You bought it right around the time of the capacitor plague.
Capacitor plague - Wikipedia
It might be worth popping off the case and looking for any obviously bulging caps the repair might end up being quite a simple one
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What's made you grumpy today?
It might be worth popping off the case and looking for any obviously bulging caps the repair might end up being quite a simple one
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Extreme sciatica. Ive been on the floor in agony. Thank heaven I managed to get up and its eased. I am having MRI tomorrow I dont know what will happen if they find an issue. I have only twice had it worse than this. Last time I lost the use of both legs for a few hours. WHy are we so badly designed and built?
All this in the midst of needing to work on my daughters house.. It is at least going well. The house flat roof and garage have been redone, and the back elevation of the roof repaired. Its gone well so another couple of days should see that done. Ive done a lot of brickwork stitching and strengthening and rendered walls that have been done. Ive a vast stack of new windows to fit and to replace the porch and a whole stack of radiators waiting too; Next job is the new insulated wall board then we can get the ceilings replastered before the home straight. So far we are on / under budget, I hope it stays that way.
All this in the midst of needing to work on my daughters house.. It is at least going well. The house flat roof and garage have been redone, and the back elevation of the roof repaired. Its gone well so another couple of days should see that done. Ive done a lot of brickwork stitching and strengthening and rendered walls that have been done. Ive a vast stack of new windows to fit and to replace the porch and a whole stack of radiators waiting too; Next job is the new insulated wall board then we can get the ceilings replastered before the home straight. So far we are on / under budget, I hope it stays that way.
That's very interesting. I'll certainly be popping the cover off and taking a look. I'm still quite taken with the idea of replacing it though. Mainly because the Yam was a bit of an overkill for my, very average sized, living room. It's a powerful bit of kit which really excels at higher volume levels but at lower, "every day" sorts of volume, it's a bit "throttled" and speech in particular becomes a little indistinct. I've discussed this with both our local Richer Sounds and the Hi Fi independent where I bought it and they both mentioned that my pairing of Monitor Audio speakers with this amp most likely had something to do with it and that an amp which is a bit "brighter" in it's delivery would probably sort that out. Various suitable replacements have been recommended but Richer Sounds recommendation of the Denon AVRS 760H particularly appeals as they've got it on a cracking offer for VIP customers. https://www.richersounds.com/denon-avr-s760hgb-black/ Need to get a demo and see what I think.You bought it right around the time of the capacitor plague.
Capacitor plague - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
It might be worth popping off the case and looking for any obviously bulging caps the repair might end up being quite a simple one
Depending on what I find when I take a look at the Yam I may attempt a repair and then, maybe, sell it on if successful. Only thing is I'd feel bad about selling it on with the possibility that other components could fail soon - a moral quandary.
So, recently installed CarPlay into the car... That was the second AliExpress order. The first, placed just a month ago, chosen amongst a sea of identical ads on AliExpress / identical prices because of the promise of 'fast, 9 day shipping, AliExpress recommended!'. Few days passed, nothing. Fair. 9 days approaches, and the entire time, absolutely zero movement on the tracking number Dutch tracking number, ending 'NL' too.
If it's coming from a warehouse in China, then undoubtedly, to come to Europe in 9 days at some stage is needs to be shipped by air. Ship takes what, 3-4 weeks? They clearly have just sent it by sea. So why promise 9 day shipping?! When it's impossible to come by sea within 9 day. There's being late in the postage system for a number of diverse reasons... but blatantly lying about the shipping time on this level, totally unacceptable. That was the first issue.
Anyway, ordered another item, UK warehouse, promised in 3 days, arrived in 2. Also via AliExpress. Got the CarPlay unit. Fitted it. Working great, old news now. Still no original package, but I requested a refund the second I ordered the second product. No longer needed. Explained this to the seller (and the platform). They said I need to wait for it to come and then return it for a refund. I said, well given they've blatantly lied about 9 day shipping (by sending it via sea, where it would never arrive in anything short of near a month, I said given this was the case, I'd like a refund, sooner rather than later, and the seller can sort out their stupid decision to ship it by sea and lie etc. Of course, they didn't listen, they are insisting I wait, then return it, which okay, not ideal, but I understand this. They hang with their little '35 days for it to deliver otherwise we step in'. Either way, the dispute is opened. So it's a matter of waiting, right?
Nope. As I wait, with the dispute open, the seller decides to block me - after asking for daily updates, it starts saying 'cannot receive your message'. That again, unacceptable. I start contacting the platform's help agents online directly. They tell me they will 'punish' the seller for this... whatever that means.. And continue to send me links to the tracking number, which for weeks, has not moved. They gave me numerous excuses such as 'it's in your country' just a few days after I ordered it, when it quite clearly said it was on it's way to Rotterdam with no movement... 'national holidays', 'extreme weather events'... Different reasons, none of which applied to the situation.
They told me every time 'do you want me to escalate this to the higher team to speed up the resolution?'. At the start I was stupid, I had faith in them. I said yes please. Every. Single. Time. A few hours later, nearly on a timer actually, I get this automated email from AliExpress saying "we've updated your dispute'. I click into it. It says 'We have asked you to submit evidence to support your dispute. We cannot progress it until you submit all evidence.'. So at the start, I upload screenshots, of the tracking, of the support conversations, that the seller has blocked me. Absolutely NOTHING happens. The system continues to ask me to submit evidence. I go to support. They offer to escalate it. I say yet. I get the email. I upload evidence. This has been 3 weeks of this now, and still, nothing.
Then a few days ago, surprise surprise, the tracking number begins to update... the ship from China has clearly reached Europe now. And it's in some sort of customs hold either in NL or coming into the UK. So now, as I complain to AliExpress, they've started a new trick, they escalate it to the higher team, but now they sent me an automated email telling me I must provide them with evidence of why I am refusing to pay customs fees, implying that it's stuck because of me... When I haven't been informed of anything, no shipping update, no customs letters, emails, calls, nothing. I only know this because daily, I am pushing them for updates. Now the 'dispute' that's open depends on this, but they've never actually told me which carrier is processing the package (I presume a number of them for international). They never told me which customs office (country, location) or what the reason for the issue is, or how to contact them.
Speaking to the bank about them doing a dispute over the transaction... but apparently next day letters are a bit much. Their initial letter seems to be lost. They're sending out another today. I asked, apparently I can't go to my local branch and just sign it there and then and have it faxed / emailed over to whoever internally can deal with it... seems inflexible for 2024 but alright. Will wait patiently and try this route.
Next stop, small claims court but only if the bank can't help.
I have repeatedly asked for contact details of someone more senior at AliExpress - the point blank refuse to give any details. Many, many 'Agents' have literally told me 'customer please, i am just agent i do not have' - every single time. They can't even give me an address to write to, or legal entity info for their UK setup......
Absolute joke of a state run business from the CCP. I already hate them. I only ever used this platform to order things that literally only are produced there, e.g. this crazy impressive custom retrofit of CarPlay, or the heated seat kits ... because in all honesty, buying both from another source locally, is still ordered by the reseller from China. No disrespect to any good honest people there, but the regime and how they do business and what they think is acceptable, and the attitude to not feeling accountable to their customers is totally disgusting. I read some EU law or agreement that helps consumers specifically with AliExpress, and for that I applaud them, for recognising an issue like this and doing something to protect people. Not sure if we still have the same regulations / rules, or if we've copied and pasted it into one of our own regulations by default following Brexit, hopefully so...
I won't use the site again. I will quite literally pay over the odds for some stupid items like... wiring loom / fabric tape... instead of 83p a roll, sent in five weeks, I'll just go and get financially shafted at Homebase or whatever, on some brand that probably is made in some free world country, even if it's £6 a roll or whatever. I feel part of the problem for even giving sites like this a chance.
I can't imagine they care enough about customers to be scouring the web for experiences like this for the purposes of improving their service, but just in case they are looking, or do find this rant, I've attached the image..
Rant over... hopefully none of you risk any substantial sums on this site or any other like it.
