Buyer Beware

[reefgirl189]

I would like to bring to the attention of fellow canreefers the following information:

Firstly, I am not pointing fingers but I am dissapointed with the way that this sale turned out. Whether or not you agree with me is your own business but please take away from this post a lesson on trading online. It's very easy to be taken advantage of, even if the seller has decent credentials.

The only reason I am posting this is because I have attempted to contact the seller threee times in the last week and a half and my calls and PMs are not being returned. I feel like i'm being ignored on purpose.

So here is the story:

I recently purchased a tunze wavebox:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...=tunze+wavebox

The seller promised me the following:

Originally Posted by pyke

The wave box is in great shape and comes with all the components. including magnets and controller. you just need to plug it in and tune the frequencey to your tank. shipping should be about 15-20 bucks from my experience. I will get it all boxed up tonight and can get it off to you first thing tomorrow if that works for you.

my email is ********* if you can do an interact money transfer that would be the best.

Cheers,
*****
**********

When I received the wavebox (very prompty, I should add, which was a positive thing about this sale), It was obvious to me right away that this unit was in poor condition. The wires from the tunze powerhead pump were exposed because the sheathing on them was cracked. The sheathing appeared to me to have been virtually baked under some high wattage lights for a long time to have done this kind of damage. In addition to the damaged wires I also had to repair the wavebox casing because half of the magnet holder knobs were broken and laying in the bottom of the shipping box. Easy fix with superglue.

I replied to the seller to inform them of the damage and they denied knowing about the condition of the wiring. His excuse is hard to believe but I guess technically possible. He gave me instructions on how to fix it as well, which was nice of him.

Originally Posted by pyke

Sorry I didnt see any cracks when I pulled it out of my display. It worked flawlessly in my display for over a year. If I would have seen any crack I would have fixed in and posted it with the repair. It is possible it was froze and cracked during shipping.

It actually an easy fix and will be 100% water tight. We do hundreds of water tight splices at work and they seal every time (and they are CSA approved, I actually find that comment laughable as an engineer). If the internal wires are not cracked there is no way for water to enter the motor as they seal the wire at the inner sheathing not the outer sheathing.

All you need to do is split the wire as far back from the pump as possible (out of the display), slide two heat shrink tubings on the wire (one for the repair and one for the point where you had to split the wire). Take silicone and push it in the crack in outer sheathing as best you can. Slide the heat shrink tubing to cover the crack and the silicone (while the silicone is still wet). Heat shrink the tubing on the crack using a heat gun (NOT a open flame as it makes the heat shrink brittle). Spread a dab of silicone at the end of the heatshrink as a secondary seal.

Next just solder the splice (stager your splices so they stand no chance of shorting) and coat it in silicone and heat shrink it. Wait one day and its good to go.

Like I said we do hundreds of these at work and I have never seen a single one fail and we use this on 5000v AC systems. Tunze Pumps are DC powered not AC so they are not dangerous to an aquarium (smart germans) and you stand no chance of electricuting yourself. If you want you can actually test to confirm you have no electrical leakage but putting the pump in a bucket and using a multimeter in the bucket to confirm there is zero leakage.

I hope that helps, it truly is an easy fix so dont worry. If you need any help let me know and I can walk you through it in more detail.

Cheers,
*****

So I had the cord repaired by a journeyman electrician from my shop. He did it and I watched him do it properly. He used heat shrink to cover each and every wire so they wouldn't ground out of eachother and then he heat shrinked the sheathing back on not once, but twice, for extra water proofing.

Before and after the wire repair the pump did not work. The controller went into alarm when I tried to turn it on.

The tunze wavebox housing was also in poor condition. The casing was damaged and scratched.


Here are some more pictures of the condition of this unit as purchased:



I suspect this may be the reason that the unit does not work:


As you can see in this photo the CT transformer(?) has a fair bit of risidual dust surrounding it. This is after I stupidly cleaned it up a bit before taking a photo. It looked like the transformer was fried as there was smoke residue surrounding it before my inner martha stewart kicked in and cleaned it.

Here is was the pump propeller looks like. This picture isn't the greatest but you can see that the propeller is not in "great condition". It looks like the plastic propeller was chewed up by something. Perhaps sand?



