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I have tried to be very patient and have a calm and constructive dialogue with Gary since I placed my order on the 23rd of June.

Up to now I have refrained from posting on any site as I believe that everyone should be given the benefit of the doubt and that nothing can be gained by further inflaming the issue. I am disappointed that Gary does not seem to appreciate that all I wanted was honest answers and to get what I had paid for.

Unfortunately it seems that others are getting the same run around so I thought I should share my experience

Here is a selection of emails I have received from Gary

23 june

received your order Colin, this should be shipped to you within 3 weeks or less, our backlog is massive and we are getting orders out as quickly as possible

please email at anytime for any questions or concerns at all or to get a status

appreciate your business very much


16 July

Colin, we are going to be shipping 30+ orders in a few days, this will take care of most of our backlog of Oppo orders, we have so much interest and orders now that it is taking us a bit longer to get players out

thanks for your patience, we appreciate it very much, any other questions or concerns at all please email me back at anytime

18 July

Colin, sorry for the delays in getting back with you all you guys

we have received a large shipment of Oppo players that will take care of every order we have received up until this point, we will start shipping mid next week and will have all Australian PB orders sent by the 25th roughly

I apologize for the delays with this, we are using a source for a higher quality region free kit which has not arrived yet, that is the cause of the delays

thanks for your patience with this, I know you will love your player, appreciate your business very much and please contact me at anytime for a update or if you have any other questions


20 July

Sorry Colin, thought you were on the Australian PB, your order will be shipping this time next week, would be sooner but we are having a hard time getting our region free hardware provider to cough up our order that should have been here 2+ weeks ago, funny we are full up of Oppo stock which is the opposite of what I would have guessed 2 weeks ago

thanks Colin, appreciate your patience with this, I am sure you are going to love your player


1 August

Colin, we have almost all of the current orders in our system complete, I have done about 6 or 7 SPDIF models in the past week and every single one of them has turned out perfect with all tested media from all different sources

I am sorry for your delays on this, we will have most everything out the door in the next 3 or so days

anything else just let me know


5 August
yes Colin, in process of going out right now

[invalid tracking number]

thanks and sorry for the delays


8th August

Colin, your order is in the process of being shipped, that is all I can say, you have filed your paypal claim and I will take care that your player gets to you

we have had problem after problem with suppliers and this and that, I won't get into the full details with you on that

thanks for your patience, appreciate it very much


He has not responded since then and now seems to have new supplier problems!

I let you judge for yourselves

Thanks for this Colin, nice to have some information.

You know, I've been through one-man shows before and it's confusing to me why Gary is making it so hard on himself when the solution is so simple: he just needs to update us here about the latest delays. A brief post every week or so would be sufficient. For example, I just received a pair of speakers I ordered two years after I paid for them, but the reason I kept my peace was that he was always very forthcoming with the reasons for the delay. There were financial issues, personal issues, supplier issues, poor business decisions ... it didn't matter as long as we were apprised of the situation. The reasons were certainly embarrassing, but all his customers were reasonably comfortable because he was so candid.

If it was just a supplier problem for the region mod or clock or whatever else, why can't Gary just tell us? Silence is not golden in this case.

I agree he's making it a lot harder than it should be. When you can't honor a prior commitment people want to be INFORMED. He could do it on his own website as well since he seems to be on multiple forums.

To the Aussies out there,

Anyone got their player yet? I'm currently overseas at the moment (been away nearly 2 weeks, back in a week) and placed my order in June, around the same time as Colin did (who has posted above).

I too have not heard from Gary since around 18-20 July.

Am I right that the DTV Aust powerbuy units have been received?

Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I logged a PayPal dispute on Wednesday (2nd Sept). Two days later, I have still not heard anything from Gary.

No new information on my part, but thought I would start a little historical tracking for fun, while we collectively wait.

My order:

- Player: BDP-83, RS-232 version
- Primary mod: Digital Transport Meridian Edition
- Secondary mods: Region-free mod, separately-drilled SPDIF jacks

* Ordered: April 29, 2009
* Received: N/A

I have finally heard from PayPal that they have approved my claim and that I will receive my refund in a few days. Now I am off to to buy my HD621!

Mark

I am not sure if all the DTV buyers got their players. These are the last threads that I am aware of

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=81090&st=0
http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=81524&hl=custom+HT

My guess from all that I have read, is that there seems to be major delays for anyone who ordered the SPDIF (Meridian version)

I NEVER BOTHERED WITH THIS GUY AGAIN DUE TO THE FOLLOWING:

Look back at the excuses given in the DVDO Edge powerbuy, it was pathetic.

Below was the two mails exchanged when mine arrived and I made a comment to him

Yikes, toothpaste will scratch the heck out of it. It might give it a nice even dull look

How long do you think I should wait before escalating my PayPal dispute to a claim? There is a 20 day limit, but it's already been one week without a response from Gary...

Something is clearly amiss. I was one of the first to get the digital transport mods and although it was a bit slower than Gary had originally promised, it wasn't THAT slow. I know folks who have done business with him over the years, and nobody had any real complaints, other than he does tend to overpromise a bit too much.

His silence on these boards, along with the lack of shipped players, would worry me - not sure how technical he really is, so fooling around with Bluray players may have proven too much to handle. Don't know for sure. There are also reports - anecdotal, to be fair - that the SDI mod does not work and that is causing him problems.

I think I'd escalate! Cannot recall if you have the HD621, but if not, put the mod cash towards the HD621, buy a stock Oppo and you'll be better off for it. To be honest, I have both a modded BDP-83 and an unmodded one, and through the HD621, so far, I can detect absolutely no difference!

Hi VK

Personally I think two weeks is a respectable amount of time to allow. It lends credence to your case, but sadly there's an air of inevitability about this anyway, don't you think?

Good luck with it...and to everyone else who's also in limbo.

George

Edit: I remember someone mentioning a few weeks back that Gary's mother was very ill. I hope everything works out well for them, but if events took a turn for the worse, that would certainly explain why he's vanished for now. In the circumstances it may well be easier to let Paypal handle all his refunds than trying to get his own head around the situation.