QTH.COM Swap Chat

Bought FT-900 from KF4RRN on 5/24/03 by paypal.
He shipped promptly and packed well. But, a few things wrong with radio that was supposed to work "100%". First, modular to 8 pin adapter was wrong one, so PTT did not work with hand mic supplied with radio. I rewired adapter. Radio is a little out of alignment, which might be expected for its age. Manual copy is not good quality, and some pages are impossible to read. Crack in top of bezel in front. Cooling fan does not turn on when transmitting, so gets very hot. Speaker rattles at moderate volume. Will be 100% after I get it back from yaesu.

Sheezzz...I wish you would had contacted me first before slamming me in a wide open forum!

First: You knew about the mike adapter, I let you know upfront. I had it wired for VOX and it worked fine here.

Second: The radio was well packaged as you mention, the bezel was not broke before it left my house. The rig was in outstanding shape.

Third: I operated the radio for many hours, never noticed it being off alignment--ridiculous--and the fan was working. Now, if the fan stopped working after shipment, which is very possible, the 990 will definitely overheat. Any overheated radio may seem off alignment under those conditions.

Fourth: The manual WAS a copy, I told you so upfront. I never claimed it to be a professional reproduction.

Fifth: Speaker rattles, yes, I noticed that but there is nothing wrong with the radio. Is just the cheap speaker Yaesu uses. It would still rattles after it comes back. Not my fault.

We could had worked something out but instead you decided to come here and slander me in open forum. Next time, give the sellers a chance before you slander them in public. I am sure there is people here that have purchased equipment from me and know I deal honestly.

Carlos. KF4RRN

Just a reply to KF4RRN's post.
Carlos, you sold the rig "as-is, no refunds offered" so there was nothing to contact you about. I take feedback forums like this very seriously, and the main purpose of them is to provide a mechanism for keeping sellers honest and accountable. They are not supposed to be simply for praise. The notion that I should have contacted you before posting is not right. I stuck to the facts and did not get personal, "slam" you, or slander you in the least. I'll address your comments below:

First, you said "I bought a modular to eight pin adapter from Heil and installed it. It works just fine. " You said nothing about the PTT not working through it. It does not "work fine" if the PTT does not work through it. I shouldn't have to ask every conceivable question about something. It's incumbent upon you to say what doesn't work, or that it only works through VOX. But like I said, I rewired it correctly and now all functions work just fine. This was a small inconvenience.

Second, the bezel was broken before it left your house. I have gone back to the pictures that you emailed me and you can see the crack in one of them, now that I am looking for it. You had to have known it was there because you had to look at it whenever you looked at the top front of the radio. It's a small crack, but it's a crack that now I have to look at every day unless I want to replace the front panel. You should have mentioned this because it's not visible in most of the pictures, and this is a big deal to some people, including me.

Third, the rig is slightly out of alignment, which is to be expected for its age. It is not due to overheating, since this is the case in receive before even transmitting. This is no big deal, but this disqualifies it from being "100%." 100% means that absolutely positively nothing can be found wrong with the radio. It is possible that the fan stopped working due to being shipped, although it's hard to imagine how this could occur. I simply stated that it did not work. I didn't say that it didn't work when it left your possession.

Fourth, yes you did say it was a copy of the manual. But since you didn't say a poor copy of the manual, it was very reasonable for me to assume that I would be able to read all of the pages. I should not have to ask if it's a totally legible copy. I did not expect a professional copy, just one that I could read to learn the specifics about the radio. I simply stated that it was not a good quality copy, as it wasn't.

Fifth, I have been able to determine that the rattling sound with the speaker was due to bits of crud beneath the speaker grill that would bounce around on the speaker cone at moderate volume. I could see this happening as the bits bounced up and hit the grill. I have been able to vacuum most of them out through the grill and the rattling is almost gone. Therefore, it was not yaesu's fault by putting in a cheap speaker as you said. This was not a big deal either, but was unexpected and was another reason for not being 100%.

There is nothing to work out when you sell a radio as-is. The buyer takes a big chance when buying under such conditions. That's why I sent you several emails (to the point of being a bother), so I would know as much as I could about something that I would potentially buy. I think that maybe you do not consider minor things to make a radio not 100%, but they do. A seller should err on the side of being overly critical about the condition of their equuipment, so that a buyer will be pleasantly surprised, if surprised at all. I am generally very happy with the radio, but these little things were unexpected, especially after sending you so many emails with questions. It is appropriate to note such things in a feedback forum. I am sure there are people that are happy with their purchases from you, as I generally am.

I see nothing wrong with W4SWR's original post and I saw nothing libelous, I didn't even think badly of KF4RRN. Unless we all use the same grading standards, each person is bound to set their own standards. 100% to KF4RRN may be 90% to someone else and vice versa.

ONly thing I will say about Carlos KF4RRN is that in the past 2 years I had a couple of deals with him and always he was very pollite and told me the exact way his equipments were,he never said they were 100% but nevertheless for me what I purchased was in exelent condition,he is a man of his word and If I have to deal with him again,sure I will.One more thing,trough the deal we were doing the communication between us by email was always daily,he kept me updated of everything and the items arrive my home just in time as he promised,thanks for reading this.

Hector
AD4C