I got ripped off on US Audio Mart - Becareful!

It was for a Kenwood KD-5070 turntable. The ad and description looked great. He wrote that he took the turntable in to a “McIntosh” audio dealer and had it completely serviced before the sale. Perfect working condition and mint .

I pulled the trigger and agreed to the purchase, was directed to paypal to complete the transaction , and was happy a new turntable was on the way.

Then I waited, and waited. Nothing, no emails, no tracking numbers. Sent an email to seller, “Sorry, I forgot to take the listing down on US Audio Mart, I already sold it on Ebay awhile back”

He’s had my $505 for the turntable for a week at this point. Where’s my money? He could send it back instantly.

Through numerous emails and a phone call, broken promises, Cash flow problems, too busy, transfering, “money automatically gets taken out of my account,” ...I’m still an empty bag holder

I submitted the issue to the Pay Pal resolution center and escalted it. I won’t hear anything until April...and no guarantees.

I’m sure I’m a small percentage of people who has had problems with US Audio Mart or any other platform but...Watch who you are dealing with! My guy is a foreign “antique dealer. Also, there was no way if he is having cash flow problems did the turntable ever get serviced at a “McIntosh” shop.

I Ran into a great big hassle.

I’d highly recommend escrow accounts for your transactions.

Should I have gone straight to my credit card company instead of Paypal?

 

Man that sucks - PayPal should take care of you - not sure why you have to wait till April though. You simply start the PayPal process - and it should then start proceeding.

 

PayPal will refund you if the seller did not send a tracking number. Two weeks maximum. I had a similar issue and the item they shipped with tracking number was bad. I got full PayPal refund.

 

Sorry to hear of your transaction issues. Would using Paypal with the payment from your credit card add another layer of protection? In recent years I've been doing all transactions via Paypal with funds coming from my credit card. I've been fortunate in that there have been no issues with any transactions. But I would think having the payment funds on Paypal coming from my credit card it would add more protection.

 

I've reached similar conclusions about USAM. Its kind of the wild west, PayPal is your only protection .

I do wonder if you initiated the claim with PayPal properly. The one time I've had a problem with a seller they sprang into action immediately. There's a reason some (bad) sellers hate PayPal, it's because they apparently believe buyers over sellers in 100% of cases.

 

best of luck...I can see no reason why you would not be covered form this theft of your money...

 

+1. Even if PayPal drags their feet, Amex is merciless about stuff like this.

 

I parted out a motorcycle about 18 years ago on eBay. Other than that, I've never done business there. I only buy face to face or from sites like Amazon, or direct product devoted sites. And it is to prevent that sort of thing.

On a side note, a friend used to sell a lot of very expensive camera equipment on eBay. He stopped because buyers would get the money yanked back n Paypal after they received his product, using some bogus "not as advertized" claim. It took forever for them to send the equipment back, if they ever did. It was ALWAYS his international deals that this would happen to. He just sells it on the trading part of photography sites now. I have no use for eBay now that Amazon is here.

My motto: If the only place I can find it is eBay, then I don't need it.

 

Errr....no.

 

OP, you likely didn't initiate a dispute properly. Otherwise, you wouldn't need to wait... and certainly not to April.

Log into your PayPal account, in the Activity section, click on it, and click on Report A Problem.

 

To OP, I hope your get your money back soon. I would contact the credit card company if I were you and double check what you did re: dispute resolution through PayPal. If the seller never shipped, you shouldn't have to wait this long.

 

You can get ripped off anywhere. I’ve done lots of transactions on USAM and CanuckAudiomart. Never had a problem. Use PayPal, or cash in person.
I also usually have an email exchange.

Good luck , I hope you get your funds back.

 

I've been amazed over the last couple of years how easy it has become to get ripped-off even when buying locally on CL. The last few sellers I encountered lied straight to my face. And then you have no recourse at all. At least with Ebay and paypal you have some recourse.

I used to swear by the savings of buying used gear. Now I'm on the verge of swearing it off entirely unless I know the seller personally.

