mrasmus
Student
This one's a long one, and I'm sorry for that; wish it weren't so:
I ordered a Chunithm cabinet from KC in December; he offered a "Special Big sale Very low price" of $2000 ($2550 with freight and a PayPal surcharge). When I ordered (12/17), he required pre-payment, saying it was still in transit so he couldn't send pictures, but would when he had the stock on-hand. I inquired to the state of the cabinet, "will all parts be included?", to which he responded that "The game is complete." And implied it was playable. In retrospect, he dodged questions about more details, but at the time it felt like a fair deal for a cab I wanted, and I knew that if there was damage to the operation of the cab, I could likely do some repairs.
Note: The only picture available was the one posted in the thread -- a cab missing its Nu mobo, and its lock cylinders, visibly. I assumed it was an example picture -- all he had, because the cabs were on a boat at that point. There was no way that the pictured cab counted as "complete" by any stretch of the imagination, so I didn't treat it as reflective of what he'd deliver.
After some delays (which I was totally accommodating of with no complaint, he'd warned me the port was a potential cause of delays; he responded quickly enough when I asked for status updates, from my perspective, and I wasn't in any rush. Eventually, on 2/10, he pings me that it's arrived, and we talk arrange delivery. I even offer to receive it in pieces, since I saw that they'd been shipped that way (a mistake, in retrospect); my thought was "Oh, save him the trouble of having to put it together, since I'm gonna have to take it apart to get it inside anyway." He agrees, everybody's happy.
A day later I see that, before even sending me my notice of arrival, he'd updated his sales thread with an offer for a 10% discount for buyers of other CHunithm cabs he had in February; I pinged him asking if he'd be willing to extend the offer to me, as well, which he declines. Kinda shitty to a customer who gave you a two month loan, to give day-1 buyers a better deal, but... I agreed to the price, I still wanted the cab at that price, and I hold up my end of transactions to the best of my ability. He kinda held all the cards at that point anyway, short of me doing a chargeback or PayPal dispute -- both of which are tools I'm *always* hesitant to use, because I know they can be a massive pain for people just trying to run a business. They weren't even on my mind -- just "damn, got burned by KC, guess I will look elsewhere for future cab purchases." His only make-good for this was a promise that "will get you the best one".
Cab pictures were provided with no context; he sent me a picture of a fractured back acrylic on the LED billboard (near the Right Speaker, still mounted -- that's a fun little thing to remember). I responded saying that if that was the best he had, it was a bummer but I could probably repair it. Other pics were sent that were less obviously flawed, and it felt more like a BOM than proper review pictures, but... he was sending all the relevant parts, according to his pictures -- though they were of inventory still stacked. A billboard, on top of other billboards. A whole slew of sidewalls with air sensors. "2 PCs", "1 PC" etc. "2 Pcs" next to a speaker with its mounting bracket on it (for those that don't know, the billboard speakers on a Chunithm cabinet have mounting brackets that are mirrored parts -- the speaker itself is common, but there are metal brackets that point one way or the other to make it a "Right" speaker vs a "Left" speaker). Without stepping through the entire BOM of the cabinet, I assumed good faith and that he'd get me a "complete" cab, and was pointing to the conditions and relevant highlights.
If you don't know, assuming good faith is apparently a mistake with KC.
12/18, his freight guy drops off the cab at my friend's house (who has graciously offered to house it for a few months), as arranged. I look things over, seeing a pile of sundry small, loose parts in the coin bucket, and inspect each major element for undisclosed damage -- there's a scratch on the screen glass, but it's in acceptable condition; the sides look similarly decent (I knew going in it was used, and I wasn't being picky at all, really. The billboard didn't even have the cracking that he'd shown in the picture; guess he decided to send me a better one, make good on his "the best one" promise. Cool, all good. I signed and let the driver leave, and got to work putting the cab together.
I quickly start to notice missing parts -- there don't appear to be enough screws; I can't find the cap nuts (or *any* nuts) to secure the sides to the top section. When I go to install the right speaker, my friend points out "that's the left one" -- so I grab the other one and go to install it... realizing it's *also* a "Left one". Rotating the bracket does not line the speaker up correctly.
