My wife has over 500 transactions on Ebay (both buying and selling) and has only had a problem with four or five auctions. All problems were resolved except two. My wife excells at clear communication. I have made three purchases at Audiogon (attempted four) and the three went very well. The fourth involved strange emails from the seller that gave the impression that they were either in the process of suffering a major stroke or in the middle of a major binge "on something". I did not continue further at that point and it was not a big deal. I recently made a local purchase of speakers that arrived home broken and following that were ill repaired by the dealer. It turns out that the US importer (also local) supplied the dealer with a pair of the speakers that were from a defective batch. They were known to be defective (by the importers own admission and post at AA) prior to them being supplied to me. I was supposed to be purchasing the speakers from a new shipment that had been updated at the mannufacturer and by his own admission in an email to me the importer substituted this pair to the dealer. Both the dealer and the importer have refused at this point to replace the speakers and have only offered to perform the updates here. I was originally going to go for this, but have since decided that I should receive what I paid for and not a pair of "doctored" speakers. It is still up in the air. So I guess you could say that I received a royal ass reaming in a person to person sale. I would prefer not to post all of the emails and documentaion on the web as the story may gernerate a negative opinion of the manufacturer and my dissatisfaction is really with the importer. But, of course I will do just that if the situation is not corrected. I have also contacted the manufacturer and am waiting to hear back from them. I have discussed the matter with my attourney and am not concerned about getting my money back, but would rather have the factory modified speakers instead as that was the whole purpose of the purchase.
Buyer Beware!
Man, I'm pissed! What about sellers that post over $6000 in analog gear then they don't return any email answers for 2 days. Then you find after your 4th email the seller has deleted the item. He answered the 5th email in which I asked for an explanation with "when I checked my email this morning I had 50 emails on the _____ and I sold it to the first email which I thought was fair and deleted the listing since it was sold" This item was posted for sale at approximately 50 % of retail at around 11pm est this past Wednesday evening and I emailled immediately with a message I would pay his asking price. He didn't answer until after his deletion with his lame reply. I feel as though someone's full of sh*t. I can't leave negative feedback as there was no transaction per se. So buyers beware of first time sellers here. And check them for feedback or lack of. I've been a member of this community for about 6 months and really like buying and selling here. I also enjoy the boards. Maybe the Powers that Be here could create a new class of sellers here. Like something along the lines of a Verifed Seller or denote on posted ads that the individual is a first time seller. I apologize for blowing off steam, but I still think I've been lied to by someone who still has other gear posted here for sale.