Amp issue?

Maybe nothing is wrong with the amp. Buyers remorse.
He could have busted the amp.
Unless you said there was a warranty, or wrote it down, there is no warranty.
Unless you misrepresented it like saying it was "Metal Monster louder than any drummer"
The guy to be some lunatic and maybe you just want to give the money back to get him out of your hair, Be a nice guy, And move on.
Read the CL advise on selling things.

 

An appropriate response would be "Sir, I am sorry you feel dissatisfied now, but you came over to my house, played the amp, and chose to buy it. The sale is final. Have a nice day."

 

I'm with Seamonkey in this.

You mention cabinets so I'm guessing you sold him a full stack. Was the total wattage 400w or was each cab 400w? If it's the former you could get the speakers to crap out pretty easily, so he might not be full of BS. He just doesn't know how to use the cabs, that's all. You might want to check that they still work for you before taking them back though.

 

My biggest concern is that you don't know what was done to the amp. They might have abused it and damaged it. Maybe they found another used one that they prefer.

You don't own them anything and aren't a bad person for refusing to take it back. You aren't a store that offers a return policy. He tested it out, bought it, he owns it. He has to accept responsibility for his decision. He can sell it if he doesn't want it.

If you choose to return his money, charge him $100 rental. Your terms of he keeps it.

 

I would take it back (accept it as a return). Inspect it when it is returned. If he broke it, charge him $150 for a repair and call it a day. I suspect that he just isn't happy with it, and the marital strife is only background to that. More likely his guitarists are complaining that he can finally be heard!

 

Betcha ten bucks the amp sounded horrible over the wife yelling about it.
All in home sales are final imo. He had the opportunity to cranks it at your house, and chose not to. You always crank it if the speakers can handle it, to see if speakers, fuses, or anything else will blow.
Its up to you how above and beyond you go for this dude, but I personally wouldn't take it back

 

Well you're not actually running a 300 watt head into a 400 watt cab. Provided your cabs are matched, you're putting 150 watts into each 200 watt cab IIRC. Meaning those cabs are pretty much already at their limits.

 

Its not an issue. Each Cab has about 50 watts of spare headroom. He may be one of these guys that will never be happy with any rig. A good player that knows a bit about EQ can make any decent rig sound good.

 

If he's playing *really* loud it might be an issue. Otherwise, at this point he's probably just a hack or his wife is on his back.

 

If he damaged the speakers then you get screwed. Offer to go to his house and hear it. Then he can show you the problem. You are already doing more than necessary. If he declines then you decline to take it back. If he gets ugly tell him your sound man is an off duty State officer and wants to finish this conversation. Or your brothers or your hockey team are looking for someone to do, I mean something to do over the holidays. JK

All sales are final is a good answer.

I had this happen. I was selling a Datsun yes a Datsun, B210 for $300. It had $280.00 worth of new tires with nibs still on them.
It was a car a high schooler drives to and from school that's all. Guy shows up with his mechanic and pours over the car. List of ailments though it was safe. I said yep it's a $300 car. He left. 20 min later 5 guys show up look over it and buy it on the spot. They worked together in an auto body shop and didn't want to dirty their nice cars commuting so they bought it together.

A week later the first guy shows up asking, "where's the car?"

You can't warrant it after it leaves your house. Just because he can't sound like GeddyFlea doesn't mean your amp is broken. If his wife's yelling he should know her by now. So now he has to CL it like other folks. Wait til this happens during his sale! Think he'll take it back?

 

I wouldn't ask him anything. It doesn't matter why he doesn't like it. All sales are final. If he wants the option to return an amp, he should go to a retail store or online store.

 

I would do as you are doing. Take a buddy. Keep us posted.

 

Maybe the buyer just needs to invest in a better room? Sounded silly? I am actually in earnest the unit could be rattling his room.

 

Possible abuse aside, it could sound bad in his room.
Maybe it is rattlling something in the house that his old amp couldn't.
Maybe it's on a curcuit with a fridge, washing machine and freezer
and there isn't enough current left for an amp.

None of those are your fault.
If you want, you could try to find the cause for him,
but that is all up to you.

 

I have to agree with Friendlybass, he most likely caught a rash of sh*t from his wife for buying it and now is trying to get his money back and shut his wife up.