I ping him about the speaker, he asks me to call him. We chat (for the first time in voice); he's apologetic, says he'll ship it out right away, and could I ship the extra Left one back via USPS to him. I agree, it's totally cordial; I'm still pretty chill. Mistakes happen, he had a lot of inventory to work with, no sense worrying -- he doesn't have much use for a spare Right speaker, after all. I trust that he'll do as any decent vendor would, and make me whole. I end the conversation confirming I'll send the spare along ASAP, and that I'd be finishing building the cab up within a couple hours, so will let him know if anything else is missing.
Other things I notice as I filter through what I had: The locking cylinders are removed (3xA001's, Sega's standard), and there's no floor mat. The first I find kinda weird, the second isn't a massive surprise -- though "Complete" would, to me, include a floor mat as part of the aesthetic set, no big. The locks... are annoying, since the panels fall open unless they're taped shut without them... a bit more on the side of "that should've been mentioned that it was missing", but... I continue to assume good faith, and it's not really a sticking point.
In trying to build the cab, I realize that he's seemingly omitted... lots of screws, of various sizes. Things that are necessary for erecting the darn thing. And he'd included coarse-pitch M8 bolts that weren't even the right size -- and two of them; the cab needs four, of two different lengths, both in fine pitch. Pinging him, he tells me they should be in the cab somewhere; I confirm they're missing, he tells me that I should source them from a Home Depot.
One round trip and $17 worth of maybe-the-right parts later (I made a list off the service manual, but the selection was... less than ideal, and I didn't have a pitch gauge with me so there were some bad labels to contend with), I was able to get it together. No cap nuts of the right size, so I subbed in lock nuts with washers as a temp fix. Similarly, I had to sub in various other not-quite-stock parts just to get it securely constructed (in hopes of testing it at all, maybe). Plenty of cosmetic screws are missing, but they're not a priority for me; the mechanical construction would be alright.
Finally, as I wrap up erecting the whole thing -- I notice that the small metal side covers that hide wiring access boxes (for the "AIR" sensors) are both completely missing. I send him an exhaustive list -- all the bolts, of which spec, that I couldn't source. The nuts. The cover panels. He agrees that he has the cover panels, but the other hardware really should've been in the cab (I look more thoroughly, repeatedly, to no avail.) But he has the panels! That's good, the rest of what was missing was generic, and I could piece it together over time. No sleep lost there.
For reference, I'm going to call the two cover panels, plus the Right speaker bracket + speaker assembly... thing... the "Critical parts" from now on.
So, I get back to working on the cab a couple days later (weekend commitments kept me away, it was a good 45 minute drive from my home after all), having the research in-hand to get it up and running. And I do! There was an... oddly disconnected JVS IO interconnect that I had to re-seat -- looked like someone had maybe replaced it or contemplated taking it out, but forgot to put the connector back in, but aside from that... honestly, the cab was in good working condition, save for the missing bits. I was excited. I hadn't had the time to hit the post office yet, so I had the second "Left" speaker in place to confirm that the amp was working. I put some rounds on the cab, do a little cleanup of some scuffs and stuff just to make it look shinier, and get to introduce my friends to the game for the first time. Good times. I take the extra speaker + mount home with me so I could return the assembly exactly as he provided it, with all the screws, as I promised.
2/22 - On Tuesday (Monday was a bank holiday) I ship it, providing a tracking number, for $16.10. I also inquire about the lock cylinders -- he said the machine didn't come with any, but he could supply a set for $50.
Look, this whole time I've been trying to not attribute shadiness or malice, but... I have no means of confirming that he didn't just part those off my machine and then try to sell them back to me for an extra profit; just speculation, but it definitely went through my mind..
Regardless, I tell him I'll think about it, and ultimately decline. I provide my shipping address for him to send along my "critical parts", and everything seems kosher. I ask him to confirm that he has the speaker assembly that mirrored a pic I sent him earlier, as well as the panels, which he does.
3/4 - No word. I reach out, noting that my shipment should've arrived the Thursday prior, wanted to confirm that he got it, and when he'll send mine along. He says he'll send my parts out "Next week" (so... no earlier than 3/9, already). He had made it sound like, on the phone, that he'd send out ASAP -- just as I was sending *him* back the speaker ASAP.
3/21 - Weeks later, still nothing. I haven't had much time to make it up to play, so I confirm with my friend that he hadn't seen a package with the parts, and ping KC again. He would "Get it out soon and sent it to you". Now... this was the first time I' d heard he needed to "get it out" of... something? To get to me. Had he not even grabbed it from his warehouse, presumably? What about the panels, they should've been loose parts; he'd said he had all of the parts I was asking about.
