Swindled
I've been swindled by an eBay seller called swapsellandbuy.
I won an auction for the Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers on May 9. Early this week, they arrived via DHL. When I pulled the subwoofer out of the box, I noticed masking tape with "subwoofer board problem" written on it stuck to the top of the enclosure. I figured maybe they just forgot to take it off, since the auction said this system is refurbished.
I hooked everything up and realized the control module, which is required to even turn the system on, was missing. 
The note left on the exterior of the enclosure. Click to enlargeSo, I sent an email to the seller, and they sent one to me by overnight mail. In waiting for their reply to my email, though, I ordered an extra one from the Klipsch web site. I'll have two of these things when everything is said and done. Maybe I can just return the one I purchased separately.
Anyway, I got the control module today, and I plugged it in. No change. Still can't turn the speakers on. Emailed the seller again.
Having not received a response from the seller all day, I unscrewed the panel on the subwoofer about an hour ago, to see if anything was actually wrong in there. I immediately noticed two things.
The first thing was that there is a yellow solenoid-looking component on one of the control boards. 
The note left on the control board inside the enclosure. Click to enlargeAnother piece of masking tape is stuck to it, and this one reads "bad." The other is that the two subwoofer speaker units inside the enclosure aren't even connected to the control board!
They clearly knew they were swindling me when they sent the system, which makes me wonder if they're even going to do anything about it. eBay's policy is to reimburse only up to $175 in the event of something like this. So, even if that happens, I'll still be out about $40 or $50.
The satellite speakers sound great with my old subwoofer, anyway.
One of the points of tension Katy and I have is that I have little respect for the general public, and she wants me to put some faith in them. She also doesn't like when I say, "I hate people." But, it's circumstances like this (and like the woman at the post office earlier this week and the stupid kid at the grocery store yesterday and...) that provoke this attitude. Sigh.
Comments
I'm with you, Colin. I hate people, too! It's too bad that I work with the public all day. Why is the world full of such a bunch incompetent ignorami? Oh, the humanity! It's like this morning. I was on my way to work, and I had just enough time to stop off to get a drink at Starbucks. So I'm standing at the front of the line. The lady in front of me has just placed her order, paid, and moved to the side. The cashier lady, then walks to the back of the store, not even acknowledging my presence. I'm standing there, getting more impatient by the second, as an ever-lengthening line piles up behind me. Finally, the woman comes back from the back of the store in a real slow manner after lolligagging in the back. She finally makes eye contact with me and says, "Did you need something?" I was so incensed by her comment that I blurted out, "No, I'm standing here for my health." Then I ordered my drink. By the time I finally got it, I was late for work, and went out to my car rather quickly. It wasn't until I got out to my car that I looked at my drink and realized that they had made me the wrong drink. I didn't have time to go back in and get a new one, so I had to curse the monumental stupidity clearly on display right next to the croissants and cake slices. I won't go to that Starbucks again. I just don't know how people become so stupid.
Posted by: arc | May 18, 2006 10:28 PM