Feedback section for buyers and sellers

[rmcin626]

Many thanks to Grant, the John Martyn arrived this morning, well packaged and looks mint, looking forward to listening to it later today.

[struth]

thanks robin.. was a nice clean record

[kambo_z]

I have bought a Firebottle Phonostage from Gazjam - Gary on 21/10/18 and received the item on 31/1018 (nearly after 10 days). On the listing it was clearly mentioned that the loading plugs are included on the sale, however i have the item received without them. I sent him messages regarding loading plugs and he promised me to send them on Monday. I have not heard anything after that from him. I sent him a couple of more messages but he is not replying me back.

Secondly, he has applied thermal pads at the bottom and inside of the phonostage. I believe when you sell something you clearly need to state everything.

I do not want to post this message here but he has left me no option.

[Hammer]

Many thanks to Tony(intenso) Headamp arrived whithin two days of sale, packaged perfectly and in condition as described (mint) can't ask for more than that
Once againmany thanks
Martin

[Ducatiist]

Bought an EEI 700 cartridge from Adam a while back which he described as follows:

"Had it playing last night and gave my posh Dynavector a very good fight indeed!!
Loads of life left on the stylus, it was on heavy rotation and hasn't been in the system for a while now."


I spent numerous hours (approx 10-15 in total) trying to get it to play correctly - as described, but eventually gave up thinking I was doing something wrong.

Adam asked why I didn't let him know and return the cartridge...easy in hindsight, but I had no verification that the cartridge was not as described and I'm not sure he would have taken my word that I hadn't done something wrong to the cartridge or damaged it during fitting.

I recently sent the cartridge to ESCO with a couple of others to be checked/re-tipped as I thought I had been seriously missing something (cost of check-up is £45 per cartridge now!!!) - the delay being due to the very long lead in time at ESCO (plus their technician had had a cruciate injury which added to the delays).

ESCO's description is as follows :

EEI 700 - Diamond very badly worn, should see sooner to avoid damage to record modulations.
Remove existing diamond from boron cantilever, bond ultra low mass Paratrace profile diamond.

Please note: Being a boron cantilever we have to re-tip with ultra low mass.

Cost of necessary work: £120.00



I contacted Adam advising him that I was not impressed with his original inaccurate description and intended to leave poor feedback...and after a couple of PMs back and forth he thought my stance was aggressive. He offered the option to return the cartridge for a refund (inc postage), which I advise was not feasible as the cartridge was still at ESCO and the examination was to cost £45.

I was more concerned about the cartridge damaging my records than a monetary refund. And I was very annoyed, but not aggressive.
£80 for a worn out cartridge which will cost £120 to put right, I feel is a bit much after the original description.

Adam stated as follows:

Hi Stu
Sorry to hear of your experience with the cartridge l. I assure you there was no intention to deceive you or claim the condition of the cartridge was anything than I thought it was.

I can only apologise wholeheartedly. If you want to return the cartridge I will refund you and pay for the postage. Sorry if you are, as you say “not impressed”. But again it was sold with good grace.
Best Adam

Does "Good Grace" allow you to sell something worn out but describe it as having "loads of life"?

I'm sure Adam will respond in public (or leave me poor feedback), but at no time did I ask for a refund/money or anything towards the examination or re-tip.

Adam did offer to buy a generic replacement stylus at £19.99 which was a good gesture (which I have not taken), but my concerns were for my valuable records.

I think I've learned my lesson with second hand cartridges now...either buy with a view to have re-tipped (which I have done before with a Supex 900 at a fair price, with sellers who described the cartridge as worn out) or take the description with a pinch of salt, unless backed up by a professionals report.

My advice...be careful buying second hand cartridges, it could cause a lot of damage to an expensive record collection.

[walpurgis]

Not sure why all that was necessary seeing as the original offer to return for refund was not taken up.

[montesquieu]

Stuart, it's hard to see what your complaint about Adam is here.

His response to you appears to have been 'I can only apologise wholeheartedly. If you want to return the cartridge I will refund you and pay for the postage. Sorry if you are, as you say “not impressed”. But again it was sold with good grace. '

Can't really say fairer than that especially after a gap. (How long was the gap btw?)

And I'm sure what he meant was 'good faith' indicating there was no intention to deceive - are you claiming there was?

Few of us have microscopes or are expert in assessing the various tip shapes even if we did have. It's also easy to be rose tinted about something you enjoyed but took out of commission for whatever reason. Cartridges do wear. And Expert can be a bit melodramatic in their feedback at times (I've seen this myself in other circumstances) after all they are hardly uninterested bystanders - they want to flog you a paratrace, their one-club-fits-all solution to any problem under the sun.

FWIW I send my cartridges for inspection to J7 at Audio Origami, his inspection fees are cheaper and he isn't trying to flog you a retip, so you can be sure you are getting impartial advice.

[WESTLOWER]

Sorry Tried to keep it to pm...
Basically I sold Stuart Ducatiist the cart for £80 inc postage (price is irrelevant really) ....it was in May 2018...6 (six) months ago
He contacted me saying it was great etc. Thanks!

6 Months later I get a pm saying he didn’t like the sound towards the end of the lps so he sent it to ESCO for a report. The report said it needs a retip (you can actually buy off the shelf plug tips for these)
He said I was wrong to describe it as playing great and plenty of life in it. Which it was and which I believed it to have left on it. It looked fine and played great on my 2 TTS!

Anyway...I offered a full refund inc postage
He said my offer was irrelevant!!
And he was committed to a retip. I said fair enough the offer stands in good grace and I apologise if you didn’t get what I described. He said he will leave poor feedback.

I said that was unnecessary and would even send him the cost of a replacement plug in stylus or a Full refund. He said he felt so bad he was to post negative stuff. He said this cartridge that he had played for 15 hours (how long does one take to find out a stylus is misracking?!?) has put his valuable record collection at risk of damage.
I said ok offer stands at full refund onc postage or keep the cartridge and I’ll pay for a new plug in tip. He said he was so upset he would take to bad mouthing me on the feedback page.
I have been nothing but apologetic, sympathetic and offered to rectify the situation. Have sold plenty of kit on this platform and done so as honestly as possible.
Anyway I’ll leave it there.

[Ducatiist]

Not sure why all that was necessary seeing as the original offer to return for refund was not taken up.

I bought the cartridge on the description given, I dont have the expertise to check a cartridge, other than fitting it correctly and listening. I had already sent it to ESCO for assessment which was at a cost of £45 (I didnt realise it was so expensive, as I've only sent cartridges for re-tips previously)...again because I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong.

I feel that the description was inaccurate and bought it "in good faith" also.

I wasn't suggesting that he was deliberately deceptive, just that his description wasn't accurate and had I used it, I think it could/would have damaged my records.

[walpurgis]

Best left there I think.