I ask him to commit to a firm shipping date, trying to stay friendly, but he completely ghosts me, leaving me on √Read.
A few hours pass (midnight being one of the; 3/22); I decide that, at this point, over a month is passed, and I have no real option to pressure him outside of a PayPal dispute; I know there's a limited window to file them, and the payment date was now over three months prior, so I draft up documentation of everything, and file. (Context: A "dispute" triggers a freeze of assets on the seller's account, and opens a thread between the buyer and seller to come to an agreement on how to resolve an issue. If both parties can't find resolution, a "claim" is the escalation path. A dispute can only exist for 20 days, after which it will be marked as resolved if it hasn't been escalated. A "Claim" involves a review of the case file from PayPal; they pass a judgement in one party's favor or the other, and determine the course of making things right. It's a notoriously fraught process, and honestly not one I was excited for, but... I had a lack of options in front of me.)
In the dispute, I ask for the critical parts to be sent in a timely fashion, and I also enumerate other costs I had accrued -- at that point I'd bought extra hardware to complete the set, hardware that he said should've been with the cab -- in fact, "they said it should be in there" (without telling me who "they" were. He'd told me to source it at Home Depot, so I went hunting for the best deals I could for the various bits and pieces. All-in I invested over $50 in that hardware (MOQ's are a bitch). So I prioritize the "critical" parts, but list everything, building it as a document in case it goes to a full Claim. I'm clear in my message that I want to work it out amicably, and that I just want to see evidence of shipment in a reasonable window (I outline end-of-week, because that was what I had asked for in my original texts.) I also document the lock cylinders and his quoted cost, the shipping costs for returning the speaker (which he had not yet committed in writing to paying me back for), and the floor mat -- at this point, if he wants to fight me on what "Complete" means, I may as well have everything outlined. I also document total cost of replacement for the items available on the open market (YAJ for most things), and indicate that the "critical components" are not available in any market; cash replacement value isn't really something that I could estimate for them, because... who knows? I don't have his connections; maybe someone in his position could source them and would have a value, but they're effectively "as much as the whole cab" because it seemed like nobody was parting them out to that degree. The speaker bracket and side panels would probably cost a couple hundred dollars to get made locally to accurate replica quality, perhaps? And the speaker would've taken $100 to import off YAJ, unbracketed.
To some degree, I would've been happy eating some of the costs of what I "felt" were part of "complete" -- at the time, if he'd sent the critical parts along, and refunded my shipping and the nuts/bolts... I would've called us square. I even would've sent him the extra hardware that I had bought due to MOQ's; anybody need a bunch of black M8 cap nuts?
I send him a text stating I'd like to take our discussion to the dispute thread that I've opened, and reiterating that I do not what it to go to a Claim, I want to work out amicable terms that we can both come to to make things right... but after all the delays on sending me the stuff I couldn't source elsewhere, I was feeling like I had no other option.
He sends me back a screed about how they froze his money and it'd take months to get back (every seller I know has confirmed that a Dispute being "resolved" unfreezes the funds immediately, in their experience; maybe it's different for people with serial issues.) I simply ask him to work with me. He says end of week isn't enough time, I ask for a firm date. He chooses the following Monday (3/2
, I tell him if he can provide shipment notification (not even receipt), then we won't have to escalate to a claim. He further pressures me to close the dispute; I refuse... back and forth. I stand my ground and let him know that I have no intention of hitting the "escalate" button by surprise; I'm happy to hear he can send the parts by Monday, that'll give me plenty of time to confirm they're all the correct parts, and we'd be on the path to resolving the dispute with no escalation.
We leave it there for the night -- both of us have agreed to a timeline (one *he* specified, even). I plan on holding my end of the agreement, and honestly believe that lighting a little fire under his ass may have put a potentially indefinite situation on the way towards a good resolution.
