so, many of you will give me shit for jumping in on this when I'm not involved, but I feel like I have an obligation to bring to light what I've seen so far, in hopes of others taking heed to the past when working with a seller online.
I'll make my bias very clear, as my own opinion, seperate from the facts the rest of the quotes will be directly from @Thewes and @mrfr3sh2def to illustrate the current situation
here's a post by thewes outlining a transaction between him and the seller of a few oldschool amps
@whitedragon551 please watch this thread for the next few minutes as ill be posting more information and id like to keep it all in the OP
I'll make my bias very clear, as my own opinion, seperate from the facts the rest of the quotes will be directly from @Thewes and @mrfr3sh2def to illustrate the current situation
here's a post by thewes outlining a transaction between him and the seller of a few oldschool amps
Not to totally **** on the guy, hear me out entirely, and then pass your own judgement. Long *** post, read if your considering any transactions PT. 1/2
Mrfr3sh2def has been causing a bit of a pain in my *** for the last 2 months- to say the very least. I don't think he is a genuinely bad guy, maybe he just has a hard time accepting responsibility of his actions or maybe he just doesn't give a **** about anyone else. I purchased 4 of the older chrome orion amps off him about a tad over 2 months ago, mrfr3sh2def claimed verbatim and as stated on invoice that two of the 400.2 were "new condition", the one 2500D was "used but like new" condition, and the last 200.2 was "used". They arrived fairly quickly, but instantly I noticed they were entirely fucked up even at first glance I could tell they were beat to hell, which I assumed all occurred during shipping (turns out not true, some damage was pre-existent). I did some serious grade A forensic type photo documentation, even wore gloves and labeled every single amp, had every single ding and dent and mar at all angles labeled, I even displayed any impact marks that aligned with outside/inside of boxes that also matched up with amp damage. I took nearly 40-50 pictures.
Unfortunately for his packing of the amps, he didn't use an ounce of bubble wrap, not a single air cushion, no double boxes. ZERO precautions were taken to protect the heavy *** "pristine" amps other then a white piece of paper with "FRAGILE" printed on it...I mean that is some effort at least right? He packed the amplifiers in used (not even new) cardboard boxes from his work (he actually crammed the 2500D into the 10+ year old crumpled up original 400.2 box, so that was really nice) and sprinkled in some brown packing paper in all the boxes. In my 10 years of receiving car audio or all items in general, I have never seen such lack of giving a ****. I mean this is such a ******* clear case of irresponsible and improper packaging, it shouldn't require an ounce of thought regarding who is at fault, and especially when you factor in the amount of documentation/pictures I took, you have to be brain dead to dispute he didn't **** these up, which is the only reason I am even posting this.
Luckily! Two of the amps had the end slide-in cardboard shims, all though they still didn't do much to protect them from the ******** at UPS. When package heavy items, even more so when using UPS, and ESPECIALLY if you claim you have tons of feed back and past experience with shipping out car audio gear, then you 100% expect your items are going to be thrown around... so you prepare and double stuff those fuckers in multiple boxes, you use bubble wrap, you use noodles, you use any tool at your disposal to insure that item arrives safely to your buyer, that is unless you are a real cheap ***, or unless you screwed yourself on the deal and you are trying to pinch every penny possible to maximize profit. And let me tell you, I paid a decent premium price for these old amps, I mean I could of gone and gotten two brand 400.2 off amazon for the exact same price I paid for the "new" 400.2s I got from mrfr3sh2def, if not less. More importantly though, if the items you are shipping are heavy, fragile, and VERY OLD almost classic PRISTINE "new/like new condition amplifiers", then who in their right mind would just toss them in used thin cardboard boxes along with some brown paper? I don't know, you decide, someone who doesn't give a **** is the only conclusion I can come to? I don't know the guy that well, we talk, I send him pictures, he sends me pictures, I really do not dislike the guy, but my patience ran thin 30 days ago and now this entire scenario is just ******* becoming absurd.