If it's coming from a warehouse in China, then undoubtedly, to come to Europe in 9 days at some stage is needs to be shipped by air. Ship takes what, 3-4 weeks? They clearly have just sent it by sea. So why promise 9 day shipping?! When it's impossible to come by sea within 9 day. There's being late in the postage system for a number of diverse reasons... but blatantly lying about the shipping time on this level, totally unacceptable. That was the first issue.
Anyway, ordered another item, UK warehouse, promised in 3 days, arrived in 2. Also via AliExpress. Got the CarPlay unit. Fitted it. Working great, old news now. Still no original package, but I requested a refund the second I ordered the second product. No longer needed. Explained this to the seller (and the platform). They said I need to wait for it to come and then return it for a refund. I said, well given they've blatantly lied about 9 day shipping (by sending it via sea, where it would never arrive in anything short of near a month, I said given this was the case, I'd like a refund, sooner rather than later, and the seller can sort out their stupid decision to ship it by sea and lie etc. Of course, they didn't listen, they are insisting I wait, then return it, which okay, not ideal, but I understand this. They hang with their little '35 days for it to deliver otherwise we step in'. Either way, the dispute is opened. So it's a matter of waiting, right?
Nope. As I wait, with the dispute open, the seller decides to block me - after asking for daily updates, it starts saying 'cannot receive your message'. That again, unacceptable. I start contacting the platform's help agents online directly. They tell me they will 'punish' the seller for this... whatever that means.. And continue to send me links to the tracking number, which for weeks, has not moved. They gave me numerous excuses such as 'it's in your country' just a few days after I ordered it, when it quite clearly said it was on it's way to Rotterdam with no movement... 'national holidays', 'extreme weather events'... Different reasons, none of which applied to the situation.
They told me every time 'do you want me to escalate this to the higher team to speed up the resolution?'. At the start I was stupid, I had faith in them. I said yes please. Every. Single. Time. A few hours later, nearly on a timer actually, I get this automated email from AliExpress saying "we've updated your dispute'. I click into it. It says 'We have asked you to submit evidence to support your dispute. We cannot progress it until you submit all evidence.'. So at the start, I upload screenshots, of the tracking, of the support conversations, that the seller has blocked me. Absolutely NOTHING happens. The system continues to ask me to submit evidence. I go to support. They offer to escalate it. I say yet. I get the email. I upload evidence. This has been 3 weeks of this now, and still, nothing.
Then a few days ago, surprise surprise, the tracking number begins to update... the ship from China has clearly reached Europe now. And it's in some sort of customs hold either in NL or coming into the UK. So now, as I complain to AliExpress, they've started a new trick, they escalate it to the higher team, but now they sent me an automated email telling me I must provide them with evidence of why I am refusing to pay customs fees, implying that it's stuck because of me... When I haven't been informed of anything, no shipping update, no customs letters, emails, calls, nothing. I only know this because daily, I am pushing them for updates. Now the 'dispute' that's open depends on this, but they've never actually told me which carrier is processing the package (I presume a number of them for international). They never told me which customs office (country, location) or what the reason for the issue is, or how to contact them.
Speaking to the bank about them doing a dispute over the transaction... but apparently next day letters are a bit much. Their initial letter seems to be lost. They're sending out another today. I asked, apparently I can't go to my local branch and just sign it there and then and have it faxed / emailed over to whoever internally can deal with it... seems inflexible for 2024 but alright. Will wait patiently and try this route.
Next stop, small claims court but only if the bank can't help.
I have repeatedly asked for contact details of someone more senior at AliExpress - the point blank refuse to give any details. Many, many 'Agents' have literally told me 'customer please, i am just agent i do not have' - every single time. They can't even give me an address to write to, or legal entity info for their UK setup......