3/23 - He messages me again, and starts making noise about just sending him the cab back, out of nowhere. I ask him why the agreed-upon timeframe doesn't work (it seems way easier to send out a $16 package with a few parts than arranging for $300+ freight service, when I didn't even *want* a refund). He continuously refuses to answer that question in straight terms. He asks me to shut down the dispute, and he'll send me the parts; he wants his money back, or the cab back. I remind him that the agreement was that the dispute would be closed once I'd gotten my parts and been made whole. At no point did he point to anything about my dispute that he disagreed with -- just that they froze the money, that it'd take six months to get it back from them, etc etc etc. My impression is that repeat offenders might have more trouble with PayPal; unless he was lying, that's the only explanation I could find for that kind of a delay, but I stay quiet. I remind him of the terms, which I've held to (and even extended my original timeline at his request, to give him the time *he* claimed he'd need to get my the parts). He talked about how they were in the back of his warehouse; I point out that he's advertising no less than *twenty units* which all have the same parts, and could easily swap "mine" out for ones that are more available/unsold. I continue to not understand why this is so hard; for a bit he calms down and seems to be agreeing to the timeline again, but then he starts making noise about forcing a refund.
Apparently this is his M.O. He forces a refund on a case when somebody calls him on his shit. Even just getting the critical parts -- half an hour of work to find them, less time than he spent texting with me! -- to me was too much of a burden, even when I gave him a business week to do it, after a month of getting yanked around. At this point I've put work into the cab, I've put money into the cab -- I *like* the cab, dammit. It needs a speaker, and a couple panels, but it's in great shape. If he'd gotten those to me in a timely fashion, this whole document wouldn't exist; he'd be getting a positive review -- not glowing, still going into "Hey, that day-discount kinda sucked" and "He *did* send the wrong speaker", but "he made it right at the end of the day" was what I was hoping to wrap this up with. But no; either you take his abuse (and probably violations of PayPal's ToS, honestly), or he takes his ball and goes home. He didn't even ask for an extension past Monday -- I have another two weeks before I "have" to make it a claim, but he apparently doesn't see it as worthwhile.
I've gotten a lot of "I told you so" sentiment from some people, which -- I was a complete outsider in this scene. From an insider's perspective, I was naive, but I trusted a major volume seller to, well, sell what he was advertising. I knew that people had some bad experiences from him, but had not seen anything nearly to the degree -- I was expecting maybe a little repair work here, some missing screws, some scratches and dents that I could totally live with. I had missed the true depth of how thoroughly he's screwed people over; if I were a lesser pushover (as, honestly, I think he read me as, from how I carried myself until the Dispute), I could still be pinging him two months from now, waiting on that speaker...
I'm not about that. I've been willing to work with him, repeatedly; I've been told by third parties that I've been too gracious at several periods in this whole process. I don't want his freaking refund. I think he's used to bullying people to get his way (even when it doesn't make any sense! The refund costs him so much more money, assuming he actually pays for freight), and part of me would rather have a cab missing critical parts, forever, than feel like I let him push me around in the same way he's apparently done to so many others.
TL;DR: Bought a Chunithm cab from KC; several parts were missing, including ones that can't be bought anywhere, despite him representing it as "Complete", and me pre-paying two months ahead of shipment (for a higher cost than he charged launch day).
Out about $67 in returning wrong parts and buying parts he said he didn't have for me, to try to make the cab whole. The cab-specific replacement parts, not available on YAJ or anywhere, he claimed to have and claimed he would send along. For over a month, he yanked me around, lied ("Next week", "soon"), and made no effort to make good on that promise. When he refused to commit to a shipping date, I filed a dispute with PayPal; after a mix of trying to extort me out of my PayPal rights, then actually making it sound like he'd make things right, he's now decided that he's just gonna do a refund, which I neither asked for nor accept -- it would leave me 2 days' of work poorer (lost wages for meeting with freight for dropoff/pickup), hours spent repairing and reconditioning the machine, and cab-less. It feels like the forced refund is his way of sending a middle finger to buyers who actually ask for what he promises them. We'll see where PayPal stands on it; it's entirely possible that they'll back him, seeing a refund offer as "making me whole", but I have no plans to accept such a judgement. Maybe they'll finally notice the pattern of abuse he's got in his account history, and boot him off the platform; not holding my breath, but at this point it feels more likely than him actually delivering on the parts he owes me.
May update thread later with evidenciary screenshots I gathered while filing my PayPal claim; also, will answer any questions as I have the time. Forum moderators have been notified to the state of this case, and can in particular ask for any proof they want in all of this, but I don't really plan on hiding much of anything, just wanna make sure I don't leak PII.
I ordered a Chunithm cabinet from KC in December; he offered a "Special Big sale Very low price" of $2000 ($2550 with freight and a PayPal surcharge). When I ordered (12/17), he required pre-payment, saying it was still in transit so he couldn't send pictures, but would when he had the stock on-hand. I inquired to the state of the cabinet, "will all parts be included?", to which he responded that "The game is complete." And implied it was playable. In retrospect, he dodged questions about more details, but at the time it felt like a fair deal for a cab I wanted, and I knew that if there was damage to the operation of the cab, I could likely do some repairs.
Note: The only picture available was the one posted in the thread -- a cab missing its Nu mobo, and its lock cylinders, visibly. I assumed it was an example picture -- all he had, because the cabs were on a boat at that point. There was no way that the pictured cab counted as "complete" by any stretch of the imagination, so I didn't treat it as reflective of what he'd deliver.
After some delays (which I was totally accommodating of with no complaint, he'd warned me the port was a potential cause of delays; he responded quickly enough when I asked for status updates, from my perspective, and I wasn't in any rush. Eventually, on 2/10, he pings me that it's arrived, and we talk arrange delivery. I even offer to receive it in pieces, since I saw that they'd been shipped that way (a mistake, in retrospect); my thought was "Oh, save him the trouble of having to put it together, since I'm gonna have to take it apart to get it inside anyway." He agrees, everybody's happy.
A day later I see that, before even sending me my notice of arrival, he'd updated his sales thread with an offer for a 10% discount for buyers of other CHunithm cabs he had in February; I pinged him asking if he'd be willing to extend the offer to me, as well, which he declines. Kinda shitty to a customer who gave you a two month loan, to give day-1 buyers a better deal, but... I agreed to the price, I still wanted the cab at that price, and I hold up my end of transactions to the best of my ability. He kinda held all the cards at that point anyway, short of me doing a chargeback or PayPal dispute -- both of which are tools I'm *always* hesitant to use, because I know they can be a massive pain for people just trying to run a business. They weren't even on my mind -- just "damn, got burned by KC, guess I will look elsewhere for future cab purchases." His only make-good for this was a promise that "will get you the best one".
Cab pictures were provided with no context; he sent me a picture of a fractured back acrylic on the LED billboard (near the Right Speaker, still mounted -- that's a fun little thing to remember). I responded saying that if that was the best he had, it was a bummer but I could probably repair it. Other pics were sent that were less obviously flawed, and it felt more like a BOM than proper review pictures, but... he was sending all the relevant parts, according to his pictures -- though they were of inventory still stacked. A billboard, on top of other billboards. A whole slew of sidewalls with air sensors. "2 PCs", "1 PC" etc. "2 Pcs" next to a speaker with its mounting bracket on it (for those that don't know, the billboard speakers on a Chunithm cabinet have mounting brackets that are mirrored parts -- the speaker itself is common, but there are metal brackets that point one way or the other to make it a "Right" speaker vs a "Left" speaker). Without stepping through the entire BOM of the cabinet, I assumed good faith and that he'd get me a "complete" cab, and was pointing to the conditions and relevant highlights.
If you don't know, assuming good faith is apparently a mistake with KC.
12/18, his freight guy drops off the cab at my friend's house (who has graciously offered to house it for a few months), as arranged. I look things over, seeing a pile of sundry small, loose parts in the coin bucket, and inspect each major element for undisclosed damage -- there's a scratch on the screen glass, but it's in acceptable condition; the sides look similarly decent (I knew going in it was used, and I wasn't being picky at all, really. The billboard didn't even have the cracking that he'd shown in the picture; guess he decided to send me a better one, make good on his "the best one" promise. Cool, all good. I signed and let the driver leave, and got to work putting the cab together.
I quickly start to notice missing parts -- there don't appear to be enough screws; I can't find the cap nuts (or *any* nuts) to secure the sides to the top section. When I go to install the right speaker, my friend points out "that's the left one" -- so I grab the other one and go to install it... realizing it's *also* a "Left one". Rotating the bracket does not line the speaker up correctly.
