I have been holding off on doing this, but due to Steve deciding that ignoring me was the best course of action I felt this should be made public.
TLDR - LED shows up and has issues. Seller claims its brand new and that it worked perfectly when it left. Proceeds to ignore me instead of dealing with the problem.
Steve Hryb of Flordia Pinball Salvage, aka CATTSS13 on here, contacted me about my ad wanting led dmd's. He said he had 3 brand new vishay red dmd's he picked up a few months ago. Now, he quickly had us switch to email and in the process of looking he was only able to find 2. He asked a very reasonable price and I agreed, no haggling. He asked for a check and I obliged and was very communicative and quick with shipping. So up until this point everything is great.
I got the dmd's Friday, he had tracking on the box and can verify that. The box had no damage from shipping. Both dmd's had been wrapped in newspaper and then taped over to keep the paper from coming off. The rest of the box was filled with newspaper to act as a cushion. I tested both dmd's that day. One worked great, the other has a vertical line locked on with 1 dead pixel in that column.
Here is where it goes south. If the displays both worked I wouldn't care, but these were sold as *NEW*. The display that doesn't work has light scratches on the front. These scratches are on the pcb and there is some black removed off the led blocks. On the back is a black arrow in sharpie pointing to a random pin. Underneath that pin is the number 1. This pin is not in the column that is locked on.
The second dmd, which fully works, has a random mark on a different pin and a black scribble in another completely different spot. It has no scratches.
Would be happy to post the email conversation I had with steve, but do not want to violate the rules so here is a summary.
So, I took pictures and sent them to Steve explaining that the dmd does not work and that due to it being smd I cannot fix it. That vishay can, but the cost will exceed what I paid for it. I get an immediate response saying that he marks what he sells so he can tell he sold it. That the displays are clearly new and that he tested them for 2 hours without issue.
I explain that while not sure about the mark that it does prove that it is the display he sent. That I cannot attest to his having tested it or it being new, but that it has scratches. That if it worked I would not care, but in short he sent me a bad display and that it was doa. His response is that he marks his parts to keep everyone honest and that it worked 100 percent.
That was all friday night. Saturday I sent an email offering to send the dmd back to him as having a bad display does me no good. I received no response so monday afternoon I sent another message asking if sending it back was acceptable. Still no response.
Now, some may argue I should give steve more time to make it right, but from where I sit he has known since friday that there was a problem. At no point did he offer a solution, he simply dug his heels in stating that it worked when he had it. Now, things happen. Maybe it got shocked while he was wrapping it in newspaper or it got shocked in transit? I don't know, all i know is I the display was bad from the word go. I have tested it in multiple machines, with different ribbon cables and it has the same issue regardless.
Apologies for the long winded post but trying to be as fair and clear as possible. Going to attatch the photos that I sent steve on friday.
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Battle Creek, MI
