I had the experience of an ag dealer screwing up (not having) an already paid for order. When I told them I was going to post a negative feedback they posted a dispute (using foul language) thus freezing the feedback post. Ag found no fault (since they sent a refund--but I had wasted a USPS MO and time in replying to the dispute) and as a result ruled NO ONE could post--they won! Look at the number of dealers on ag with 1 or 2 negatives and 500 positives. Hard to believe, this is why. I resigned my membership. |
Thankfully, I have not have any money problems yet dealing with Audiogon members. The only real problems I've had is been that the items do not match the rating description.
Regarding delivery time, to all fairness, I have to say that I have sent a great number of packages using USPS. After a long learning process I found out that all what it takes is to send the package priority mail and to add a delivery confirmation notification to it. This is a 45 cents option to any package but is well worth it. The packages arrived within 2 - 3 days without any hiccups. (BTW, I'm not involved with USPS in any way, shape, or form and I do not get any money for this endorsement.) |
The first time I made a purchase from a private party on Audiogon, the kind fellow told me to wait until he supplied me with a tracking number before I send the check. It was a great first expeience, I hope everyone else he's dealt with since appreciates his trust and honesty and doesn't take advantage of it. |
I also like an "ebay way" to deal with sale or purchase transactions and so the feedback system that more accurate reveals the seller's/buyer's history.
I'm not also to judge the crowd's quality since I've done very few transactions through audiogon but ebayed a lot for sure. There were non-paying cases, sometimes I lost a track on my purchase transactions and forgot to pay but in general it's a great market media and whoever created it is a genius. As to the people you're dealing with there I had also no issue with their confidentiality or intellgence -- they all seemed to be OK and reasonable. Everything is done on ebay so far to increase the speed of transactions even including the shipping options on paypal that is owned by ebay right now. My friend won the Shevy Tahoe on ebay seing that it's more secure than go to the real street auction and he was right as he's got realy as described one-owner mint vehicle saving at least 60% from the new price.
In most of the cases the item goes best at ebay rather than audiogon and certainly more more secure. When you reed a feedback for the ebay member you can see recent transactions and see the item he/she bought/sold or at least item number and the date is displayed. On Audiogon you never know what you get or give a feedback for. |
Natalie,
Have you ever wondered if:
A) the items that you posted attracted a certain type of person or crowd ?
B) how you worded your ads left you open for quite a bit of nit-picking and / or tire-kicking ?
C) the manner in how you conducted business or responded to inquiries made people think twice about whether they wanted to do business with you ?
I bring this up as i have conducted business on both Ebay and on Audiogon many times over. I have done so on both a personal and professional level. In every way, the participants of Audiogon have been head and shoulders above the average "nitwit" that uses Ebay. This is not to say that all Ebayer's are low-lifes or that all Audiogoner's are "brain surgeons", but that if one wants to deal in specialty items, you are probably better off doing such in a specialized forum with those that can appreciate what you have to offer. Sean
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M,
As others have mentioned, I have had a number of transaction segments take longer than expected here and at ebay, for example a money order that took 13 days to reach its destination in first class mail. If the seller has good feedback from other trusted members, I would not worry. On the other hand, if you were scammed, consider registering the dispute here and notifying law enforcement at the seller's local. You probably won't see your $, but you will help shut the jerk down and possibly cause him/her some heartburn if the local police follow up with a call. |
go for it then Nat - you haven't lost a dime here & yet you're complaining? |
If any of you did the math you would find out that in terms of % there as much or more fraud on Audiogon as there is on ebay. The differnce is thta he the frauds are for huge sums of cash.I have done over 1000+ transactions on ebay with no a problem.
Yet i have been dicked around on this site over and over.
People commit to buy they dont send money.
You make a firm offer the guy accepts then changes his mind.
I will take my chances on Ebay. They protect you up |
It's sad, but there's not a whole lot you can do if the money order has been cashed. This is out and out stealing, but when you go to the post office to report mail fraud, they brush you off and are very unhelpful about any advice whatsoever (at least here in CA where I live). When you buy the money order from the USPS, they will tell you that they will prosecute people that abuse the system, but when you try to get them to follow up, it's useless.
