07-23-06: Viridian
Tvad, I find the "I will do it because it was done to me." justification to be without merit.
That's your issue, not mine, but I respect your opinion. While I use my past experience as a guide, I also am quite open to working with a buyer to reach a workable solution to us both. I'm always open to compromise, and I hope my trading partners are as well.
In cases in which the shipping company has lost the item, the seller must offer a refund to the buyer immediately and then file his loss claim with the shipper.
The word offer follows the word must. I find this just as important, and I interpret it to mean that while a seller must offer a refund, a buyer has the option of declining to accept the refund until the item has been found or until the seller has been paid for his/her loss. Or, it opens the door to a number of other reasonable compromises along the spectrum...like partial payment with the balance paid upon the seller's receipt of the insurance payment, for example.
That is what we are required to do as sellers on this site.
Viridian (Threads | Answers)
Again, I view these quidelines as suggestions not edicts, but that's my interpretation. The reason I have this opinion is that when I registered on Audiogon four years ago, I am reasonably certain I did not have to agree to these guidelines as terms of use of the Audiogon website. Now, it's been a while since I registered. Perhaps my memory has faded. Some newer registrants might be of some help here.
Interestingly, we approach this issue from different angles, and yet we both have outstanding feedback (at least 50% of my feedback is as a seller). To me, that demonstrates that there is more than one correct method to achieve a successful outcome.
