Just as bad is the seller who leaves out some important tid-bit about the equipment. For example the heavy (not sure if HE was heavy, but his habit sure was) cigar smoker who sold me his Magnepan MG 1.6/QRs. Like it never occurred to him that some (most) people would find this unacceptable and certainly reduces the value of the equipment that was otherwise in "mint" condition.
How about the guy who sold an amp that had a broken handle on the front. At first, I thought that maybe it was a result of UPS not being careful, but later found that the broken piece of the bolt was nowhere in the box. Obviously, it was like this before it was sold, packed and shipped.
Fortunately, none of my experiences have been catastrophic, but certainly the sellers could have done a better job of disclosure.
On one occasion, I sold an amp to a gentleman which worked fine, but had a few cosmetic flaws (all of which were disclosed prior to sale) including some fading on the heat sinks. In this case, it was a local sale, so the buyer even had a chance to check everything out before buying. I checked back with him a few weeks after the sale to make sure that everything was working fine and it was. Great! Well....4 months later, I get an email from him stating that the reason for the heat sinks being discolored was because the amp was out of bias and it cost him $35 to get it fixed. He requested that I pay for the repair since it was like that when I sold it to him. For additional perspective...I should mention that the selling price of the amp was only $295! So, compared to the selling price, that's a pretty significant percentage of the original sale to ask for. Under the opinion of "what goes around comes around" I willingly mailed off a check the next day.
Of course, there was (is) another deal that I'm still working out where the seller reported the condition as 10/10 and what arrived would be lucky to receive a 5/10!
Bottom line is that it's virtually impossible to buy, sell and trade as frequently as many of us do w/o getting burned and buy should DEFINITELY beware.
I wish that I could say that my bad experiences were with sellers who didn't have any feedback, but that's not the case. In fact, many of my more "questionable" transactions were with sellers with LOTS of great feedback.
I think that many of us are too hesitant to call sellers to task for fear of retalliation by way of negative feedback posted back on us.
Overall, though, I find that buyers and sellers here on the 'goN are some of the most honest, trustworthy and respectable bunch of folks I've had the pleasure to deal with. Additionally, I think that the AudiogoN staff definitely has our collective best interest in mind and does an outstanding job of monitoring and investigating activity on the site.
How about the guy who sold an amp that had a broken handle on the front. At first, I thought that maybe it was a result of UPS not being careful, but later found that the broken piece of the bolt was nowhere in the box. Obviously, it was like this before it was sold, packed and shipped.
Fortunately, none of my experiences have been catastrophic, but certainly the sellers could have done a better job of disclosure.
On one occasion, I sold an amp to a gentleman which worked fine, but had a few cosmetic flaws (all of which were disclosed prior to sale) including some fading on the heat sinks. In this case, it was a local sale, so the buyer even had a chance to check everything out before buying. I checked back with him a few weeks after the sale to make sure that everything was working fine and it was. Great! Well....4 months later, I get an email from him stating that the reason for the heat sinks being discolored was because the amp was out of bias and it cost him $35 to get it fixed. He requested that I pay for the repair since it was like that when I sold it to him. For additional perspective...I should mention that the selling price of the amp was only $295! So, compared to the selling price, that's a pretty significant percentage of the original sale to ask for. Under the opinion of "what goes around comes around" I willingly mailed off a check the next day.
Of course, there was (is) another deal that I'm still working out where the seller reported the condition as 10/10 and what arrived would be lucky to receive a 5/10!
Bottom line is that it's virtually impossible to buy, sell and trade as frequently as many of us do w/o getting burned and buy should DEFINITELY beware.
I wish that I could say that my bad experiences were with sellers who didn't have any feedback, but that's not the case. In fact, many of my more "questionable" transactions were with sellers with LOTS of great feedback.
I think that many of us are too hesitant to call sellers to task for fear of retalliation by way of negative feedback posted back on us.
Overall, though, I find that buyers and sellers here on the 'goN are some of the most honest, trustworthy and respectable bunch of folks I've had the pleasure to deal with. Additionally, I think that the AudiogoN staff definitely has our collective best interest in mind and does an outstanding job of monitoring and investigating activity on the site.
