Repair Shops in Orlando Area

Please do some research on your purchaser, and if necessary take measures to prevent a PayPal chargeback. You'll want to be entirely sure that there actually is a problem and you are not about to be scammed :-(

There's something wrong with this picture. I suggest you ask the buyer to make a video of him inserting a Beta tape into the VCR and send it to you. If it looks like there's a failure, then continue with the repair suggestion.

As for the cost of repair, my shop time (for computahs and 2way radios) is about $75/hr. That means it will cost up to half that for just an estimate. I don't know what you're expecting in charges, but repairing old hardware might be pricy because of the lack of parts and service info. Get a repair estimate first.

Also, I've never had this happen to me, but it did happen to an aquaintence.

The buyer bought a laptop on eBay at the buy-it-now price. The seller shipped it and was paid with Paypal. However the buyer decided that it was somehow defective, wanted to return it, and wanted is money back. This was duitfully arranged. However, when the laptop arrived, it was a totally different laptop, and you guessed it, was seriously broken. eBay dispute center got involved. The buyer sent eBay all his documentation including the return shipment info. Since there was no way for eBay to verify that it was the same laptop, eBay credited the buyer the full amount (excluding shipping).

Unfortunately, this is a pretty common occurence, and as this poster said, it could be a false accusation to begin with, or the user may simply not know what they are doing. Ask for more details of the problem, what kinds of noises it makes when trying to insert the tape and weather it tried to grab the tape or not. You can usually tell is someone is making things up by the answers they provide...or its quite possible they merely are not doing something correct on their end. Theres also the possibility it was damaged during transport since Canada to Florida is a great distance. Otherwise, you can check this list for a shop in Orlando to serve as a 3rd party unbiased opinion maybe:

Refund his money, (all including shipping), appologize for the problems, and tell him to keep the recorder.

Doesn't matter. The seller has no choice, if the buyer wants his money back, that is exactly what will happen. The only way to prevent a PayPal charge back is to refund--the buyer has a legal right to demand that the item be in the stated condition *when he receives it* and has no obligation to do anything else.

Of course one could close their PayPal account, close their eBay account and retire, that might work...

Yep, that's exactly what can happen. Especially for international sales (such as this one was).

Exactly right - if the buyer decides they want their money back, whether they have a good reason or not, they can basically take it out of the sellers hide. No wonder so many sellers have left Ebay, and I'd leave too if I wasn't so hard for money. I have no reason to suspect this guy is dishonest, his feedback is good and he hasn't been rude or demanding in his communication. But these days, who knows.