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Sellers and "Ambiguity" or "Integrity" of "item as described" descriptions on eBay

Hello all:

I posted this on a thread about speakers and fraud and eBay, but I thought it might merit its own topic:

I have a situation at the moment where I bought a subwoofer on ebay. The seller described that the subwoofer was "In perfect working condition and sounds great. It has some cosmetic wear" but neglected to mention that it was missing a cable that is not an off-the-shelf item, is unique to the system and without which the subwoofer - by the manufacturer’s own statement, does not perform "In perfect working condition". The manufacturer no longer makes the sub or the cable.

It also had a small tear in the surround, which I was not as concerned about, as I am able to repair it, but the fact of the matter is that tear was not mentioned in the listing and only shows up in his photo if you blow it up 200% and then only if you know to look for it. There is an anomaly in the image that is near the tear in the surround that suggests that someone was trying to retouch it out but did not know what they were doing and not only did a sloppy job, but missed the spot.

I am disputing the transaction. Would you consider the description fraudulent? If so, to what degree? Or am I to blame for not reading the fine print? Thank you to all beforehand for your responses.

So far, I’ve gotten one response: from mr_m273 posts05-20-2017 2:12pm
Yes. I would think so. Just for the missing cable alone. I’m quite sure this guy knew that sub needed the cable in question.
128x128unreceivedogma

Showing 8 responses by unreceivedogma

unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma OP
895 posts
 
It's a 25 foot 5 pin DIN to a mono male RCA.

It likely can be replicated, and though I am not electronically oriented, it might be something that I might even be able to do it myself, but I need a schematic.

It should not be my problem, however. It is for the seller to be transparent.
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma OP
895 posts
 
gdnrbob,  When I call eBay, I mostly get someone in the Philippines whose command of English is not the best (and their command of eBay’s rules, for what they are worth, is...?). At first, I thought that the seller simply forgot to send it with everything else, but the seller’s attitude is hostile: he claims that there are 7 other listings of the item with none selling the cable, therefore it doesn’t need one (!) but I found at least one listing that does have it, which I would buy immediately but don’t want to until I clear this up this item.

ebm, due to the death of my father, I wasn’t paying enough attention and noticed only the other day that just 15% of this guy’s eBay sales are in audio, the rest are in...golf clubs. My bad I guess. Fallback is complain to paypal, and/or complain to the state AG consumer complaint division about both eBay as well as the seller?
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma OP
895 posts
 
Been there, done that, actually. eBay is fighting me, actually. I am waiting to hear from Paypal. I have not taken the AG step yet.
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma OP
895 posts
 
Wow, this is an old thread from 7 to 12 months ago, suddenly getting picked up again.

I never paid for the item as I had bought it with Paypal credit and then withheld payment. I canceled my Paypal credit account and sent them a cease and desist letter.

I will try to provide more details later, but the short story is that the seller - from Colorado, he sells audio and golf clubs, go figure - said the item worked perfectly in 4 places in a 1,000+ word ad, he supplied links to positive reviews which was more reading, and buried in small print toward the end of the ad were the words “driver and servo only” which I didn’t even see until after I discovered on my own that the reason it may not be “performing perfectly” was that it needed a non-stock cord that he failed to provide, when I asked him if he forgot to pack it he said it didn’t need it but it most definitely did need it, and without it he could not claim that the unit “worked perfectly” because you would not even know if the servo was controlling the woofer. The guy lied and doubled down on the lie. And Ebay and Paypal took his side.

Paypal paid for the item, I plan to ship it to them since they now own it.

I bought another one from somebody closer to home. He lives in Baltimore (he designs cables for the Pentagon and says “don’t spend a lot of money on audio cable”, lol). It does “work perfectly”.
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma OP
895 posts
 
What’s confusing about the experience is that the guy had a 100% rating on over 5000 transactions. He was clearly deceptive and dishonest. 
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma OP
895 posts
 
Harold:

wow. What a rant. You sound similar to the seller I had to contend with. What do you have to hide?

I had examined the photos very closely. There was nothing that stood out as defective in the imagery. Even after the item arrived, it was real detective work to find the flaw in the image that was posted. You should not need to go into every Ebay purchase completely on the defensive. With honest sellers, you don’t. This guy had a 109% rating, I assumed he was trustworthy. It turned out that he was not, and unstable to boot.

Each person that I actually spoke to at Ebay or at Paypal was totally sympathetic to my position. And a few days after I spoke to them, I nevertheless got a negative response.

The only thing that saved this from a complete loss for me is is that I paid with Paypal credit on a 6 month no interest no payment plan. I closed the account and sent a cease and desist letter.

Hey, do you want a subwoofer? It “works perfectly!” Free! Just pay shipping!


unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma OP
895 posts
 
It is “technically” owned by Paypal. 

As a a practical matter, it is  probably gonna sit in our mech/boiler room for a very long time. 

Yes, I found another from a seller that lived a couple hours away. I drove over, auditioned it, he had a scope so I could see as well as hear how it was performing. It performed as designed and as described. It’s fine. 
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma OP
895 posts
 
Audiogon community:

Harold’s tone, syntax, grammatical style and emotional posture are suspiciously similar to the seller - a different name - that I had the unfortunate experience to contend with.

Yes, I consider the case closed, it’s been a year. I was surprised to see this thread picked up again. Maybe I should not have been. I have no intention of continuing this thread and getting entangled with another such exchange. If Harold wants to keep this thread alive, everyone should duly note.

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