Ripped off by Audio-Magus  

Also reported here:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f11/au...ervice-423413/

Welcome to Head-Fi!

And both reports are first posts .

^ I hate it when newbies come with VERY IMPORTANT!!!1! information as well but I think everyone appreciates the heads up. I do. Thanks and welcome to head-fi.

I too was ripped off by AudioMagus. Ordered a KingRex T20U + PSU for $450. They said it got pulled for review by Customs, and so did the webpage for the item, so I said I would wait. A couple weeks later I decided to go with a Virtue Audio TWO (fantastic amp BTW) and told them I wanted to cancel. No response. I called diligently at least 10 times in the next 2 weeks and sent a couple emails to Brian Johnson, who I had been exchanging correspondence with.

Then I decided to see if I could get a response from them by inquiring about shipping time for the T20 under a different name and email address and sure enough I got a response the next day saying the item would ship in a couple days. Well, that got me fumed so I sent an email to Brian basically telling him he had till the end of the week to respond or I would pursue legal action.

That's when he fessed up and told me that they were the victim of a bad economy and credit squeeze and are trying to save the company, nobody's collecting paychecks, refunds would be processed as funds became available, etc. Having had a very positive experience with them in the past and trying to make the best of a bad situation, I told him he could ship the amp if in stock. That was 13 days ago and the last I heard from them.

Now I have filed a Paypal dispute (added the PSU via PP after the initial amp order) and well... not sure what comes next, but I am not very hopeful about getting my money back at this point. I checked my order status on the site and it now says shipped, but who knows if it really did.

Does anybody know if banks usually offer any kind of buyer protection with checkcard purchases (Visa/Mastercard ATM card)? Has anybody ever been ripped off online and been able to recover their money? I got scammed like 10 years ago and at the time I was told by the local courthouse that all I could do was fly to the state that the other party resided in and file a small claims suit. (Right...) Anyway, I hope some consumer protection laws have been passed since then, but I haven't been able to find anything like that via Google search. Even if you do sue and win, how do you get money from a company that has none and will probably file for bankruptcy if they haven't already? I think we're pretty much screwed... but I hope I'm wrong.



I was a little sympathetic toward them because they used to be a great company offering great products at affordable prices to our little niche market, but seeing now how they've been dishonest and completely unresponsive during these hard times... well, that was their biggest mistake. They could have had a chance to save the company with an injection of capital but now the word about their unsavory business practices has spread through the community so they are toast.

If you searched here, you would have found this: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f11/au...ervice-423413/

If you searched the internet you would have found this: Audio Magus - audiomagus.com - Reviews, Ratings and Prices at ResellerRatings

You lose.

I have more than one post and this is an excerpt of mine from another forum... (I use dots too )

in before the lock


also to the OP, I really don't know what kind of forum you think this is, but coming in and cursing at members with your 10 posts won't have you here for very long. If you've been roaming the boards for a while before signing up you should know that

Yea... the members lounge is pretty tight, so people who are lying jerks tend to get shredded.

Hey everyone claim down. The thin-skin of newbies and the paranoia of older members are both getting out of hand here.

But I gotta admit I'm curious what was the point of ka-booms "you lose" and "people who are secretly laughing hysterically at you, and couldn't possibly care less about your sob story" except to make other members hope ka-booms gets deeply burned in the future at some point too.

Those screwed by Audiomagus, keep bothering them. You may eventually get some sactisfaction.

I think you're reading into it way too deep. I was kinda wondering why I was called a "****** bag" and a "prick."

When you don't do your homework, when you don't do your research on the person/company's reputation, when you don't take a couple seconds and research the seller - you lose. And quite frankly, you deserve to be made fun of because there is an abundance of information available in the form of seller feedback, if you choose to be naive and ignore this information, well, I'll leave that up to you..... It's these same naive people that ALLOW shady sellers like that to stay in business by buying from them.

Ignorance is bliss, so they say.

I'll just say, when you're declaring forum members "couldn't possibly care less" about another's post (thanks for taking that job on), a post seemingly at least as much to warn the community as to wine about misfortunes, you really should take a deep breath and ask yourself if the community could care less about your jabs. Funny, those cracks that may just be considered a tiny bit self-righteous. I mean you toss those out there because you think we'll appreciate the wise and/or witty zingers, right? Ones like this - what were you saying about "ignorance is bliss" again?

To be fair, the OP mentioned that he/she last heard from the seller six weeks ago. He/She also mentioned in another thread that he/she purchased the pre-amp in March 09.

The first link from Ka-Boom was a thread created this month:

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f11/au...ervice-423413/

Unless the OP has access to a modded Delorean, how can he/she have read the warning thread?

As for resellerratings.com, back in March there was only one negative rating versus two positive ratings.

Note also that the OP of the other thread bought from the retailer in March, not May when the number of negative ratings has increased from one to four.

AMagus ripped me off too

Here's the email i sent to KRex in Tawain. Deal with them directly. They will iron things out...at least that's what they told me.

My name is David S. I purchased a Kingrex T-20 and PSU unit a couple of years ago from audio-magus here in the US. I can't find a contact for US representation so i am contacting you.

I was blown away by the product. It was better than any system i had ever owned. I wanted to go for an upgrade (worst decision of my hi-fi life). I sent it back for the Auri-cap upgrade and Panasonic cap upgrade. After getting it back the T-20 stopped working. I mailed it back for repair. I got it back and this time the T-20 and the PSU stopped working. I sent them back again for repair, in either October or November of '08.

Well, after 5 months and countless emails and phone messages, i finally got the T-20 back in late March. I got no explanation as to why it took so long, or why i was never replied to via email or phone message. Now the T-20 has been sitting in the box, unopened, for the last 7 weeks. Part of me doesn't even want to open/plug in the T-20 for fear of it breaking again and having to deal with audio-magus once more.

I am still waiting on the PSU. They told me that had to get a new board shipped from China. Well, it's been almost two months now and still no PSU. And, again, they won't return emails or phone messages. I am disgusted by this whole issue. Brian J(xxxxx@audio-magus.com) is the person i have been dealing with. I am about to go public on every audio hi-fi forum i belong to and tell this story. It's a joke, because i have never gotten this kind of bad service. Is there anything that can be done on your end to help me out with this. They still have my PSU and won't return emails or phone calls.

When i did talk to someone(just before they sent back T-20 this last time) they told me they were having financial problems. I am beginning to see why. Still, this is no excuse for this kind of service. I look at it like they have stolen from me, because they still have the PSU.

Thanks for your attention.


KRex told me they are pursuing issue. I too made a cold call from a different line(they obviously have caller ID cause they ignore my previous calls) and they answered. That's when the guy told be about the financial issues. I don't believe it. Just cause you have financial issues doesn't mean you treat your customers WORSE! There's no hope in that case. They would be finished as a business even if they recovered.