Egg-shaped Meinl

[Roka]

Hi all, I've just received my MEINL Conga (fiberglass) bought from French e-bay and oooops ! it's egg-shaped. The rim (traditional) too.
Very sad.
Is it possible to repair it ? Maybe I could find a person who could bring rim and skin ring back to round shape, but what about fiberglass drum ?
Have you had any experience with that ?

[Derbeno]

If possible send it back and get a refund. Looks like they have been dishonest if the description did not explicitly state this

[thomas newton]

The ebay minefield takes another casualty.

[El Greco]

If you paid with Paypal you can find a solution but also check it out again his description.Most of the times the seller's traps are these.Their description is missing and they never use Paypal..
I had several bad issues on ebay with the same reasons and today I do not trust none if he don't use Paypal.Also if their description is missing I contact them in order to revise the description.If they don't , and they just send you info to your email then paypal don't help you at all.So..it seems something "dodge" is going on...
They must state clearly(without trap-words) the description of the certain item you want to bid .If they don't then the only solution is to ignore them.Today you can find always good offers.You just have to keep in touch and you will find what you want .The main thing is patience and always to protect yourself .
Please take some time and check well the Paypal Security Center.There many "dodge" seller's on ebay that knows very well all the traps..
If you paid without Paypal then I'm sorry but just...forget it...There is no any solution with ebay.
ebay protects you ONLY if you pay through Paypal!
I hope you can find solution soon my friend .

All The Best!

El Greco

[Roka]

The stupid thing is that I bought that drum on December (more than 60 days ago).
There were some problems with payment, as the seller didn't accepted PayPal, and I was in India that
time, so it was difficult to pay for it, but after few weeks of conversation he signed for PayPal and
I paid using PayPal.
Now, when I want to find this item in my ebay, I can not get things older that 60 days.
I can't to escalate a case, or to give the feedback. It's just too old case as I understand.
And, of course, I need to check the description before, but I can not find it ...

[Roka]

OK, I found it:

conga AA
HAUTEUR 70 CM
DIAMETRE 30 CM
PORT EN SUPLEMENT 15 EURO COLISSIMO


"AA" means MEINL logo here

And 2 pictures, where this drum looks old, but in shape.
That's all.

El Greco, how would you deal via PayPal in case like this ?

[El Greco]

Check it out the following Paypal Page and follow the instructions :

https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/websc ... on-outside

On your action you will find the "dispute console" .I don't remember well but I think you must start from there to report your issue .

I think 60 days after you don't gain anything as 60 days are value till the end of the dispute .

My recommendations for you and for all of us is to discuss first with the members of the Congaplace if we are interested to buy anything .This is the Best Place to find all the aswers we want for .

Roka my friend...If you win the case or not it doesn't matter so much now..
Everyday we learn something more.As Derbeno said : Looks like they have been dishonest ..He's right Derbeno ! Let's learn from them and ingore them and protect ourselves from them as well .They will continue to live with the same way as they grow up with this mendality ..

I hope I helped you as much as I can and I wish for you in the future to share with all of us your forthcoming beauties..


Sigue Buscando La Timba Mi Hermano !

El Greco

[Roka]

PART 2:

As too much time has passed since I won this drum, I was not able to issue e-bay claim,
but it was OK with PayPal claim, but the final answer wasn't satisfying:
"As stated in our User Agreement, the claims process only applies to the shipment of goods.
It does not apply to complaints about the attributes or quality of goods received.
Therefore, we are unable to reverse this transaction or issue a refund."

OK, it's mine now. So the secong question follows: Has anyone ever repaired fiber conga which had egg-shape head ?

I actually thought fiber drums lasts forever ...

[SalseroBoricua71]

*

[Omelenko1]

Have a craftsman put an "alma" inside the conga. Then put a new skin on it, when is dried and you start tunning it, the out of round (egg shape) condition will eventually disappear. All congas shoul have "almas" in them, this prevents congas going egg shape.

Saludos,

Dario

[No.2-1820]

Hey Dario, where do you place the alma initially ? I have a valje quinto slightly out of round that i'm preparing to reskin, I'd love to try this and correct it. I thinking I wouldn't be able to get the alma all the way up precisely because of the out of round condition, do you place it as high as poss and then move it up as roundness returns ?

Cheers, barrie

[OLSONGO]

Roka on the fiber glass conga , put the alma = 3/8 ths in thickness, you may have to wrap it in more fiber, some pics can be helpful.
No 2. On the Valje, wet the top 24 hrs. then push the alma to about 1/4 " inch from the top. Then do as Dario said new skin etc....

Paz
Olsongo

[Roka]

Hi again, here comes photos. Actually it was not so easy to catch the defect with camera.
The conga looks more poor in reality

And I didn't manage to photo cracs on the top of the drum. There are 2 cracs almost
against each other on the edge of the conga.
Is it worth to work with this drum even if it's possible to repair?

[burke]

I've asked this before but I'll ask again. How do you get an alma in drum? If its solid metal band its got to be smaller than the hole (which defeats the purpose) to go in. The only thing I can think of is
A. Its not solid [there is a cut in it] or
B.Its flexible enough metal to bend going in and spring back once inside or
c. ?

[KING CONGA]

Hi Roka. Typically an alma is installed at the time of construction, when the drum is round and the fit is fairly tight as it should be in order to keep the roundness. Since your drum is aready out of round you are going to have to perform this in steps, think of it as braces for teeth, you continue to adjust until they are in place. In your case you would have to have a custom made "alma like" ring that can be periodically adjusted in due time the roundness of your drum should improve.