elgrillo Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 Anyone purchase equipment from Ubid? wondering what your experiences with them are. Are they basically the same thing as Ebay, or is Ubid supposed to be better? Are manufacture warranties held up when you buy from ubid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange Peel Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 All I've heard is horror stories with people getting broken equipment and absolutely crap customer service. I would never buy anything from them! Stick with ebay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vladi Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 I used uBid once, and it was the last time. I purchased a rather expensive item, a 24" Sony Widescreen Computer Monitor. It was advertised as referbished. I received the monitor with damage to one corner during transportation due to poor packaging. The monitors wighs 100 lb, and they packed it in a single wall carton with two foam pads, not the original packing at all. But it was working, but it was not even close to referbished at all, the colors, contrast and all settings were off by large amounts. Ubid offered either $50 credit (towards a $1200 purchase price), or return the monitor. I wanted it so badly, and there were no others available to bid on at that time. Fortunately, I found a built in feature in the monitor that when activated, it restors itself (all color balance, and other settings) to factory spec. The monitor worked excellent everafter, and I kept it. But I will never buy again from uBid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen328 Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 I bought a pair of JBL n28s on ubid this summer. They have a $400 msrp and I paid $29 each. What a deal! Overall they sound great, but beteen 100hz and 150hz the cabinent rattles. Moreso on the right than left. Its really not a problem though, I just set my crossover to 150 hz. If I had paid $400 I would be angry, but for $29 each, I'm not complaining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpg Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 I almost bought something there until I saw that the shipping was 5.99+.99 per pound... the item weighed almost a hundred pounds each, so shipping times 2, then price each times two, still better than buying for MSRP (or $50 off as my dealer claims he can do- ya the heck right) but not in my price range anymore. I have not heard any horror stories, but the price for shipping made me steer clear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 eBay is an auction house. It does not sell anything. So everything depends on the particular seller. uBid sells goods, as well as hosting auctions for other businesses. You might want to check the archives for threads on uBid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougdrake Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 As suggested, search the Forums for UBID. There have been some discussions on this in the past. I bought an Acurus A200x3 amp from Ubid when Klipsch was closing those out. It arrived very fast, double boxed, with no problems whatsoever. And, I got it for less than half of retail. Klipsch products sold through UBID themselves (not one of their merchants) carry the full manufacturer warranty. Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkbks Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 Ebay does not handle merchandise themselves. Your transaction is with the seller who could be an individual or a business. Usually there is no warranty. Ubid sells their own & selected companies goods--there are no individuals involved. The merchandise is usually refurbished or discontinued, but often is covered by a warranty. Like most "auctions", it's a crap shoot - good buys can be had but not as often as you might think or wish. One feature that I do not like is that the auctions don't have an exact ending time (unlike ebay.) They will keep extending the time as long as there are recent bids. I bought a HP 3-in-1 printer for a decent price but found that the ink cartridges had dried out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbry39 Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 I bought my Parasound 1205A 5-channel power amp from Ubid for $649, new and with full factory warranty. It arrived safe and sound and I've been loving it ever since. I was disappointed that they didn't double box the thing though. I also bought a Toshiba DVD player for the kids for $29. This was a refurb and only came with a 90 day warranty. So far, so good on the Toshiba. My biggest frustration came when I missed getting an Aragon pre/pro by a about $20. I have heard horror stories about them also, especially goods damaged during shipping and the problems getting Ubid's correction of these problems. Also, I agree that their shipping charges are way too much. Will I shop there again? Quite possibly. For instance, if I decide to move up to 6 or 7 channels, I might check out their offerings for a decent monoblock or 2 channel amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b-man1 Posted October 23, 2002 Share Posted October 23, 2002 i've bought 3 different sets of klipsch speakers from ubid for myself and friends...and also a cheap-o cd stereo for my winter beater and have been very happy with them. they haven't always shipped the fastest, but all were delivered in excellent condition and the prices i paid for the speakers were a joke...so cheap i still laugh about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrPyro Posted October 24, 2002 Share Posted October 24, 2002 Basically the moral of the UBid story is use at your own risk. When they don't play games on not having a product, they are usually very fast and reliable. However some have gotten bad tastes from UBid's games. I have (and will in the future) purchase stuff from ubid, simply to save $$$, but If I don't get it oh well...it was worth the shot... -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vladi Posted October 24, 2002 Share Posted October 24, 2002 uBid ... check this out http://www.ubid.com/actn/opn/getpage.asp?AuctionId=8050377 and pay attention to the title, the picture and detail description. Title says Infinity speakers, while everything else points to Klipsch RP-3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelstano Posted October 25, 2002 Share Posted October 25, 2002 I have purchased multiple pairs of speakers and a digital camera from uBid. My 1st order was slow to ship, explained by a change-over in the warehouse system. Otherwise, everything has come quickly, undamaged, and as described. Some of the speakers were AR indoor/outdoor--same model as in Crutchfield, for $50/pair instead of $200. Shipping is outrageous, but, if one is careful, the item plus shipping can still be really inexpensive. My only problem with uBid came when I bought from a "preferred seller" (or whatever they call it)--this is the part of uBid that is like eBay. The seller tried to jack the price for shipping when he didn't get what he wanted for the item. Since, I have quit looking at anything that is not in the uBid warehouse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krusty46 Posted October 26, 2002 Share Posted October 26, 2002 UBID is great as long as everything goes smoothly. If you have a problem, good luck. And you would think with how much they rip you off on shipping, they could to handle returns better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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