A new Member Speaks: My Polk HT Saga

cscsDanny

Ok, so some of you folks may remember my posting just less than a week ago pertaining to the rt55i vs rt600i. I thank all of you again for your feedback, but I was putting the cart before the horse. At the time of that posting I was waiting on a purchase facilitated through E-bay to come. Gentlemen, no doubt many of you would spout all glory to E-bay, I however have learned my individual lesson.

I had purchased as advertised a pair of "brand new rti600" Polk speakers they were advertised for under $400 and were "only opened for testing". The vendor ALLcomm USA had a number of positive feedbacks so despite my better judgment for buying high-end items sight unseen I bought them.

What I received from Allcomm was a pair of battered rt600i speakers that looked like they had been shipped cross-country in vehicles that were involved in roll over collisions. The boxes were so badly battered and frayed that I immediately new I had been had. Sure enough upon opening, they were shipped without any protective medium. The speakers themselves had been physically damaged beyond acceptance.

The oak exterior had been chipped off in chunks on 2 locations on each speaker and both base plates were FRACTURED. Thus, FEDEX was called to return the speakers. I have yet to receive a confirming information as to my refund, but filed fraud papers with my bank. I'll keep you all abreast on what transpires. Needless to say, this white boy be sticking with Circuit City for ever!

The day after my speaker disaster, I decided to console myself and torture myself by taking a trip to circuit city. I wanted to gaze at the speakers that might have been and possibly induldge myself in fantasy at the thought of owning a more ballsy pair. I pretty much new what to expect. CC's display room was littered with new Model Polk's. I hadn't seen any older black label rt series in quite a while, at least not locally.

I passed the time walking around the ENTIRE store, not just the speaker and receiver area and to my suprise to my unexpected delight there THEY WERE!


All I saw for a momment were these impressive monolith black oak towers and a neatly displayed tag atop $276 each "SALE". Done, In my mind the transaction was already over. Even though I am still 400$ in the hole, my youthful ignorance and zealous financial imprudence over road any practical sense I might have to wait to see if my loss was refunded before I embark on another high $ purchase.

I however, wasn't done because I had brought in my truck my excellent cs175 center. A fantasticly preserved model with excellent highs and mids, but not timber matched to my rt55i's. This center would obviously not due with this combo of fronts and surrounds.

What was I to do? I’ve seemingly seen my local CC product line up. All they had was a new csi30 center. I’m a college student and can't afford big money retail. HOWEVER, my spider sense took hold of me and I continued to glance around and sure enough right behind me was a display CS400i. All I thought was holy **** this speaker is huge and how silly is it going to look atop 27" TV.

Those worried were quickly thrown aside, when I saw the asking price of $238! WHOOOHOOOO, I REJOICED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now its all said and done, with trade in of my cs175 I received the rt1000i's for 238$ a piece and the cs400i for $108.

Frank Z

That Sucks!! Hope you're able to get your money back without too many problems.

Good luck.

faster100

My long experiance with e-bay buying and selling has been for the most part fruitful, a few problems all from customers. But did you consider this was the work on the shipping service, be it UPS or fed ex?? I bought some bookshelf speakers and they arrived with the tweeters knocked out of the cabs.. Oh thats right you said they had no foam or styro-foam supporting the speakers?? thats crazy and i understand your grief.. But this is yet a small very small part of e-bay and i can atest to 3 1/2 years and about 550 transactions combined myself that this doesnt happen that much. you did refuse them right?? when you seen the boxes battered all to heck, even if ups left them on your door step . if the boxes are beat to hell you can call them to pick them up and refuse them if you havent opened them up... call the shipping company they will help...

Emlyn

Sorry to hear about your misfortune with an Ebay seller, but glad to hear about the Circuit City experience. I've bought all of my speakers from Circuit City, and have traded some in there. I noticed the RT1000is I traded for the RTi150s on sale a couple of weeks later and thought about buying them for a similar knock-down price. Be sure to ding Allcomm with a scathing review on Ebay. You should be able to get your money back. I have heard of many good buying experiences through Ebay, but some horror stories as well. As far as Circuit City goes, they may have some uninformed sales people and a less than adequate demo room layout, but their customer service is outstanding if you have problems and you can buy open-boxed items there sight-seen and return them without hassle if you find they're not what you expected in your listening room. I have made some internet purchases of a/v equipment, but prefer using local dealers for any big-ticket items. By the way, you've got a great set-up for a bargain price. I had the same configuration a couple of years ago.

Tour2ma

Originally posted by faster100
you did refuse them right?? when you seen the boxes battered all to heck, even if ups left them on your door step . if the boxes are beat to hell you can call them to pick them up and refuse them if you havent opened them up... call the shipping company they will help...

Nice piece of advise Faster. My first instinct would be to open… now I’ll know better.

As an e-bay novice (4 purchases - 1 completed delivery) so far I'm 1:1 with an outstanding first completed transaction with "music-room", but I'll be on guard. So far I'm a CC or PayPal only bidder/ buyer. Pretty sure my CC Company would stand by me in Danny's situation, but maybe not. I'll ask...

Maybe we should start threads of positive and negative e-bay seller and/or buyer experiences in the Club. May be able to share more here than we can in e-bay feedback. For example one of my outstanding deals was my first, a Buy-It-Now subwoofer back in mid-Dec. Piss poor communication from the get-go and I'm still awaiting word of shipment let alone delivery. (Seller did not have the item "in-stock", a good way to manage cash flow, but at least seller has not posted to CC yet). But will I be able to be honest in my e-bay feedback? No.... Why? Cause it's one of those "not authorized dealer... warranty will be through seller" deals. All I'm wondering now is, if his sales service is this bad, what will his warranty service be like? If I continue with the deal and give him the feedback he deserves, I think I for sure know the answer to my last question. But I will stick with him a while longer because deal is a near 50% discount on a top of the line piece of equipment.

Danny, let me add my best wishes that you get your refund, and thanks for sharing.

dthomps

Hey Danny-
Thats awesome about your new speakers. Thats exactly what you needed to go with the rt55i's. It must be one really killer setup. Thats a real bummer about Ebay, I havent had anything go wrong yet.. I was wary though about buying my amp for my bass guitar, at $500 bucks it sure feels like a gamble sometimes. I hope you thoroughly enjoy your Polks. Mike

BTW- Did you get my im through AOL? My name is surfbum072

goingganzo

i have had i pursace on ebay it was good but took almost a month for usps to ship the goods.

Tour2ma

Probably just took the sender a long time to lick all the stamps...