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Anyone here bought from this Soundbroker individual before?


pythagore

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I met this individual from the Klipsch forum, He mentioned that he is an authorized Klipsch dealer.

I checked his website and everything seemed fine.

I sent him an email about placing an order for a pair of RF83, 1 RC-64 and a pair of RS-62.

I wanted to know whether he is willing to ship to Ottawa, Canada. He said Yes, and told me that he is 30 minutes away from Vancouver, Canada and can actually drive accross the border and ship the speaker to me there.

I then placed an order for a pair of RF83, 1 RC-64 and a pair of RS-62 on January 14, 2008. I paid him via my AMEX card

my credit card was charged to its name for the amount of $3728US on January 15, 2008. He promised me to ship the speakers within a week and will email a tracking number as soon as he shipped them..

3 weeks later, never heard from him. I called him and asked him to give me an update on my order. He acted as if he didn't rememeber anything about the order. I followed up with an email that detailled the order and my address information, and reminded him about this order.

He later replied to me that he has shipped the speakers and the shipping company told him that they tried to deliver the speakers many times and no one was home. I replied to him that I have someone home every day in my house, and it is impossible that someone tried to deliver anything, and I never received any delivery notice either.

I replied to him asked him, which shipping company did he used, and can he send me a tracking number. He simply gnore the request and replied that he contacted the shipping company and the shipping company told him that the speakers has returned to their warehouse. He tried to tell all types of nonsense.

I asked him again which shipping company was it and doesd he have a tracking. I contacted the carriers (Fedex, UPS, DHL) asked them to check their database from January 15 - to present to see whther there is any shipment sent to me, they all checked and told me no. I then asked him to please reimburse my Credit card. I never heard from him since. Before I take this matter further, can you guys let me know your experience with him.

Thanks,

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There has been a member claiming to be sound broker from time to time. Here is a link to see if he is a Dealer

http://www.klipsch.com/find-a-dealer/

Also contact Klipsch here to let them know of your Problems...............Good Luck

Finally Contact Am Ex and stop payment (reimbursment).............They will Take care of it I am sure.

The SoundBrokers contact info.

http://forums.klipsch.com/members/TheSoundBroker.aspx

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With so many red flags and a refusal to provide confirmation of shipping - and so many unsupported claims that you have already identified, i would initiate a chargeback now.

The shipping story is totally screwy - and easily substantiated and verified if true.

Send him a registered letter demanding an accounting of the alledged shipment.

Save all correspondance, emails and copies of the bill for any long distance calls.

You might also want to contact your local police as well.

And perhaps both Klipsch and a lawyer(if for no other reason than to discover what info you might need to keep or obtain...)...

Best of luck.

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I found weird that an authorized Klipsch dealer would do something like that,but you can't help to wonder since he did say he would cross the border and ship them from Canada. I would have to assume he would do it only to avoid customs taxes which is of course illegal and no need to say it would not be easy to cross the border and no one noticing those huge boxes in the back of the van. May be you should check with the customs, they might have a pair of RF 83 for sale [*-)]

The good news is you paid with Amex and if you report the incident they will give you the money back and go after him. Been there done that.

Good luck

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I know Soundbroker ... I worked with him to buy a Danley DTS-20 subwoofer. He followed up on the telephone, helped me through a few challenges and a field repair on a defective amp. All in all, a really nice guy and a reputable person to deal with. He's contributed to this forum for a number of years and, while he promotes his business from time to time, his comments are straight up and on target.

There has to be a problem with the communications. This just doesn't sound like his behavior. I have known him to be very busy, but he has always gotten back.

I'll shoot him a note and see if that can't jog something loose. He's a good guy; there is a non sequitur here.

Chris

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I know Soundbroker ... I worked with him to buy a Danley DTS-20 subwoofer. He followed up on the telephone, helped me through a few challenges and a field repair on a defective amp. All in all, a really nice guy and a reputable person to deal with. He's contributed to this forum for a number of years and, while he promotes his business from time to time, his comments are straight up and on target.

There has to be a problem with the communications. This just doesn't sound like his behavior. I have known him to be very busy, but he has always gotten back.

