Lessons learned - good and bad

ViperZ

All, after going through this not very positive affair with Whateverer, I just wanted to share some recent experiences that I had on Club Polk, both positive and negative. Hopefully, the negative ones will be forgotten and the lessons learned won't be. The positive ones will definitely not be forgotten, and some of them will be shining in my HT for a long time.

I am still on the fence regarding dealing with new members with low post numbers, but I am definitely willing to take a risk if I urgently need a part (like in case with Whateverer) or if the deal is really good (please don't mistake it with "too good to be true", although I have seen some amazing deals on this forum too).

Secondly, regarding shipping items to Canada.
a). We, as in Canadians, are being hit the worst with all this "NAFTA" stuff, including unfair cross-border brokerage fees by UPS, FedEx and other carriers. That's already a big problem to start with.
b). There are very few deals in Canada on good audio gear, compared to the States (of course, it makes sense if you compare population numbers, but it still plain sucks).
c). People who are not willing to ship to Canada. Why? Because it literally takes 1.5 minutes to fill out a piece of paper at the post office?? You are not paying any extra fees - the buyer usually takes care of the shipping, unless it is agreed otherwise.
d). People (like Whateverer) who are blaming shipping to Canada for damage. There is no difference between USPS and CanadaPost shipping - it's all one big network - the drivers on your side are as bad (or as good) as drivers north of the border.

Thirdly, unfortunately, I learned that if there is information missing in the post, the buyer should ask for more photos or better description. I learned that from recent purchase of RT F/X surrounds on Club Polk from another new member. Speakers arrived properly packed (thankfully!), but overall cosmetic condition was not close to the way they were described. Speakers were missing labels/serial numbers (although they are genuine Polk - I checked inside) and the seller screwed butt-ugly screws into the back walls of each speaker. Obviously, he failed to mention both in the ad, and in the follow-up PM after I notified him of this "discrepancy", he mentioned that "that's the way he got them - used and without stickers". Oh well, I'll take it as my lesson learned, since I was not careful and did not ask for better description and pictures.


Fourthly, and maybe it should have been a number one on this list. There ARE GREAT people on this forum. Being an electrical engineer, I like fixing electronisc, and considering that I cannot afford expensive gear nowdays (with new mortgage), I sometimes buy non-working stuff and fix it.
Given that, I have received THE BEST KARMA EVER (for myself) very recently. Doug (dkg999) has given me his non-working Outlaw M200, which will be driving my CS400 center as soon as I'll receive it and will get it working. Thank you thank you thank you!

E.T.

reeltrouble1

So who sold you the F/X? Did you leave any feedback for the condition?

RT1

danger boy

Whatever? never heard of this member here. sorry that this happen to you.. I agree there are some awesome people here, I hope that never changes.

dkg999

ViperZ - I shipped the Outlaw priority mail since I was out of town longer than planned and didn't get it shipped when I said I would. Hopefully it gets there soon, as I would of thought it would be there already!

cfrizz

I'm sorry you had to learn some of these lessons the hard way Viper.

This is precisely why we have the good/bad polk sellers list. I don't deal with anyone with low post counts, & no FM transactions. This is where patience really comes in handy. I'd rather wait than get burned.

What you want will eventually come up again. It might not be as fast as you'd like it to, but if you get it from a good seller here on the board, you'll know you will get precisely what was described.

heiney9

If you really feel the FX/i were misrepresented please leave appropriate feedback so some other unsuspecting member won't have to go thru the same unpleasurable experience(s) you did. It's unfortunate you had to bad deals. It happens but it still sucks.

Plus, I hate it when sellers "get away with it". Just because thats the way he got them doesn't mean he can omit certain key cosmetic issues for the next buyer. Some people are idiots.

H9

daboyz

I'm with Cathy on this one. I only work with those I feel I can trust. I've never had an issue. Luckily, most of my stuff has come from the local warehouse(Doug or DaDude;)) but I've had the pleasure to deal with many others here.

I also am one of those who had issues shipping to Canada through ignorance or unwillingness. I've shipped up there twice now with no issues. Once to Dave(phoneisbusy) and an ebay sale. So, it really isn't a problem.

ViperZ

H9, as I said, I'll take it as my fault, since there was no description whatsoever, and I jumped on a good price.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62925

Here is a picture of the back (I did remove butt-ugly screws). LOL, and now looking at this picture in detail, I noticed sticker residue - the shape looks like from the serial number stickers .


By the way, dkg999, I had a sticker from post office on my door. It's probably from you .

heiney9 wrote: »

If you really feel the FX/i were misrepresented please leave appropriate feedback so some other unsuspecting member won't have to go thru the same unpleasurable experience(s) you did. It's unfortunate you had to bad deals. It happens but it still sucks.

Plus, I hate it when sellers "get away with it". Just because thats the way he got them doesn't mean he can omit certain key cosmetic issues for the next buyer. Some people are idiots.

H9