Buyer Dispute


I would like to have some opinions of a remedy for this issue:

I purchased a pair of B&W 804D3 loudspeakers through Audiogon in August 2021. They were shipped in original containers by freight. The boxes arrived damaged with some holes in the boxes, but no damage to the speakers accept for one very small spot, which could be repaired with a drop of stain. However, neither tweeter was functioning. A multimeter revealed an open circuit across both voice coils. The seller said that they worked before shipping but offered to send me replacement tweeters under the previous owner' warranty which I agreed to. However, and here is the rub; Because of supply chain issues, Bowers and Wilkins did not, and still does not have the tweeters in stock. I have been waiting 6 months for the seller to provide the replacements from B&W, but they continue to be out of stock. In short, I paid nearly $7,000 in August 2021 for speakers that I still cannot listen to.

Any opinion on a path to resolution?

 

kirbymydog

@arrowheadrss ok fine. Speakers sometimes break in transit. One or both....ok. Tweeters only....ok

 

Its all white noise. The seller owed @kirbymydog working speakers delivered to him in working order. They didnt partner up and share the repsonsibility of delivery, the seller contracted for the delivery and it is the sellers responsibility to ensure they get there operable. If he didnt accept that responsibility solely, he could have sold them as is where is and had the buyer arrange for shipping.

This conversation has some legs! There's a few dots to connect here, most have been put forth across three pages. It's not too difficult to locate the seller by his listing and to confirm what has been stated, that he was working for the only top audio outfit in his listed area authorized for B&W. Go to their website and there is his picture. Everything seems to be appropriate and reasonable until one reads the sale listing... it's awkward and misleading to me, given now known employee status. Fine, he's oblique in his role, not the original owner, his choice to portray. Let's presume the tweeters were damaged in shipping, benefit of the doubt. It can happen but lets also be real, how do all speakers travel through the supply chain, whats the actual failure rate due to shipping damage? Fragile speakers costing thousands of dollars are packed carelessly? Since the seller, being in the business would surely know of the fragility and difficulty of replacement, why wasn't better care taken? Accident waiting or already happened?? Kirbymydog has been very patient and trusting, considerate, it was his decision to accept the warranty offer, believing that it was valid. Let's hope that the seller eventually comes through as promised, AND makes some kind of restitution for all of the delays imposed, frustrations from repeated extensions to delivery, wasted time. The seller surely now knows he failed to deliver in a timely fashion, became uncooperative and its out now in the courts of public opinion here. He has had an invitation to speak to this, where is he? Not a good way to do business, poor customer service. Would any of us choose to be treated this way?

"I'm not willing to do anything else."

given  that he practically just made your life very difficult, and did close to nothing so far, he is in conman territory now. I wouldn't be surprised if he used your money to fix a previous deal gone bad

my response to what you indicated above as "His last response", would be something along the lines of ...

if you want to be a d**k about it then I believe I'll get in touch with your boss's boss's Boss (is that in the UK?) and see what he thinks we should do about it. And in case you can't tell, I'm definitely not f**king around. You don't like the nice guy approach? OK.

I would prefer for it to be friendly, but if you're not going to work with me here ... when your buddies over at corporate B&W receive a link to this thread where all of these guys can also see how I've been wronged by you. 

I'm thinking I may end up with a little sweeter deal than the one I'm currently facing, but I'm also pretty sure it's gonna come at your own expense. The way you're handling this, at the very minimum is dragging their brand thru the mud. They would never hear of this kind of service. And you're in sales? Dude.

Something about this whole deal was a tad shady from the beginning. It's starting to make a little more sense now. I think it looks like you were trying to offload a product that was at the very least, mis-represented ... when a piece of equipment is DOA then it does not! work as you advertised. Not sure how B&W corporate office is gonna look at it, but I bet they're not gonna appreciate that the deal is literally going down out of the back door of one of their stores.

I do know that I want my money back and you're going to pay return shipping costs or I'm gonna decide whether I want to pick up the phone and start trying to figure out who I'm gonna call or if I'd rather put the whole thing in an email and include a link to this thread. You have 24 hours to respond.

I'm pretty sure you can say it a little more concisely, but yeah I'd be a little more clear with him about your intention, and let him make the call whether you're gonna do it the hard way or the easy way.

 

 

 

Or, take Tubebuffer up on his offer to mediate your case on our public platform.