ARCHIVED FORUM -- March 2012 to February 2022READ ONLY FORUM
This is the second Archived Forum which was active between 1st March 2012 and 23rd February 2022
So I recently tried to sell my Beogram 5005 on eBay. I had it listed with a buy it now price, and (stupidly) I allowed offers to be made also. This person comes along, and sends me multiple low ball offers like $100 below my asking price. In their offer, it constantly says how they can't afford the Beogram and then have to go buy a cartridge for it as well. Lucky for me, I had it set so that extreme low ball offers like that would just automatically decline, but they kept going till that auto decline limit was hit, making the lowest offer that eBay would send through to me.
I then noticed all the previous low ball offers (at least 5 of them), and made a reasonable counter offer. They declined and once again re sent the lowest offer that eBay would send through, saying that a new cart was expensive and that it was just too much for them. Not my problem, though trying to be the nice person, I informed them that Sound-Smith had the SMMC4 for $199 plus shipping. Cheaper than the $250 that they were previously complaining about. At that point, they decided to try and make another offer on it, the same price that I had previously counter offered with. However, eBay must have seen all this activity, and didn't allow the offer to go through.
So once again, I get a message from this person, asking why they can't make the previous counter offer. At this point, I was thoroughly annoyed with them, and just didn't respond. It's obvious they weren't worth my time.
A few days latter, they hopped on someone else account. Once again making the lowest offer that eBay would send to me. I knew it was the same person since when the offer comes in, eBay tells me the city that the item would be sent to, and it was the exact same place, just a different account.
I should have just declined. It would have been the right thing to do, but wanting to sell the Beogram, I decided to re make the previously agree'd upon counter offer. So I sent it, they accepted. I shipped out the Beogram...
I had this thing packed well. Platter removed, transport screws set, even the spindle was removed and the belt in a nice little bag. I put felt between the dust cover and the plinth so that it wouldn't rattle and leave marks. I had it in a nice protective liner, surrounded by air bags, and inside a Sterlite plastic container, surrounded by a cardboard box. The tone arm was even braced and surrounded with felt. I really couldn't have packaged it any better.
After a few days, they come back:
Oh, if you were curious about the pictures that they sent back to me of the issue... Here it is:
Ebay used to be a good place to sell stuff, but with more and more people not paying after buying or complaining about "not new" items I try to avoid it the best I can.
But it is still the biggest platform out there.
Feel sorry for you about the bad experience but on the other hand as a buyer I would not accept to work an a "working unit"... I bought a Beogram 7000 that arrived not working, sent it back and the seller "repaired" the item. We agreed on postage to send it back was on me. But this was within Germay, so postage was low...
I sold some Beograms the last years that arrived just fine (box in a box, plattter removed etc. etc.).What I do is make a video of it running and take photos of the packing process so buyer (and insurance company!) can/could see it was handled with care.
In Germany you as the person that sent the item is responsible for insurance claims because you have a "contract" with courier....don't waste much time on this because it is not documented good enough and done in time it will be difficult.
Would the seller accept a price reduction? That is the way I'd go - to avoid all the hassle.Second best - for me - would be to take it back and sell it as defect....Sometimes it is better to accept little bad stuff happening than to keep on wasting time with it ;-)
All the best for you - hopefully you will find a solution.
Have a nice week-end!
Ralf
Living Room: Beosystem 4, Beolab 7-2 (Center), Beolab 9 (Fronts), Beolab 8000 (Rears), no Subwoofer. Screen: Sony KD-85XH9096Dining Room: Beosound Essence MK II with Beolab 4000 on stands, fed by Amazon Echo Show 8Home Cinema: Beosystem 4, Beolab 7-4 (Center), Beolab 1 (Fronts), Beolab 4000 (Rears). Projector: Sony VPL-HW55Home Office: Beosystem 3, Beolab 7-4, Beolab 5000, Screen: Sony KD-55XH9005 on Beovision 7-40 stand, ML to Beosound 9000 MK3 and Beosound 5/Beomaster 5 (1 TB SSD version)Bedroom: Sony KD-65XH9077, Beosound Essence MK II with Beolab 6002 and Beolab 11 (all white, wall-mounted)
In storage: Beolab 5000/Beomaster 5000 (1960s).
Sorry to hear your sad ebay story. Hope it will have a good end.As there are too many too bad people on ebay that don't care selling you broken items or scam you, you should have enough photos (especially of the serial number sticker and individual signs of usage) to identify YOUR unit. There are people who buy your product, claim that it's broken / defective and send you back their broken unit, not YOUR unit. That's the one they keep...ebay doesn't care, Paypal neither... that's why Paypal is avoided, too, when I'm selling.
The people doing bad practices on e-bay should immediately be "punished" with a bad rating. As such their percentage drops and is a sign for future buyers and sellers. Good luck with your case, but it surely doesn't sound good...