Bad Presario purchase from stealth189 (Jeff and Breanna Norton) on eBay

On March 8 of 2004 I purchased a Compaq Presario laptop computer on eBay from Breanna and Jeff Norton of Idaho, userid stealth189. The laptop was advertised as a Compaq 715us at 1.3ghz. The screen was broken, but it was described as running fine except for the DVD drive. I paid $345.

I didn't set the computer up after getting it as I was busy. Once I did, I installed linux on it and found that it would overheat if you tried to do anything CPU intensive like compile a large program. The computer would just shut down, no warning, with possible disk errors as a result. Not usable for linux, though probably fine for Windows.

Later research showed that some Compaq computers have this problem, though you would never find that just looking around. You have to search for terms like "overheat." This computer turned out to be one of those problem computers.

I didn't think the Nortons knew they had a lemon, but I do think that when a seller sells you an item (without saying it's an "as-is" auction) that they take the burden for flaws in the product. It's not the seller's fault -- but it is their responsibility. When you buy a product from the store, described as "works great", and it turns out to have a problem, the store probably didn't know about the problem, but they still take it back. It's part of the risk of selling.

So I contacted Ms. Norton to ask about this issue. Also, the computer turned out to be only 1.2ghz, not 1.3ghz as described, but this was not a big deal to me. (Though I have seen eBay sellers give serious discounts when they make such description errors, I did not demand one.)

She was unwilling to do anything. I offered many options, including my re-selling it and her making up the difference if I could not sell it for the same price, or letting her re-sell it, and was open to any other accommodation she might care to offer.

I'm writing this not simply because she refused, though I don't approve of that. I write this because she threatened revenge feedback if I left her negative feedback.

She wrote back to me:

If you feel the need to leave negative feedback about this transaction, do so knowing that if you do, I will also be leaving negative feedback for you as a difficult buyer.

Note that I had not, at that time, suggested I would leave negative feedback. I had simply complained the computer was not workable for anything but light-duty usage.

The concept of revenge feedback on eBay bothers me. Though I have no specific knowledge of it, I can't help but wonder if the high positive feedback rating of this couple is due to positive feedbacks left in fear of negative feedback. I paid for the auction immediately with paypal, and they had not left me the positive feedback that should engender even 4 weeks after. Paying is the buyer's only real duty.

Are the sins of the Nortons in selling the bad computer that great? No. They probably weren't aware of it, and so for them it was just bad news that the computer they thought was OK turned out to have problems. The real sin was a complete unwillingness to come to any compromise, what I view as a belligerent attitude when asked to help, and of course the threat of revenge feedback "as a difficult buyer." I suppose a non-difficult buyer is supposed to accept the computer that doesn't work without a peep!

FYI, here is the text of the ad for the computer:

Item Specifics - PC Laptops 
    Brand:  Compaq	    Hard Drive Capacity:    20 GB   
    Chip Type:	AMD Athlon	    Screen Size:    --	
    Model:  --		Operating System Included:  Yes	    
    Processor Speed:	1.3 GHz		    Primary Drive:  CD-ROM  
    Memory (RAM):   256 MB	    Condition:	--  
	

Compaq 715US 1.3 ghz. Has broken screen and won't read dvd's but will read cd's fine. Everything else works great. My wife used this as here desktop computer after the screen was broke. Powercord has been resoidered but works great. All the original software is included with the disks. Cheap desktop computer or can be fixed for $150-$200. I accept paypal or contact me if you want to pay another way we may be able to work something out. Buyer pays actual shipping.