beatcomber
AK Member
"ccrider" listed a Yamaha CR-1020 receiver in BT that was represented in the ad as "serviced," "near mint," and "beautiful-sounding."
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=599852
In a private message, he also told me that it had been cleaned inside and out. Expecting to receive a clean, trouble-free vintage item, I paid the premium price that he was asking.
When I opened the shipping carton, I immediately noticed how musty and dusty it smelled. Even more seriously, when plugging it in I immediately noticed that the meter and tuner lights were all dead. I went ahead and hooked it up, and found a number of other serious issues, which I will describe in a second.
Another AK'er in the next town conveniently had a perfectly working CR-1020 for comparison, and the two of us did a diagnostic on the one that I had received:
• The tuner dial on the left side was slightly pushed back on the left side
• FM strength was very poor; impossible to pull in a stereo signal
• Meter and dial bulbs are all burned out
• Several cabinet dings, on the lower left and upper right edges - not 'near mint' as advertised
• The power section worked fine with headphones, but the left channel became extremely weak (barely audible) when there is a speaker load
I was willing to give ccrider the benefit of the doubt and assume that the unit had been damaged in shipping. I immediately contacted him about the problems, and he responded that he was leaving on vacation and would be back in 10 days, which is kinda fishy in this age of instant communication via smart phone… but OK. I was still willing to be patient and assume that he would demonstrate some integrity.
I attempted contact several times after his supposed return, by both email and PM, and got no response, so I escalated things to a Paypal claim, which finally got a response. He had the nerve to state on his Paypal claim response that "good sound" was subjective and that I was merely attempting to return it because I "didn't like it."
The story has a happy ending… Paypal sided with me and will get my money returned (although I will have to pay $50 or so out of pocket to ship the thing back). I was also able to buy the working CR-1020 from the local AK'er who helped me evaluate the other one, and it sounds terrific.
ccrider has a number of other "serviced" items listed on BT presently, and I urge anyone considering buying his stuff to avoid or else risk being ripped off like I was.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=599852
In a private message, he also told me that it had been cleaned inside and out. Expecting to receive a clean, trouble-free vintage item, I paid the premium price that he was asking.
When I opened the shipping carton, I immediately noticed how musty and dusty it smelled. Even more seriously, when plugging it in I immediately noticed that the meter and tuner lights were all dead. I went ahead and hooked it up, and found a number of other serious issues, which I will describe in a second.
Another AK'er in the next town conveniently had a perfectly working CR-1020 for comparison, and the two of us did a diagnostic on the one that I had received:
• The tuner dial on the left side was slightly pushed back on the left side
• FM strength was very poor; impossible to pull in a stereo signal
• Meter and dial bulbs are all burned out
• Several cabinet dings, on the lower left and upper right edges - not 'near mint' as advertised
• The power section worked fine with headphones, but the left channel became extremely weak (barely audible) when there is a speaker load
I was willing to give ccrider the benefit of the doubt and assume that the unit had been damaged in shipping. I immediately contacted him about the problems, and he responded that he was leaving on vacation and would be back in 10 days, which is kinda fishy in this age of instant communication via smart phone… but OK. I was still willing to be patient and assume that he would demonstrate some integrity.
I attempted contact several times after his supposed return, by both email and PM, and got no response, so I escalated things to a Paypal claim, which finally got a response. He had the nerve to state on his Paypal claim response that "good sound" was subjective and that I was merely attempting to return it because I "didn't like it."
The story has a happy ending… Paypal sided with me and will get my money returned (although I will have to pay $50 or so out of pocket to ship the thing back). I was also able to buy the working CR-1020 from the local AK'er who helped me evaluate the other one, and it sounds terrific.
ccrider has a number of other "serviced" items listed on BT presently, and I urge anyone considering buying his stuff to avoid or else risk being ripped off like I was.
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