Purchase breaks well within 30 days


Hi,

I purchased a $3750 dac used from a member and within a few weeks one of the two channels stopped working inexplicably.

The dac is under warranty but because the authorized repair shop recommends the entire dac board to be replaced it may take 4-6 month to get the part as the manufacturer is way behind because of covid and has limited capacity to manufacture things.  At minimum will be 3 months.

I would think
If repair estimated to be free and within 60 days or so the buyer should just be patient and not ask for refund.

But if a very lengthy repair timeline I am of the mind that a refund is appropriate but wanted input of others.

For sake of discussion lets assume seller had no idea there was problem and buyer did not contribute to problem

Thoughts?
atwatervillagelawyer
it's difficult because the problem is the manufacturers inability to do timely repairs, and probably everyone involved acted in good faith, but these are difficult times...
atwatervillagelawyer
I guess you guys think the deal part of buying it used means you lucky it works at all.
No on here has suggested that at all. There seems to be universal agreement that if the item hadn't worked properly when you first received it, then a refund would have been in order.
I will focus purchases from dealers especially now going forward as the prevailing sentiment here seems to be that you got a deal so you lucky it works at all ...
That's your sentiment, not the prevailing sentiment. It probably is best for you to work with dealers in the future, though. It's a dealer's job to work with customers who have an issue.
I have been hesitant to buy used components because of experiences I have had that are simiar to the OP’s.

Bought an expensive amp - it worked for 2 hours and then began to buzz loudly through one speaker. Bought a power conditioner - its built in circuit breaker kept tripping soon after I bought it. Bought a universal disc player - it would not play hybrid SACD’s.

In each of these cases, I suspect the seller knew something was wrong and did not make full disclosure of the history and condition of the unit that they were selling. They offloaded their problems to a sucker, who happened to be me. But I understood that I was buying "as-is."

Buying used can cost less, but because of my poor experiences buying used, most of my system now consists of stuff that I have bought new, demo, or from a respected dealer.

The exception is my speakers, which are kind of rare and something I really wanted. I vetted the seller really well and crossed my fingers, and it worked out. But vetting did not work for the amp that buzzed - I bought it around the same time that I bought my speakers, from a seller who had 100 percent positive feedback and thousands of posts. His ad said nothing of the repair history of the amp - I learned after buying the amp and deducing from some of his posts that it had been to the repair shop many times. Live and learn.

Fortunately, the manufacturer stepped up in the first two cases. I bought a Square Trade warranty for the disc player. Shout out to Nick Doshi who fixed my amp for free, and to PS Audio for offering a brand new power conditioner for 50% off, and to Square Trade for a hassle free experience in getting my disc player repaired.