My recent experience is a bit worse. I just purchased a pair of speaker cables on a direct sale @ Audigon. The seller was very communicative as long as I was still making up my mind. I paid the full asking price via PayPal, and he acknowledged payment receipt and said he would ship right away. This was a week ago, Despite repeated e-mails, he has failed to confirm shipment or provide a tracking in number. In fact, he has not replied to a single e-mail. There are always plausible excuses (he could be travelling, his e-mail could be down, etc), but this and a nother recent "close call" make me leery of Audiogon more and more everyday. It really does take only a few bad apples to spoil the whole barrel.
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.