What would you do about a sleazy buyer??


Here's a case that I ran across last week on Audiogon and which I'm still fuming about... I'm selling my Bryston 7b-st monoblock amps. Had an Email from an interested buyer which actually made an offer. Had a second person write to me that he lives only 15 minutes from my house and wants to buy them. It was a "Lawyer" that I'll call "HM" to keep his anonymity here in xxxxxx <- (moderator cut). He wanted to buy them, but wanted to Demo them first on his system. IF he liked them, he was going to buy them for the agreed price of $2900.

Being MUCH easier to sell locally, I told the firm offer that I have a local sale, and that the buyer was going to purchase them on Saturday. If for any reason that the deal fell apart, I would contact him immediately. 2 days later,
I boxed up my 2 amps at 40 lbs each, and drove over to his house.

I listened to his PSB Golds w/ Boulder 100w/channel amp which actually sounded HORRIBLE! We hooked up my amp to his speakers and it was like night and day. NO COMPARISON!!! Totally blew away the Boulder amp. Even my girlfriend could tell right away and she hates this stuff. After 1.5 hours of demo'ing my amps, I asked him if he loved them. He agreed. He said that he would absolutely LOVE to own a pair of these!

This is when he went into his sob story... Well, he said, my economic condition is terrible right now. Let me put it this way. My financial situation is that I'm a car, heading off of a cliff with a 747 crashing right into it. In other words, he would love to have them, but has NO money to be able to buy them if he wanted to!!! He is in financial peril.

So I packed up my amps and left. Came home and wrote the other buyer. Unfortunately, the other buyer had already bought another pair of 7b-st's from someone else.

so, this completely inconsiderate S.O.B. wanted to use me to demo my gear with NO ability to buy them if he could. He was just CURIOUS how they sound. He used me to haul my goods under the pretense of buying if liking, then admits to
loving, but has NO money!

Now I'm mad. I'm fuming. Is this common for people on Audiogon to be such inconsiderate self-serving louts? I wasted 2 hours of my Saturday on this P.O.S. who never had any intention of buying, BEGGED me to leave them with him
for 3 days, and made me lose another viable sale option!!

I say that we expose people like HM from Audiogon for being the sleazy underhanded scum that he is!!! It's lawyers like him who gave many lawyers their bad reputation... How can anyone be such a self-centered lowlife is frankly beyond me.
hager_charles
Charles: Seems more bizarre than sleazy/scummy to me (unless of course he kept allowing his robe to slip open on purpose). The amps are popular and will sell in time.

I agree with Amwarick, "get over it." I also agree with Onhwy61, in his first e-mail. Garfish was right on with his comment about the timing of the e-mails, and the first buyer should be given first dibs or a flat out "no thank you."

I guess that makes me a lawyer.

Look deep inside yourself to see what is really keeping you fuming. After all, we are responsible for the way we feel.

By the way, name calling diminishes your credibility.
You are clearly the S.O.B. and got exactly what you deserved. You state "I told the firm offer that I have a local sale and that the buyer was going to purchase them on Saturday". You previously said that "If he liked them he was going to buy them for the agreed price of $2900.00" Where in there do you get that the person you demoed them to was going to buy them? Nowhere. You needlessly lied to the firm offer instead of just telling him the truth. You tanked the deal. No one else.
Marty
Just because you own a Porsche doesn't mean $2900 is not a lot of money! We all have toys, Charlie
ID HAVE TO CHALK IT UP TO EXPERIENCE , THE GUY WAS AN AUDIO LOVER LIKE THE REST OF US , WE ALL LIKE TO LISTEN , VIST STORES AND LISTEN ON SATURDAY AFTERNOONS. YOU WERE REALLY BEING NICE TO BRING THEM OVER TO HIS HOME .ID CHALK IT UP TO EXPERIENCE AND KEEP ON TRUCKING. I HAVE BEEN ON THIS WEB SITE FOR A SHORT TIME BUT EVERYONE I HAVE MET HAVE BEEN REALLY GREAT I HAVE MADE SOME GREAT DEALS ON AUDIOGON.
I HOPE YOUR FRIEND DOES NOT OVER REACT TO YOUR THREAD , HE DOES KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE !