Sadoun Satellite Sales    (www.sadoun.com)

Satellite Wiz    (www.satellitewiz.com)

DMS International (www.dmsiusa.com)

Sadoun Satellite Sales    (www.sadoun.com)
 

I won an auction on Ebay on Thursday, July 6, 2007 for a JVI 10-DSM1 Dual Satellite SIgnal Meter and immediately paid for it using PayPal.

The company offering the item was Sadoun Satellite Sales (www.sadoun.com). Their Ebay store is
http://stores.ebay.com/Sadoun-Satellite-Sales
 

By July 16 I had not received it (or a shipping notice) so I contacted them.

The reply from Steve Speil (steven@sadoun.com) was:

Sir, the item JVI 10-DSM 1 Dual Satellite Signal Meter has sold out. We apologize for the inconvenience.  We no longer have these meters.  Please contact the billing office at 1-888-519-9595 for an exchange or credit to your account.
 

Sincerely,

Steve

Sales &Tech support
Sadoun Satellite Sales
www.sadoun.com
888-519-9595

Tech Support
www.sadoun.net

There are several things wrong with this reply.

1.  Sadoun auctioned off and accepted payment for an item they did not have.

2.  They did not notify me that they would not be shipping it. They waited for me to ask them why I hadn't received it.

3.  After it became apparent that they had screwed up they wanted me to contact another department to get a refund.

PayPal was of very little help. Their idea of help was to send my complaint to Sadoun.

There doesn't seem to be any way to contact Ebay. Their complaint link sent me to PayPal.

I called my credit card company and had them reverse the charges.

Satellite Wiz    (www.satellitewiz.com)
 

I had heard good things about the Traxis 3500 DVB receiver so I ordered one from Satellite Wiz (www.satellitewiz.com) on July 20, 2007. The reason I ordered it from them was because they accept credit card payment without going through PayPal.

By August 3 I had not received it (or a shipping notice) so I emailed them a polite inquiry. I received no reply.

I emailed them again on August 9 and received no reply.

Their web site does not list a telephone number or a street address. It should have been a red flag for me but I ignored it.

I looked up their domain registration on Network Solution Whois. It produces:

Registrant:

 414 W Sunrise Hwy # 272
 Patchogue, NY 11772
 United States of America

 Registrar: DomainPeople, Inc.

 Domain Name: satellitewiz.com
  Created on .............Tue Sep 21 23:59:59 2004
  Expires on .............Sun Sep 21 23:59:59 2008
  Record last updated on .Fri Aug 17 15:47:18 2007

 Administrative Contact:

  Cool Stuff
  414 W Sunrise Hwy # 272

  Patchogue, NY
  11772, US
   ( )6310000000
   ()
  sales@copydvdseasy.com

 Technical Contact:

  Cool Stuff
  414 W Sunrise Hwy # 272

  Patchogue, NY
  11772, US
   ( )6310000000
   ()

 sales@copydvdseasy.com

Since it does not list a telephone number I Googled their address: "414 W. Sunrise Hwy."  It is a UPS Store in Patchogue, NY:
http://www.ups.com/dropoff?autosubmit=1&Lang=eng&Country=US&Postal=11742&AirPickUp=no&GroundPickup=yes
 

I contacted my credit card company and had them reverse the charge.

I never did hear from Satellite Wiz.

DMS International (www.dmsiusa.com)

Since I still wanted the Traxis 3500, on August 22 I ordered it from www.dvbhardware.com and paid by PayPal (arg!).

I received it on Tuesday, August 28. It had not been shipped by dvbhardware.com, it had been shipped by DMS International, the manufacturer of the receiver (www.dmsiusa.com).

When I opened the package I found:

1.  A large dent on the top of the case that was accompanied by crush damage to the side of the case top.

2.  The connector to the front panel was not inserted in the pin housing on the PC Board. Presumably it had been knocked out by the impact that dented the case top or by other impacts.

I regret now that I did not take a picture of it, but I had no idea how badly things were going to go.
 

I plugged the connector back in and connected the receiver to my system.

It worked beautifully. The blind search is very fast and the User Interface is very good. The picture is good. I did not try out the USALS motor control but I expect it works, too.
 

I considered pounding out the case between two blocks of wood but decided to call DMS International first. (770-529-6800)
 

I called them on Wednesday, August 29, and spoke to Vicky. She was very nice (and very sweet). She was willing to send me a new case cover but had concerns that the pounding the receiver had taken might affect its longterm reliability so I agreed to send it back.

Later, one of her staff called to say she had arranged to have Fedex pick it up the next day.
 

Thursday - August 30

I was home all day. Fedex did not come. I called them up on Thursday evening and they said they would pick it up the next day.
 

Friday - August 31

I was home all day. Fedex did not come. I called them up on Friday afternoon and they said they would arrange for another pickup.

I said that they had already wasted enough of my time and I had no reason to believe they would ever pick it up.

I eventually talked to a Supervisor.

