered the total amount I had spent, without even having to send the computer back!
Actually, I really enjoyed it! On the other hand, I also put myself in the seller's shoes a bit. I was in good faith: you too saw it in the video that the computer wasn't working.
But, let's assume he actually sent it in working order. In short, he would have lost money! Then, in practice, it wasn't like that, because I called the eBay assistance center and it was explained to me that, in this case (in this specific case) eBay made the decision to refund me. So, the seller was paid by eBay, the transporter was paid by eBay, and I was reimbursed by eBay.
In this case, it was a strategy that made me happy, but the seller is also happy and, probably, the shipper is happy. eBay is a little less happy, but I consider myself satisfied with this thing, because, at least, I was reimbursed for the computer I bought and it didn't work.
By the way, I noticed that the seller had also left positive feedback. So: positive feedback and free broken computer!
I saw that I can't even leave feedback to the seller. In your opinion, should I have left positive or negative feedback? Consider that he backed off for a moment with the refund issue. It was eBay that refunded me.
You also asked me: 'will we see a video on repairing this Commodore Plus/4?'
I don't think so, guys, sorry. I do not believe. I don't have much time and, above all, I still have a queue of jobs on backlog, including the Commodore PET keyboard, which I bought some time ago, which still doesn't work. If you remember, there is also the repair of the Amiga 500: I was missing the floppy disk drive to insert inside. Then, I purchased Sinclair Spectrums with damaged keyboard membranes, which I need to replace. In short, in my opinion, I send this Commodore Plus/4 to a repairer, which I do first.
So he fixes it for me and I have more time to carry on with other projects. Among other things, I noticed that we have almost 2000 subscribers on the YouTube channel!
If you like and are not yet registered, you can subscribe to the channel and activate the notification bell. This way, you will help me share my passion for retro computers and vintage electronics with as many people as possible! Greetings, from Amedeo Valoroso!