Avoid Tubes.RS

FourT6and2

FourT6and2

Well-known member
I purchased one matched quad and one matched pair of NOS Mullard/Philips XF4 from Tubes.RS, the eastern European arm of Western Electric. They guaranteed these tubes to be matched within 2%. Once they arrived, I promptly tested them to make sure they were good before installing and biasing. One tube in the pair failed in my tester (low emission / screen current does not achieve minimum value) and one tube in the quad failed (internal leak/short / screen current above maximum).

I emailed Tubes.RS for replacement or refund. At the time, their warranty/return policy stated refunds were granted on undamaged, non-defective tubes with a restocking fee OR a full refund if tubes arrive defective, which these did.

I even attempted to bias the tubes in a few different amps, without success. The problem tubes were waaaaaaay out of their advertised 2% matching.

The response from Tubes.RS was argumentative. The owner, Dragan Nikolic, implied I didn't know what I was doing or that I was attempting to "scam" him by swapping their perfect tubes with fake Philips/Mullards and tryings to return those. He refused a refund. He refused replacement. Keep in mind I had been talking with Dragan Nikolic this entire time via his Tubes.RS email address.

I filed a credit card dispute, which was granted.

Tubes.RS then changed their warranty/refund policy on their website in response to this and had the chargeback reversed—stating I should have requested an RMA/refund (which I did!) and that I hadn't met the terms of their return policy (which they had changed AFTER the transaction dispute).

Luckily, I took screenshots of everything before they had a chance to amend their return policy.

I reached out to them again, requesting an RMA, as their response to my credit card company indicated I should do. Dragan Nikolic told me my initial RMA request was to his customer service email address and not to his "official" RMA request email address and therefore somehow... magically... didn't count. Quite a passive aggressive tactic here. And yet... it's the same one person working at Tubes.RS either way: Dragan Nikolic. He makes up new rules each time I request a refund.

I then re-opened the transaction dispute with my credit card company, supplying the before and after return policy changes.

Tubes.RS is in Serbia. They still have not provided an RMA even though they said I need to and that I need to ship the tubes back to Serbia, wait for them to test the tubes on their own equipment (only to tell me they are perfectly fine, I'm sure), and then make me pay for shipping back to the USA—even though, now, carriers can not ship to the USA due to the recent de minimis exemption expiring.

So... just posting this here as a warning to stay away from this merchant. Hopefully my credit card company sides with me for good on this one.
 
FourT6and2 said:
I purchased one matched quad and one matched pair of NOS Mullard/Philips XF4 from Tubes.RS, the eastern European arm of Western Electric. They guaranteed these tubes to be matched within 2%. Once they arrived, I promptly tested them to make sure they were good before installing and biasing. One tube in the pair failed in my tester (low emission / screen current does not achieve minimum value) and one tube in the quad failed (internal leak/short / screen current above maximum).

I emailed Tubes.RS for replacement or refund. At the time, their warranty/return policy stated refunds were granted on undamaged, non-defective tubes with a restocking fee OR a full refund if tubes arrive defective, which these did.

I even attempted to bias the tubes in a few different amps, without success. The problem tubes were waaaaaaay out of their advertised 2% matching.

The response from Tubes.RS was argumentative. The owner, Dragan Nikolic, implied I didn't know what I was doing or that I was attempting to "scam" him by swapping their perfect tubes with fake Philips/Mullards and tryings to return those. He refused a refund. He refused replacement. Keep in mind I had been talking with Dragan Nikolic this entire time via his Tubes.RS email address.

I filed a credit card dispute, which was granted.

Tubes.RS then changed their warranty/refund policy on their website in response to this and had the chargeback reversed—stating I should have requested an RMA/refund (which I did!) and that I hadn't met the terms of their return policy (which they had changed AFTER the transaction dispute).

Luckily, I took screenshots of everything before they had a chance to amend their return policy.

I reached out to them again, requesting an RMA, as their response to my credit card company indicated I should do. Dragan Nikolic told me my initial RMA request was to his customer service email address and not to his "official" RMA request email address and therefore somehow... magically... didn't count. Quite a passive aggressive tactic here. And yet... it's the same one person working at Tubes.RS either way: Dragan Nikolic. He makes up new rules each time I request a refund.

