M Fig

I pulled the alpine stereo out of my 996 and replaced it with a Sony that has blue-tooth. Now my iphone syncs up...nice system. Anyway, i sold my old alpine on ebay. All went well, left positive feedback for buyer and he left positive feedback for me. Then I received this today:

I have not responded to him yet. It is worth noting that I would never try to scam anyone. When I took the unit out, it worked fine. I only got $80ish for it so it's more of a principal thing. Part of me says I should offer him some money back but if I do how much? Part of me says how do I know he is not trying to scam me? As he said, he hooked it up, it worked fine and now a few weeks later it is skipping. What do you think...should I offer him a refund?

thanks,

mark

Mother

When I purchase anything off ebay I treat it as "MY OWN RISK" unless they offer a return policy. He or shop could have damaged it but will never know for sure.

flash80

You would have to be quite a diabolical mastermind if you could send a stereo that would work for a couple weeks and then die. His wording is pretty confrontational and I'd be offended (but maybe I'm sensitive).

Obviously, you're trying to do the right thing. If it's skipping, he may just need to clean the head. Is it still under warranty? If so, I'd suggest that he take it to an Alpine service center. All else fails, I'd probably split the cost and have him ship the unit back (i.e. give him $40 back)--I think that this is MORE than fair. Honestly, you don't owe him anything, he could have broken it himself. I think it is implicit in any eBay transaction that goods are sold AS IS. Good luck resolving this.

M Fig

thanks for the replys...and I didn't like his tone in that last sentence either...

Maybe I will email him back and ask what he thinks I should do?


One thought I had is that if it was a Rennlister, I would offer him a full refund no questions asked...why should I not do the same for someone on ebay?...


Hum...

rountreed

Post a link to the ebay sold item where we can read what you said then we could probably provide a better response. If it said in working condition and sold as is then sorry it is his, however if it was me I would tell him to remove it and return to you postage paid and you will return his $80. In doing this it would require for this truly to be a big deal to him requiring some out of pocket money and lost time.

M Fig

ebay item # 300211523412

As I took another look at the ad, it says there is a 7 day return policy. He bought it two weeks ago so we are past that.

I think you make a good point about taking it out and sending it back and I think could refund his money. At least I know he is not just trying to scam me.

M Fig

It's funny...I actually never noticed the 7 day return policy. I guess Ebay automatically adds that to the ad? Again, since it was in perfect working order, I would have done a 7 day return policy anyway.

speedcat

Some older cd players do not handle 'burnt' cds very well, and some burnt cds are better quality than others. Will it play a good old-fashioned store-bought cd?

I believe that if the buyer received the goods in the condition advertised (ie. working order), then the transaction is complete. What happens after that shouldn't be your responsibility, unless you provided some specific warranty/guarantee as part of the sale. Good luck with this touchy situation.

chsu74

Sometimes if the cd player gets thrown around during shipping, it can affect the way it plays.

gregorycarl

Anytime someone demands something of me - when the case is not clear, I step back, and the deal would be done. If you write him and he is pleasant with you then maybe consider options.

Same type of thing happened to me when I sold my boxster a few years ago. Guy called me a month later and said the alternator was going on it, and he demanded that I pay for it. I had just completed the 60,000 mile service at 55,000 and put new tires on it before I sold it and it was in perfect condition. He used me saying it was in perfect condition to insinuate that he had a used car warranty from me...

He was extremely rude, which ended the conversation abruptly. 2 weeks later I got a 5 page hand written letter from him and how disappointed he was with me and our transaction...funny he doesn't write when he has the top down and lovin' life...

UCrazyKid

Tell him to burn his CDs at a slower rate, 24x or slower. A lot of players don't like 48X etc.the pits on the disk are not deep enough to be read in a bouncing environment.

The reality is that you owe him nothing, how you chose to deal with it is based on what you feel like you need to do. If he has it pulled, pays for return shipping and you receive it in the same condition it was a the time of sale I would give a refund.

However, by his own admission it ran fine for over a week. This is absolutely not something you could control and therefore I wouldn't feel responsible. The tone sounds like the buyer is a bit immature, personally I would understand the sale was "As Is" and chalk it up as a learning experience.

Good luck.
AA

rroobbcc

The fact that it worked fine for a few weeks says that it should no longer be your problem. Afterall, you have no idea what the shop might have done to it when it was installed. Unfortunately used electronics break, and it sucks when it happens a short time after you became the owner, but that is life. Did the guy leave you positive feedback? That usually seals the deal on most Ebay cases.

estsn.com

Skipping on burnt CDs is very common with older CD players - doubly true for car stereos. There's a bunch of reasons for this:

• Actual imprint on burnt CDs is very shallow - commercial CDs are stamped and will last a lot longer and play more reliably.
• CDs with light shiny surfaces read more poorly than ones with dark dyed surfaces
• The tracking mechanism on the stereo might need cleaning.
• Single laser instead of 3 laser causes poor reading of tracks - skips easily.
• Memory buffer - the shorter it is the more often the cd will skip
• His suspension might be incredibly harsh

All of these can separately or in combination cause skipping. It also depends what kind of skipping. Skipping followed by a moment of silence is buffer/vibration etc. - skipping followed by repeating or moving to a different part of the song is laser/crappy cd/tracking etc.

In the case of crappy cd skipping burning at the slowest rate possible might help.

ArneeA

You also have to make sure (somehow) that the unit that he's sending back is the SAME UNIT that you sold him. Maybe he's just trying to "fix" an old unit that he already has.

billh1963

You've fulfilled your obligation. As other posters have said...move on.