What is a reasonable time for a seller to schedule a pickup date and how long should shipping take?

Here's the story:

I recently bought a pinball machine (I paid via paypal goods and services) on Thanksgiving morning (11/22). I reached out to Michelle Bianchi with STI to do the pickup. It is a white glove pickup, so the shipper breaks the pin down, wraps and packages it, and carries it out. She quoted it and reached out to the seller that monday (11/26) to schedule the pickup time. Here I am on thursday, dec 6, still waiting for the seller to schedule a pickup time. I mean....thats over a week and a half! To my knowledge, they (shipper and seller) have not even got into contact yet.

I have spoken with the shipper and the seller a few times. They both claim to have reached out to the other party. I know that the shipper has made efforts...im not convinced of the sellers efforts. I have relayed messages/phone numbers to the seller to reach out to the shipper as well.

What else can I do?

The seller is located in Maine. Im not sure when he works, but he did ask me about weekend pickups...which i referred him to ask the shipper about (since i believe they do week daytime only)...so hopefully that isnt the issue. If so, i may have to ask a fellow pinsider if they could help me out...or else i may have to cancel the sale.

My REAL concern is the fact that the shippers have said they have tried to call him multiple times with no answer or return calls. The seller states that he has tried to contact them as well with no response...which is strange because i have had ZERO problems calling and reaching them.

To add insult to injury, i just bought another item from a different seller, contacted the shippers this morning, and they had a pickup set up within an hour.

Thanks for the info.

Im not sure if that is offered, but i will ask. I am about at the point where i feel like i am being scammed or the seller just isnt making the time/effort to get the pickup completed. I wish the seller would be more communicative with me. If it was a scheduling issue, I wish he would be upfront about it so we could figure it out. It is very frustrating.

I have made a point to set it up with full service as a convenience to the seller. All of those niceties have already been paid for and included.

At this point, i just need him to contact them (or answer when they contact him), and set a pickup.

The actual shipping may take longer due to the holidays and/or other stops...but I have to worry about the pickup first. If we can get to that point, I will feel 100x better about it.

I was able to reach the seller and ask him if there was a scheduling conflict. He said it was due to work and he is mainly available on weekends. This is not (IMO) a good excuse to have not even gotten in touch with the shippers...but i can understand somewhat.

Are there any shippers who pickup on weekends?

The irony is...i can rarely ever find decent pins locally at reasonable prices. Im very in tune with the market, and almost all listings near me are double or triple what they typically go for. It is annoying.

As far as the pin i paid for...it is special. A holy grail of sorts. If it were anything less, i would have already requested a refund.

I always tend to believe in the best in people, so i am trying to give the seller the benefit of the doubt. At thos point,however, i feel that a simple phone call would alleviate a lot of problems. I sent a message to the selker tnat i need him toset up a pickup by this next Tuesday for this next week, or i would have to cancel the transaction. He seems motivated, but we will see. I am very interested in the machine, but it is time to get the process moving. I cant wAit any longer.

Update:
I contacted the seller on friday telling him that i would give him a few more days, but i needed him to at least get a pickup date set by tuesday for this week sometime.

It seems to be his work schedule that is the issue, but i feel i have waited long enough.

He said he would reach out to them as soon as he could.

Should I give him the option to drop it off as well (like via his local fastenal, on a pallet)?
Im just concerned that if his schedule is weekdays and that keeps him from setting a pickup date...why would he be able to palletize, wrap and secure, and drop it off?

I would prefer not to disclose it at this point, but it is sort of a grail game for me. I would certainly do everything within reason to make it work.

The seller has said he has been unable to reach the shipping company (which he works during their hours, so it is possible. )

He said for me to try to reach them and set it up for this friday (the time they are in his area), and he will have a family member there for the pickup.

...and the saga continues

As a preface, I should say that this is the reason why people don't ship. I will certainly think twice next time.

I contacted the seller stating that a plan has to be set by today (Tues) and it has to be picked up/shipped before the end of the week (Fri), or I need to cancel. He seems to be on the same page, but come to find out...he is on a dead end road...which means the shipping truck cant turn around and they will have to send a different vehicle at a HUGE additional cost. Yeah. Forget that.

I reconnected with fastenal. It has to be put on a pallet, secured, and wrapped...then dropped off at a nearby station. I set everything up...he just needs to drop it off...hopefully he does.

He stated that he will drop it off by 1pm friday. I asked him to let me know when he does it and i will contact fastenal to double-check that they receive it.

Any more hiccups and I'm done.

Random question here, but...did you go to that big pinball/arcade sale this last saturday in castle pines, CO?

It was for a charity. Mostly older, but a few newer as well. It had incredible deals.

There was one I wanted badly. Olympic Hockey....and at a great price. I contacted them in the first ad i saw for it...with NO response. A couple of ads later, i contacted them again and they ssif it was spoken for. Im not sure why they didnt respond to me at first, but i would have had to get creative to go out and pick it up anyway, so i didnt make a big fuss.

Thats the game!

Unfortunately, it was just a one day clearance, and that time has passed by. I appreciate your offer to pick it up, however! Thank you.

Unfortunately, this story has taken a turn for the worse. The seller never took the pin to be shipped (despite repeatedly saying he would, even up until the last hour he had to do it). After his time line had passed, I told him i wanted to cancel the transaction and have my money refunded. He still hasn't responded...that was about 8 hours ago. I like to believe that he was just having a hard time with aligning his schedule with the shippers...but the lack of communication, lack of drive to complete the sale, and now having no response kind of throws that out the window.

I paid via paypal goods and services, so i filed a claim on him.

For those interested, the seller in question is fred gonzales in Maine, and the machine was a jurassic park.

The other thing that sucks is that during this whole thing, i came across 2 other pinballs that i would have loved to have (one was another jurassic park about 3 hours away)...but my money was (and still is) tied up in this one...so i missed out on those too.

Even worse, this was supposed to be a Christmas surprise for my wife and 3 kids. Now that won't happen.

Hopefully i get my money back with no problems. I should have paypal's protection on it.

I would definitely be overly cautious the next time i need to get a pin shipped. I would MUCH rather get one local or even have to take a reasonable road trip over shipping.

I would absolutely need to set up a shipping plan beforehand and not pay until the shippers show up at their home or when they take it to drop off.

I wish this would have ended better...

Im not sure if that's the same person, but that is the same ad. I need to figure out how to get them to put (scam) by the title.

I've heard all the stories about mr. Pinball, but i figured there has to be some real ads on there...right?
I tried to protect myself by double checking the pics to make sure they are real, from the same machine, and not pulled off the internet (via google reverse imaging). I double checked for a real address and good contact info, and i paid via paypal goods and services for my protection.

I guess all of that wasn't enough.

After not answering me for about 12 hours, the guy actually messaged me back this email this morning:
"He got himself involved in some shit. I understand if you want your money back, give me a day or two to get your refund."

I'm not sure if this is a family member, if he is referring to his cousin (who he said would help him by dropping it off) or what...

It is not very clear. Probably by design.

I wish i knew someone who lived in Maine so i could have them drop over there and pick the machine up...if it is even there.

Update:
In spite of a few emails and a couple of texts, I haven't heard back from the seller in a few days.

I did have the ad marked as a scam and the seller added to the known scammers list. I also filed a claim on the paypal G&S payment a few days ago.
I should be protected since i paid this way, so hopefully I will get refunded soon. The scammers obviously have no interest in contacting me further.

In the future, i will have to use escrow.com and go with better known trusted sellers. Of course, local/nearby pickups will trump all.

Sometimes you just have to go all out for those grail pins. If one comes up that I have to go after, I will be wiser next time.