testing the units they sell first.

I just received the 2 30 gig empegs I ordered from empeg UK (I'm in Canada and don't trust the US eStore) and one of them hung at the boot logo. I've gotten a response from empeg and I am about to try to fix the problem for the time being while awaiting a new cable from empeg.

I can imagine someone's disappointment after spending $500 US for an item they could have gotten at $200 only to have it arrive in a non-working condition.

Oh, and my second empeg is going to a friend in need!

Later!

Why should the sellers care? If there's a warranty claim it's up to the buyer to resolve it. They still have a year's warranty regardless of whether they're the original buyer or not. The only thing the seller has to worry about is making profit, which doesn't seem to be a problem.

Normally, you need the original receipt to act as a start date for the warranty. Oh dear what a quandary for the eBay seller. Does he sell the unit and not bother with the essential original receipt, or does he sell it with the paperwork? Probably the latter, as no doubt these people would enjoy rubbing some salt into the wound at no extra cost!

Actually Empeg doesn't ask for any kind of receipt.

Inside the riocar manual it says the warranty is not transferable from one user to another.

Even better. Forget the salt, get the vinegar, that will really smart.

I'm with you on this one (see my post in the other thread).

Just off hand, how are you going to attempt a repair? I contacted support with the same problem (what ever happened to testing these things before they shipped from the factory?!) and they are mailing me a cable.

Inside the riocar manual it says the warranty is not transferable from one user to another.

Hmm. Interesting. I wonder if that matches up with reality, though. I mean I guess they have a record of me being the owner of certain Empegs, but who knows if they're actually checking.

If they started enforcing this, it'd just be screwing the buyers anyway, not the sellers. It's the buyer's responsibility to ask if the warranty will still be valid and to ask SonicBlue/Empeg if they'll take it.

yn0t_

What's you opinion of a person stealing candy from a baby? Fair game?

Their suppost to be mailing me a cable as well, although its been a week and I hav'nt gotten it yet... i still have faith ; ) I got my empeg working by bending the wire but i want to put something in there that I know for sure wont just randomly stop working.

-Greg

What's involved in "bending the wire".

yn0t_ : I would assume (and probably WRONGLY) that a "new in-box" purchase on eBay would entitle me to the warranty....

What's you opinion of a person stealing candy from a baby? Fair game?

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

I think the guys who are doing it are slimeballs but the buyer is the one paying the money. If a 10 gig Empeg sells for $800, that's what it was worth to someone. If they didn't do their research and they are denied warranty service, then it's on them, UNLESS the seller claimed they would be entitled to the warranty, at which point allegations of fraud would come into play. EBay has protection against that kind of stuff.

These guys are opportunists, they don't just do it with the Empeg, they do it with alot of other items (handhelds, etc.) They're shrewd and they have every right do do what they're doing. But in this case since we love the Empeg so much, some are taking it a little more personally.

So to return to your Monty Burns analogy, if the buyer is indeed a "baby" in terms of their knowledge of the product and the return policies, and they're the ones GIVING the candy instead of taking it, then I have no sympathy. If the buyer is misleading them with false claims, then the seller deserves legal recourse for being fraudulent.

These EBay sharks prey on the "babies" you are speaking of in your analogy -- those who don't understand the limitations of an EBay transaction and think that having a New In Box item is as good as buying it from the manufacturer.

yn0t_ : I would assume (and probably WRONGLY) that a "new in-box" purchase on eBay would entitle me to the warranty....

No idea. SkyHigH is the one who said the RioCar manual limits the warranty to only the original recipient. Based on that language, it sounds like an EBay buyer would be S.O.L. But as I said earlier, I've never been asked to provide a receipt when I needed warranty parts or repairs.

I got advice from an empeg person telling me how to fix it (without bending anything) and it works fine. A new cable is on the way however.

I won't post what I was told to do as it might have been told to me due to the fact that I have done work on these units before and he was probably aware of that.

René

It was a joke. Sorry.

You just 'seemed' to be defending these speculators. I don't think it's fair for that people should be taken advantage of. Not entirely related, but I've lost count the number of times a dutch auction get's rigged. E.g. a retailer puts up a job lot of TV's which have no reserve price with bid increments of £40, and then 10 minutes before the auction closes, someone bids for 25 units at £200 over and above the previous highest bid. Is that fair. These auctions sites have degenerated into an anonymous way of taking taking advantage of people whilst lining the pockets people of dubious character.

Hey man all I'm defending is capitalism. The market will determine the fair price. I agree a lot of shady things happen on FleaBay but the buyer needs to know that the person on the other end might be a schmuck and needs to bid accordingly. I happen to agree with the entirety of your last sentence.

