I've bought many things from BuyEssex, and have generally been pleased overall. They are a huge seller on eBay, located in Nashville. They offered Local Pick-Up, which worked out well, and saved me shipping. I've had several items that did not work, and returns were painless. I've also had bargains galore as well, including several surround sound systems (one of which is sitting in my bedroom), video game systems, a docking station for my laptop, rear-center surround speakers, etc. I've also had auctions that did not include the items I bid on. I've even recommended them to other people.
However, something else has caused me concern:
Feedback rating for BuyEssex
You'll notice they are no longer a registered eBay member (or NARU'd). There are several stories that have floated around regarding why (specifically from they, themselves, including they had server issues, and technical difficulties etc.) However, eBay has verified it was for "other" undisclosed reasons. Not technically related, but rather because of breaking the eBay TOS agreement. Exactly what, eBay has not said.
If you're to believe posters on internet boards and former employees, the real reason was shill bidding. This is the process of artificially inflating your auction prices by having fake accounts to bid up the selling price. If this is true, it seriously calls into question their honesty as a company, good prices or not. They've already shown they can be completely untruthful by floating various untrue reasons for there eBay blacklisting and eBay storefront closure.
It only seems fair that this should be cleared up immediately. It's a fairly big story across the internet among eBay users, because they were one of eBay's biggest sellers (Top 5 seller). Shill bidding is second only to selling items you don't have in the DO NOT's of eBay users. (It's completely dishonest and unfair to the eBay community). If true, isn't this something that should be considered when deciding where to shop?