I think you can forget your money. Daniel, alias Dietrich, turns out to have a long history developing a nice relationship with people via internet and forums like this, and a few of his friends pumping his stuff, and then people get interested, he comes to your home and gets your
gets your money and disappears. I found out too late. I paid $8000 for his 8x8 amps on approval. He flew to my home in November with them, and left. (He was supposed to deliver the Omnigon which i order 6 months earlier but excuse after excuse on why not ready. but he came without the omnigon; later delivered in January!) After listening a couple of days to the 8x8,
i activated his 'refund the money after audition' offer and gave it back to him. He took it on the plane and still do not have my money back. He flew back in January with the Omnigon,
and was so charming and believable, that stupidly I put $17,000 down on Apolyt turntable that he was saying he was going to begin producing and deliver by April 2012. Within a few weeks i begin to hear stories from others on Audiogon who had done business with him and had the same experience of non-delivery and cheating out of money. i think what he does is take the product back and then sells it a 2nd and 3rd time.
There is much worse to this story. As I connect with other people, even in Germany, I find that they have been cheated out of substantial sums just like me. You got off easy. I have lots of emails substantiating these facts. I have asked him for months to repay the money he owes; at first he agrees, and then he starts 'spinning' lies. He is very accomplish at this, to the point i think he is a person who feels no guilt. Integrity means nothing to him. The experience of others, and myself, is that when he is confronted, he drops out of sight and then resurfaces for another victim.
I too have seen the ebay thread where 5 or 6 hears ago under the Asian alias "Kasugi" he got a whole lot of people to prepay for a book on audio he was writing, and nothing was delivered.
A lot of people cheated. Each time he uses his wife Axinia as the person to send the money to and the front person. So you are not the first, but one of many. That is simply an undisputable fact. I would be happy to forward that thread, a very long thread of people complaining he stole their money and disappeared. Axinia was the front person for Kasugi, because Kasugi is Daniel.
The sad thing is that his products are good. He is famous for the Apolyt table which has been out of production 15 years. So he got me to put some money down on it, and he is looking for other victims, who read on forums that he stuff is good, trust the people saying so, and not realize that they will wait years.....and he will eventually defraud them as he did as Kasugi and as Daniel to me and you. This is a person with a long history of fraud. He hurts the entire audio community that is built on trust. And worse, he is a masterful spin artist. I think he actually convinces himself that he is speaking the truth. He will 'spin with me', i send him rebuttal via his own previous mail and promises, and he goes silent.
I, by the way, have the Omnigon. I wish i didnt. If he ends up in jail, or stops doing business like the last 15 years because of reputation problems, what good is the warranty? How do you expect to ever get it repaired if needed when he cannot be trusted? He might have your unit for months and make endless excuses on non delibery and why the warranty is no good and want money or you don't get your unit back. I would never send the Omnigon to him because my experience is that he keeps gear like the 8x8 i let him take back, and it to others and does not give you your money back.....even tho he promised me money back guarantee after audition. NOW I FIND OUT THAT OTHERS were given the same 8x8 amp guaranteed refund, did not like it and returned it, but he has not returned their money. One of these people I know had this experience and that was more than a year ago. He tells me 'he has no hope because daniel does this'. Daniel hurts the audio community because trust is crucial. Sad.
