Should I Have to wait??

Was wondering what some our your thoughts might be on a situation that has developed during a transaction here on the Mart? Will not mention any names, not meaning to defame anyone, just wondering what the consensus of opinion might be.. Responded to an ad for a Power Tank that was listed for sale.. I sent the asking price $80.00, received the Tank via FedX... Tank seemed to be packaged well (bubble wrap & foam) but to my chagrin found that the spotlite attachment was broken off from it's base... I took a digital shot of it and e-mailed it to the sender. He said that he would file a claim (had insurance for $100.) that a FedX truck would come back and inspect the damage & how the box was packed. It takes six weeks for FedX to review their damage claims & issue a reimbursement... So what the seller is intimating to me is; when he gets his $$ he will send me mine... I know that if the shoe was on the other foot I would immediately send the buyer his $$ back. Your thoughts on the matter would be of interest to me... I am not worried about not getting my $$, the seller is a reputable well established Astro-marter.. but question the ideology.. JM

Hi John,
It is my opinion that it is the sellers responsibility to get the item to the buyer intact. If it is damaged then he should allow it to be returned with a full refund and wait for the money from the shipping firm. It is not certain whether the shipping firm will honor the insurance claim, so the buyer is not required to wait for reimbursement.
This is how I would handle any problems with any item that I sold and was damaged in transit.

Was there obvious damage to the shipping carton?

Hi John,
I replied to you already, but after hearing the rest of the saga I have revised my thoughts on this.
I personally will not accept broken merchandise. If it arrives broken, then it is returned. It is too difficult to come up with a deferred cost for damages to keep it and you never can be quite satisfied with a broken piece of equipment anyway.
So, for me it is a no brainer, I would ask for a refund and pay the shipping back to the seller. Let him worry about recouping the money from the shipper through insurance (which I doubt he will ever receive) and then find another unit to replace it. This a bag of worms if you ask me and no one wants a bag of worms, unless you are going fishing!

My better half does all the fun stuff like buy and sell here on Amart. She also does the supporter bit. She sold a camera lens to a gentleman in Texas. I took it to the Post Office and sent it off. A week later this gentleman had not received his lens so they agreed that if it was not there in 3 more days she would send him his $$$ back. The lens did not get there, we sent the money back. We knew we had sent it but she has established a good rep. here on Amart and the guy in question also has a good rep. here. The funny part is almost 6 weeks later it showed up back in our mailbox undeliverable. She scanned the box to send a image of the USPS stamps on the box to the gentleman, for his piece of mind. Point of all this is that so far as it goes most everybody we have dealt with on Amart has been a first class person, just do not trust first class mail.