N0YB bad deal

[K9FBI]

I bought a radio from Larry N0YB.
I asked him all of the usual questions. Condition, age, accys, any problems.
His reply was mint condition, works great.
Since he was going to be near my house for work I agreed to meet him about 40 miles from my home.
The rig was hand delivered to me in the factory box. It was in the trunk of his car. Never shipped. We agreed on a price. When I got home I turned the radio on. It seemed to work OK except for 2 meter receive After reading about the rig online it seems what I saw was normal item for this rig.
The next day I turned on the rig and spun the vfo it went dead. Every 500Khz the radio was dead for about 20khz. Did normal troubleshooting with no help. It would work OK after 10 to 20 minutes. I emailed Larry and he told me to try some things which I did. He said other owners in the club have not seen this problem. Then he told me to do a reset, which I had already done. His next response was "Another possiblility take off the covers and replug every connector and connection. Check every component to make sure nothing has come loose." I checked all connections, the rig was still bad.
Then he said " I did not have any such issues. I really don't understand.
Try this: It may be your power supply. Try it on a battery." I did and no fix.

Nothing helped. After several emails back and forth I asked him if he would pay to have the rig fixed or give me a refund since the radio did not work as he had stated.

Here is his reply
"I have a hard time with this as I did have the rig on low end of 20meters 14.000-14.050 CW the Sunday before I packed it for the trip. I experiened none of the symptoms stated below. The rig was fine. I talked to Icom and this is not a failure mode they ever heard of and the informaion is inconsistant with the radio's design as possible. Therefore I am not going to either pay anthing nor accept the radio back. I sorry are relationship has come to this.

Please do not contact me further.
Larry"

I took the radio to a repair shop and it did have a synthesizer lock problem.
It cost me a lot of money to have it repaired.

I will never buy anything from this ham again. He did nothing to help me when he sold me a defective radio that he said was "mint".

I thought it would be safer to buy a rig in person. Boy was I wrong.

I have bought and sold a lot of rigs online. I have had several problems that the sellers have taken back and refunded my money or paid 1/2 of repairs or just given me a cash amount for damage for rigs not working properly. I recently sold a rig that developed a problem after shipping. I gave the buyer a choice to return the rig or accept a cash amount to cover the repair. That is how good hams deal with problems.
Read feedback before buying anthing online. If there is any doubt pass up the hams with bad feedback.

[W1JCW]

Most would pay half for repairs or take the rig back.

After your drove 40 miles to pick it up, you could as easily return it if the guy
had any morals. It certainly sound like he was aware of the problem that's why he sold it.

I ask others, why are they looking to sell xyz ?

Good luck with that, to bad the guy is uncooperative with you.