I'll shoot him a note and see if that can't jog something loose. He's a good guy; there is a non sequitur here.

Chris

I left a message for him ... Hopefully he'll get back to you ASAP and get this straightened out.

Chris

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Chris,

Thank you.

I just finished talking to him. He said, that the shipping company said they received all the speakers back, but the Center channel.

They told him they expect to get the center channel back On Monday.

He said he is trying to get to the bottom of this and will try to ship them back to me via Fedex next week.

My feeling is, he either does not have the speakers in stock yet, and is trying to buy time. But he could have tell me that and I would have understand.

Ok, I'll wait for one more weeks.

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pythagore,

Well, you may be more patient than I would want to be. There are so many red flags with this guy, I think you would certainly be justified in doing a charge back through AmEx. So far this is unacceptable.

Chris Robinson having done business with this fellow is the only redemptive point I can see here among several deal breakers. If it weren't for that, I'd think the worst. I do think it's worth giving the soundbroker one last chance.

Klipsch LLC should also have feedback on this transaction. I know this is not up to par for an authorized dealer.

Best wishes in getting all resolved to your satisfaction.

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I'm glad that Kevin got to you, and I hope that he makes things right. In over three years, this is the first negative comment I've heard about him, so my inclination would be to give him the benefit of the doubt and the chance to rectify things. As in most things in life, there are days that all the holes in the swiss cheese align and stuff falls through.

The other side of the coin is maybe Kevin's business has gotten to a scale that he needs to expand his support services to ensure good customer service. This might be the event that finally gets him to tighten up that part of his business. When I've spoken with him, he was usually at installations or trade shows, and seemed to have many balls in the air.

In the interest of prudence, you may wish to alert your cc company and see what your options are. If the speakers arrive in damaged cartons, you will probably want to reject the shipment or inspect the product for damage. I don't do this stuff enough to be good at it, but there are folks here who do it all the time and are well-versed in proper and prudent procedures.

When all is said and done, there is no way that Kevin would want to mess up a deal on this board, let alone hint at impropriety. Nobody would want the bad press to Klipsch and its finest fans, we loons who adore the company and its culture, and the fantastic products it designs and manufactures.

Chris

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Guys,

Thank you very much for the help. I contacted my Amex customer service, they said no worries. They will waive the amount and start an investigation.

I'll wait a week more and then I'll buy the speakers locally. The thing is in Ottawa,we only have just a single klipsch dealer. And they charge almost twice the price you can pay in the US.

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Lots of possible scenarios. Many possibly legitimate.

But in any event, a bill of lading or a carrier name and/or confirmation should be available. Regardless of the current status. Period!

The refusal to provide any of this is the red flag.

And if he is opting to use an untrackable carrier, you are simply begging for a problem.

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This is Part of what Kevin "the sound broker" wrote:

I've agreed to drive back up to
Canada, pick the speakers up, and take them directly to FedEx on Monday
and forward copies of the shipping documents to the customer. This has
to fall under the "no good deed goes unpunished" category.

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Sigh. Talk about a furball situation. Folks here is the deal. I agreed to sell this system at a decent price to Jean because he was a forum member. I took it up to be shipped out of Canada to save him a boatload of money on freight since Canada to Canada rates are a lot lower than US to Canada and I'm only 20 minutes from the border. I have a lot of folks come down to visit me from B.C. because the Canadian dollar is so strong. I waited in the hour long lines both ways, paid the border crossing fees (no, the speakers were NOT siezed and yes I got them into stock...sheesh!) and dropped them off at a shipping company just across the border who handles this stuff all the time. I've used them a couple of times on some used gear and a Danley sub. Problem started when the employees either put the wrong labels on the boxes or the wrong address into the system and they became misdirected. Fortunately, they received all the gear back in good shape and I've agreed to drive up, pick them up and take them directly to FedEx for re-shipment.

Those who have done business with me know I am fair and honest. I try to go the extra mile to help folks out and try to take particular care of forum members and Klipsch lovers. Now this has exploded with e-mails from my Klipsch rep and I expect I'll probably lose my Klipsch franchise over this one infraction. This is an example of what happens when you try to do a good deed and it blows up in your face.

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