Hello Folks,

I had an interesting talk with someone who won an HDTV for bid on eBay. The TV worked for 7 days and then stopped working. After opening it up I told the person that I can repair it but it was going to cost $600.00 or more to get it working properly again. So the customer said no problem and I began working on the TV, after a week I got the set up and running (New Power Supply/Deflection board, and a new Signal Board (doggie pee covered with powered freshener is bad for these items). Now I never realized that a person would sell such an item, but looking at it, the seller knew that the doggie pee was going to do something bad, so what did they do? The recouped their TV losses by selling it on eBay. The buyer dealing in good faith is a willing victim. I got the TV set repaired but the buyer learned a good lesson, and that is to check things out thoroughly before using them. The final cost was $750.00. A costly lesson, but I must say that it prompted me to write this and tell anyone who is thinking about buying items like this to open them up and inspect them, even if it means getting a TV repair person to check it out.

Thank you,

Shuttle832

One of the problems I have seen is that folks don't realize that if something you sell does not work as it should, it ruins your profile and makes it less likely that future sales will go well. I have repaired a lot of equipment for people selling on ebay, and I speak from experience when I say that the extra money spent on making sure a device works is well worth it. I have had only 1 bad experience with this myself and lost $360.00 for my troubles, but I have myself to blame for this because, I was new to ebay and did not understand certain dynamics. Now I only deal with certain individuals and I can say that my experiences now are better. This "as is" tail I often see, to me signals a red flag, or at least a caution to the buyer. I would suggest to any new ebay buyer that if you see "as is" remember the device is being sold with a question mark and that means certian issues are not going to be disclosed, so if you feel "hinky" about the sale "opt out" stop bidding on the object, or better, don't "opt in" start bidding on the item. If you feel that a piece of equipment is going to arrive broken, be prepared by having a repair person check the device out for you. This way at least you know if it works rigjht away as opposed to not knowing at all.