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Recently I sold (on eBay) a Victor I phonograph to buyers in the Mid-West, who requested that I ship it "immediately" as they needed it for a special upcoming party. I did so, and as is my usual practice, I included a new tin of needles as a gift.

When they received the phonograph, they told me they were "too busy preparing for the party" to open it right away. When they finally did so, they couldn't get it to work. Knowing that it was recently serviced (by George Vollema) and tested by me, I was confident that they had done something wrong in the set-up process.

Well, despite my phone calls and emails, they were stymied, and convinced themselves that "they were sent a defective phonograph". With only one day to go before the Big Event, I pulled a rabbit out of the hat, so to speak. Knowledgeable friends of mine that lived nearby (20 minutes away) were available, and my customers took the phonograph to them. It was diagnosed that they weren't winding it fully, and using a very dull needle, slowing down the record. Within 5 minutes they were back in business.

Now, do you think I got any thanks for this? Ha Ha. They sent me an email chastising me for sending them a dull needle (?) and for having to take time off from work to get the phonograph working. No thank you for anything, whatsoever, or appreciation for having a fully functional phonograph in time for their party.

In all the years I have been doing this, and in previous businesses, I have never left a customer high and dry. I even flew to Alaska a few years ago to bail out a customer with some non-working machines (some of which did not even come from me). Once I shipped a Regina auto-changer to Taiwan and arranged for a service call when my customer jammed up the mechanism a few weeks later.

Now that they have had their party, I fully expect they will return the Victor to me for a refund courtesy of eBay and PayPal buyer protection!

Raphael

Well, I certainly hope that they do not try to return the phonograph after all of that trouble! Fortunately most people in the world are well-intentioned...

Best,

Garret

They probably wanted it for a photograph prop, and were playing a Bing Crosby Decca record

Seems like this world today, any good deed does get punished.

I've been down this road with EBay buyers more than one time - even a seller on "this forum" has me a little ticked off recently. Most people though I think are honest.

There's NO excuse for the sense of entitlement and rudeness they expressed, since you obviously went the extra mile to be helpful.

Along this line, it's easy to forget that many--if not most--people outside of this hobby have no clue as to how these things work. (It would be kinda' like me trying to operate an antique treadle sewing machine--or any sewing machine, for that matter... )

Perhaps--going forward--providing the purchaser with a set of basic instructions culled from a standard Victrola owner's manual would minimize problems like this. Topics covered could include --

--how many turns of the crank are required to play a record.

--how to insert a fresh steel needle.

--how to release the brake.

--the proper way to position the tonearm to play a record. (I've seen dozens and dozens of videos where the tonearm is on the wrong--left--side of the spindle and the needle angled into the groove.)

--how to adjust the speed for proper playback.

--the fact that LPs and vinyl 78s and Edison Diamond Discs cannot be played on the Victrola.

--etc.

I thought there might be a YouTube video covering all these points, but have yet to spot one.

OrthoFan

You are right, I will have to work on an instruction sheet of some sort that I can customize for individual machine types.

As it turned out, my customer kept the machine and left good feedback on eBay. So, all's well that end's well!

And, now that the episode is complete, I would like to extend a shout-out to my saviors, Joan & Robyn Rolfs, who were there to help and got the machine working. They have always been super-nice with me over the years and didn't let me down on this one, for sure!

Raphael

Raphael wrote:You are right, I will have to work on an instruction sheet of some sort that I can customize for individual machine types.

As it turned out, my customer kept the machine and left good feedback on eBay. So, all's well that end's well!

And, now that the episode is complete, I would like to extend a shout-out to my saviors, Joan & Robyn Rolfs, who were there to help and got the machine working. They have always been super-nice with me over the years and didn't let me down on this one, for sure!

Raphael

You couldn't have had any better good-will ambassadors to represent the hobby! Thanks for mentioning them!
Bob