Vise Swiped, what would Judge Judy say?

I agree with you Aquitaine, that's my take on it too .. The vise rightfully belongs to Spring ... Joy.

 

Looking at the auction’s T&C, this para protects the auctioneer so I’d need to take the former owner’s company to court if they aren’t willing to send me the vise.

“10. Risk of Loss. Upon the fall of the hammer, or when the Auctioneer says “sold,” or when the internet auction closes, risk of loss shall pass to the Purchaser. (Auctioneer name) accepts no responsibility for any loss or damage to any Purchased item once the hammer falls. It shall be the responsibility of the Purchaser to insure all Purchased items immediately.”

And of course I failed to insure the item immediately. That kind of insurance is too expensive. I’ve bought things in countless auctions and this is the first post-payment loss ever. I won some items in a rural Virginia machine shop auction long ago, but some were stolen from the auction site during the auction even before I got to the payment table. So I declined to pay for those items.

 

Then that auction house would be TOAST, in my book!!! You'd have to have the insurance co. on the phone with you when the hammer fell and tell them "NOW" to insure it, to be insured it would seem, and that seems ridiculous!!!!! IF it's still on THEIR property, I say it's THEIR responsibility!!!!! (within reasonable expectations to be picked up!!)

 

Thanks, this one is a little complex in that, as is often the case with large, heavy things, the property is on the former owner’s site before, during, and after the auction, and the auction house doesn’t have any physical presence on that site.

 

So, apparently, someone felt "entitled"......HUGE bummer!!! That might take some threatening legal action?? Involving both company and Auction House names....as you said initially, neither probably wants bad publicity!!!

Another thought....wonder if, while the Auction House WAS on the property, he had a legal presence there, and therefore, MIGHT still hold some legal responsibility????? Questions for a lawyer I suppose......haha, which I'm NOT!!!!!

 

Good thoughts, well I’ll put up to a couple hours of spare time into getting the vise then if I don’t, just one of those things, ya win some and ya lose some as costs of doing business. If I lose I’ll put some pins into a voodoo doll with “vise thief” written on it and go on with my life!

 

Add a bad Yelp review for the auction company. "Allowed my property to be stolen by a former employee of the seller. Would do nothing to retrieve it or compensate for the damage." They can point to their TOS, but ethically they're supposed to make sure you get what you paid for. You paid for a piece of equipment and didn't get it. They may be able to weasel out of compensating you for it, but once word gets out that they allow thievery....

 

(Looking for my voodoo doll)

 

Yesterday I emailed both the business’ VP, who I had met when inspecting the items at his company, and the auction house’s head of the department that held the auction, who I’d spoken with on the phone previously to buy some unsold (passed) items. Both emailed me that they were looking into the matter, which as you know is much better than no reply or some negative reply. So “we’ll see.”

 

Asked the Co. VP about progress in his internal inquiry, he said he’s found the vise and how would I like to proceed? He said btw they have dozens of the “NMTB 40” tool holders for the mill, that I knew weren’t included in the auction, and he’s willing to sell them to me for about 10% under the going rate on Eboo. So I’ll take a day to visit there, pick up the vise, and probably buy some or all of the mill tooling. So, a happy ending. If I used smirkyfaces, I’d probably put one here.

 

It'll be a happy ending when you get your vise back. (I'm assuming you can handle the vice on your own.)

 

Thanks, am thinking it’d be better to have them put vise and all the tooling in a box on a sked and send a common carrier to get it. Only a 2-hr Drive but the round trip and dealing with them kills an entire day when I could be restoring vintage machines. I’ll add a sort of unrelated pic of a No. 3 Moore jig borer I’m working on now, took the pic because I thought I’d need advice but shortly after, the stuck part broke free.

 

That looks like a good toy!

 

I didn’t know what all the controls do, even tho I have the manual for it, haven’t opened it, typical of me unfortunately, would rather push, twist, pull, poke and see that way first. Found this video of a gent using one and got some idea. He uses it in place of a few other types of machine tools, a mill in particular in this video. The machine’s design dates back to 1920’s, apparently. I have a smaller model, “no. 1 1/2” awaiting restoration-it is closer to fully-working condition than the no. 3 I’m working on now. Moore designed these machines after WW1 in order to quickly and very accurately bore holes in factory production jigs and fixtures. Seems that Moore “thought of everything” with these-for example the little white dial you see on the video start page is actually a thermometer showing the spindle temperature.

 

It won't do titanium or stainless? Horrors. (LOL) When machinery or biology gets to this age you're lucky when it runs at all.

 

Back to the original topic, the previous owner sent me a pic of the “tooling” for the mill that he wanted to sell, and I agreed to buy it all since I don’t have any of that type, I need it for the “new” mill, and they priced it well less than what I’d pay buying separately on Eboo, shipping, etc. Each one holds a different kind or size of metal cutting tool, and about 1/3 have cutting tools in them already. These tool holders are 2 1/2 inches in diameter and weigh an avg of 6 lbs. ea. All milling machines require a certain kind of tool holder, different type for each different basic type of mill. One shown is a common “Jacobs” drill chuck to hold various sizes of drill bits (lower right, holding drill bit.) I didn’t want to kill a whole day picking up the stuff so a member of our machinist’s club who travels to that town regularly agreed to get the heavy vise and tooling in exchange for a tour of my workshop. Deal.