DOA- do we need to redefine the 'A'?

How does the seller know what the buyer did with the unit once it arrived? Any real problems should show up in a couple of days. Beyond that the seller is held hostage by a buyer about which he knows nothing. Most people on AudiogoN are fairly honest, but I've had a buyer try to squeeze me for money back when he claimed to think he was getting something other than what the ad described. I would not want to be responsible to that buyer to fulfill his whims.

Sounds reasonable, but this could happen: You sell a CD player in New York, ship to the buyer in California, who promptly drops it on the floor while opening the shipping carton. Said CD player won't play CD's and the display doesn't work. The next day he calls and says that the CD player quit working and he wants his money back. What do you do? The seller doesn't have the resources to investigate warranty claims, and upon examination of the CD player doesn't know why it stopped working, the freight carrier is not responsible, and I doubt that AudiogoN would want any responsibility in judging the situation. And how could they anyway? And besides, once the payment is retured and the player is sent back, it could look like it was run over by a truck or worse. What it the recourse for the seller then? Perhaps this would be a good rule: When you buy something used, assume that it is not new and not in new condition. In most cases, when you buy something on AudiogoN it is from someone that you do not know. This is not like walking into a store and buying something used. This is why feedback is used to rate buyers and sellers. If you are afraid of getting a piece that might break, then don't buy it, buy it used from a shop or from someone that you know, or buy it new.

I am not a regular seller on AudiogoN, but I am a regular buyer. I have not had a problem with bad equipment being sold here. I have a number of nice, well cared for pieces. All but a couple are well past the manufacturers warranty period. If I should decide to sell one using your idea, I would have to substantially increase the price to cover myself because I have not idea if any piece of my equipment will quit today, next month, or work forever. And I have no control over what a buyer would do with it once it was in his posession and no good way to determine if the failure was caused by misuse.

Using the policy that you suggest would surely lead to more conflict, not less.

I agree it is sold "as is no warranty" especially when the buyer admits that it worked when he received it. The seller cannot be responsible for the buyers, AC power surges, dropping or mis-handleing, or improper connecting.
I would not offer any warranty past shipping damage which would be picked up by Fed-Ex, UPS etc. A element of trust is required on both parts of the seller and the buyer when doing a transaction. AudioGon has been more than accomodating in offering the "feedback" feature in this website. If the buyer is in any way doubtful about the transaction he must trust his own intuition and live and die with that. Asking the seller to guarantee the buyers intuition is an unfair expectation. Nor should the Lottery Commission return your dollar because you didn't win. In the case of AudioGon transactions buyer and sellers are taking a certian level of gamble and we as "big boys" know that going in. Let the two involved in the transaction work out any indifferences on their own and not involve a third party.

Jesus you guys I just wanted to get people's thoughts. You act as if I've petitioned Audiogon already. My point was that it might be good to define and state the warranty policy clearly. If that means 2 days, 24 hours, nothing at all, so be it. I think that would prevent some problems.

Obviously, some buyers are unclear that they should not expect the seller to help out with any after sale problems. The policy needs to be clarified.