I purchased a pair of Dynaudio Audience 70 speakers from Bernie James about a year ago. He is located in Durban and I am located in Cape Town. He asked for an immediate EFT into his account, which I did and requested pictures to be emailed to me. The pics were never sent and when the shockingly poorly packaged (2 floorstanders crammed into a single box without any wrappping) speakers arrived in Cape Town by courier at my cost, I discovered that the original tweeters had been replaced with metal dome Vifa tweeters. When I informed him of this, he protested ignorance, although he ironically claims to be an audiophile, but agreed to take the speakers back and refund me. I sent the speakers back COD and when the courier arrived at his house, he was abusive to the personnel and refused to accept delivery. The speakers remained at the depot for a week and I eventually had them returned to Cape Town at my cost for both trips. I later sorted out the tweeters with the help of a member of this forum.
I later learned that he had purchased these speakers from a seller in Pretoria, who sold them at a bargain price as a result of the tweeters not being the originals, and make a full disclosure thereof. This seller in Pretoria, who may also be a member of this forum, had some nasty experiences with Bernie James shortly thereafter, concerning a Musical Fidelity CD player.
I do not think that I need to state what I think of Bernie James! He taught me an expensive lesson. I must state that there are very few rotten apples in the audio enthusiast market and this has been my only bad experience ever.
