NEVER EVER nest drums for shipping......this is the main cause of damage during shipping! The drums should have been INDIVDUALLY packed in their own boxes, and in such a way that any hardware on the outside of the shell that protrudes excessively would be positioned into the corners of the box and EXTRA packing placed in those corners for protection.

The Post Office should be paying YOU and NOT the shipper since YOU paid for the insurance AND the drums already. You are the one that should have filed the claim with the Post Office and NOT the sender, this way it keeps the sender, who has already been paid, from laying claim on YOUR damaged goods. If you want to keep the drums, that is your right as you already paid for them. Any compensation from the Post Office should be going to YOU and NOT the sender, for you to spend on repairs (or not) as you see fit.

If the sender/seller tries to keep the insurance money, this is just wrong. It is NOT his money! It is rightfully yours since you bought and paid for the drums AND the insurance.

And I agree with the others on filing a PayPal claim. You should, so as it documents the problem, and so it protects yourself if the seller tries to pull a fast one wth the insurance money that he has no rights over.

The "contract" in dispute was between the shipper and sender...

Click on the "GO" button in FAQ window

http://www.usps.com/insurance/

I was going to say the same thing as Ludwig-Dude...That's what you should do in this case......Mikey

As LuddyDude has already stated, the sender erred when he collected on the claim. The only fair thing here is to have the sender pay to have the drum shipped back to him. When he collected restitution from the post office and refunded your money, he cancelled the sale and is absolutely due his product. You have to ship that drum back. It's his. I appreciate your feelings and desires, but this is soley his choice whether or not you keep that drum.

Follow the logic:

Seller owns a drum.

Seller sells a drum to buyer.

Buyer pays seller.

At this point, buyer owns drum.

Seller contracts with shipper.

Shipper temporarily takes fiscal responsibility for drum.

Shipper damages drum.

Shipper owes buyer at this point.

Buyer receives damaged drum.

Buyer complains to seller.

This is an error. Buyer should have filed with the post office.

Seller refunds buyer.

At this point, seller owns the drum again, bought and paid for.

Seller should have the post office pay to have drum returned.

What gets lost here is this:

Buyer did not own the drum.

Buyer paid for the drum.

Buyer receives a refund.

Buyer is back to square one.

You don't keep an item you've received a full refund on. That's morally incomprehensible. It's flat out unethical.

You are assuming that the buyer HAS been refunded. From what I got out of the original statement from the original poster was this: "The seller OFFERED me a refund"....no where did he say that he took that option, or that he already got the refund. I agree that if he did get the refund, the ethical thing to do is return them, but at the SELLERS expense.

As I stated above, the buyer should have made the claim with the post office if he was planing on fixing and keeping them, not the seller. After the claim was made by the buyer, THEN he should have contacted the seller explaining what was going on and that he was planning on keeping the drums anyway. By contacting the seller first, the buyer just opened up a big can of worms they apparently didn't want. Once a refund is made, the drums SHOULD be returned to the seller. If you want to keep the drums, then you need to work something out with the seller. Either way it sounds like you are entitled to some money from someone.......just not me! :p

A-100% spot on correct ... as usual LuddyDude. This is one of those preventable messes we sometimes find ourselves in. Good luck to the buyer and seller. It's a bucket of mud and pasta to play in.

so the seller OFFERS a refund, but still keeps the original money the poster paid for the drums(using the USPS claim money for the refund to the buyer) AND gets the drums back AND the poster loses his find?! THAT is unethical!! someone stands to get double what they thought out of this deal.. the drums are still fine and obviously still desirable to the buyer. The only fair thing i can think of is that the poster keep the drums and get enough compensation to repair the bass drum.

EDIT: just thought of this, if you keep the drums, and the seller keeps the reimbursement on the claim, isn't that some form of fraud on the seller's part? maybe a claim with USPS is in order?

The assumption is AFTER all this plays out ... give it TIME.

The seller will refund the money to the buyer (including shipping).

The buyer is back to square one and OUT OF THE PICTURE!!! There are no more points that need to be made here. He is in NO WAY owed anything else.

The seller SHOULD file ONLY with the Shipper.

The Shipper will square up on the insured value of the drum.

So, let's review ...

The buyer isn't out ANY money.

The seller has a damaged drum that cannot be sold as it once was ... but has been paid for the damage (i.e. insurance - that's what it's for and that's how it works).

The seller is still out ebay fees.

So, the seller reports to ebay and provides them with proof.

Ebay will (as per the current agreements - read 'em) refund the listing and sold fees.

NOW, the seller is not out any money, the buyer is not out any money.

The seller has gotten the value of the damaged drum BECAUSE he cannot sell it as was the intent.

That, my friend, is ethical. It's also just common sense.

I am removing the personal and the final comment, as per my agreement.

sorry too be away so long,

here where I am at:

I have not accepted a refund nor have collected a refund from seller.

I still have the drums.

I did try to open a claim with post office, they insisted that only the

seller can originate the claim so that's why I went back to him first.

After stating my position on this, I have not had any contact from the seller

since, even after politely explaining what my wish are.

thanks for all the input.

Give it some time and see if you can work it out. Sometimes, life happens and we are away from our computers.

Then again, sometimes we do business with unethical people and we take lessons from those dealings.

Time will tell which path you find yourself on. There's really no more discussions necessary here.

Keep us up to date as the weeks tick off as to which direction this went. Thanks and good luck.