I then re-opened the transaction dispute with my credit card company, supplying the before and after return policy changes.

Tubes.RS is in Serbia. They still have not provided an RMA even though they said I need to and that I need to ship the tubes back to Serbia, wait for them to test the tubes on their own equipment (only to tell me they are perfectly fine, I'm sure), and then make me pay for shipping back to the USA—even though, now, carriers can not ship to the USA due to the recent de minimis exemption expiring.

So... just posting this here as a warning to stay away from this merchant. Hopefully my credit card company sides with me for good on this one.
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Woe. Sounds like a horrible seller. Thanks for the info.
 
Oy blyat you done fucked up Boris…. Wonder if he talked about this with his gopnik bros while squatting and eating mayonnaise sandwiches?🥪
 
U must have deep pockets.. I'd never do an overseas NOS Toob purchase..
Isn't that the dude that has an endless supply of EI ECC83's for a Kidney??
 
FourT6and2 said:
Not a lot of choices when looking for these tubes. And I called Western Electric, which is in the USA, to confirm they were a legit business. But still...
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Boy that sux 😡
I would have thought the same thing you did if WE was willing to give him a nod, maybe they don’t have reason up to this point to think otherwise..
We have the forum link, we should garner him much joy and happiness…
You guys remember the Mailman and the tranny hooker episode??

That ended well for that idiot 😂😂
 
JTyson said:
Boy that sux 😡
I would have thought the same thing you did if WE was willing to give him a nod, maybe they don’t have reason up to this point to think otherwise..
We have the forum link, we should garner him much joy and happiness…
You guys remember the Mailman and the tranny hooker episode??

That ended well for that idiot 😂😂
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Doesn't look like that forum has had much traffic in a few years. I doubt it will do any good. At this point, I'm relying on my credit card company to make the right decision here.

Tubes.RS' return policy has been rewritten to favor themselves over the customer. They state that if a tube fails or tests bad in a customer's device(s), it is meaningless because THEY must be the ones to determine if a tube is good or bad. So you send a defective tube back to them and they can say whatever they want. If they wanted to, they could take a tube that has completely lost vacuum and is white and tell you it's perfectly good, no refund. And you have no recourse.

It's like the police investigating themselves and finding no fault. It's total BS.

The tell me they tested the tubes before shipping and they were perfect. They tell me they've sold like 300-500 of these and I am somehow the first person to report a bad tube. Both claims are utter nonsense. Even if they tested the tubes and they were perfect before shipping, when they arrived to ME, the customer, they were defective.

It doesn't matter if they've sold 300+ tubes without a problem in the past. That has no bearing on the tubes that showed up at my door defective.
 
FourT6and2 said:
Doesn't look like that forum has had much traffic in a few years. I doubt it will do any good. At this point, I'm relying on my credit card company to make the right decision here.

Tubes.RS' return policy has been rewritten to favor themselves over the customer. They state that if a tube fails or tests bad in a customer's device(s), it is meaningless because THEY must be the ones to determine if a tube is good or bad. So you send a defective tube back to them and they can say whatever they want. If they wanted to, they could take a tube that has completely lost vacuum and is white and tell you it's perfectly good, no refund. And you have no recourse.

It's like the police investigating themselves and finding no fault. It's total BS.

The tell me they tested the tubes before shipping and they were perfect. They tell me they've sold like 300-500 of these and I am somehow the first person to report a bad tube. Both claims are utter nonsense. Even if they tested the tubes and they were perfect before shipping, when they arrived to ME, the customer, they were defective.

It doesn't matter if they've sold 300+ tubes without a problem in the past. That has no bearing on the tubes that showed up at my door defective.
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Agreed
And he sounds as if he would absolutely choose to do the wrong thing.
Honestly I can understand them wanting to decide if the tube was bad or not, but clearly he will make that work for him.
Once you can’t trust the guy it’s over..
Case closed
I hope the CC company takes care of you on that
 
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