used when promised new

Warrenh, thanks for your follow-up reply. This clarifies that your understanding of the transaction had nothing to do with the original ad. This is good to know. It's also comforting to know that you have received an apology from Trancehits. That was good of him since it was he who made the mistake. It's nice to have all of the facts assembled.

(BTW, Zaikesman, the ad that you see now is not the same one that Jmcgrogan2 referred to and that I had seen prior to its disappearance)

If I could summarize, the ad that some of us latched onto mentioned that Trancehits sells both 1) "like new" (what we now know as "demo" per Warrenth's most recent post) and 2) "brand new" cables. In that ad, which was the basis of my lengthy objections, the item for sale was of the "like new" variety. Per Warrenh's most recent post, however, their agreement via email was clearly for "new" cables by which both parties understood as "brand new" and thus the apology from Trancehits for mistakenly sending demos. Fair enough, Trancehits has lots of postiive feedback and we all make mistakes. I suspect his was an honest one.

It's too bad that this thread drew in so much speculation about what the facts really were. It's also too bad that the issues couldn't be resolved privately or through the dispute resolution process. Yet, it provides some great points that we all should learn from: negative feedback is a serious thing; a seller needs to have an opportunity to address any issues that that buyer has with his or her performance; clear communication is the key to successful transactions; and everyone here wants this to site to continue to be the best place to buy and sell!

I think we can all be friends again...

Obviously, my last post was composed before Warrenh posted the third time. There's definitely something to be said for talking things out in private, especially via phone if necessary, before jumping to conclusions. I think we're all getting along fine now, amen to the peace brother...
:-)

In light of recent posts, if this actually comes up for discussion as a formal dispute, I would be inclined to side with the seller as well.

As a way to avoid this type of thing happening, I always have a money-back guarantee with every item I sell on this site. In this case, if Warrenh was unhappy with the deal, he could have returned the item for a full refund, less shipping, and the seller could have sold them to someone else, who would have been happy with them. All of these problems could have been eliminated that way. Nobody would have gotten bad feedback, and everyone would have been satisfied. As a seller, I am interested in having the buyer be as happy as I was with the product, and have no interest in just "getting over" on another member. Not saying that Trancehit was doing this. But a satisfaction guarantee shows that the seller stands behind his item, and the buyer does have some recourse other than bad feedback. Yes, I have gotten some items returned to me, and I was quite cheerful about returning the money. Another person bought the item and was happy with it. So everybody wins. Since this is a membership website, I think that extra courtesy should prevail, and go the extra mile to satisfy. This applies to both buyer and seller.

So my feeling on this is that the seller should have guaranteed his product to be satisfactory, and Warrenh probably should have been a little more accepting of the situation. It is likely that if the seller offered to refund the money, that Warrenh would have probably kept the cables anyway, since they were in perfect condition, and he had what he wanted. It's not like a cable is going to go bad if it was plugged in a couple of times.

A few dollars on a used item is not worth a bad feedback listing for either party involved.

Deals on Audiogon get enthusiastic positive feedback both directions regularly when the items are in "absolutely fabulous condition" delivered in a "timely" manner at 45% off list!

"Like New" and "10/10" from the ad are the only credible facts.
The seller should dispute this if the buyer doesn't make an effort to withdraw the seemingly unwarranted negative feedback.