Absolute joke of a state run business from the CCP. I already hate them. I only ever used this platform to order things that literally only are produced there, e.g. this crazy impressive custom retrofit of CarPlay, or the heated seat kits ... because in all honesty, buying both from another source locally, is still ordered by the reseller from China. No disrespect to any good honest people there, but the regime and how they do business and what they think is acceptable, and the attitude to not feeling accountable to their customers is totally disgusting. I read some EU law or agreement that helps consumers specifically with AliExpress, and for that I applaud them, for recognising an issue like this and doing something to protect people. Not sure if we still have the same regulations / rules, or if we've copied and pasted it into one of our own regulations by default following Brexit, hopefully so...
I won't use the site again. I will quite literally pay over the odds for some stupid items like... wiring loom / fabric tape... instead of 83p a roll, sent in five weeks, I'll just go and get financially shafted at Homebase or whatever, on some brand that probably is made in some free world country, even if it's £6 a roll or whatever. I feel part of the problem for even giving sites like this a chance.
I can't imagine they care enough about customers to be scouring the web for experiences like this for the purposes of improving their service, but just in case they are looking, or do find this rant, I've attached the image..
Rant over... hopefully none of you risk any substantial sums on this site or any other like it.
Attachments
I think you need to "behave"! Mind you, I'm a fine one to be giving advice as I'm already out in the garden raking up leaves and thinking about giving the lawn a quick haircut only 4 weeks after having the new hip installed! It's just so frustrating seeing "stuff" you know you could do but are now limited by an elderly body! Take care of yourself though, Sciatica is all about nerves being pinched in the spine - I think? - and you don't want to take chances with that. Many years ago my spinal cord got "squeezed" because of a problem with the channel in my back where it runs through and I pretty much lost the use of my legs - progressively got worse over a couple of months - Luckily for me it was permanently cure by having surgery (Lumbar Laminectomy) where they chopped away some of the bone of my spine - very frightening though when you are faced with legs which are refusing to do what you want them too - I was having to go up the stairs on my back side dragging the legs behind me! So just take it a bit more slowly and accept the limitations. Good luck.
My music appreciation really is nothing more than listening to a radio. I've owned a all-in-one hi-fi unit, which got rarely used. I've seen separates, but never got close enough to use one. However, as soon as you mentioned yours, I thought of a company called Richer Sounds. There's one near you apparently. https://www.richersounds.com/stores/edinburgh
You're a bit stuffed really.
You're dealing with a strange company in a land far far away, where our laws have no reach. Small claims court cannot do much, unless you have a UK address to send the summons to. If there is one, they'll probably ignore it, and whilst that may cause any judgement to automatically go your way, collecting will be like shouting into the fog, against a foghorn.
Being a far away country, with a very different culture, everythign they state must be taken with a pinch of salt. 9-day shipping is probably absolutely correct, they will ship within 9 days. Delivery, may occur.
As far as I understand it, AliExpress is just a platform, to list stuff from multiple sellers, a bit like Ebay, but without the bidding. (Amazon is heading this way too, although with a little more responsibility). AliExpress will expect the supplier to fix things, and neither of them will care much.
Of course, once on a ship, as part of a large container, they cannot stop it mid process. When/if it actually arrives, then you can start the return process. I think, the final delivery agent will be expected to collect any import duty. Here it would be Royal Mail as the most likely candidate. Whoever it is, they'll send you a letter demanding payment. Read it carefully. Refusal to pay, or ignoring it, will probably result in an automatic return to sender, but then the sender will incur costs above their normal returns process, so will look to you to suffer those costs.
For the future, my advice would be stick to retail shops, or UK or EU suppliers. I like retail shops, you can see, and feel stuff, and ask the children (staff) for advice. Some of them understand the questions, and can give intelligible answers.
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Looked at them, and their wanting my credit card details. Decided they were a dispute waiting to happen and tried to close their account. I was unable to remove credit card details so shut the credit card account and will not deal with them again. A thinly veiled conmans paradise I feel.
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The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Had the MRI today. Thats a funny experience. I go back next week to see specialist. Astonishingly quick. As I have pins and needles in both feet Im a bit worried but it may all get better on its own.