My bad experience was with E-bay, and not with audiogon, and hopefully these slimeballs that do this kind of stuff will never find audiogon because it's so specialized to real audiophiles. My senario was a little different, but you'll have to try to go through the same processes to recover your money. My senerio was when I bought a DVD player that was advertised as "Brand new" on ebay, but when I received it, it was battered and obviously used. I went to the post office thinking that this was a blatant case of fraud and would be handled by the post office since my USPS money order was sent via USPS (with tracking), and the unit was sent by USPS as well. I figured it would be pretty simple to file a mail fraud claim, but when I got to the post office to talk to someone, I got the run-around. They basically told me that I needed to contact e-bay and there wasn't anything they could do about it. Maybe the fraud division of the USPS only deals with bigtime crooks and they just don't care about the nickel and dime stuff. Of course, ebay was very helpful and helped me take care of this matter, NOT! They made me try to get an audio video shop to justify that the unit was used. Of course, no shop wanted to get involved in any way, shape, or form. E-bay admitted that the unit was used, but still refused to give me any money because they claim that the description was not different from the actual item. So needless to say, I will never buy or sell anything on ebay again. I hope more people realize how bad ebay is and they basically just take your money, but offer no insurance or assurance against fraud whatsoever. Hopefully, there will be other places like Audiogon popping up and eventually, take a big enough share of the marketplace to force ebay to have some sort of integrity!
Good luck to you. Hopefully it's just hung up in the mail like the others suggested. |
First check to see if the money order was cashed... people do have emergencies, priorities, computer crashes, lost cell phones, etc - I wouldn't worry about the two week time span if the MO was not cashed. However, if the MO was cashed, I agree with Esun's advice of being patient (for now). |
The fact he does not respond bothers me. Try blocking your ID when you call him in case he is targeting your number. Hope it all works out. |
I recently purchased a pair of interconnects from a member in France. I was concerned about shipping delays, but was assured that five days was the norm. Well, my m.o. was received in five days via USPS and the seller said he would send the cables on 8/3. Seventeen days later no cables, no response to e-mails. They were to be sent by French postal service so there's apparently no tracking available. I'm a bit annoyed since the reasonable shipping time promised was a factor in my decision to buy.
I do live in Texas, so maybe the last leg of their journey is being made by horseback. |
First I wouldn't deny that strange things sometimes happen with the mail. I was waiting for the vinyl from FL to NY 26 days. I'm still waiting on record to get from California since July 26 as stated by seller. I sent a money order and received a negative feedback on ebay while it was traveling to the same state for more than three weeks! but than removed when the seller received it. So Sean 14 days isn't the limit yet!
Hotmail accounts can be multiple and person whether he wants or not sooner or later fughedsaboudit as well as cell phones change due to the different phones going out to the consumer and breaks on the new plans.
Maybe these two things camp up together and AudioGon has no possibility to rich since it does not register the credit card or bank account. |
Sean, funny you mention Texas! That problem package, did it come out of San Antonio? I have had nothing but problems with mail delivery to and from San Antonio! I understand that mail service there can be a nightmare! |
My impression is that there are extremely few cases of fraud here on Audiogon. At Ebay there are always all kinds of scams going but I've been using Audiogon for 3 years and have never heard of someone getting chested outright on any forum thread.
On one of my first transactions through Audiogon, I nearly panicked when I didn't receive a set of expensive speaker wires for 4 weeks! UPS said my tracking number was not valid. I thought maybe the seller had pulled a fast one on me but in fact, it turned out that UPS had completely misplaced my package in the wrong state and had somehow deleted or never entered my tracking number into their computer system.
Has it been two weeks since you sent the maney order, or two weeks since the seller shipped the unit? My advice is be patient for a little while longer. |
I went through something similar on two different occasions just recently. I had someone ( supposedly ) send a piece to me here in Chicago from Ohio. When they did reply to my emails, they kept insisting it had been sent out, but would not forward any tracking info. As it turns out, they had sent it out via USPS. It took 10 days to travel two States over. Needless to say, it was not their fault nor do i think that this is "normal" transit time.
The other situation was quite similar. This time it went from Texas to me here in Chicago. Same situation with this one too i.e. the seller was not real responsive to emails, did not forward tracking info. Once again, it was the USPS delivering the component. This one took 14 days.
Needless to say, my idea of "timely delivery" no longer includes the USPS. I know that the shippers were not pulling my leg on either account, as the post mark on the packages verified the actual date of shipment. The fact that both pieces were damaged, probably due to a massive amount of handling and less than optimum packing, did not make me any happier.
Let's hope that you are in a similar situation. In a case like this, it IS better to be late than never. Sean
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