Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I ordered a Big Berkey through Amazon in September 2017. The description said "Sold by: Amazon.com Services, Inc $208.11 Condition: Used - Very Good - Item has no cosmetic scratches or blemishes. Item has no cracks or dents. Item will come repackaged." The Berkey arrived with a small dent in the body, which I decided I could live with. Then when I put it together, I discovered that the black plastic wingnuts were both stripped. Buying new ones online was pretty expensive ($30 for a replacement parts kit), and I read a link that said you could secure the wingnuts with plumber's tape. So I did that, and it seemed to work. In retrospect, I should have AT LEAST complained to Amazon when I discovered the dent and the stripped wingnuts... but I thought they'd make me send the whole thing back, which would be difficult as I don't have a car. The other thing I should ABSOLUTELY have done, which I didn't, was the red food color test. The Berkey black filters are able to filter out red dye 40 and 3 (but not other colors, and not natural dyes); when a unit is assembled and red food color is added to the top chamber water, it's a way of telling whether the system is filtering properly. I didn't have enough red food color available (at that time, it said it needed a tablespoon/gallon!), so I just sort of assumed (again, stupidly) that it was working, and went ahead and used it. It seemed to work. How was I to know? Then this past week, I finally got around to doing the red food coloring test, following a cleaning and repriming. .. and BOTH filters failed. The water came through red, even after I got new wing nuts, and had my husband tighten them (they're supposed to be finger-tight, not pliers-tight, which is probably how the ones that came with it got stripped, by whoever had it before me). I also noticed that both filters had some scratches and minor chipping at the top, which was certainly nothing I'd done. Lesson: IF you are so foolish as to buy a used Berkey from Amazon.com Services, inc (or anybody else, for that matter), make sure to run the red food color test RIGHT AWAY, and hope they will honor your 30-day warranty. I now have no recourse but to go to Berkey and buy new filters for $120, and hope they work. At least if I buy them from Berkey, they come with a warranty! But I"m just sick to think that for the past year and a half, I've been carefully NOT filtering our tap water... and running it past plumber's tape, as well! :(