Great amp, crashed and burned after 30 hours... Buyer protection?

 Let the truth be stated. I think that audiogon, indirectly, plays a role in the loss of security rather then gains in security. In the old days, you could call a seller and talk to them about their gear. For me that was the best vetting one could do.  I always felt that I could gain an intuitive sense of the integrity of the seller based on discussion of their gear and their passion for the hobby. We can no longer do that. I feel that we are at a great loss in terms of security when these transactions may amount to many thousands of dollars of risk. I understand that audiogon is protecting its bottom line, but there must be someway to allow a phone conversation before a deal is finalized, or to allow reversal of a deal if subsequent phone conversations  are unsatisfactory. Audiogon… Put on your thinking caps and come up with something. Do the right thing!

Not entirely true about contacting before payment is made.
Basic Listing: 

• All communication regarding the negotiation and sale transaction must take place onsite.  You may not provide any type of contact information until after an offer has been accepted.
  
  

Premium Listing:

• Include your contact information

http://support.audiogon.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1035913-listing-guidelines

After the offer is accepted and you talk to the seller, then get a bad feeling, it is too late, if you cancel... they will slam you for backing out of the deal... so that does not work... on a couple other sites, the USA and Canadian audio-marts, you can phone and email about the transaction before committing to your hearts content. The only thing the moderators do there, is turf out the scammers... and the community is quick to report the scam artists...  

..for me, it would all depend on how much money is involved and the amount of grief and time it would take to travel down any legal road.  If it were for a couple of hundred dollars, and after a brief try at making it right, I wouldn’t ruin my days left on earth with this.  Just move on.

Dill. What you write is correct but the buyer has no influence on whether the seller lists as premium, and few do. So for most transactions, no contact is allowed. I cannot overemphasize the value of contact by phone.