How should I respond?

Pauleo1214

Well-known member
On occasion I throw up a fuzz pedal for auction on ebay and star the price of bidding for the cost of the pcb. I sold a dirt transmitter for $34 bucks in November. I got a reply this morning frk. The owner saying the pedal smoked? He admitted to tampering with it after. I honestly can't see anything wrong with the pedal from the photos. I think he is trying to scam me in some way. What do you all think? Message pasted below.

"Hey dude, sorry just got around to testing your pedal. I was testing 7 dif. fuzzes between 6 (echo)delays tonight. D to F to D, some cool results. I was running controls for test and I verified all cables already, power supply etc. I couldn't get pedal to light up, it did make a very high squeal and killed my chain's sound. I opened and all i could find was switch GND (5)wire fried against SW(2). The whole top row looks like it got hot( or bad stripper lol), and the footswitch bottom row is not like any wire diagram i have found, but I'm no expert. I didnt try very hard and i didn't pull board out, it's too late. Lol. I moved wire for second picture to see burn mark. Any ideas or what you want to do?" Screenshot_20220116-094736_Chrome.jpg s-l1600.jpg
 
When did he receive it? I find it hard to believe he's just gotten around to testing it since November, I'd have to call bullshit on that one
 
So you're telling me smoke was bellowing out of a sealed aluminum enclosure but there are absolutely no signs of it internally? Riiiight. :ROFLMAO:

Those two wires being "shorted" together would only make the LED stay on.... they would not cause the pedal to otherwise malfunction and would certainly not cause anything to overheat or smoke. If it "smoked" the buyer was messing around inside and/or accidentally plugged in the wrong power supply while testing those other 7 (echo)delays.

The fact that the buyer has been poking around inside but doesn't recognize one of the most common true-bypass wiring schemes doesn't give much confidence. Your average guitar players first response wouldn't be to "pull the board out"...

If they want a refund they'd definitely pay for original and return shipping since it's outside of the posted return period....
 
When did he receive it? I find it hard to believe he's just gotten around to testing it since November, I'd have to call bullshit on that one
I shipped it via USPS Priority so he got it the next week. It's very obviously BS. The problem is Ebay lets buyers leave negative feedback for BS.

I suppose i could offer to get the pedal operational pending he covers shipping both ways but I sure as hell don't want to refund this sleezeball.
 
I would also immediately contact eBay and get their advice. That’ll show your good faith to them and that you are willing to make this right, within reason (like you shouldn’t be taking a loss).
 
That sounds like a reasonable approach. He might be an honest dumbass rather than a sleazeball.
Maybe but there is quite a bit of evidence that shows he is lying, i.e. saying there are components that are burned and no internal damage to be seen.
 
Offer to fix it not under warranty with the guise that it’s out of time frame and he started messing with it, buyer pays shipping both Return and send plus cost of parts, and good will free labor. As to appease eBay and dieter any negative feedback, not to say this is the greatest approach just an Idea.
 
If he post negative feedback, you can also respond to it with your side, no way I'm buying he had it since November and just now trying it, when I get something especially from fleabay first thing I do is test it
 
I think the burn mark they're talking about is wire that goes to the center lug.
How could that happen?

Screen Shot 2022-01-16 at 8.30.15 AM.png
 
@PedalPCB if someone added ac instead of dc or 18v/24v could this be the results? Or something along those lines, it looks like R7 is the first one VCC hits? Definitely screams user error to me.
 
How could that happen?

Most likely during assembly, but that would only affect operation of the LED...

R7 is 3.3K. Even if the opposite end was shorted directly to ground you would have to apply over 28V to exceed the 1/4W rating of that resistor.
R6 is 22K, so +74V in that case.

There are no other lower resistance paths to ground for VCC in that circuit unless one was introduced externally.... (eg: poking around inside)

Components typically don't emit plumes of smoke that would be visible from the outside of a closed enclosure at this level of voltage/current... and if so, you'd think there would be soot or some other obvious evidence. Where did the smoke come from if the pedal was closed up and plugged in?

I'm not saying the pedal couldn't be damaged by reverse polarity (or AC) at lower voltages, but those resistors are too high value to have smoked at typical pedal power supply voltages.
 
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Thanks for your replies everyone. It may be too late for him to leave feedback. I sent a reply asking him to provide photos of the power supply he used.

As for the wires on the 3pdt, they are a bit charred from my iron but that would only affect the operation of the switch.

I am not an electronics expert. I have built over 100 pedals so far (with many failures) but never have i seen a resistor smoked like that. In a tube amp, yes, pedal, no.
 
Thanks for your replies everyone. It may be too late for him to leave feedback. I sent a reply asking him to provide photos of the power supply he used.

As for the wires on the 3pdt, they are a bit charred from my iron but that would only affect the operation of the switch.

I am not an electronics expert. I have built over 100 pedals so far (with many failures) but never have i seen a resistor smoked like that. In a tube amp, yes, pedal, no.
Are the trannies secured to the sockets. I had one fall out one time. Fortunately, it was sent to a friend.
 
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