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What would you do about a sleazy buyer??

Here's a case that I ran across last week on Audiogon and which I'm still fuming about... I'm selling my Bryston 7b-st monoblock amps. Had an Email from an interested buyer which actually made an offer. Had a second person write to me that he lives only 15 minutes from my house and wants to buy them. It was a "Lawyer" that I'll call "HM" to keep his anonymity here in xxxxxx <- (moderator cut). He wanted to buy them, but wanted to Demo them first on his system. IF he liked them, he was going to buy them for the agreed price of $2900.

Being MUCH easier to sell locally, I told the firm offer that I have a local sale, and that the buyer was going to purchase them on Saturday. If for any reason that the deal fell apart, I would contact him immediately. 2 days later,
I boxed up my 2 amps at 40 lbs each, and drove over to his house.

I listened to his PSB Golds w/ Boulder 100w/channel amp which actually sounded HORRIBLE! We hooked up my amp to his speakers and it was like night and day. NO COMPARISON!!! Totally blew away the Boulder amp. Even my girlfriend could tell right away and she hates this stuff. After 1.5 hours of demo'ing my amps, I asked him if he loved them. He agreed. He said that he would absolutely LOVE to own a pair of these!

This is when he went into his sob story... Well, he said, my economic condition is terrible right now. Let me put it this way. My financial situation is that I'm a car, heading off of a cliff with a 747 crashing right into it. In other words, he would love to have them, but has NO money to be able to buy them if he wanted to!!! He is in financial peril.

So I packed up my amps and left. Came home and wrote the other buyer. Unfortunately, the other buyer had already bought another pair of 7b-st's from someone else.

so, this completely inconsiderate S.O.B. wanted to use me to demo my gear with NO ability to buy them if he could. He was just CURIOUS how they sound. He used me to haul my goods under the pretense of buying if liking, then admits to
loving, but has NO money!

Now I'm mad. I'm fuming. Is this common for people on Audiogon to be such inconsiderate self-serving louts? I wasted 2 hours of my Saturday on this P.O.S. who never had any intention of buying, BEGGED me to leave them with him
for 3 days, and made me lose another viable sale option!!

I say that we expose people like HM from Audiogon for being the sleazy underhanded scum that he is!!! It's lawyers like him who gave many lawyers their bad reputation... How can anyone be such a self-centered lowlife is frankly beyond me.
hager_charles
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
I am sorry for what happened and understand your frustration. You could have punched him in the nose, but I guess him being a lawyer, it would not be a good idea. I guess he could have lied and said he did not like how your gear sounded. Now I guess you know how salespersons feel. I don't bother with people who want to demo stuff first, except in one or two instances where it was not an inconvenience to me. In those cases, I actually enjoyed meeting these people and got to see what others had for systems. (They were just expensive interconnects) In another case I invited a person to my house to hear some B&W Matrix I was selling.

Most people (myself included) will buy gear to demo and then resell if the gear does not work well in our systems. The trick it to buy something cheap enough, so you can get your money back.

I also avoid folks who want to trade gear. If they can't sell their component, to raise money to buy mine, why should I get stuck with something they are too lazy to get rid of. I alway get the feeling their gear is in poor shape.

jameswei
883 posts
 
What a horrible story! It is not credible to me that he couldn't come up with the money; it's not that much. I think he wasn't sure he liked your amps. He may have been accustomed to the Boulders' sound in his system, and your Brystons sounded so different that he wasn't sure. To you, the Brystons sounded better, but to him they may have at first only sounded different. He was unwilling to commit, but he wanted to try them out for three days to get used to the sound. Saying he didn't have the money was just an excuse. In any case, you were mistreated. I wish everyone could behave in a more considerate manner. Is there some way you could leave negative feedback on the Audiogon feedback database?
texan
48 posts
 
Figured I would add my 2 cents on this subject. Twice I have taken some gear to someone else's house to audition and possibly buy. My experiences were both very good and met some very very nice people in the process, and also got to see their setup. I have bought and sold many things here at Audiogon and have prettty much had good dealigs with the people here. Also agree with above comments from Sugarbrie, hope things go better for you. Best, Charlie
paulwp
585 posts
 
Maybe he couldnt tell the difference and was too embarrassed to say, so he made up the story about his finances? Is this sort of thing off limits for feedback, ie, does there have to be a completed transaction?
sean
6,231 posts
 
I have to admit, there have been times that i have inquired about items ( if they are still available, specific questions, etc... but with NO commitment to buy ) and then forgot to follow up on them. Between everyday life and sometimes working on multiple deals at once, things get lost in the shuffle.

Your case is VERY different. The person knew their financial situation, had no intent on buying and yet still let you go through the motions. Mind you, this is not like you just lost a bona-fide sale to the other interested party, you've also lost additional time and money by driving a couple of hours to deliver and sacrificing part of your week-end to do so. Check with Detlof about how much "mental stress" this has caused and Cornfedboy to see if you can sue : )

Honestly though, this one deserves and NEEDS negative feedback. Keep it sincere and honest i.e. "lacks sincerity, no intention of buying even after delivery took place" or something to that effect. This would sum up the situation and let others know to be leary when dealing with him.

As to the Bryston's soundly stomping the Boulder, i am impressed. While i've heard situations where there just wasn't good system synergy and making a component change drastically woke things up, this at least shows that the newer Bryston stuff CAN run with the big boys. Sean
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