SNK MVS Convertor plus 2011 version HORROR STORY

I've had the absolute worst experience buying one of these. My wife ordered one of these as an xmas present for me before DavidG had announced his own converter. The only place we could find this newest 2011 version was at www.ic2005.com (DO NOT BUY FROM THERE) which is based in Hong Kong. Well after I got it, it didn't work right at all for sound. There's more details in my previous threads here and here if you want to read about all that.

Anyway, we asked them for a refund and they refused saying they only do an exchange for the same item. I did NOT want to pay expensive shipping back to Hong Kong only to possibly get another faulty converter, so I filed a dispute with paypal. I think originally they said it may take them until January 18th to make a decision. That date came and passed and paypal gave no updates so we called and they said we could get a refund but we have to ship the item back and provide a tracking number to prove it has been delivered.

I check out different places for shipping prices and all of them were absurd. UPS was around $100 and the cheapest turned out to be the post office, but basically the cheapest I could send it with tracking was $40. I had a few days to ship it out so I thought maybe I'd try selling it on here if someone wanted to try to fix the sound flaw or deal with it. I got no responses by the shipping deadline so I went and shipped the thing then came home and gave paypal the tracking number. That was Feb. 2nd.

The tracking later showed that the package had arrived at Hong Kong and that the seller had been notified to pick up the package. That was Feb. 14th. Nothing changed on the tracking up to Feb. 21st so my wife called Paypal asking about that. Paypal told her that if the seller picked up the package that she'd get the refund OR if tracking showed the package hadn't been picked up in 21 days that she would get the refund. Fast forward a few days to today and paypal sends her an email saying she needs to provide proof that we shipped the item with the proof showing the shipping address and such. It said if they don't receive this within 72 hours then they will close the case in favor of the seller.

W-T-F. Paypal tells her one thing one day, then 3 days later tells her if she doesn't provide proof it was shipped there that the case will be closed. Anyway, I did keep everything I got from the post office which was just the receipt without much pertinent information and the carbon copy they gave me of the customs form. I thought "ugh, this annoying but not really a problem because I'll just scan the customs form when I get home and send that to paypal". Well I got home and got out the customs form.....only to realize how much carbon copies suck. The writing is very very light and I can only barely make it out if I'm looking at the printed address that's suppose to be written there. To make matters worse, after I scan it in it shows up even less. I uploaded it to paypal anyway because that's all I can do at this point. I'm just worried they're going to say it's not legible and not accept it.

I'm pretty sure the seller is just being an ass and not picking up the package so I won't get my refund. This seems like a pretty crappy loophole. Anyway, does anyone have any advice. Can I do anything such as go to the post office with the customs number and get a copy of the form I filled out that's legible for me to send to paypal? Should I demand to speak to a manager when I call paypal and bitch until they refund me or what? They never said anything before about me possibly needing documentation showing the shipping address and such on it, only that I needed the tracking number. If I'd known that beforehand I would've just got the post office to make a copy of the legible non-carbon copy customs form I filled out.

Sorry to hear about all the hassles you've had to deal with man.

I would have thought just being able to show (via tracking updates) delivery was attempted would be enough for PayPal to green-light a refund. Have you been able to discuss this any further with the seller?

You could try bitching to Paypal, I've heard it work sometimes. If your hand is steady is, you could also try darkening the written text on your carbon copy.

Unfortunately you're in a bit of a pickle though. What would have saved your bacon would have been to pay through Paypal with a credit card. Those companies (in Canada at least) are much more in favor of the buyer when a scam occurs. They also give you 90 days to file a fraud case.

HeavyMachineGun said:

If your hand is steady is, you could also try darkening the written text on your carbon copy.

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Or alternatively, scan it and use the "contrast" adjustment in an image editor. Even with honest intentions, hand-"altering" the original would not be advisable IMO.

even if it is shady, he could still darken it and then scan......

Kidpanda said:

even if it is shady, he could still darken it and then scan......

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He could, but I figured he could accomplish the same result in software and preserve the original (just in case someone asks him to 'splain).

