Why can't people trade in a decent way?

Mr. Tidy,
People act this way because they are people. While your world is revolving around the defective drill and postal fee, their world is revolving around some equally insignificant problem thrust on them by someone else. Your best bet is to treat each of these little burrs under your saddle as another tuition payment in the school of life. My uncle once bought a vacant lot next to a guy, and decided to fence the property- He brought in a surveyor and it turned out that the neighbor had planted his tomatoes about a foot over the line. Then a dispute broke out over this strip of dirt with threats of lawsuits endless talk of de facto easements etc. etc. The end result was that the neighbor had a stroke and ended up drooling out his remaining years in a nursing home and my uncle sold the property to someone else ( unfenced). Moral- keep things in perspective.

EdFielder, I take your point that these matters are much less serious than someone having a stroke. But I still feel that any person or company who accepts payment in exchange for goods or a service has an obligation to (a) provide a decent service or goods, and (b) treat their customers in a helpful and respectful way.
No news on the mag drill, but Parcel2Go.com have pretty much proved themselves to be the scum of the earth. After much discussion a manager promised that my parcel would be picked up today and delivered. But they didn't show up. I now think he lied in order to get me off the phone. I have even less respect for someone who does this than someone who flatly refuses to correct their mistakes.
The arrogance of Parcel2Go.com is astounding. They cannot even entertain the possibility that they failed to deliver a parcel to a valid address at which a person was waiting to receive the goods. Nor can they even consider collecting my parcel for a second time without me paying again. Gunner is right. A Molotov cocktail is richly deserved. I just hope some punk from Bolton does it before I do...
Chris

imagine you can suggest that ...
I filed a complaint with PayPal and part of the process was to enter an amount I wanted as adjustment. I.e., it is not an all-or-nothing, where you are just requesting a reversal. In my case, I *really* did not want to ship it back, so I asked for a partial refund. Much to my astonishment, I got it!! This was a low feedback seller who did not have anything to lose by blowing me off, but he paid what I asked. Made me wonder if PayPal had some kind of leverage that I wasn't aware of.
Bob
PS - resold the item on eBay, being honest in its description, and came out $5 ahead, net. Not worth the aggravation, but not a loss either.

Like I said, visit the Trading Standards Office. Think of it as a return on your council tax :-)
Mark Rand RTFM

Molotov cocktails- scum of the earth?! Dude you are talking about a few bucks here not the end of the world. Chill out.
"Christopher Tidy" > Parcel2Go.com have pretty much proved themselves to be the scum of the earth. > Bolton does it before I do...

Both issues are now concluded. One resolved, one not resolved, but that's the way it goes I guess.
I sent the package by Royal Mail. Arrived with the guy next day, so there certainly wasn't a problem with the address. I gave up phoning Parcel2Go.com. They were useless, so I filed a complaint with PayPal. They didn't respond to the complaint, so after 10 days I got my money back. I'm pleased to have the cash, but I certainly won't use them again.
I kept e-mailing the seller of the mag drill, and he kept failing to respond. Eventually I filed a PayPal dispute but e-mailed the guy to say that I'd rather resolve the issue directly. He refused, simply stating that he sent me a "flawless" machine. PayPal e-mailed me to ask for an independent assessment of the machine. I started thinking about where to take the machine for such an assessment, but received an e-mail from the seller first. He said he would not give me a partial refund, and would only give me a refund in exchange for the drill if I returned it to him in perfect working order. Obviously I couldn't do this as it is faulty. He wouldn't even entertain the possibility that there was a fault with the machine, and accused my of lying and trying to commit fraud.
I called Hougen who said the fault was likely the result of damp and/or lack of use. Replacement brushes are not too expensive, so I think I will take this route. I just hope I can chip away the existing seized brushes as the engineer suggested, but I am still upset at the 12 hours or so of time this has cost me. The machine was worth less than half what I paid for it, and I just wanted a working machine.
By the way, Hougen were great to deal with - really friendly and helpful, and the smaller spares do not seem overly expensive.
I left him scathing (but factual, of course) negative feedback today. He left me negative feedback saying that I tried to initiate a chargeback. This isn't actually true as my bank weren't very helpful, but even if it was it would have been entirely justified. I'm slightly upset to lose my 100% positive feedback as I had a feedback rating of 97, but I had to do it. Perhaps now I have a negative I'll be less concerned about leaving negatives for people who screw me, which will be a good thing. Don't buy from the seller "direktmarkt".
In future I think I will only purchase second hand items over £50 in value if I can inspect them in person first.
I'm glad it's all over before Christmas. Thanks for listening, folks!
Chris

And thank YOU for following up and letting us all know what happened! So often people post messages here asking for opinions or help and then they never acknowledge the input of others or let us know how things worked out.
Merry Christmas!!
Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com
"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"