A bad buy...

T

tenkas

New member
Bought a firepod from StudioMXPX a few weeks ago. Didn't open the box until yesterday.

The firepod was sold as in GOOD CONDITION.

I open the box, the unit is EXTREMELY scratched and one of the firewire port is almost destroyed...

Thanks again StudioMXPX for beeing very honnest in your descriptions...
 
You should have taken this up with the seller before posting this here. Just some advice. If the seller did not cooperate, then it would have been acceptable to "out" him/her.
 
Now the best part: THe unit doesn't even sync to my laptop (and this is my SECOND firepod... so no compatibility issues)
 
No reply at all was his reply...

The fact his, reply or not, he did not tell me anything BEFORE the buy (and I am in Canada, shipping is not just $10!)
 
we can add pianosaur (eric patrick of de leon springs, florida, warmanalogtube at gmail dot com) to the "bad guys" list. he was to sell me a pair of NT5s and after i paypal'd him, he dropped off the face of the earth for a week. once i put in a claim with paypal, he finally got back to me claiming, he doesn't "check that email that often". paypal was only able to recover 2/3 of my money...

he also has screwed another friend of mine on this forum since then...
 
Lots of idiots on the net... It's just the first time I get to deal with one...

Only thing I feel like doing is taking a plane ticket and beating up the guy... (but that's going to happen, I am poor... :P)
 
While his Ebay description did say "good condition", it also stated in capitals....."SELLING AS IS". This fact, amongst other things was highlighted in the thread where the auction was "advertised" and from where you chose to contact the seller..........: https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=237780 .............that thread and the fact that the seller didn't respond to the comments in that thread should have been enough to make most people cautious.

Also, where are the scratches on the unit.........on the face, or on the top and/or bottom?

:cool:
 
tenkas said:
Now the best part: THe unit doesn't even sync to my laptop (and this is my SECOND firepod... so no compatibility issues)
Click to expand...

Not on either port? Sounds like this person tripped over the cable, shorted it out, and fried the board. Either that or it was damaged in shipping and by plugging it in afterwards, you shorted out the port. Either way, it's a brick, but it would be worth filing a shipping claim if it worked prior to shipping.

Unfortunately, the FIREPOD appears to be defective by design; I can't count the number of dead FIREPOD threads I've seen, almost all with a blown FireWire port. Yet you'll never see the flaw mentioned in any review site. Well, okay, Harmony Central seems to have people complaining about them, but that's about it.... It is commonly referred to as the "red light of doom".

Yeah.... Well, call Presonus and see if they will cover the repair. If not, and if the seller is uncooperative (i.e. if the seller isn't willing to file a claim with the shipper), then it can't hurt to open it and try to diagnose the problem. Post a photo of the section of the circuit board near the FireWire ports. That could tell us a lot about what's going on with these devices.
 
I've had great luck with Presonus and repairs. A lot of the time they'll either fix it for free, or for a reasonable amount, or if you're technically inclined, they'll send you the parts you need to fix it for free. Give them a call or email and see if there's anything they can do for you.
 
tubejay said:
I've had great luck with Presonus and repairs. A lot of the time they'll either fix it for free, or for a reasonable amount, or if you're technically inclined, they'll send you the parts you need to fix it for free. Give them a call or email and see if there's anything they can do for you.
Click to expand...

I will echo this sentiment. I recently bought a couple of preamps that apparently had been dropped on their face, and all the knobs were bent and mangled (plus the previous owner had attempted a home repair involving super glue... :rolleyes: ) They also offered to send me the parts to fix it myself, but I opted for the factory service.

Presonus fixed them both up back to factory specs for a very reasonable bench fee (less than $100 each) and they'll be back on hand tomorrow.

They return Emails and communicate well, in my experience. I highly recommend them as a company.
 
Well thanks averyone for your advices and comments, I will try a few things...

I have to admit that a good night of sleep has made me less frustrated, I have contacted presonus and now I will try harder to contact the seller.

Thanks

Francois
 
tnjazz said:
I will echo this sentiment. I recently bought a couple of preamps that apparently had been dropped on their face, and all the knobs were bent and mangled (plus the previous owner had attempted a home repair involving super glue... :rolleyes: ) They also offered to send me the parts to fix it myself, but I opted for the factory service.

Presonus fixed them both up back to factory specs for a very reasonable bench fee (less than $100 each) and they'll be back on hand tomorrow.
Click to expand...

That's pretty impressive. It's about four weeks, six days faster than my experience. :D Apparently, they concluded it was dead and somehow the button to ship out a new one didn't get pressed. Oops.... Oh, well. I suppose everybody drops the ball once in a while.
 
Paypal is useless here. If you admit to paypal that it was purchased not on eBay when you try to escalate the dispute, they will close your dispute in favor of the other guy. That happened to me when a guy (ginthepartison) on Harmony Central sent me a bunch of broken and incomplete gear. I made the mistake of saying it wasn't bought on eBay and they just automatically closed the dispute in his favor the instant I hit that button. I believe this happened when I tried to escalate the dispute. So just don't escalate it.
 
I would like to know what you guys think:

Should I PAY for the repair of the firepod or should the seller pay for it?

When he sold it to me, in the paypal description, it says :

IN GOOD CONDITION and THE UNIT IS WORKING GREAT (in capital letters with !!!!!!!!!!!!!)


I started a paypal dispute resolution and I would like to have you guys opinion....

(strange thing: StudioMXPX did not reply to any of my messages on this forum. He only replied to paypal dispute things... weird guy!)
 
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