Krazer-
you just insulted and accused some of the most respectable members of this forum which is completely uncalled for. I think you may want to re-think your position and your opinions before you make accusatory remarks such as those.
as far as the trade-
it seems to me, and this is just my opinion, that everything was laid out here in this post as to what each was getting.
Ben-
Sometimes you forget that you, yourself have had VERY bad trades in the past. my point of that is not to say that you "deserve" something going wrong to you now, but you need to remember that just as you always have/had an excuse as to why something went wrong, or as to why something didnt work as described, you need to cough *this* trade to the same.
jim quite clearly stated that as far "as he knew, from the information he received" this laser had only an hour on it. you posted that, he posted that. ok, clearly he was wrong. but that was the info that he received when he purchased this laser. that was the info that was a stipulation of this agreement that you 2 made. "he was under the assumption that this laser had 1 hour on it." it was documented to him as such.
i think you 2 are so pissed at each other that you are nitpicking each and every little negative thing. rightfully so. however- if you 2 didnt have such a poor track record with each other i think this outcome would be much more positive.
i personally dont think either of you misrepresented anything. i think you both got EXACTLY what was described to you (under the assumption of the information that was presented to each party with their respectable pieces of equipment)
ben, you quite obviously have a vast knowledge and seemingly endless array of test equipment and inside info and such for all of these lasers. that is great, but not all of us have access to this info. jim presented this sale as a laser with 1 hour on it becasue that is what the documents and sales person (or whoever) told him when he purchased it.
you have the "inside scoop" and key commands, or codes, or juimper settings to dig deep into the eeprom of a laser and see its exact settings and times. jim (nor most other people) have those luxuries. so they need to rely on information presented to them.
both sides of this trade were based on each others *HONEST* assumptions of what they were selling/trading. when you sell or trade used equipment there is always some sort of risk involved that something may not be as advertised. it alot of times is done maliciously, but in this case, it was not.
i personally honestly think that if there wasnt such a poor negative history here, jim *probably* (and i could be wrong) would have been willing to work something out. but ben, again...the old saying comes into play...your past will always haunt you. defenses were automatically up in this trade. and when things started to not go your way, or there were hold ups, or customs holds or delays, or demands from jim, you began to go on the offensive.
you cant do that.
its like somebody with bad credit bitching and moaning that their interest rates are extremely high. well, they're high and youre being "punished" so to speak becasue of the mistakes you made in the past.
i think you could sit back and honestly agree that if this trade was reversed (you gave jim the over hours laser) your defense if he got pissed at that would be..."jim, when i bought this laser i was told by the "X" salesman that this laser had only 1 hour on it. i also have the documentation that says it has only one hour on it."
now, please understand i am not saying that i think this trade went well. i agree 100% that the laser was *not* traded fairly. but, it was never misrepresented or maliciously traded as such. and unfortunately ben you were on the receiving end of a bad trade. and in this case a bad trade that was unavoidable. there was no way of knowing this outcome or knowing the findings that you came up with.
this was a hefty trade. lots of money and valuable equipment involved. both sides "assumed" they were getting exactly as described pieces of equipment. it didnt work out that way. what can be done now, if anything, to rectify this??
ben, you need to understand, if jim has no desire to make good on this, it is a lesson learned for you. just becasue something doesnt go exactly the way you want it to or expect it to, does not mean that you automatically go on an offensive and accuse of wrong doing. just as you felt slighted in the past for people accusing you of "ripping people off" jim (who has a much better "credit history" than you) is just as pissed for you accusing him.
-Marc