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Disappointing ebay purchases

Neil P

Neil P

pfm Member
I bought some speaker cables on ebay which I had been lusting after for 20 years, a good price, looked to be immaculate in the pics. Then they arrived.

Absolutely stunk of cigarette smoke. I think they'd been in a heavy smoker's lounge for the 20 years I'd been saving for them! Every connector was damaged, at least one had a strand of wire poking out from under the heat shrink.

And they were not cheap either. The seller offered a full refund, but has already relisted them!
 
Bought an old Yamaha power amp two weeks ago, for use at the office. It was surprisingly heavy and looked good, but it desperately needed a refurbishment, all potentiometers made noise and the overall sound was dreadful. I didn't know that an amp could sound that bad. Seller gave me the money back without hesitation, I binned the amp and the problem was solved.
 
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A beautiful Philips N2554 cassette deck, the best there is. The alu panel was dented at the top and of course this wasn’t visible on the photos. The deck works great and sounds fantastic.
No refund asked given the very low price, kept for parts.
 
Bought a power amp a while ago and paid good money
When it arrived the case was distorted and didn't fit at all...as if it had been dropped on the right hand side by the courier
But zero damage to the packaging?
Went back to the ebay pictures and blew them all up and looked carefully
Knowing what I was looking for I could see the amp was already damaged before sending...
No mention of this in the description

Returned at sellers cost for refund:mad:
 
Neil P said:
I bought some speaker cables on ebay which I had been lusting after for 20 years, a good price, looked to be immaculate in the pics. Then they arrived.

Absolutely stunk of cigarette smoke. I think they'd been in a heavy smoker's lounge for the 20 years I'd been saving for them! Every connector was damaged, at least one had a strand of wire poking out from under the heat shrink.

And they were not cheap either. The seller offered a full refund, but has already relisted them!
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It wasn’t from a well known s/h hifi dealer by any chance? I got a digital preamp and the volume control was actually brown with fag tar, the remote would give you cancer on its own. Should have kept a pic of the cotton buds I used to clean it.
 
Bart said:
Serves you right for not buying from a reliable site like this :D
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Neil P said:
If I put an add for "wanted: so and so speaker cables" I'd get 200 replies telling me they wouldn't make any difference, and that I should change to streaming/vinyl/valves/class D instead :D
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Ho ho! You're too harsh by exaggeration Neil. :) T.b.h., I simply can't imagine that happening here (or on the other forums). Tell me it's not true !!!:D

It's encouraging that the above instances of duff eBay purchases have been satisfactorily resolved, though. Couriers are a lottery but descriptions on eBay are what one relies on, apart from feedback.
 
TheDecameron said:
It wasn’t from a well known s/h hifi dealer by any chance? I got a digital preamp and the volume control was actually brown with fag tar, the remote would give you cancer on its own. Should have kept a pic of the cotton buds I used to clean it.
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Please DM me the name, I'm intrigued now!
 
Bart said:
Serves you right for not buying from a reliable site like this :D
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Haud yer wheest!, bought cables stank of smoke, also a chromecast that came without the plug adaptor,
both from here, taught me one thing, ask questions before you buy.
 
Not a purchase but a silly exchange over a sale. Advertised my BMW on eBay and within in an hour I got a message that said:

"You are a f****ing moron, your car is worth £5K, not even fully loaded and you think you'll get nearly double for it... what a w***er".

So I engaged him for a bit of fun and to see if he was looking for a BMW to which he replied 'No, they're shit'. I asked him why he was searching for them then as if I don't want something I don't look for it as doing so would be moronic. This resulted in more insults and him accusing me of calling him thick (which I did) and if I didn't retract the comment he was going to 'sort me out'. I blocked him.

I did however unblock him to tell him it sold for £9K :D
 
tiggers said:
Not a purchase but a silly exchange over a sale. Advertised my BMW on eBay and within in an hour I got a message that said:

"You are a f****ing moron, your car is worth £5K, not even fully loaded and you think you'll get nearly double for it... what a w***er".