I won't post what I was told to do as it might have been told to me due to the fact that I have done work on these units before and he was probably aware of that.

Was it anything that's already visible in the FAQ or the Drive Upgrade Guide? If so, there's nothing wrong with telling everyone what it was.

I'll send you the (simple) fix and you can decide if you want to post it here or not... you seem to have an inside link to empeg co. anyways.

Oh, did they use a StrongARM for your platform as well... this is definately the best AI implementation I have ever seen.

I usually advise people to use the end connector on the cable as it's the middle one that seems to have the poor crimp. Bending the cable or attacking it with a pair of pliers works too. These are temporary solutions though.

Spare parts like drive cables are sent by standard post - previous experience suggests that it can take up to two weeks for things to arrive in the US.

As far as the warranty goes, the drive cable is a faulty part that we know about - I'll always send out a replacement regardless of how the user got the player (unless I know it's stolen, of course) and regardless of warranty status.

2 of the three players I just bought for family members/friends stop at the boot up screen. I guess I should pop them open and check the cables first.

Thanks, I'll FAQ it.

Contact support so that I can officially give you the go-ahead to open the players.

I sent out the last of my drive cables today - more stock is due next week, so a temporary fix would be best in the meantime.

oops.................

well I opened them already, swapped in my empeg cable and both units work fine...phew

David, I emailed you at carsupport@riohome.com
No problem waiting for the cables. I'll just put these 2 units aside for now.

THANKS

Bob

a retailer puts up a job lot of TV's which have no reserve price with bid increments of £40, and then 10 minutes before the auction closes, someone bids for 25 units at £200 over and above the previous highest bid. Is that fair

It certainly is. You should have put your own bid in at "£200 over and above" if you had really, truly wanted one. Instead you got upset because your opportunity to go "bottom feeding" on the price got derailed by someone who was willing to pay what the items were actually worth. You had the opportunity to do exactly the same thing but declined.

As I have repeatedly said, an item for sale is worth what a willing buyer will pay for it. If the price is higher than you think is fair, then by all means refuse to buy it, and purchase a less expensive one instead.

tanstaafl.

"bottom feeding" is about the only way you can buy anything one ebay anymore no matter how ridiculous a amount you bid there is always someone there right at the last second to outbid you by a dollar

You can set the maximum amount you're willing to pay and e-bay bids you up automatically. How can somebody outbid you by a dollar if you have the maximum amount you're willing to be set? If you are THEN outbidded, then it's fine, because it would have been more than you were willing to pay.

Calvin

You can set the maximum amount you're willing to pay and e-bay bids you up automatically

Definitely the tactic that's worked for me.

Don't ya just love the tactics you see on eBay. Like when there are 6 identical items (simms), you bid on one, and it's the only one that gets bid up.

Well, being outbid at the last second (sometime literally) isn't the same as being "cheated" but it does deny you the opportunity to place another bid and it is done with the INTENT of denying you that. Again, the most I can say about it is that it is unethical.

I run a web site dedicated to an old Detroit brewery www.PfeifferBeer.com (by hosting provider just downgraded my account and now half of it doesn' work) and was bidding on eBAy for Pfeiffer Beer items quite a bit. The first time I even did eBay, I was "snaked" (the old skater in me) by someone with 1 minute left in the auction. So, on my next auction, I did the same thing to someone else. I was then given a polite email saying that I had every right to do what I did, but it is considered quite rude. And the PFeiffer collecting "community" on the web, I soon learned, frowned on that. I politely replied that I was new to eBay and was forgiven. This was important to me becuase eventually you'd learn who the other regualar bidders were and what items they liked or needed. So, people would suddenly NOT bid on items I was bidding on to help me out and I would do the same for them. GRanted, there were a few times that I had to say "Gary, we each want this 1910 vintage sign, so may the best man win!"

I really don't know what this has to do with the empeg/eBay fiasco, but I have to agree that it is spineless. Why didn't any of these people offer Sven (Smu) a RioCar when he kindy asked someone to buy him one and send to Europe for him? He asked this before they were even sold out.

Did Sven/Smu ever get one?

In reply to:

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Well, being outbid at the last second (sometime literally) isn't the same as being "cheated" but it does deny you the opportunity to place another bid and it is done with the INTENT of denying you that. Again, the most I can say about it is that it is unethical

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Not at all. You are given the opportunity right from the outset to put in the maximum price you are willing to pay. If you enter an amount less than your maximum and are not able to increase that amount at a later date, then that's your problem.
The trick is, of course, working out the maximum price you're willing to pay.

Nicholas.