Long story short (not really, its long sorry) I told him what happened, explained to him the damage, explained to him it was due to his really poor packaging (I felt bad for the guy at the time) We remained in communication entire time, no issues. The damage consisted of huge dings in the aluminum on one of the "new" 400.2 amps, the side plate broken off, several screw heads actually ripped off from an extremely hard impact, aluminum pushed in so far back plate would not come off, scratches all over, this is all on AN AMPLIFIER DESCRIBED AS "NEW" CONDITION. There were scratches and dings even on the "like new" 2500D, bent mounting feet, and the second "NEW" 400.2 also had some mars/nicks and dings, every single amp had bent mounting points, the list of cosmetic damage is long. The 200.2 looked like it came out of a dry cleaner, mounting legs bent in ways I really never imagined possible. Keep in mind, these were apparently pristine amps minus the used one. Literally defined as new, new, like new, and used. So what the ****?
I remained very patient. It took myself a bit of time to document all the pictures due to how busy I was, but then it took him almost 3+ weeks after seeing all my pictures to come up with a partial refund offer of only $200, and it required I send back the most fucked up 400.2 amp, since he actually realized he made a mistake in amp description and apologized... even though a lot of the damage WAS from the shipping process, he incorrectly described one of the 400.2 amps and some of the damage was already there before shipping. (I guess it is pretty easy to misidentify an amplifier that has a ******* chunk of aluminum pushed in on the bottom with nicks and scratches and multiple sheared off screws with a dangling RCA side plate as a new amplifier) It also took me a good chunk of time to test them properly, I was waiting on wiring and several other items to line up and be installed before I was able to power up and test. We both remained fairly patient, communication continued, like I said, not a bad dude at all... just something off regarding him accepting full responsibility of things.
Unfortunately I had to deny his partial refund. That was way too much of a risk for me to take considering the money I paid. I think he either did not understand the amount of damage after seeing my pictures, or he just didn't give two shits he had his money. But for me to keep these amps without testing them or having an amp repair shop look at them would of been a tremendously stupid decision, after a few months when they all entirely take dumps on me simultaneously due to broken internals, what the **** would I do? Come crying to him? Especially with amps so notorious for doing that exact thing. So I held out over a month on filing paypal claim, communication was sparse, but he never ignored me, he just never initiated conversation, left it all up to me, like it was my ******* mess to clean up apparently. So like I said, hes not an absolute piece of **** by any means. He just seems to... dodge responsibility... especially when the entire scenario is pretty crystal clear for who is at fault.
I never hounded him, I never pressured him, I never blew his phone up. Eventually after not hearing much from him on his side and things growing rather stale, I contacted him and basically said look, I have to file a PP claim soon to protect myself, just a heads up, time is ticking and you aren't doing anything to resolve the situation. The partial refund would hardly cover the repair of one single amp, and even putting all amp repairs aside, I have to live with the fact that the items I now own could fail at any time in the future due to how poorly packed and handled the items were during shipping. I really considered a full refund just due to the pure beating these amps took, unless a professional could confirm with 100% confidence that these amps were okay and would last, I would not feel comfortable being stuck with electronics that took that sort of *** kicking. I never approached the situation looking for a free hand out, not once.
I paid nearly $1000 for these amplifiers, and the one single responsibility mrfr3sh2def had was to pack them properly to insure they arrive fully functioning and in the exact condition he described. He did NOT do this. Now, a normal person would enter resolution mode, and quickly try to compromise and resolve the situation. I also feel as if this never really occurred with him, it was always me saying "so hey... whats up?" All I wanted is what I paid for, 4 working, new/like new condition amplifiers. Obviously, these orions being in good cosmetic condition again is simply out of the question with the dings dents and scratches, so some form of compensation would be expected- but I never even pursued that path.
@whitedragon551 please watch this thread for the next few minutes as ill be posting more information and id like to keep it all in the OP
