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First time for this, opinions please.

Greetings,
I have been buying and selling on A'Gon fo almost 4 years, over 160 transactions. Not a hitch until a local transaction yesterday. I sold a CD player (Rega Jupiter) to a member who lives in my city, so no shipping involved. He came over to my house, listened to player, liked it, bought it and took it home. Later that afternoon he called and said CD player would not power up. Strange as it worked for him for awhile until he changed powercords. After some discussion of checking this or that, it was determined that powercord was changed while on/off switch was still on. At this point I said there's the problem, switching powercords with power still on likely blew a fuse or some other trip device. He did not totally agree, but said it must be an explanation. At this point I must add, said member does not hold me responsible in any way. He was just seeking my advice as to whether I have ever had any trouble of this sort.
My question is twofold:
1. Do you think changing powercords while player is powered up could cause this (I do).
2. Do you think I have any obligation to help at this point? Once again, buyer is not holding me responsible, but I have been worried about this all night. I really feel bad , as this is not a small purchase for him.
Thanks in advance,
Dan
muzikat
theo's avatar
theo
2,719 posts
 
I agree the unit was working fine at your home and admittantly in his home till he changed the cord. He is an owner. Also anyone having audio/video etc equipment should know that if you switch a powercord while the unit is on a arc, spike or just static discharge can occur. Since most of the electronics these days contain a micro-processor of one type or another they are at risk of a static shorting.
I agree with kennyt in that if the warranty is in effect help him otherwise, he's an owner. You have displayed a good level of concience by writing this thread, but I wouldn't invest any guilt in this situation. Sleep well!
jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
4,373 posts
 
If you can help, its the best thing to do.It looks
like the buyer is nice too, by being honest,when
I read some of the DISPUTE here at Agon,some
were not even worth mentioning.But please sleep good.
And enjoy the music.
sidssp
1,077 posts
 
No, you do not have the obligation, it was not your fault. But if I were in the same situation, I would try to have it repaired for the buyer. If warranty already ran out, I would split the repair cost as good will because I believe friendship worths much more than money.

Just my 2 cents.
shasta
155 posts
 
If you provided the instruction manual, and the buyer read it, hopefully there was a warning in there that pulling the plug *may be a Bad Thing. I'd be really surprised if it actually caused damage. IME, this is more likely w/ equipment that has, as mentioned, microprocessors. Typically, even when switched "off", there is still a sleeper circuit that stays on to maintain memory functions, settings, presets, and for VCR's a space heater to keep the interior warm and dry. Looking at schematics for amps and preamps, they may be a little more tolerant of hard shutdowns, but even then, they may have a warmup delay to prevent DC thumps through the system.

The McCormack UDP-1 has a front standby switch, and they warn against pulling the plug before going to the standby position. The Parasound T3 tuner, doesn't have a standby switch, but even after powering down, can be very cranky about swapping cords; losing it's display and memory.

RTFM, dummy, is still as valid as ever...
ellery911
549 posts
 
I know nothing about the reason that this could happen, but I think that it is very honorable for you to show sympathy for the buyer. I know that I would feel bad...(but not necessarily guilty)...and would assist the person in getting the repairs done...how much your financial contribution is to resolving the matter is something that you have to decide. If the repairs weren't very expensive, I would probably offer to split the cost...but once again...the cost of repairs to audio gear is something of which I know even less than the cause of the problem. If the repairs were very expensive I might offer a little "sympathy" cash subsidization...but taking full responsibility on your shoulders?...I don't think you need to go that far.

just my 2c

Ellery
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