Icarium

Nod. Thanks I may take you up on that. I'll see what his next response is going to be. Maybe my last email was too forceful.. well hopefully he responds.

Yeah I dunno that I would want any of you involved in this as its the very least going to be time consuming, awkward and a hassle.

He has 3 that I've heard of :/ I was thinking maybe engaging a private investigator to do a little bit of legwork at the location for me before I fly out. Hourly rates seem to fit my budget closer than a lawyer or forensic accountants. I'd like to know where all his places of business are and perhaps his routine for how he frequents them so I can not have him dodge me. I dunno that might be going too far. Shrug.

Yeah if it comes to that I will. I don't have a lot of vacation days saved right now so its a toss up between that and a Canada trip I have in April and Canjam 09. I can do all three np with what I have now, but I like to keep a week's worth in reserve just in case. So it's just a matter of timing and figuring out exactly which events I want to go to.

Yeah definitely what sort of research this weekend and next week will entail if I don't get it shipped by Saturday. I just sent this email to him: So what is the deal? Have you turned in your plan yet? Deadline is tomorrow. You can't not ship. At this point I don't care what your accounts payable person says. Ship it. If you do not then let's begin talks regarding you buying the amp off my hands as I no longer want to deal with it. And if you are unwilling to discuss that then I will pursue other means of satisfaction. Sorry for the "threats" though I have every intent of carrying through anything I am claiming as I have already begun the research legwork, but this is the final deadline. You agreed. I agreed. This is it.

Hrm certainly that looks cost prohibitive. I'll probably still call one up though and maybe ask a few questions as that is close to free. The Atty General idea is one I'll look into. I need to thoroughly research the definition of fraud first. Hey here's to hoping he ships something awesome though and comes through.

It's a good idea, but organizing customers esp ones that aren't on head-fi/head-case might be tricky. If a steady stream of big ticket customers break rank or aren't informed then he'll simply allocate his time towards those that are willing to pay up front or simply without escrow. He probably needs money to operate anyways. Also on the other hand if his business IS in dire straits financially then we risk giving him the death blow driving him into bankruptcy or worse and then its sadtimesx2 as far as getting what we are owed from him or even a busted/work in progress/incomplete thing. Sure he says he's doing fine, but he says a lot of things. If he fails to ship anything this week I'm going to research looking into the process of hiring a forensic accountant. If the cost is not prohibitive maybe we (Either I or perhaps a group of us who are owed something) can pull some money together and shed some light on the state of his business and plan our next course of action based on that.

Haha good question. I nominate Voltron or foo_me or mikeymad. I'm not going to buy blind. Not without the fear of rareness driving me.

I dunno about the 702, but I like the gs-x and k701 combo. I think it sounds pretty sweet.

Good luck Blubliss!

Very interesting headphone. At a first glance a lot of Qualia-like features on a very superficial level. I think I'll get my hopes up and hope that Sennheiser has actually put forth a fast and not sluggish headphone. I'll probably invest after the street price normalizes.

Hooray a reply: Dan, It should be Okay. I'll know by tomorrow when I turn in my shipping plan for Thursday through Tuesday.

Thing is money is the only leverage I have to get him to ship in the first place. If I don't use that leverage he very well may never ship my amp ever. What is there to compel him to ship my amp? Pleading... his word... threats of making public my plight... nothing has really worked. The only thing is he's been better about communication but words != amp. I've looked into small claims, but it's a very drastic solution that will not be cheap (1-lots of flights to colorado + accomodations + vacation days I need to expend to see this through) that won't recover the full amount of my investment (Max of 7500 dollars) nor the expenses I incur by pursuing it. And even if I somehow win and minimize expenses I have to deal with collection which not only is non-trivial but a pain to try and organize out of state. A class action law suit has been suggested as well, but I don't have the energy or experience to pursue organizing that. Moreover I don't know the state of his corporation or whether or not there is anything to tap even if we do win to cover the cost of the law suit and reimburse my expenses. Anyway I've only spent a couple hours looking into this stuff so if I have any wrong info or there is a path that I have not considered feel free to post a correction or shoot me a pm.

Yeah. I mean when I say legit feeling tracking # I mean I am not sending him money until I have verified that Fedex has something in their possession. If I get anything less than satisfactory I'm going to try initiate a dispute through my credit card. We'll see what the damage is provided I actually get it. It's been radio silence from Mikhail since the Monday phone call. I sent him an email asking for confirmation that shipping was cleared by his accounts payable person and that the ball is rolling on getting it shipped. No reply. I will send a similar email today.

Very handsome.

Yeah it's tricky though. I mean there's not much leveraging a delivery except for an exchange of money. He could just keep my amp hostage indefinitely if I play hard ball along that route and then I'd have to take more drastic measures into getting anything from him I've looked into a couple of potential solutions.. Colorado small claims court and maybe going directly through a collection agency or something. But the situation is complicated and not very well documented since 30 percent of all discussions happened in unrecorded phone calls plus since I bought the amp second hand. I'll pursue it more if he ends up missing this last ship date.

Well I did stress quite a few times that he better ship this week if he says he is citing many previous failures.. so maybe he felt a little antagonized which made him defensive. I don't know. Of course I've met very few people who've responded well and not defensively when being called out which was what I was doing to him though not in a public arena. Or maybe he was just deflecting and/or making an emotional play. I don't know! I just hope he follows through.