She said:

1.  Fedex had already paid the claim to DMS International.
2.  DMS International did not want the receiver back.
3.  There would be no pickup.

Monday - September 3 (Labor Day)
 

Tuesday - September 4

I called Vicky at DMS International.

She said:

1.  They had not been paid by Fedex
2.  They did want the receiver back.

Later, after she looked into it she discovered that:

1.  Fedex had paid them.
2.  Fedex claimed they had tried to pick up the package on Saturday but could not find it.

If they couldn't find it, it was because no pickup had been scheduled.

Besides, since when does Fedex make pickups on a Saturday?
 

Vicky and I discussed several methods for getting the receiver back to her:

1.  Have it picked up by UPS. (She said no.)

2.  Have me drive to a Fedex store in Reno (a 1.5 hour round trip for me). I said no.

Finally, she said she would send me a new receiver by UPS and for me to keep the old one.
 

Wednesday - September 5

In early evening, Fedex came to pick up the receiver.

I could have said, "No, I was told to keep it."

Instead, I was a Nice Guy and gave it to the Fedex driver to take back to DMS International.
 

Thurday - September 6

I called DMS International to give them the Fedex Call Tag Number so they could track it and to get the UPS tracking number for the new one they were sending me.

That's when I found out that they had sent the new one by Fedex, and not by UPS as they had promised.
 

Here's the thing.

The reason the receiver case had been dented so badly was partly Fedex's fault and partly the fault of DMS International.

The receiver was in a Retail Box with no padding.

The Retail Box was in a Fedex box with no padding.

There is a good chance that the new receiver will be damaged just like the old one (or worse) and then I will have to go through all this crap again.
 

I told Vicky that since I had been a Nice Guy and sent the old receiver back when I could have kept it, and because of all the aggravation I have been through, and because she had shipped the new receiver by Fedex instead of UPS as she had promised, she should make it up to me by sending me an extra Remote Control.

She said no, and then she turned into a Real Bitch. She suggested I ask either Fedex or dvbhardware.com to buy me a Remote Control. (Like that's going to happen.)
 

I don't care how good the Traxis 3500 is.

I will never do business with DMS International again.

You can make up your own mind about whether you want to do business with them.

I expect this story will continue when I get the replacement receiver.

And Vicky promised to read this article and sue me for slander. Actually, slander is for spoken words. When it's written, it's Libel. And it's not Libel if it's true, except for certain exceptions which do not apply here.
 

Speaking of the Truth, let's talk about something that is Not True: Fedex's record of this fiasco. Click Here.

They claim they tried to pick up the package on Wednesday August 29 at 8:39 am. I did not talk to DMS International for the first time until later that afternoon. (Perhaps Fedex has a Clairvoyant on-staff.)

They claim to have tried to pick it up on Thursday, August 30. No, they didn't.

They claim to have tried to pick it up on Friday, August 31. No, they didn't.

They claim to have tried to pick it up on Saturday, September 1. If they did come to the house, why? On the previous evening, Fedex had told me that DMS International did not want the receiver back and that no pickup had been scheduled.

Fedex shows it having been picked up on Wednesday, September 5 at 7:09 pm. That's true. But why did they schedule a pickup?
 

I was a Nice Guy and all I have gotten for it is aggravation.

I could have kept the old receiver and at the very least I would have gotten a spare Remote Control out of it.

But I was a Nice Guy.

I won't make that mistake again.
 

By the way, if you buy a Traxis 3500 and get S/N-0705k01520 you might want to ask a few questions. That's the serial number of the damaged receiver I sent back.

Jed Margolin
Virginia City Highlands, NV
September 6, 2007       

February 26, 2009

There is more about DVB Hardware and DMSI USA.

On February 20, 2009 I ordered a BSC321SP from DVB Hardware and paid for it through PayPal.

I received an email from DVB Hardware on February 23.

From: "Sales" <sales@dvbhardware.com>
To: <xx@yyyy.com>
Subject: BSC321SP Prime Focus Ku kit
Date: Monday, February 23, 2009 6:42 AM

Jed, do you know this has a Ku lnb linear 10750 ?

--
Jimmy
401-764-0186
Cband absolutely the best !!!!!!
www.DVBHardware.com   www.DVBResource.com

From: "Jed Margolin" <xx@yyyy.com>
To: "Sales" <sales@dvbhardware.com>
Subject: Re: BSC321SP Prime Focus Ku kit
Date: Monday, February 23, 2009 9:04 AM

Hi, Jimmy.

> Jed, do you know this has a Ku lnb linear 10750 ?

Yes, it's to replace a BSC621 which has lost one of the Ku polarities.

It's going on an old 4.5' spun aluminum prime focus dish with a patio mount.
I made a lazy Susan for it so I can aim it.

It's more trouble than it's worth but I hate to give it up. I have three
other small offset feed dishes (31" to 39").

(I had a 10.5' Radyx for 19 years before I moved.)


Regards,

Jed