So in conclusion this unit was not in "great condition" as promised. I may have high standards but I would rate this unit as "poor" condition as it doesn't even work. I tried to contact this seller numerous times to no avail. I asked him to please do the right thing and either repair the unit for me or refund me my money.

I wasn't born rich. Like almost everyone on this forum I have to work for the money I spend on my tank. This was a waste of $250.00 plus shipping and I want other out them to learn from my mistake and please be careful. It's unfortunate that I live in a remote location and could not have viewed the unit beforehand. I wouldn't have purchased it had I known.

To end on a positive note I want to thank all the great sellers and buyers I have had the pleasure of meeting off of canreef. I've had a handful of positive buys off of here and this one bad one won't stop me, but it will make me a lot more cautious about he classified section. Please please please whenever possible go to see the item in person. And also thanks to everyone who has sold me fantastic stuff. I'm more than happy with all the other things I've gotten from canreef.

[Howdy]

Could this not have been taken to PM's? I am sure the buyer is likely a reasonable guy and would have compensated you to some degree of satisfaction had you not sold him out for everyone to see.

I also think it is up to the buyer to request pictures if they are not picking things up in person. I am sure it worked fine for the seller prior to the sale of it so it doesn't sound to me like he was doing anything shady or fishy.

I am sorry you didn't get what you were expecting but that does happen on occassion and I really do think it is the buyers responsibility to take extra precautions when buying things sight unseen.

[Nano]

true but for $250 you expect to get your moneys worth.

[tim the toolman]

Sight unseen is always going to be a risk. And I think you forgot to blot out the sellers name a couple of places. This is what pm is all about I think. You win some you lose some and the seller seemed genuinely willing to help with your concerns. The shipping procedures on a standard parcel can sometimes be quite rough and careless so it may have been working before it was shipped.
Sorry to hear about the wasted $ though.

[Cal_stir]

Looks like it's in POOR condition to me, I would have been disappointed even if it was given to me, would have had to waste 10 seconds of my life throwing it in the garbage.

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by Cal_stir

Looks like it's in POOR condition to me, I would have been disappointed even if it was given to me, would have had to waste 10 seconds of my life throwing it in the garbage.

I guess different people have different ideas of "great condition"

[reefgirl189]

Originally Posted by Howdy

Could this not have been taken to PM's? I am sure the buyer is likely a reasonable guy and would have compensated you to some degree of satisfaction had you not sold him out for everyone to see.

I also think it is up to the buyer to request pictures if they are not picking things up in person. I am sure it worked fine for the seller prior to the sale of it so it doesn't sound to me like he was doing anything shady or fishy.

I am sorry you didn't get what you were expecting but that does happen on occassion and I really do think it is the buyers responsibility to take extra precautions when buying things sight unseen.

If you would scroll up and re read my post you will see that it mentions that I tried numerous times to contact the seller.

[Jakegr]

This is why I wish Canreef had seller feedback. Thanks for posting.

[reefgirl189]

Again, this post is not to bash the seller. It's to warn everyone to be more careful. I learnt my lesson on this one. I'll know for next time.

And again, I tried numerous times to contact this seller after his recommended repair failed. It was nice of him to suggest a method of repair however I personally don't feel as if I should have had to repair the unit to begin. It was promised to me in great condition after all, but I tried to be nice and went along with it and gave him a few free chances.

I'm not bashing him. I'm sure he's genuinely nice guy. Everyone makes mistakes. However I don't feel that this unit should have been considered "great condiiton" and I'm upset that my calls and PMs have gone unanswered. My only intention with this post was to warn people to be careful and see before they buy. Obviously I shouldn't have been so trusting.

I don't have any hard feelings towards the seller whatsoever and if he decides to be nice and refund or repair the unit for me (as I suggested in some of my unanswered PMs), I will be more than willing to come on here and praise him for being a stand-up guy. I sincerely hope he does give me the chance to do it too.

[Casey8]

I don't know about another company, but if anything has been sent through Canada Post, make sure that you pay a bit of extra money for the insurance on your item. I used to work there for a few years as a mail sorter and my husband is also still working there, so both of us know very well how they handle items. We have seen many parcels a day thrown in the air (by us) into the big bin and how they landed with a big loud broken sound from whatever was in there.