Styrofoam Stuck to Paint - Help!

I'm not sure if this helps, but Williams Southern E7 locomotives are available heavily discounted right now at Trainworld.  Here's the link:

http://www.trainworldonline.co...a-set-southern-20514

Starhopper,

I'm really sorry to hear of your plight.  May I offer a suggeastion or two?

First, you did the right thing filing a complaint with eBay.  Second, take Gordon Z's advice and snag a set of those Southern E7 locomotives from Trainworld while their on sale.  Third, file a complaint with your bank assuming you used CREDIT card to make the purchase not a DEBIT card or a direct withdrawal from your checking account.  The bank should NOT charge any interest on the amount of THIS purchase while you are dealing with this dispute.  If you pay off your card monthly as I do; at least you won't be accruing interest charges.

I had a similar problem with an eBay seller many years ago over a 'near mint' Lionel PW-57 AEC switcher - my winning bid was over $1,100.00.  Let's just say the seller (with a long and near perfect feedback history) SLIGHTLY exagerated the switcher's condition.  I tried contacting him via email, snail mail and telephone for about 3 weeks with no response on his part before I filed complaints with eBay and my bank.  At that time, eBay did NOT stand behind the buyer as they do today.  EBay did NOT suspend this "gentleman's" trading privledges during the almost 5 months it took to get a full refund.  My BANK and VISA were my only two allies during the entire proceedure which was, to say the least; time consuming and had to be done in a VERY exacting way including how I got this jerk to accept my return-receipt shipment to him.

Email me offline (email address in my profile) and I'll gladly share my knowledge of the "proceedure" and the tricks I used

Best,

Dave

Dave - I did (and always) look at the feedback.  But I figured (wrongly) that if he had 18,550 transactions, and a 98.5% approval, then that's 18,271 satisfied customers.  I thought the odds were in my favor.  But, I guess, you really only see the true quality of the seller when something goes amiss in the transaction.

Gordon - I saw that - and it's tempting.  But I don't wanna end up with two sets, and so I really need to wait and see what ebay does.  I have to wait three full days after opening this complaint for it to be elevated to ebay resolution representatives.  Until then, we (me and the seller) are supposed to find an amicable solution.  Based on his responses this isn't going to happen.

quote:

UPDATE - it seems as though the dealer WILL NOT ALLOW ME TO RETURN THE ENGINE because I admitted to using "Goo Gone" on the small section of the engine to test to see if it would remove the foam.  Even though it did not damage the paint or finish,  he says he will not accept it as a return.  Told me he would "research" how best to remove the foam and get back to me - also told me to contact Williams. 

Sorry, I am going to take the minority opinion, and agree with the seller. Once you started to clean the engine, the sale was final. The seller has no way of knowing whether your cleaning effort worsened the engine's cosmetic issues.

Had you asked the seller to take it back before you tried to clean off the Styrofoam, I think you would have been on firm ground to get a full refund.

Please let us know how the dispute resolution works out.

CW - nothing to be sorry about - that's why I posted - to get everyone's view.

Starhopper, although this does you no good for this instance, I was told when I started eBaying that 99.8% positive rating was the threshold to observe.  Of course, one can read the seller's feedback and ask themselves:  "Do the negative comments seem unreasonable?", "Does the seller sell mostly trains?", "When was the last negative comment?", and so forth.  Best of luck with this mess.

Lyle....

If I were you, I would buy the set available at Trainworld.  You are not going to end up with two sets since E-bay is going to eventually side with you.  Just so you know, I have received the same problem with the styrofoam sticking to the paint and regardless of what I have tried, I was never able to completely remove the problem.  If you are willing to accept that, then yes, I would wait to see what you and the seller can agree upon.  But if the paint finish as it is right now is not acceptable, then I would buy another set and then go through the return procedures that E-bay will instruct you to do after the appropriate time has passed for the resolution.

Alan

It used to be different, but nowadays the buyer almost always wins these disputes.  Though the seller may set his own conditions, Buyer Protection tends to ignore these.  For example, "no returns" no longer means "no returns."  Your item was obviously defective.  The seller did not open the packaging to inspect the item before he shipped (good argument for buying used rather than new from such a vendor).  You didn't cause the foam to stick.  He or the former owner may have stored it unopened in a hot attic.

Actually, I think Williams might swap the shells for you.  They dumped the E7's, but I'm sure they still have some of the Southerns available.  They have not been discontinued for very long.  Another option would be to buy the set cheap from Trainworld and then ask Bachmann to swap the defective Southerns for a different roadname they still have.  Why not call their customer support and ask?  They may have shells available.

I'm not sure what you paid for these; but, with the present discounts on Williams discontinued items, the parts alone (motors, reverse board, sound board, trucks, and the like) are worth the Trainworld asking price.  Once this inventory is flushed through the system, we can expect prices on new inventory to be much higher.  Dealers are already getting wholesale sticker shock from Bachmann.

Incidentally, I wonder about the particular vendor you dealt with.  Among other things, his descriptions are not useful.  "Very nice details" and "very nice color scheme" don't mean much to train buffs.  Maybe foam sticking to paint is a nice detail, if you happen to have a snow scene on your layout.

Man Gordon that sounds like good advice. I'm thinking he is going to get slammed  because he has to pay 20 dollars to ship it back then another 20 dollars if the seller sends him another one. That's 40 bucks IF he is lucky.

UPDATE -  Guys, I finally just said to myself, "the heck with the vendor, and the heck with the ebay resolution folks" - I couldn't wait and I didn't want to purchase another set and find out I was stuck with two.

So, today, I sat down with some goo-gone, q-tips, and toothpicks that I had cut off the end with a nail clip, then flattened the end to give me a flat, soft wood "scraper".  After soaking the areas in goo-gone, I used the toothpicks to scrape (ever-so-gently) away the foam and foam residue.  While I did not get all the residue off, I got 95% of it, and it is not visible unless one looks REALLY close.

I am still gonna wait to see what ebay does, as I have now requested a partial refund for damaged goods.  I did, however, give him a negative ebay rating - which I rarely ever give.  I have absolutely no bad ratings, and have been an ebay member for over 11 years with almost 400 transactions - so my bad rating on him hopefully does mean "something".

Thanks for all of your feedback and guidance - it was very useful.

"After" pics...