Nightmare Ebay deal...

Fatbrando

So I finally got my money back and can relate my experience... :mad:

On Sept 23rd I won a H/K PA-2000 Amp. It was described as in "new condition". One week goes by. Then another, then another. The guy puts me off and puts me off and offers one excuse after another, faulty UPS numbers etc. So the item arrives over a Month later. He said part of the hold up was that he wanted to get the original box to ship it in it's "pristine condition". It came in the original box alright. It had a dirty wash cloth taped to the front display with Duct tape. Literally Gray metal duct tape, taped right to the top and bottom of the unit itself. The padding for the unit consisted of 3 phone books. I **** you not, 3 full on phone books. I couldn't believe my eyes. This guy started out chatting me up about audiophile equipment, was spouting BS about "bel canto pre-pro's and evo-6's", then promised me 5% then a 10% discount after I rode him about the shipping delay, which he never sent. Oh yeah, did I mention the product he did send, was a used, dented, dirty piece of crud without a power cord?!?

Stay away from this guy. I'm not gonna specifically say his name, but my handle on ebay is fatbrando and I paid US $162.50 for a Harman Kardon PA- 2000 4 channel amp, auction ending on Sept. 23rd. Just do a search for completed listings and there you are.

Buyer beware...!:mad:

So then I decided to just upgrade my Receiver to the H/K 3490. Long story short. The unit didn't work right when I first hooked it up, which a few of you kind fellows offered me assistance with. I brought it back to the guy who replaced it with another new one. He was a real stand up guy and renewed my faith in Ebay.

Buyer rejoice...!:p

The moral of the story is, get your SDA's first then worry about the rest of your gear...!!!!;):rolleyes::D

FB

Fatbrando

Refunded Total via paypal minus 3%. Just left him scathing negative feedback. All's well that ends well...

FB

John30_30

Lasareath wrote: »

I think you should give us the url of the auction.

Or the guy's handle. That's too far back and convoluted a search to expect people to find out who the sh1tbag is otherwise.

heiney9

Don't feel bad for outting the sh1tbag. I'd link him on everything possible on the internet. He screwed you over so the negative feedback is great but let people know who this guy is.

I've had two unpleasant E-bay purchases lately but the sellers apologized and took care of me in a very reasonable amount of time. One was a bit of a miscommunication. The other was a digital piece where the seller never used the coax only the optical and he had no idea the coax had issues. He refunded (is in the process of refunding) a good portion of my money and I'm keeping the unit.

There is risk/reward on Ebay and I'm personally OK with that, but sometimes you have to jump thru hoops.

But to receive an item like you described is absolutely not acceptable.

H9

mmadden28

What is this crap with some sellers trying to BS their way out of simply admitting fault? I have yet another bad eBay deal (working on now) that I just get the stupid response about why there was a delay or some other unbelievable reply. Packed horribly, non-working, dirty. Why are these people even in business? Do some of these sellers really think that most buyers are STUPID? WTF? How long does it take to clean something before you sell it-really? "Hey let's sell this item on ebay then go on travel for a few weeks and ignore all ebay messages-Yeah that'll make my buyers happy".

Packing with Phone books had to add to the weight and thus shipping cost of the amp. WTF?

I'm glad you at least got your money back even if minus 3%. So I guess when a PP is refunded, they don't waive the fees? Did the seller refund all shipping costs? Or did you have to recover your money via Paypal?

edbert

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230290979616

Just so the rest of us know, here is the item and the seller we should stay away from.

And this is the guy. http://myworld.ebay.com/edsouverain/

mmadden28

Last time there was some discussion on a bad ebay deal the thread got deleted. Of course many of us have no idea WHY the thread got deleted as there was no explanation, but because it did, somebody at eBay (perhaps the seller at fault?) complained and the complain made its way back. IIRC the seller signed up for a CP account and made himself look even worse trying to rebut.

While I would still look at feedback for each seller I deal with on eBay, you never get the full picture or possibly the real honest feedback-even with the new feedback system. I think ebay needs to allow more text characters for their feedback to better allow for greater details.
Personally I like seeing these threads here-to get the full deal on what happened (not because they happened) and how the resolution was worked out.

sucks2beme

Nothing like a few bad pictures to make buying easy. Hard to tell the amp's condition before shipping. I got a Yammy receiver off ebay with the starting bid($15). They shoved it into a box that was too small(sides bulging)
and no packing. You should of seen it when it got here. It was advertised as
powering up ,but not working. I was able to get it working! But I couldn't of
made it look worse beating it with a baseball bat. I ended up selling it to a guy for $10.
People are a trip. It doesn't matter what EBAY or anyone else does.
There will always be idiots.

mmadden28

sucks2beme wrote: »

Nothing like a few bad pictures to make buying easy. Hard to tell the amp's condition before shipping. ...

yeah could the pics be any worse? That sure is one way to hide imperfections
and later say 'well you saw the pictures, you knew the condition" BLAH!
But ya know if the imperfections were well spelled out and clearly seen in the picture, would result in less interest and getting money for some of them is all that matters-not that you're satisfied with it.

Kex

I'm not really a seasoned eBay buyer or seller, but I have spent over $1,000 there in the past year or so, and I find that feedback on eBay can be hard to figure out sometimes (guys with 98% positive feedback still doing bad ****). It seems that the most useful feedback is frequently the negative, not the positive, which I rarely bother to even read. Before deciding to bid, what I do is:

- Check if feedback is 98% positive or higher (but if they haven't sold much recently, just one bad sale can skew the results).
- Find all recent negative feedback, and read that to see if the problems seem legitimate (including retracted feedback).
- If necessary, contact a buyer who left negative feedback that seemed appropriate and concerning.

Those are just a few ideas, but we could make up a check list for safer buying on eBay with all the experience here at CP. It's never going to be 100% pain free on eBay, as has already been noted: "sometimes you have to jump through hoops".

DollarDave

Buy from the polk forum. I have had 100% good luck here, and 95% on ebay. That 5% sucked pretty bad to try to get resolved.

mmadden28

DaveMuell wrote: »

Buy from the polk forum. I have had 100% good luck here, and 95% on ebay. That 5% sucked pretty bad to try to get resolved.

+1 :cool:

VR3

I have never had a bad ebay dealing - in... 8 years *knocks on wood*

Fatbrando

LOL! Thanks for doing my dirty work edbert, I appreciate it. I didn't want to be held accountable for "outing" this guy. Mmadden28, shipping costs were included in refund. Which surprised me actually. And DaveMuell, I'd like to buy from Club Polk as well, so as soon as anyone has a pair of SDA's that are within driving distance in Los Angeles, I will!!!! Come on, come on...

FB

sucks2beme

Keiko wrote: »

Can we have a specific thread list for deadbeat ebay sellers? Not sure if it violates any forum rules is why I ask.

I don't think there's enough storage space on the sever for it!
The list would be endless.

edbert

No problem man. I haven't had a bad experience yet on ebay, but there is still plenty of time.

vonnie123

Audiogon is a much better place to purchase/trade audio equipment.