Do you have an up-to-date passport? Just a thought....

Sixth said:

Do you have an up-to-date passport? Just a thought....

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No....what are you implying? A Neo Geo related version of the movie Taken? :P

cr4zymanz0r said:

No....what are you implying? A Neo Geo related version of the movie Taken? :P

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.p.l.a.n.e.t.i.c.k.e.t.

Man, I get the same issue with the same shop.
It took me more than month to get the refund from paypal after yelling at them.
I ended purchasing one from neo store last year.

I had to do this a few years back to get a paypal refund.

I ASKED paypal what was the return address of the seller, and I printed paypal's response directly on the package, in addition to writing the address on the custom form.

Seller did not pick up the package and item was returned to me, paypal promptly issued a full refund.

Actually, I just noticed something. A little too late but I suppose it's worth mentioning.

OP (crazymanzor), was the MVS converter shipped to you without tracking? If not, you could have easily said the converter never showed up. That'd effectively make Paypal force the seller to give out a refund.

It's a dirty loophole, but I'd say it's better than fighting with the chinese guy over a big ticket item.

HeavyMachineGun said:

Actually, I just noticed something. A little too late but I suppose it's worth mentioning.

OP (crazymanzor), was the MVS converter shipped to you without tracking? If not, you could have easily said the converter never showed up. That'd effectively make Paypal force the seller to give out a refund.

It's a dirty loophole, but I'd say it's better than fighting with the chinese guy over a big ticket item.

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It had tracking, because I was excitedly checking it every day.......oh the irony.

Oooh, dang. Them chinese is trickier than I thought. It's just your original post never specified if the converter was sent with tracking or not.

Is your Paypal linked to your bank account or your credit card? If you used a credit card you can try can file a dispute with the credit card company against Paypal.

Here's a tip. When you fill out customs forms, always fill out each copy by hand.

I know this doesn't help you now, but here's what I do with orders like these.

On big ticket items, especially those shipped internationally, I film myself opening the package and all of the contents. Only one time in years of buying did I have to return something. I filmed it being packaged up, and I filmed it being sent through the post office.

Seems a bit extensive, but the one time I did this I showed the video to paypal and was refunded immediately, without having to wait for proof of delivery. This was years ago though not sure if they allow this anymore.

Well, paypal replied today and said the writing on the form was too light and that it needed a better copy. My wife called paypal (since it was ordered with her account) and bitched at them and they didn't really offer any resolution so she asked to speak to a supervisor. After complaining to the supervisor he told her to just go back and trace over the writing on the customs form with a pen then resend it, then after they process it we'll get our money back. I immediately did that, scanned it, then went to upload it....but the dispute is on "awaiting other parties' response" and doesn't have an option for me to upload any files right now. We both raged and then she called them back (this was probably 10min or so after the initial call) and now their office is closed for the night

Jaelus said:

Here's a tip. When you fill out customs forms, always fill out each copy by hand.

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Or if you can, use paypal shipping.

I've got another update: Paypal is continually incompetent.

My wife called paypal on Monday to see why we can't upload the file. They said they're waiting for a response from the seller about something and due to a limitation in the system they can't set it to where we can upload a file during that. Basically we were stuck with having to fax it, which I hate fax because you never know if someone is going to overlook what's been faxed or someone else accidentally picks it up with their stuff.

Anyway, since I was at work when she called and found this out I remoted into my computer at home to send myself the scanned customs form so I could print it out at work and fax it. I do that and the fax machine says it sent. This was all during lunch time on Monday. As of today (the day they're supposedly going to close the case in favor of the seller if they didn't receive the better customs form) it was still not showing the fax received on my wife's paypal account. She calls them today just around 30min ago just to be safe and make sure they got the fax........surprise! They say they don't have the fax! They tell her to send it again and that it will be processed in 24 to 48 hours. I just finished doing that before typing this. At this point rather than thinking "I wonder if this is finally about to be resolved" my attitude has changed more to "what paypal idiocy comes next".