I have finally finished processing the contents of my eBay purchase:

Item name: Lot of 18 HP servers DL380, DL360, G3 and G4 in a RACK
Item Id: 160369531990
End time: Oct-21-09 09:57:54 PDT
Buyer: wombatsound
Email addr: ebay@wombatsound.com

I bought with the Buy It Now rather than wait until end of auction risking to lose over $451.00. I did this 10/21/09 and paid via PayPal immediately.

4 and a half hours later, I received this message from you:

"thank you for your purchase, to make sure everything works we will run another test on each unit. please allow 2-3 days before you get a confirmation that the lot was shipped."

25 hours later, another message:

"Ok so i need to explain something to you, today when i went to test the units again i notice there was one missing, one of the DL380 G4 was not there, i asked around and someone needed one so it was sold, the one that was sold is the first one of the list (1x 3.4ghz/5gb/6x 72.8gb 2x P.S) so we decide to ask you how we can make this up to you, so we have two options, we give you 18 72.8GB hard drives for the rest of the DL380 G4's or we refund you $720.00. Please let us know and im sorry for the incovenience. if you have any questions you are welcome to call me at 714-543-5011"

Everything from then on was handled via the phone.

Regarding the first message: "another test" was suspicious since auction stated "They were all tested one by one and everything works in them."

When the second message arrived, it was assumed the retest was to buy time, and after reading it was the first I had a hint that all machines were not populated with HDs as pictured. Then the realization that something that I bought was sold and then all the eBay horror stories ran through my head with those that got stuck in these situations. Sale vs. stock, picture vs. description.

So happily, we worked out that the auction would include what was pictured, and a replacement G3 w/6x72G was offered for the missing G4 and we didn't have to change the price or anything. I was okay with that deal and I assume you guys as well with keeping the $720 and also gaining the $451 from the BIN price. That's how I justified it in my mind at least.

... and here we are today after I have finally got these machines all up and running and tested. I needed to get all the proper SmartStart CDs to get in there and do the proper testing.

Here's the results:

  1. At least 4 36G drives are bad, red lights and read/write failures
  2. One 72G drive is bad, red light on power up - controller says to replace ASAP
  3. The G4 you said was sold is in the rack, but w/6x36 so now I have a 1X 3.40Ghz rather than a 2X 3.40Ghz/800Mhz(1 Mbyte L2) G4
  4. One G3 had only 1X 2.80Ghz/533Mhz(512 Kbyte L2, 1 Mbyte L3), not 2X 2.80Ghz
  5. One DL360 2nd SATA bay won't work - tried multiple drives, etc - I think the backplane is broken where the cable connects.

I verified that the missing CPUs weren't dislodged in shipping and are not actually in the machines. The 1X G3 is labeled on the front on a sticker that it only has 1 CPU yet auction mentions no 1X G3.

So in summary, I am missing 2 CPUs I thought were coming. There are bad drives: can't miss the red light with an X through it when you power up the machines, and one DL360 only has one useable drive bay.

Sorry this message is so long, but I wanted to fill in the recipient if not familiar with this particular eBay deal and I needed to cover 18 machines in much detail and it took me a while to complete

Please advise how to proceed. Thank you.