Anyway got a call from Mikhail ~8:45 pm pst. He told me that he will straighten things out with accounts payable (Something he said he'd do today, but whatever). He promised that it'll go out. He asked for 1000 on receipt of tracking #s and 250 the next month. We compromised at 750 on receipt of tracking #'s and 500 the following month. I told him I can't pay him until I get some legit seeming tracking #s (Fedex confirms that they have items in their possession). He was a little bit huffed when I was firm about legit seeming tracking #s. He talked about how this is a new policy with 2009 regarding getting paid prior to delivery since his business has been burned so many times and I immediately threw back well how many times has his customers been burned.. how many times have I been burned and that I am very unwilling to put another dollar in his hand without an amp in mine etc etc etc. He understood though he sounded a bit hurt, but whatever. Anyway long story short he said he would ship this week.. Fri/Sat to be safe. That I would be completely satisfied with what I get and that he would be sending me replacement headband bits as well to satisfy me on that front as well. I've heard this all before, but here's to hoping he comes through and doesn't pull a Tom Hankins on me.

You'd probably guess right... while I miss the old SDS the gilmore lite is definitely holding its own.

WRU balanced amp

Hey Neil glad to see you over here

Yeah it's a pretty nutty situation. Buyer beware and all that.

Yeah all those replies to me were today. He has been on the ball with communication. Of course that doesn't excuse anything.. not in my case.

Just got another reply from him he said: Dan, Let me talk to them and explain everything. I don't handle the transactions and the accounting, and it's a good thing, I have plenty to do. I'll call him tomorrow morning. I replied with this: Thank you Mikhail. I'm just tired of having to deal with this whole mess. Explain to him that I'm good for the money and I will pay you. I just want to make sure that 1. I have it back in my hands 2. That it is something I am satisfied with. Yes I will need new headband reinforcement bars since the current ones are not satisfactory to me as I have indicated for obvious reasons which you have the pictures of. I am also still interested in the AD1 tubes, but if money is going to be an issue for you to get things out to me then do not worry about them at this point in time. I will check back with you when I have the current invoice paid off and I have the money for them. The most important thing is having an amp I can be happy and proud of for me atm. This entire experience has been very draining for me and probably for you as well. I don't know how much more fighting/back and forth I can take regarding this item. I think this latest roadblock is the last I am willing to take. If there is anymore ridiculousness I will insist that he buy the amp from me and wash my hands of this affair and simultaneously doing some research as far as what legal recourse I have (I cannot imagine that there is any that is worthwhile to take, but I might as well do due diligence and ensure that is the case) as if money is a key issue for his business at this time he may not have the bones to even pay me what I paid for it which is a lot less than he initially received for it new.

Mmm.. not sure how I'm feeling about receiving my amp next week. On the first I sent Mikhail an email to see how we were doing about the deadline which was first week of January (Next week). Mikhail. It is deadline week coming up. You promised you could get it out after christmas. I made the choice to give you an extra week which you shouldn't have needed. This is the time to start packaging it up and let me know when the ship date is. You really can't ask more of me at this point... I have given you months. Come through for me please. He sent me a prompt reply of this: Dan, No problem. I do need to have the rest of the balance paid by tomorrow. This would expedite the shipping process much faster so I can place it ahead of the rest of the items and marked paid in full. Do you need another set of the headbands? The original agreement from as soon as he told me the total of the invoice was that since it was much higher than anticipated that he would let me pay it off in installments and was also subject to how much I like the finished product. So I responded with this: I had thought that given that the balance was greater than first anticipated you had agreed to let me pay it off over time. I can do another 500 upon receiving tracking #s and then 500 the start of next month and 250 the month after. I understand that there may be items ahead of it but given that we had agreed on this shipping time (After many missed deadlines) and that I would pay you in installments... has the situation changed? And he responded with this: Dan, We can do the $1000 payment and then the $250 later, but I need to put through since it's hard for me to get approval for shipment of items not paid in full. It is just that I do not handle the accounts payable, so I have to get approval for this. That's the reason for quicker shipment. I'll have it ready to ship by Monday. And so I replied with this: Sorry I simply cannot afford to do a 1000 dollar payment at this point in time and I certainly am unwilling to make a payment until I have some legit tracking #s. Perhaps I can talk to your accounts payable person? Sorry, but this is ridiculous that this comes out now when you could have mentioned this when we decided on a deadline in the first place. I don't know what's changed between now and then, but I insist on having the original terms we agreed upon followed. If this requires me to explain the situation in detail to your accounts payable person then so be it. Please give me their name and contact information asap and I'll try to have this sorted out. Maybe what he is requesting is reasonable. I don't really think so though. With his track record I am not sending any money towards him without something either in my hands or some reliable looking tracking #s. I am absolutely not satisfied with the headband he sent me which I paid 500 dollars of the invoice to receive and if the amp comes back to me with the same sort of work ethic as that headband there is no way I am paying another 1250 for that. I dunno who this accounts payable person is... perhaps his wife, but... Agh. Totally ruins my holiday vacation. Totally don't want to deal anymore. If he had hit a home run with the headband it might have been a different story, but it is incredibly hard for me to trust him at all right now. And him not being a shady pain in the ass with this transaction would go a long way towards repairing our relationship and that trust.