Chrono Art - Barry Gamble Ripped-Off by Barry Gamble and Chrono Art! Cotati CA

Here is the email that I sent to Barry Gamble, owner of Chrono Art, from whom I purchased three (3) expensive clocks. Gamble is a manufacturer of clocks that have a retro design such as the Aurora clock.

Dear Barry Gamble,

Our agreement was that I would send in my Prisma TL clock to have the motor bearings replaced and that you would not charge me anything for the parts and labor, and that the only shipping charge that I would be responsible for would be my cost to ship the clock to you. I shipped my clock to you via USPS Priority Mail insured and it was signed for by Barry Gamble.   After not hearing anything from you for a few days after my clock had been received by you, I called to inquire as to its repair status. You then advised that the high-pitched, squealing sound the clock was making was definitely the motor bearings when you heard it making noise over the phone, yet you mentioned that the clock wasn’t making any noise while it sat on your shelf in your repair facility. We agreed to allow it to sit a few more days.

I then called you again and you mentioned that it still didn’t make any sounds so we agreed that you would just go with your initial plan to just replace the motor bearings, since I spent $50 to ship it to you and it wasn’t worth risking that you would ship its back to me, only to have it start making the noise again. It was at this point that our dispute began. You had a sudden memory lapse as to our agreement and told me that I would need to pay you for the motor bearings, labor, and return shipping, which was NOT what we originally had agreed.

Your lame excuse for not honoring our agreement was that you might have misunderstood me and thought that I said that I purchased the clock from you recently. You had every opportunity to check your records PRIOR to my shipping the clock at such a great expense, and it would’ve been different had you advise me that you were not going to repair the clock and return it to me free of charge.

You told me that the only way that I would get my clock back was to pay you for the return shipping of $41.50 (again, our original agreement was that I would only pay for shipping the clock to you) in advance. You basically extorted me into giving you my credit card information or else I would never again see my precious and very expensive ($579) clock. I had no choice but to provide you with my cc info.   I then saw that you charged my credit card the amount of $125.50 against my wishes, and emailed me a receipt for the parts, labor and return shipping costs.   The clock arrived today and is all scratched-up on its lens, case, and rear cover, as though whomever worked on it didn’t give a d**n about its condition and failed to take the proper measures to ensure that my clock not be scratched or damaged in at all.   As you have REFUSED to honor my request to either replace the damaged components or the entire clock with a new one, I demand that you refund the amount of $125.50 that you charged my credit card contrary top our agreement. Failure to do so will result in my disputing the repair charge and filing a complaint against your company with the BBB and on RipoffReport.com.