To whom it may concern:
I am writing to report a bad seller/company on eBay called aiegaming (also known as alliance-intl). They are based in Bear, DE. I have had two bad transactions with them and have lost over $400.00 in purchases since December.
My first encounter with alliance-intl occurred early/mid December. I purchased an Xbox 360 bundle (total of $150.00) from them as a gift for my cousins; though I did not receive the Xbox 360 until *after* Christmas, I nonetheless gave alliance-intl a positive rating after initial brief testing of the Xbox 360 (i. E, powering on, controls are responsive, no rendering issues or general hardware problems)— thus far, they had kept their promise of sending a '100% Perfectly Working' Xbox 360. I gave the Xbox 360 as a late Christmas present. Shortly after New Year's, I receive a call from my cousins stating that the Xbox 360 obtained the Red Rings of Death (RROD) after several days of play. Despite all they had told me, I still backed alliance-intl, saying they probably played too much on the console for a set period of time, causing it to overheat/malfunction, and told them it would be best to get it fixed without returning it to the company. Though this was embarrassing on my end, I went ahead and sent them money ($75.00) to get it fixed locally since I wasn't there to see if it was actually their fault or something wrong with the Xbox 360 on account of alliance-intl.
I decided to buy an Xbox 360 for myself (since I could now play on Xbox LIVE with my relatives up north), and thought that based on the failure rate of Xbox 360 Pro's, I would buy an Xbox 360 Elite (which in retrospect, was naive on my part). Again, since eBay has many decent sellers, I went and bought an Elite console (for $280.00) online, purchasing it as a "Buy It Now" from aiegaming— it was then I noticed after submitting payment that aiegaming and alliance-intl share the same address in Bear, DE. I don't like to judge people, so I said I'd leave objective feedback based on the item I received.
The wait period for the Xbox 360 was quite long as well— though I purchased it on Jan. 2nd, I did not receive the console until late January (just as the previous 360). I only played a total of six hours on that console (approximately two hours a day, with several days in between); by the fourth time I turned on the console, I received an E74 error. I sent aiegaming a message via eBay; someone did contact me within 24 hours and told me to send it back at my discretion. They did not mention any reimbursement for sending the console back, even though I asked if they would reimburse the shipping fee since I did not try to void their warranty or do anything out of the ordinary with the 360. I did send the 360 back ($25 and some cents for shipping and insurance), and again, two to three weeks later, I receive a different Xbox 360 Elite.
Upon turning the console on, the fans began whirring rapidly; though I tried to eject the disc tray, the drive would not open. Within 30 SECONDS of turning the console on, the system shut itself off and began flashing two red lights in the upper and lower left quadrants. Online research indicates that the system overheated... in half a minute?!
I tried to analyze what I could have done to cause this, but after checking all my bases, I realize that I *couldn't* have done anything to the system (it was well-ventilated in a 70-degree temperature controlled room, and directly plugged into the wall). I tried using numerous online suggestions for fixing it (short of opening the 360 and breaking the seal, which wasn't even the original MicroSoft seal according to online photos) and even called MS's hotline for help. Again, I tried to contact someone from aiegaming/intl-alliance; this time, no one responded to my e-mail or eBay messages. I e-mailed them every other day for a week, and tried calling their customer service hot line, which was always busy or just kept ringing.
Finally, I tried contacting PayPal and eBay to file a claim. Though the customer service reps were very nice, they said that since the 45-day period had passed, they could not do anything to refund my money, and that all they could do is take notes on what occurred and continuously try to contact a manager from aiegaming/alliance-intl, forward my case/claim, and hope that someone responds.
I guess the whole point of this report is, I'm hoping no other additional people get scammed/conned into buying their merchandise. One defective Xbox 360 is understandable; two broken Xbox 360's is just downright bad luck... But three broken Xbox 360's received indicates that the seller is clearly selling broken, defective, or partially fixed consoles with a VERY short lifespan.
I've done a couple of checks in the past couple of hours on seller ID: aiegaming, and it looks as they're not selling anymore products/consoles since March 6, but I'm not sure if that's indefinite or permanent. It also doesn't help that this person or these people have the several eBay ID's either. To some extent, it is my fault for not not heeding the negative feedback from alliance-intl or taking a good thorough look at aiegaming's feedback before buying from them, but I really can't help be feel I've been taken advantaged of and that aiegaming/alliance-intl is completely capitalizing on trusting eBay buyers, stalling for that initial 45 day period to end, and then ignoring their customers without consideration or remorse. If anyone knows how to file a police report, or knows how I should proceed as a legal course of action, it would be much appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to review this, and I look forward to your input/advice.
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