Never buying from a reefer again

[Bergovoy]

Well,

I am at a loss for words. some would say that drama needs to follow me. I guess that must be true. For my choice is to accept what others seem so naturally incluined to do to me, or to fight back.

For now, I coose to fight back.

I bought a fixture and ballast from someone here, Bubblemonkey.

he advertised the items as NEW, and in perfect condition. I even researched the threads to find any discussions he had about the items.

The threads seemed to support his claims of when he got the itmes and what the conditions were.

I bought the items from him, only to find out, he opened up the fixutre, end ended up "... needng to re-attach severael wires..."

When I emailed him about that, he conveniently remembered, and apologized about not telling me, but he "... heard or thought something was loose and noticed the wires to the HQI sockets were loose, so he re-soldered them..."

The solder job was the worst I have ever seen. He literally laid the wires on top of the other end and dropped a glob of solder onto the two wires.

He used heat shrink tubing, but did not know to shrink them, so the insulation just slides up and down.

So, coincedentally, the two wires that were loose, are exactly next to each other at the connector.

Coincendentaly, he was planning on changing the ballast to a blue wave VII, (so he would have needed to change the connectors, (except, he should have used the connectors from the fixture ballast so he could use the quick disconnect...)

He was going to change the ballast because the fixture mfg has a bad history of ballasts that burn up, and ...

Coincendentlyy, when he was testing out the fixtures and the ballast, that orginaly ballast did in fact burn up during a 3 minute test.

Imagine that, knowing that he would get the defective fixture and ballast that he heard so much about..

Coincedentally, he forgot to tell me that the fixture is not new, and it is re-worked DIY project (failed)

Coincedentally, the original problem he said he fixed in the ballast
, ( a wire that was "... probably a ground wire that was screwed to the housing...") was still there, and it wasnt a ground wire, it was a connector wire to the T5 bulb end.

Coincedentally, even thought the fixture fired all bulbs, he got shocked and the ballast arc'd, so he through out the ballast.

He questioned me as to why I went inside the fixture. And when I explained to him that I did not have the original ballast, only the conenctors he cut off, and that the connectors are not labeled, I had to figure out which connector went to which fixture, T5 or HQI or fan.

When I opend up the fixture the first thing I saw was the broken T5 wire that was screwed to the housing. I then noticed the two lead wires to the HGI bulbs that were re-soldered to the connectors at the exact same spots.

I asked him why he would advertise the items as NEW and in PERFECT condition, and he explained that he thought I would be rewiring the fixture anyway, so he was not concerned about his solder jobs or the fact that the solder jobs had no insulation...

I asked him to credit me back less then half my money or trade me other items.

He is basically discounting the whole issue claiming I got a good deal to begin with, even though no one else was jumping at the deal, and he even lowered his price to sell the items that were listed as new...

Bubblemonkey is just that.

I wil not accept being ripped off. If someone s\ays it is new, and they know they went inside and rewired / resoldered things, they are fraudulent. It is a good thing I went inside, if I would have plugged the Blue wave into the fixture as it was, the blue wave would have burnt up too....... And I wold be out all my money...

Be careful who you buy from. do not buy from strangers...