I ordered a “reconditioned” Smiths clock for my AC directly from Alan Davis’ website, The Gauge Shop, about this time last year. He ended up shipping me a clock that had the tips of the hour and minute hands broken off, and a dial that was in need of a good cleaning (sprinkled w/ white paint (?) particles). After some back and forth e-mails he agreed to send replacement hands plus instructions, but after repeated follow-ups failed to do so. After more back-and-fourth e-mails he finally told me “Just send the whole thing back and I will sort it out”. So I shipped it off.
In the mean time I saw that he had another clock on his eBay site for auction, and I ended up winning it (What a deal!). Unfortunately it never arrived, and he has never responded to my e-mails via eBay. eBay ended up refunding my money. The interesting thing is that the clock that I won on eBay for 26 GBP was, and still is advertised on Davis’ website for 75 GBP. Clearly, he had/has this item in stock and for sale at:
http://www.thegaugeshop.com/shop/article_55/SMITHS-QUARTZ-CLOCK---.html?shop_param=cid%3D15%26aid%3D55%26. You too can buy it …maybe!
I’m still waiting for Davis to return the original purportedly reconditioned clock that I had sent back to him late last year (Probably the one currently listed on his web site!). Still no response… I would truly feel bad about posting this if the reason for his unresponsiveness was that the ol’ curmudgeon dropped dead! But his recent eBay activity suggests otherwise. In light of his excellent eBay ratings I am a bit surprised that he is so morally corrupt. However, from the few negative feedback responses (and some positive ones as well) that he does have, Davis has a history of items lost in post, particularly when the sell price was low. He may provide great service to those in the UK, but he clearly takes advantage of customers who can’t easily come knocking on his door. That said, Nisonger is the way to go in the US, and probably elsewhere.
By the way, I sent an early version of this e-mail to Alan long before posting it here in the hope that he would agree to honor his word and send me the hands and instructions, or exchange the clock for one that was up to his purported standards. That was on 10/31/10, and, I’m still waiting for signs of life (and my clock) from Alan.
As they say, ya pays ya money and ya takes ya chances. Hopefully this note will save someone out there a lot of future aggravation.
On a lighter note, feel free to offer suggestions on how to handle a curmudgeonly Englishman at a distance. [
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