[geeks] Bah, humbug

[Phil Stracchino]

Remember that printer replacement question about three weeks back, and
the Color LaserJet 8550DN we found for $200 opening with no bids?  The
outfit that said they just wanted it out of their overstocked showroom?
 (Make a note of that point, there'll be a quiz later.)  Well, we bid on
it at the time and won it for $200.  Thirty minutes after the auction
closed, we had email from the seller in London, Ontario saying "Wait,
don't pay for it yet, our technician just discovered a minor problem
with the fuser."  (Bloody fast response, finding a problem in time to
get a reply message to me within 30 minutes of close of auction.)  They
said they were going to replace the fuser.

Two and a half weeks later, after two and a half weeks of non-response
and vague handwaving, finally we got an answer back yesterday saying
that the problem was much worse than they thought, that their forklift
driver bumped the printer when moving it from the warehouse, that the
inside of the printer was trashed, and the only thing they could do with
it was strip it for parts.

....Wait a minute here.  This printer was so buried in your warehouse it
took two and a half weeks to get it forklifted out, yet your tech told
you there was a minor problem with it in time for you to send a "Hold
everything" message within 30 minutes of close of auction?  Or wait, are
you saying that your forklift driver smashed the printer when moving it
from your warehouse to your showroom BEFORE the auction, and he "bumped"
it hard enough to damage it beyond repair, but nothing showed from the
outside on a printer that you said was "in excellent working condition"
and "fully tested, cleaned and working"?

It may be just me, but I smell a major rat.

Here's how I think things REALLY went:

"Let's try selling it on eBay.  Put the starting bid around $200, it
ought to easily go up to $800 or $1000 by the time it sells."
"WTF?  We only got one bid?!?"
"We can't sell this printer for $200.  It's worth far more than that."
"How can we get out of the sale though?"
"Tell the buyer there's a problem and we need to order a part.  Then
stall until he gives up."
"....He's not giving up.  What do we do?"
"Tell him the printer got smashed."



Anyway, at this point I don't believe their story.  There's too many
internal inconsistencies in it.  But I have no way to prove it.  Even if
I went there in person and looked at it, since we don't know the serial
number and know only an approximate page count, they could easily say
"Oh, that's a different printer.  But we can't sell that one for the
same price as the other, we have a lot more money into this one.  We
could let you have it for $700..."


There's another 8550 in Minnesota (an 8550TN, I think) that *right now*
is about the same price overall (higher starting bid, but lower
shipping), but it already has one bid on it for $350.  So I'm guessing
it'll go quite a bit higher if we bid on it too, and end up in at least
the $750-$800 range shipped.  It has the bulk feeder, and is eligible
for warranty protection, but it's unclear whether or not it has the
duplexer (though there is an 8550 duplexer on eBay for $50 shipped, but
that adds another $50.)  And they say it doesn't include toner.

Meanwhile it's looking like we can put a 4500DN together for $350-$400
shipped.  If we went with the 8550, we'd essentially be paying an extra
$400 for an extra 8ppm plus large-format capability that we'd use only
rarely.  That doesn't sound like a good deal.

So, one way and another, it looks like we'll most likely be putting
together a 4500DN after all....



-- 
 It's not the years, it's the mileage.
 Phil Stracchino              phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net
 Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker, Free Stater
 Landline: 603-429-0220                Mobile: 603-320-5438