6th August 2021
I got quite a shock when I got to the UPS office, and it wasn’t the torrential rainstorm that I was caught in, it the cost to ship the faulty CD player back to the seller.
“That will be $62.67 to ship” said the man.
“That’s more than it’s worth” I responded.
“Can you re-pack it into a smaller box” he said trying to be helpful.
“ Only it it was run over by a steam roller” I said smiling, only to realise I was wearing a mask so he couldn’t tell.
“ I guess I won’t be sending that” I concluded, picking up the box and walking out.
I had made a special effort to pack it properly, I had used up a lot of the polystyrene that was used in the packaging for the fire pit, good recycling I thought.
I contacted the seller with the shipping information, he suggested a web site for pre-paying shipping packages that he used.
When I tried to download the application of course it wouldn’t load. Kelli tried it, and it worked, but the cost was about $24. I advised the seller, and asked how he would refund me.
That is where the transaction changed. He thought that I would swallow the cost of shipping so that I would get a replacement unit.
I reminded him that I should not have to pay more to get a machine that worked, so he then agreed to refund the cost of the transaction and I could keep the faulty unit.
I immediately went to YouTube to see if there any videos that dealt with the carousel problem. I watched a couple and soon became confident about repairing it myself. I collected a number of different screwdrivers and set about taking it apart. Naturally the model I have was different to the ones on the video, but I thought the principle would be similar.
How wrong I was, the carousel was the only part the same, so I had to poke about until I understood how it worked. Then, there was several hours of me mumbling to myself, arguing at times as things that should have worked, didn’t.
I managed to get the tray to close as it should, but not to open.
Then I saw the reason. I noticed some cracks on the circuit board. On the front of the facia was a knob, that protruded forward.
The machine must have got dropped or hit causing the cracking. That is why the display and the open/close button didn’t work.
Not being defeated, I went on eBay to see if someone was selling spares.
There, hidden amongst broken machines was a front facia panel for the same model.
I quickly made an offer, and after a short wait, it was accepted, now I have a few days to wait until the replacement part arrives.
I also managed to deliver the four dining chairs to Mantesh, and collect two carver chairs, that’s this weekend work sorted.
Another Lifetime to go 