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buyer beware do not buy from this seller

i have been become extremely frustrated with a seller on Augiogon that goes by Robert from NY (with address of bobsprit(at)aol(dot)com and number of 7187577114) so i decided to post my experience here. he sold me a defective Rega DAC, which I paid $700. after i received it and discovered that it was defective (static popping sounds), he offered me a replacement as he claimed that it was still under warranty. he seemed like a reasonable guy over the phone so i trusted him and sent it back to him in September 2012. since then, he has been avoiding my phone calls and have not replied to my emails. the few times that he has answered my phone calls, he gives bogus excuses, such as that he forgot to send it, and claims he will send it in next few days. he even offers that if the DAC still has issues that he will refund me the money. i have yet to see an email from him that the DAC has been sent. it's obvious that he has no intention on sending a replacement.

i have sold and bought many items over the internet, mostly on ebay, and have had no issues such as this so far. i have always treated my buyers with respect and disclosed any defects in any of the items i sell and i expect the same from others. it's sellers like this that ruin the online community. Robert, you sold your integrity and honesty for $700. karma does exist..you'll see.
woo999
bis188
6 posts
 
Audiogon never reply to my last request for assistant .... :-(
Just need to be careful out there .... But how ? Craigslist use to be very good, now is just full of bad people looking for opportunity ....
oldstyle
3 posts
 
Feedback sometimes means nothing... sellers can not leave feedback on Ebay if a Buyer stiffs them... only buyers can... rule I learned from a buddy who got burned... trust no-one, check everything right away, file a dispute with Paypal, EBay, Audiogon whoever, right away, and let your Credit Card company know.. Some people figure you are just number on the other side of the country... couldn't care less if you were screwed... they will  block you, threaten you, anything to get you to stop... but like someone said... "karma is a b*tich..." sooner or later, they will get theirs.  
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,055 posts
 
Speaking of PayPal, I don't support their business model or their assertions of fraud protection that are patently unsupportable.  

Do your homework, if something doesn't feel right, walk away from the deal.  Saving few hundreds, IMO not worth the aggravation.  
tjassoc
258 posts
 
A simple method to resolve this is to use your credit card when funding PayPal.
I've had a dispute using PayPal and their process (several years ago) offered no refund if the seller was found guilty (this for an expensive new motorcycle exhaust system) which was never delivered (Canada seller on eBay). I had to specifically ask questions to the PayPal agent to confirm their policy.
After learning no refund would be issued, I stopped wasting my time dealing with PayPal and contacted my credit card company. They have a buyer protection policy for none delivered items and immediately refunded my charge and I left PayPal to deal with it.
One phone call and faxing several papers to my credit card company was all it took. Regarding PayPal, don't be fooled into thinking PayPal offers buyer protection. While they offer buyer support, they do not offer refunds for fraudulent transactions.

zephyr24069's avatar
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zephyr24069
1,241 posts
 
Altogether too often these days, small 'rings' of userIDs seem to pop up with a low number of positive feedbacks each. In the old system, you could see the userID in full.  Looking carefully, the 3 or 4 userIDs seem to work together and buy-sell from each other some music, or components and bolster each others positive feedback.  At times and in one specific case I have experienced, it is only 1 or 2 people, all working from the same IP address(es) to put the setup in place.  Audiogon will not legaclly pursue a fraudulent seller in my experience, or lend a user help to do so either but they will ban a user or an ad in relatively short order. The problem is the users come back with different userIDs, some even tied to the same or similar information and location a short while or up to a year later and start the ring all over again, sometimes using the exact same pictures and items descriptions they stole from somewhere else a year before to defraud other users.....unfortunately this is altogether too real on this forum and people have gotten burned.
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