I ping him about the speaker, he asks me to call him. We chat (for the first time in voice); he's apologetic, says he'll ship it out right away, and could I ship the extra Left one back via USPS to him. I agree, it's totally cordial; I'm still pretty chill. Mistakes happen, he had a lot of inventory to work with, no sense worrying -- he doesn't have much use for a spare Right speaker, after all. I trust that he'll do as any decent vendor would, and make me whole. I end the conversation confirming I'll send the spare along ASAP, and that I'd be finishing building the cab up within a couple hours, so will let him know if anything else is missing.
Other things I notice as I filter through what I had: The locking cylinders are removed (3xA001's, Sega's standard), and there's no floor mat. The first I find kinda weird, the second isn't a massive surprise -- though "Complete" would, to me, include a floor mat as part of the aesthetic set, no big. The locks... are annoying, since the panels fall open unless they're taped shut without them... a bit more on the side of "that should've been mentioned that it was missing", but... I continue to assume good faith, and it's not really a sticking point.
In trying to build the cab, I realize that he's seemingly omitted... lots of screws, of various sizes. Things that are necessary for erecting the darn thing. And he'd included coarse-pitch M8 bolts that weren't even the right size -- and two of them; the cab needs four, of two different lengths, both in fine pitch. Pinging him, he tells me they should be in the cab somewhere; I confirm they're missing, he tells me that I should source them from a Home Depot.
One round trip and $17 worth of maybe-the-right parts later (I made a list off the service manual, but the selection was... less than ideal, and I didn't have a pitch gauge with me so there were some bad labels to contend with), I was able to get it together. No cap nuts of the right size, so I subbed in lock nuts with washers as a temp fix. Similarly, I had to sub in various other not-quite-stock parts just to get it securely constructed (in hopes of testing it at all, maybe). Plenty of cosmetic screws are missing, but they're not a priority for me; the mechanical construction would be alright.
Finally, as I wrap up erecting the whole thing -- I notice that the small metal side covers that hide wiring access boxes (for the "AIR" sensors) are both completely missing. I send him an exhaustive list -- all the bolts, of which spec, that I couldn't source. The nuts. The cover panels. He agrees that he has the cover panels, but the other hardware really should've been in the cab (I look more thoroughly, repeatedly, to no avail.) But he has the panels! That's good, the rest of what was missing was generic, and I could piece it together over time. No sleep lost there.
For reference, I'm going to call the two cover panels, plus the Right speaker bracket + speaker assembly... thing... the "Critical parts" from now on.
So, I get back to working on the cab a couple days later (weekend commitments kept me away, it was a good 45 minute drive from my home after all), having the research in-hand to get it up and running. And I do! There was an... oddly disconnected JVS IO interconnect that I had to re-seat -- looked like someone had maybe replaced it or contemplated taking it out, but forgot to put the connector back in, but aside from that... honestly, the cab was in good working condition, save for the missing bits. I was excited. I hadn't had the time to hit the post office yet, so I had the second "Left" speaker in place to confirm that the amp was working. I put some rounds on the cab, do a little cleanup of some scuffs and stuff just to make it look shinier, and get to introduce my friends to the game for the first time. Good times. I take the extra speaker + mount home with me so I could return the assembly exactly as he provided it, with all the screws, as I promised.
2/22 - On Tuesday (Monday was a bank holiday) I ship it, providing a tracking number, for $16.10. I also inquire about the lock cylinders -- he said the machine didn't come with any, but he could supply a set for $50.
Look, this whole time I've been trying to not attribute shadiness or malice, but... I have no means of confirming that he didn't just part those off my machine and then try to sell them back to me for an extra profit; just speculation, but it definitely went through my mind..
Regardless, I tell him I'll think about it, and ultimately decline. I provide my shipping address for him to send along my "critical parts", and everything seems kosher. I ask him to confirm that he has the speaker assembly that mirrored a pic I sent him earlier, as well as the panels, which he does.
3/4 - No word. I reach out, noting that my shipment should've arrived the Thursday prior, wanted to confirm that he got it, and when he'll send mine along. He says he'll send my parts out "Next week" (so... no earlier than 3/9, already). He had made it sound like, on the phone, that he'd send out ASAP -- just as I was sending *him* back the speaker ASAP.
3/21 - Weeks later, still nothing. I haven't had much time to make it up to play, so I confirm with my friend that he hadn't seen a package with the parts, and ping KC again. He would "Get it out soon and sent it to you". Now... this was the first time I' d heard he needed to "get it out" of... something? To get to me. Had he not even grabbed it from his warehouse, presumably? What about the panels, they should've been loose parts; he'd said he had all of the parts I was asking about.
