Harman Kardon on uBid (1 Viewer)

[JasonWaddington]

I figured i should point this out since I already snagged one for myself. Harman Kardon receivers are all over uBid right now. AVR320, AVR520, and AVR8000. They can all be had for around half retail price, a little over for the 320 and a little under for the 8000. If you need a new receiver with great warm musical sound, check out uBid.

 

[Mike Kao]

A while back I bought a refurbished AVR-320 for myself and a AVR-220 for my friend on Ubid and they both ended up being defective. On the 220, the green LED's flash on and off and stay off for days at a time, which is quite annoying. The 320 was working fine until just recently when the right channel amp section blew; it no longer outputs to the front or rear right channels. I contacted ubid about the problems and told tell me to contact Harman about it. It's a real pain b/c now I have to take it to the shop where they usually hold it for several weeks in which I will be out of sound :frowning:
Well I learned my lesson to 1) never purchase from Ubid
2) avoid factory refurbished equipment. If they were defective previously they just were never meant to function correctly
Here's my story about ubid concerning their telemarketing scam along with unwarranted order cancellations

 

[JasonWaddington]

well this would be a pretty largescale scam. we are talking millions of dollars going through that website. its hard to believe they are a big scam with all the buying that goes on their and the fact that they havent been shut down.

 

[Daniel T]

I have purchased several harmon/kardon products off UBID and have never had a problem. My receiver is the AVR55 and it was new. Had it for several years and no problems. Purchased a refurbished CD changer and it has been running strong for 4 years now. Maybe newer harmon/kardon products aren't up to par or the shipper who you paid a high price for threw your box around without any care.

Daniel T

 

[Carl Johnson]

I bought a new H/K avr75 from ubid about 4 years ago and after 3.5 years of use it started acting up on me. The strange part is that one of the channels is dead when connected via any of the RCA jacks but it works fine when I connect my CD player via the optical input. I've since upgraded my home theater receiver to an Onkyo and I'm still using the H/K in a separate stereo system hoping that it it continues to work properly with the one functional jack. Regardless I won't be buying another H/K receiver any time ever, I've read too many horror stories about their reliability, or lack thereof.

 

[JasonWaddington]

i have heard of reliability problems with every make out there, so hk is not much different from anything in that dept. i dont think refurbs are a problem, after all, they are up to the original man. standards, so whats the diff?

 

[Eric_G]

I have to chime in. I have purchased many items from Ubid, including a HK 320. It was completely dead within two days. I don't think Ubid is a scam, but there certainly seems to be issues with the refurbished HK stuff.


Eric

 

[Mike Kao]

Actually upon further testing, my rear right channel IS working, however my front right channel is still defective.

If refurbs are up to 'orginal manufactured standards,' than I supposed those standards must have been fairly low to begin with. OMS is a bit gimmicky IMO, as most manfucturers locate and address the original stated problem rather doing extensive testing on all other aspects. If the device was defective to begin with, those certain defects may very well lead to other problems or perhaps simply be an indication of a fault-prone unit.

I'm not saying that all refurbs are lemons, however, I'm saying you're taking a larger risk by going refurb than purchasing new. It's like buying a used car. I've bought refurbs that worked flawlessly, however more so than not I've had problems which is steering me away from that route in the future.

 

[Andrew Santos]

i've bought from ubid a number of times, and while i wouldn't say their customer service is great, or even good, the products have been alright so far. we got a 787 last winter off there, refurbished, and as far as i can tell the only reason it was considered refurbished was becauase the Onkyo emblem on the front was a little chipped. otherwise, it works perfectly fine.

i've also bought a couple pairs of sennheiser off there, and they seem to working fine.

so yeah, i just thought i'd share.

 

[JasonWaddington]

so should i cancel the order? i dont want to get something that is messed up....it does come with 2 year warranty, thats pretty damn good.