So I engaged him for a bit of fun and to see if he was looking for a BMW to which he replied 'No, they're shit'. I asked him why he was searching for them then as if I don't want something I don't look for it as doing so would be moronic. This resulted in more insults and him accusing me of calling him thick (which I did) and if I didn't retract the comment he was going to 'sort me out'. I blocked him.

I did however unblock him to tell him it sold for £9K :D
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Bet it was sweet to break the news of your £9k sale,
shame you don’t have his address to send him a pack of Licorice All Sorts.:)
 
Actually my only real disappointment on eBay was a non-purchase. I bid on a pair of speakers, my bid was accepted, and I paid a deposit to secure the purchase. The next day my deposit was returned, because, the seller claimed, I hadn’t communicated with him (which I clearly had).

Still, I lost no money, just wasted quite a lot of time.
 
I guess I've had the odd stinker over the years but I tend not spend that much on Ebay items and on balance I think I've done OK for most of the 23(!) years I've been using the site.

I've learnt the hard way to be a lot more discerning buying records... "good condition for it's age" :rolleyes:

Someone did once sent me a NAD CD player lose in a huge cardboard. It wasn't quite mint by the time the courier had finished with it.
 
Alex N said:
I remember buying an amp, and before I’d even unpacked it, there was a strong smell of cigarettes. Took it out of the box, unwrapped it, turned it over on my lap to check underneath, and...

It stuck to my trousers. Which was nice.
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Sounds like my speaker cables. You could smell the parcel downstairs even if you were upstairs. And they have RELISTED it already, with still no mention of the fag smell or broken connectors. Maybe they're hoping a blind smoker will buy it.
 
I was given a yellow Russ Andrews mains cable years ago, it had a braided sheath on the cable which absolutely stank of cigarette smoke. I got a small plastic tub and sprayed the contents of two Glade air freshener cans against the inside wall of the tub so there was a pool of liquid and submerged the lead. I let it sit for a week I think, certainly removed the stench but for how long I not know as I got shot of it a few days later!

I’ve talked to more than one TV guy who back in the day would service an old crt rental by cleaning the glass, some were absolutely bogging with a thick cigarette residue! I also spoke to a van dealer years back who gave the inside of the ex Fishman vans a dusting of paint to get shot of the fish smell prior to shipping to auction. Not sure how long it lasted though but I guess that wasn’t his problem!
 
wow&flutter said:
I was given a yellow Russ Andrews mains cable years ago, it had a braided sheath on the cable which absolutely stank of cigarette smoke. I got a small plastic tub and sprayed the contents of two Glade air freshener cans against the inside wall of the tub so there was a pool of liquid and submerged the lead. I let it sit for a week I think, certainly removed the stench but for how long I not know as I got shot of it a few days later!
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In a page or two someone will post about the Russ Andrews mains cable they bought years ago that stank of Glade air freshener.... :)
 
wow&flutter said:
I was given a yellow Russ Andrews mains cable years ago, it had a braided sheath on the cable which absolutely stank of cigarette smoke. I got a small plastic tub and sprayed the contents of two Glade air freshener cans against the inside wall of the tub so there was a pool of liquid and submerged the lead. I let it sit for a week I think, certainly removed the stench but for how long I not know as I got shot of it a few days later!

I’ve talked to more than one TV guy who back in the day would service an old crt rental by cleaning the glass, some were absolutely bogging with a thick cigarette residue! I also spoke to a van dealer years back who gave the inside of the ex Fishman vans a dusting of paint to get shot of the fish smell prior to shipping to auction. Not sure how long it lasted though but I guess that wasn’t his problem!
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The problem is when intense air fresher smells are used to mask noxious odours, the latter eventually, subtly breaks through then the two guffs are linked permanently in your mind. I picked up a pool car one day and drove it for a week- it had been valeted and was reeking of air freshener then after a few hours a faint trace of something awful broke through and it seemed to be coming from the load space. I told a colleague who immediately recognised the car I was describing. She said the person who had it took her dog out in it and it was terribly car sick.:eek:
 
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