 

I've had good luck with USAM but then again, I try to do local as often as possible. What was the seller's feedback profile? How many tx's. That's a double edge sword because honest people just starting out trading on those forums have a tough road but not much you can do about that.

 

In Pay Pal I went under the transaction, then clicked on didn’t recieve product. It was the best option in this circumstance. At this point PayPal still has you working with the seller and sends what you wrote to him. I stated it with the reference number from US Audio, and my interactions with the seller. So he, the seller recieved what I wrote.

I’m done with dealing with the seller, so I hit the escalate button so PayPal will now investigate my claims and see if it falls under “Buyer Protection” this “may” take up until April was the response from Pay Pal.

 

I, too, just had a very negative first buying experience with USAM. I was able to get my money back, but I have been soured on doing transactions on that site again.

 

I can't recall if I've made any purchases on US Audio Mart. But if buyers only deal with reputable sellers with positive feedback then the risks are minimized. If one buys from sellers with negative or no feedback that's usually a risk not worth taking.

 

As screwed up as this is, if you had actually received the table my guess is it would have been a broken mess. I've had a couple bad experiences with sellers, but live and learn, or not.

 

Never spend more than you can afford to lose.

 

I've been on the other side of this - a buyer who took my factory sealed and warrantied item, opened it up and decided he didn't want it after all so he reported to Paypal that it was 'not as described' and they froze the payment to me immediately. All to say, they tend to support the buyer every time no matter what. The sorry end to my saga was just lost time as I ended up calling Paypal (really makes a difference) and spoke with someone who investigated the situation. I found the online process of responding through the mediation steps very unhelpful and slow, (and as it turns out, largely irrelevant cos they always side with the buyer) so the phone call really helped.

Anyhow, what I learned from PayPal agent was that if a buyer makes a complaint, genuine or otherwise, about an item and has paid via credit card, Paypal routinely sides with the buyer no matter what because they know buyer will otherwise just report it to the credit card company as a bad deal and the card company will force the issue in favor of the buyer. Paypal told me they understood this was not ideal but felt they had little choice -- go figure! So, you should be ok with getting your funds covered one way or the other, it will just be a pain and timeloss. That said, I recommend calling and asking to speak with a representative directly.

And leave appropriate feedback on A'Mart. We all need to know the bad actors that we should avoid.

 

Why? Never got the logic of that. The platform merely connects two parties together. If one of the parties is a jerk, that's not the fault of the platform. Audiogon, eBay, USAM, Canada Audio Mart, CraigsList, Kijiji, etc. I've done deals on all of them and have rarely had issues. I've even had more issues here than anywhere else. Does that mean, I should shy from buying from anyone here?

Nah. I judge the specific party ; not the platform the ad was posted on.

 

It really shouldn't take that long so take the date with a grain of salt.

PayPal protection is there specifically for such cases. You did the right thing by escalating it but honestly, this is not the fault of the platform and you're not more prone to being ripped off on USAM than on others.

Out of curiosity, what was the feedback rating of the seller and how many transactions had there been entries for?

Lastly, don't forget to add your negative feedback entry once this is all over. We rely on it to decide whether to do business with specific sellers and would invite you to warn others about this jerk.

 

I feel for you, but...

You got ripped off from SOMEONE using USAM...not USAM. I've gotten screwed before on just about every selling site...it is buyer beware. But the bottom line is, Amazon, eBay, USAM, etc. didn't screw me...a SELLER using their platform screwed me. Chances are, this ass hat has done it before on these others sites too!

 

All good points.

I’m new to this site and audio. From a newbie perspective, USAM, looked completely foolproof considering the items offer. I got the feeling I walked into a Hifi conference and was dealing with people who may be a bit connected. Which I’m sure it is.

The seller has a ranking of 1526 with a red star - 10 total ads at the time of my sale. I won’t give any specifics on him though.

 

I got ripped off on Audiogon way back when the ad insertion fee was $1. Pretty sure that was also pre-paypal.

I like dealing on USAM because it's easy to communicate. I generally won't make a purchase without talking to the seller on the phone. And, as a seller, I always ask if the buyer would like to talk. You can get a much better feel for the person in a one on one conversation.