 

[Mike Kao]

Ubid doesn't allow you to cancel orders. Of course your winning bid is a binding contract and yet they DON'T have any obligation to fullfill orders... which is why they seem to suspiciously cancel orders for coincidentally unbelievable low winning bids. I won two Infinity IL100 subs for $159 each which was a steal at that price, and they cancelled my order... strangely their infinity products now have reserve prices :rolleyes

 

[Tim Baldwin]

I have bought three pieces from Ubid - an H/K CD changer, a Newcastle receiver, and a Citation amp. They were all new - not refurbs, and I had/have zero problems with all of them. I will buy used but not refurbed - my philosophy with cars is pretty similar - I find when they start breaking, they tend to keep breaking. YMMV

 

[Aaron H]

I remember when Ubid was dumping a bunch of the Acurus amps a few months ago. Everyone seemed to be really happy with them. I just wish I had the cash at the time.

Aaron

 

[Dave_Olds]

Although I dont mind buying refurbished products and actually endorse it....There is no doubt from the piles of complaints Ubid is suspect in their policies and customer service. The shipping is apprehensible price gouging.....

From what I have read - its a dice roll. You get something and have no problems or get something and its a nightmare, there is no in-between just because uBid is horrid with customer service and handling of returns....You will also see posts about bids that were won and uBid didnt even have the product available...They seem to have no problem backing out of their end of the "contract".....I bookmarked the site and intended to buy from them and read the boatload of complaints at a consumer comment site and decided against it....I just cant remember the name of it or I would direct you....Does anyone know of the site that logs consumer experiences and opinions of suppliers?

 

[Aaron H]

Here's one.
http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2050.html
I've never thought to look them up on this site, but when I ust did. Wow. Absolutely horrible.
Aaron

 

[Jeffrey Chin]

i have purchased many items from ubid
it is hit or miss w/ them, esp w/ components
i never had any problems w/ spkrs from there

 

[Angelo_Petralba]

I have bought ALL my wharfedale speakers from UBID (2 sets of Modus 1.6 and a set of Diamond Anniversary) and also a JVC Car Stereo Receiver, A Toshiba SD-5700 DVD Player and Sennheiser Head phones...I've not experienced any problems (knock on wood) so far. The shipping is quite expensive but the prices are SUPER cheap that in the end, you still SAVE.

I feel sorry for the ones that got ripped off..I guess I've been pretty lucky!


Good Luck
Angelo

 

[BryanK]

Jason, I purchased a refurbished camcorder from u-bid about 8 months ago. It did not work... E-mailed them... within minutes I had a reply, conformation of the return, not only did they take back the camera but the attachment With the mail was a UPS shipping slip that I printed out, taped on the box and gave to a driver. Any UPS driver in the country will take it. Something new UPS is doing.
my money was credited back (in full) within two weeks. Would I ever buy anything from them again? Probably not, but there customer service was phenomenal for me.

Good Luck with them.
Bryan

 

[Paul Clarke]

I'm with Angelo on this one. I've made numerous purchases from Ubid since Feb. and have received nothing but quality merchandise. Everything H/K came with a two year original warranty. Most other audio electronics sold there have little or no warranty. What does the comparison tell you?

If you get an H/K product and it has a problem you do exactly what you would do if the darn thing had been purchased new. There is no difference. THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE.

Thanks to Ubid I now own:

4 Wharfedale Emerald 97 towers (New w/3 yr warr.)
1 H/K 510 receiver (Refurb w/2 yr warr)
1 Parasound 855A 5 channel amp (New w/10 yr warr)

...and a bunch of other stuff too numerous to mention.

S/H can be a rip but the outlay in price more than compensates. Besides, some of this stuff is heavy.

 

[ilyak]

I DONT TRUST UBID! i have tried ordering several items their; speakers. First they were out of stock of them even when i already had won the auction for 4 weeks! so i called them and they agreed on giving me my money back and free shipping on my next order! so i thought i could give it a whirl again, so i ordered some kenwood speakers ( i thought they were good in the day :! hah, well, i got the speakers 2 weeks later, all messed up, cracked down the middle, drivers unscrewed, woofers warped and very very bad. wasnt a new item like auction said, thats a prob with ubid that i hear, is if you order new, sometimes they send you referb, i would be EXTREMELY careful with Ubid.