I ask him to commit to a firm shipping date, trying to stay friendly, but he completely ghosts me, leaving me on √Read.
A few hours pass (midnight being one of the; 3/22); I decide that, at this point, over a month is passed, and I have no real option to pressure him outside of a PayPal dispute; I know there's a limited window to file them, and the payment date was now over three months prior, so I draft up documentation of everything, and file. (Context: A "dispute" triggers a freeze of assets on the seller's account, and opens a thread between the buyer and seller to come to an agreement on how to resolve an issue. If both parties can't find resolution, a "claim" is the escalation path. A dispute can only exist for 20 days, after which it will be marked as resolved if it hasn't been escalated. A "Claim" involves a review of the case file from PayPal; they pass a judgement in one party's favor or the other, and determine the course of making things right. It's a notoriously fraught process, and honestly not one I was excited for, but... I had a lack of options in front of me.)
In the dispute, I ask for the critical parts to be sent in a timely fashion, and I also enumerate other costs I had accrued -- at that point I'd bought extra hardware to complete the set, hardware that he said should've been with the cab -- in fact, "they said it should be in there" (without telling me who "they" were. He'd told me to source it at Home Depot, so I went hunting for the best deals I could for the various bits and pieces. All-in I invested over $50 in that hardware (MOQ's are a bitch). So I prioritize the "critical" parts, but list everything, building it as a document in case it goes to a full Claim. I'm clear in my message that I want to work it out amicably, and that I just want to see evidence of shipment in a reasonable window (I outline end-of-week, because that was what I had asked for in my original texts.) I also document the lock cylinders and his quoted cost, the shipping costs for returning the speaker (which he had not yet committed in writing to paying me back for), and the floor mat -- at this point, if he wants to fight me on what "Complete" means, I may as well have everything outlined. I also document total cost of replacement for the items available on the open market (YAJ for most things), and indicate that the "critical components" are not available in any market; cash replacement value isn't really something that I could estimate for them, because... who knows? I don't have his connections; maybe someone in his position could source them and would have a value, but they're effectively "as much as the whole cab" because it seemed like nobody was parting them out to that degree. The speaker bracket and side panels would probably cost a couple hundred dollars to get made locally to accurate replica quality, perhaps? And the speaker would've taken $100 to import off YAJ, unbracketed.
To some degree, I would've been happy eating some of the costs of what I "felt" were part of "complete" -- at the time, if he'd sent the critical parts along, and refunded my shipping and the nuts/bolts... I would've called us square. I even would've sent him the extra hardware that I had bought due to MOQ's; anybody need a bunch of black M8 cap nuts?
I send him a text stating I'd like to take our discussion to the dispute thread that I've opened, and reiterating that I do not what it to go to a Claim, I want to work out amicable terms that we can both come to to make things right... but after all the delays on sending me the stuff I couldn't source elsewhere, I was feeling like I had no other option.
He sends me back a screed about how they froze his money and it'd take months to get back (every seller I know has confirmed that a Dispute being "resolved" unfreezes the funds immediately, in their experience; maybe it's different for people with serial issues.) I simply ask him to work with me. He says end of week isn't enough time, I ask for a firm date. He chooses the following Monday (3/2
, I tell him if he can provide shipment notification (not even receipt), then we won't have to escalate to a claim. He further pressures me to close the dispute; I refuse... back and forth. I stand my ground and let him know that I have no intention of hitting the "escalate" button by surprise; I'm happy to hear he can send the parts by Monday, that'll give me plenty of time to confirm they're all the correct parts, and we'd be on the path to resolving the dispute with no escalation. We leave it there for the night -- both of us have agreed to a timeline (one *he* specified, even). I plan on holding my end of the agreement, and honestly believe that lighting a little fire under his ass may have put a potentially indefinite situation on the way towards a good resolution.
