On 2/1/08 I posted a WTB a programmer for my '98 T/A thread. I mentioned Power Prgrammer III or similar. The same day I get a PM from Reddevil00 saying I got the Hyperteck (his spelling) for $180 shipped. I respond asking him if that was his bottom line on it and responds telling me yeah, that is $200 off the price. I respond asking for the part number beacuse I was told that the computers are different from '98 to '99 and that the one programmer won't work with the other. He PMs me back giving me #32002 as a part number and says it's Max Power. I look this number up and find that it is the Hypertech Max Energy Power Programmer and according to Hypertech's listing at their site, it will work with my car and retails through Summit and Jegs for $379, so I figure that's a good deal and adds up to the $200 difference he was talking about. We agree on the price and next day I get a money order out.
I get the programmer on 2/11/08 which is a fair amount of time, but it is not the programmer he gave me a part number for. It is the typical Power Programmer III part #30025, which is for 1999-2004 Corvette and 1999-2002 Camaro/Firebird. Even if it was a PP3 for my '98, I would need part #30028.
I send him a PM the same day and ask what deal is and accused him of scamming me. He responds by telling me that is what we agreed on and he didn't like my attitude, and if he was scamming me, then why would he send me any part at all. I respond by telling him, that is why I asked for a part number. And then asked to return my money and I would send it back to him. No response. So the next day, I PM again and ask him for my money back and refer him to the PM where he listed the part number as 32002 and also ask him why do you think I asked for one to work with a '98??
Still no response to this day. And I have sent a few more PMs including an e-mail.
Do you think there was some confusion or did he just want to off this programmer even to someone with the wrong year car. I just don't understand why he gave me the Max Energy part number. The sticker is still clearly on the back of the programmer along with the part number and lists what vehicles it is for.
After my second PM, to fix this I checked out his Trader Rating and found that someone else from here had an issue with him by selling a part that was suppose to be 34mm instead or 36mm or visa verse. And there again, he would not make it right.

 

Your 1st mistake was telling him you needed a programmer for a 98 - you should have just kept that to yourself and asked him for the P/N of the programmer. That way he wouldn't have a chance of lying about P/N just so he could get a sale, since he wouldn't have known which one you actually needed.

2nd was not asking for pics that show the actual unit and the P/N designation.

Not excusing the seller, and it's sad that you have to resort to such tactics when buying - but just remember, it's all about covering your own a$$ and taking care of #1

 

You are very much correct. Thank you for the buyer's advise, I will most definitely be using it in the future.
Now I can't even verify if he put his car back to stock so I can attempt to sell the programmer and get what I need. Any ideas on that??
Thanks again, appreciate the info.

 

I can honestly say I'm no sure how the Hypertech works in that issue - I have a Diablo Sport Programmer that I used way back when before I started using EFILive. With that programmer, if the unit had been used by first owner, ithad to be returned to mfg. upon the new owner buying and the unit had to be reset for a fee.

It may be that with the Hypertech all you have to do is plug into appropriate year car and then it would tell you if it had been cleared by previous owner and was ready for use by new owner. If that is the case, you would need to find a friend with a car that is same year car programmer is for, and test it out to see if it has been cleared so that you could sell it in good consience.

Someone that has had a Hypertech needs to chime in with their experience...