I had to ask my roofer to replace the entire roof on daughters bungalow today. Its basically OK but once the eaves were exposed the central part that is sound is just not worth leaving, so another £3K bites the dust. Heating and hot water should be on on monday. Roof will be done end of next week so I have a few days to rest. Hopefully daughter, mrs and I can get French windows in before the roofer returns! They can lift and hold I will fix and glaze.
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Back in my younger days I'd have agreed with you about how I listened to music. However, over the years I've had several Hi Fi set ups which have changed my mind. I started with a very simple and cheap stereo reciever/amp with built in 8 track and 2 speakers. I thought it was brilliant - and it was when compared to my old battery radio and record player. in reality though it was actually pretty poor. Over the years I've had 3 systems which I've enhanced by adding bits and pieces to get better performance. The last one was a big step up at the time into true separates - Yamaha avantage amp, Monitor audio main, surround and centre speakers with an MJ Accoustics ref 100 sub. Today this is hooked up to a 43 inch flat screen with a blue ray and Humax freeview set top box. I can also feed music to it from my NAS and even internet radio if I want. The big thing though is the movie sound which is pretty close to what you get in an expensive cinema with effects flying around the room and deep rumbly sounds being felt as well as heard. Switch the amp to "pure stereo" with the sub - so playing back through the two front speakers and sub - and music really comes alive in a way you can't believe without hearing it. Chris Rea's Tell me there's a heaven is so rich sounding and the lyrics tear me apart I often end up in tears listening to it.
Or you could call up Sheryl Crow's Maybe Angels and watch the house fall down around you with the base:
Listen to these tracks on a standard radio or almost any other way - except maybe on a decent pair of "cans" - and you're missing so much.
Or just be completely transported to another level by David Gilmore's solo from "comfortably numb" Oh man, I don't have words for that one.
Aye PB, Richer Sounds. I've bought a number of items from them in the past. In fact I'm a VIP member which is what's making the Denon so attractive as it gets me a whacking big discount. https://www.richersounds.com/denon-avr-s760hgb-black/ £379 is a very good offer for something of this quality. I'm hoping they might have one I can demo
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For now, I notice they're telling me that tomorrow, the 11th, is 35 since ordering, in which apparently, the platform will allow me to choose if I simply want a refund without having to wait. Maybe they'll honour that promise... On the other hand, sometimes (50/50 chance) the support agents tell me since the tracking updated that I must contact customs. If it does turn up, I will return it (apparently the platform covers the cost...). You know, of all the similar CarPlay units around the same price, this one was cheaper than the UK / EU located ones, and had the happy medium '9 days', and had the 'AliExpress Choice', 'Safe Order', 'Guaranteed' markings which is why I opted for that... definitely a bad idea! There were other cheap options but around a month shipping.
I've had that before, about a decade ago, ordered 100 iPhone USB cables for next to nothing. Selling them (at sixth form at the time) for £1.50 each, seems a no brainer! Until the day they arrived a few weeks later, the delivery person told me to pay import duty at the door. At the time I'd never heard of it, seemed like a scam so I refused it. Only to look it up and find that's exactly how it worked. He came back the next day, paid him, I think however it worked out (Can't remember the exact figures) but it basically only just worked out as a tiny profit, hardly worth the effort or time. I sold a couple, people ate em up, but two came back the first day because just unplugging them was enough to pull the plastic end caps off of the internal wiring / connector.... Just gave them back their money and another two of them. Ended up giving them away, last couple used up around 2020 it took so long to get through them. They weren't even really good enough quality to give away! All that energy, cost and raw material wasted to make them and move them around the world. To barely charge a phone once before becoming landfill... Definitely hit or miss on that platform. Since, only ever ordered few and far between for items that only come form there (such as the LED interior lights for cars, switches, these electronic modules etc).
Looking forward to deleting my account and sending in a GDPR request to them... Will probably post on here if / when I get an outcome! Hopefully a positive one. Definitely sticking to our UK domestic made things, or things from our friends within the EU. Even if they're priced silly, the quality is more than adequate and they usually do a good job at making things right when problems do occur.