3/23 - He messages me again, and starts making noise about just sending him the cab back, out of nowhere. I ask him why the agreed-upon timeframe doesn't work (it seems way easier to send out a $16 package with a few parts than arranging for $300+ freight service, when I didn't even *want* a refund). He continuously refuses to answer that question in straight terms. He asks me to shut down the dispute, and he'll send me the parts; he wants his money back, or the cab back. I remind him that the agreement was that the dispute would be closed once I'd gotten my parts and been made whole. At no point did he point to anything about my dispute that he disagreed with -- just that they froze the money, that it'd take six months to get it back from them, etc etc etc. My impression is that repeat offenders might have more trouble with PayPal; unless he was lying, that's the only explanation I could find for that kind of a delay, but I stay quiet. I remind him of the terms, which I've held to (and even extended my original timeline at his request, to give him the time *he* claimed he'd need to get my the parts). He talked about how they were in the back of his warehouse; I point out that he's advertising no less than *twenty units* which all have the same parts, and could easily swap "mine" out for ones that are more available/unsold. I continue to not understand why this is so hard; for a bit he calms down and seems to be agreeing to the timeline again, but then he starts making noise about forcing a refund.
Apparently this is his M.O. He forces a refund on a case when somebody calls him on his shit. Even just getting the critical parts -- half an hour of work to find them, less time than he spent texting with me! -- to me was too much of a burden, even when I gave him a business week to do it, after a month of getting yanked around. At this point I've put work into the cab, I've put money into the cab -- I *like* the cab, dammit. It needs a speaker, and a couple panels, but it's in great shape. If he'd gotten those to me in a timely fashion, this whole document wouldn't exist; he'd be getting a positive review -- not glowing, still going into "Hey, that day-discount kinda sucked" and "He *did* send the wrong speaker", but "he made it right at the end of the day" was what I was hoping to wrap this up with. But no; either you take his abuse (and probably violations of PayPal's ToS, honestly), or he takes his ball and goes home. He didn't even ask for an extension past Monday -- I have another two weeks before I "have" to make it a claim, but he apparently doesn't see it as worthwhile.
I've gotten a lot of "I told you so" sentiment from some people, which -- I was a complete outsider in this scene. From an insider's perspective, I was naive, but I trusted a major volume seller to, well, sell what he was advertising. I knew that people had some bad experiences from him, but had not seen anything nearly to the degree -- I was expecting maybe a little repair work here, some missing screws, some scratches and dents that I could totally live with. I had missed the true depth of how thoroughly he's screwed people over; if I were a lesser pushover (as, honestly, I think he read me as, from how I carried myself until the Dispute), I could still be pinging him two months from now, waiting on that speaker...
I'm not about that. I've been willing to work with him, repeatedly; I've been told by third parties that I've been too gracious at several periods in this whole process. I don't want his freaking refund. I think he's used to bullying people to get his way (even when it doesn't make any sense! The refund costs him so much more money, assuming he actually pays for freight), and part of me would rather have a cab missing critical parts, forever, than feel like I let him push me around in the same way he's apparently done to so many others.
TL;DR: Bought a Chunithm cab from KC; several parts were missing, including ones that can't be bought anywhere, despite him representing it as "Complete", and me pre-paying two months ahead of shipment (for a higher cost than he charged launch day).
Out about $67 in returning wrong parts and buying parts he said he didn't have for me, to try to make the cab whole. The cab-specific replacement parts, not available on YAJ or anywhere, he claimed to have and claimed he would send along. For over a month, he yanked me around, lied ("Next week", "soon"), and made no effort to make good on that promise. When he refused to commit to a shipping date, I filed a dispute with PayPal; after a mix of trying to extort me out of my PayPal rights, then actually making it sound like he'd make things right, he's now decided that he's just gonna do a refund, which I neither asked for nor accept -- it would leave me 2 days' of work poorer (lost wages for meeting with freight for dropoff/pickup), hours spent repairing and reconditioning the machine, and cab-less. It feels like the forced refund is his way of sending a middle finger to buyers who actually ask for what he promises them. We'll see where PayPal stands on it; it's entirely possible that they'll back him, seeing a refund offer as "making me whole", but I have no plans to accept such a judgement. Maybe they'll finally notice the pattern of abuse he's got in his account history, and boot him off the platform; not holding my breath, but at this point it feels more likely than him actually delivering on the parts he owes me.
May update thread later with evidenciary screenshots I gathered while filing my PayPal claim; also, will answer any questions as I have the time. Forum moderators have been notified to the state of this case, and can in particular ask for any proof they want in all of this, but I don't really plan on hiding much of anything, just wanna make sure I don't leak PII.
