Narrative:
I responded to an audiogon ad by using the "send email" feature to initiate contact with the seller. Audiogon sent me an email indicating that my message had been forwarded to the seller. A link to the classified ad was included in the email from audiogon.
Shortly after submitting payment to the seller, the seller marked the ad SOLD. A couple days later, the ad disappeared from the Audiogon site.
A week later I received a turntable that was considerably different from what was described in the ad. The seller refused to refund my money. In order to prove that the seller had misrepresented the condition of the turntable, I needed a copy of the Audiogon ad. I tried to revisit the web link to the ad, but the linked web page had "expired." I contacted Audiogon and provided the web link (which contains the ad's item number) in my email. Here is Audiogon's response:
We did search for the ad using the [provided] number, and thats all that
came up. It's possible he EDITED the add and removed the turntable after
you bought it. We do not have any of that copy, as all we can save are
current or completed transactions, not edited text thats been removed by
the user.
Sorry we can't assist you.
Audiogon Staff
As I mentioned above, my ad was marked SOLD, so Audiogon should have saved a copy. What probably happened was that the seller marked it SOLD, and then withdrew the ad before Audiogon could take it down and save it.
Even if Audiogon did keep a copy of the SOLD ad, Audiogon openly admits that it doesn't keep track of any changes the seller makes to the ad while it's active. This leaves open an opportunity for fraud, as a seller can alter an ad once you've submitted payment. Audiogon does not date/time stamp or track changes to the ad's text, so there is no way to conduct an audit. Furthermore, once an item is marked SOLD, a seller can pull an ad so that it's no longer accessible to anyone (including the Audiogon staff!).
So, it's important to know that Audiogon cannot be relied on to maintain a record of a seller's actions. You should assume that unless you save your own screenprints, that you will not be able to recover the original advertisement or any changes made to the ad by the seller. You are on your own.
(Fortunately for me, the seller eventually agreed to refund my money.)