They had this option on there called 'pay on delivery', including for the item that I'm having the issue on. I tried this, but it wouldn't accept Apple Pay. Then it told me 'must be a credit card' ... I was the same, not giving them that info. Apple Pay or nothing when dealing with dodgy businesses, they don't get my real info then. It's crazy how their government allows them to rip off the rest of the world so obviously, but not surprising. There's really no such thing as a private business in China is there? Not with their regime. Actually, come to think of it... the founder of AliExpress / AliBaba went missing recently ... because he was involved in some other internationally linked business project that the CCP didn't like.. Terrible stuff going on in an otherwise amazing part of the world.
And when you think of the talent which is very much there in terms of the people designing these little units, to actually look into the existing technical setups of the car system in Lexus / Toyota, BMW and others I've seen.. they're able to look at the cars, reverse engineer an add on module that works fairly seamlessly, and make it so flexible that it can work with a number of models / configurations etc - what a shame with their gov.
You have to be careful with sellers who are state they are UK based, they might be, but the stock isn’t
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
We have 3 Halfords Yuasa now going on 2 years old and still seem good. At least they always honour the warranty. On the day discounts made them cheap in these cases. Nudge our 2017 car clearly had a brand new Exide battery when we picked him up. Its holding 14v for weeks and still doesnt seem to need a top up. Its going back on the car when next we meet.
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096 EFB Car Batteries
We sell 096 EFB Car Batteries at the cheapest prices anywhere. Our 096 EFB Car battery is an extremely high quality product at a budget price. With a price beat guarantee you can be certain of the best deal in the UK.
www.tayna.co.uk
Absolutely. However, if you have access to one of their trade cards the Halfords pricing is almost identical (and they are big into Yuassa batteries) and you can inspect the battery before you buy thereby ensuring you get the right one or, enabling you to perhaps explore whether a larger capacity battery will physically fit the car's battery tray. There is a "fly in the ointment" getting a replacement battery this way though which many are still unaware of. For some years now - it varies between manufacturers - replacement batteries will require coding to the car which can be impossible to do without specialist electronic gear - For my VAG stuff I can do it with VCDS. If you don't do it insidiously the car will appear to run normally but the battery, because charging has not been optimized, will be slowly damaged and will fail long before it should.These guys will have it to you in no time, at half the price. If you've not already done the deed.096 EFB Car Batteries
We sell 096 EFB Car Batteries at the cheapest prices anywhere. Our 096 EFB Car battery is an extremely high quality product at a budget price. With a price beat guarantee you can be certain of the best deal in the UK.
Thanks PB and PAJ, was looking at the Tayna site and they are a bargain!
Halfords appear to be as cheep only for Premium Club members, with free fitting, like I don’t know how to use a spanner, plus the local Halfords broke wife’s new wiper blade fitting it, took him three attempts!.
Was looking at an AGM equivalent as their starting power, especially in the cold, are far superior, and only £20 more, just taking time to identify the correct size and terminal positions! May even try my local farm services, tractors etc are now EGF and AGM batteries these days, as I can usually get a decent discount
Halfords appear to be as cheep only for Premium Club members, with free fitting, like I don’t know how to use a spanner, plus the local Halfords broke wife’s new wiper blade fitting it, took him three attempts!.
Was looking at an AGM equivalent as their starting power, especially in the cold, are far superior, and only £20 more, just taking time to identify the correct size and terminal positions! May even try my local farm services, tractors etc are now EGF and AGM batteries these days, as I can usually get a decent discount
I used to buy batteries from Mole Valley Farmers until they started going more "retail"
Ours, if they haven’t one in stock, will order one in for us…however, they’ve recently been subjected to the ‘bean counters’ so cutting parts and workshop services and promoting sales. They’ve also introduced a ‘budget line’ tools and accessories’, errrrr no thanksI used to buy batteries from Mole Valley Farmers until they started going more "retail"
Just remembered, ex wife thought I was keeping untold wealth details from her after snooping through my business paper work and "discovering a share certificate".
It was in fact a Membership Share Certificate for Mole Valley Farmers which gave a discount on purchases and was renewed each year.
I pointed out to her it was to the value of £1 and not transferable.
