Any Ideas on How to Get Someone to Follow Through on a Flea Market Sale?

[Gadabout]

I guess I should start by telling the whole story and how it has got to this point.

Back in first part August, I expressed an interest in something for sale and inquired about the price. The person selling the item gave a me a price but said that he would like to ask a couple questions to make sure it was going to good home and just not going to be put up for sale.

I responded to the questions, we talked about my plans for the item and my existing equipment and where I planned on putting it etc... . Pretty good discussion and my impression of the person was that he was a pretty decent guy. The last comment I made is that he should sell the item to someone else, as I wouldn't have the funds till mid august. He said he would wait, till the 15th, for the funds. I also asked if if it would be OK if I emailed him a shipping label for the item as I would prefer to ship FedEx and my company gets huge discounts on shipping. He agreed. We exchanged phone numbers.

He gave me a call on the 15th of August and asked if I was ready to do the deal. I replied I was and asked for his email address so I could Pay him via PayPal and also send him the shipping label in .pdf format. I sat down right after the call and completed the PayPal transaction and got the shipping label emailed to him. I also sent another email saying the PayPal had gone through and there wouldn't be any fees as I used the pay a friend option.

I checked in on the FedEx site for the tracking information as I was expecting it to be shipped within the week. On the 22nd of August, I asked him to shoot me a PM when he shipped the item so I would know when to be looking for it. He replied that he would give me a call when he shipped it.

Still haven't received it by the 13th of September so I shoot him another PM asking him when he might have some time to ship the item. I got a response the same day saying it was going out in the am and he would credit me back $25. I responded back that that would be great and I was beginning to wonder if he had gotten sick.

30 September, still no shipment has arrived. I shoot him another PM saying I'm not sure what is going on, but maybe he should just keep the item and refund the $'s - No response.

I wait another week and send him a PM asking what the deal is. - No response.

15 October or so, I call him and ask him to either ship the item or refund the $'s. He responds that he is really sorry and has been going thru a lot as the eldest sibling in his family. He says it is just sitting here crated up and ready to go. He feels really bad about the the whole deal and offers to ship it on his nickel and refund $50, I say thats OK as long as it happens in the next couple of days. He assures me it will and we hang up.

Now, it's a month later since our last conversation. Over 3 months since he has had the $'s for the item and 18 weeks since we started talking about the item. The worst part of this is that I used to log in every day and read the forum. While I might not post much, it was something that I looked forward too reading everyday. Now I find that this whole deal has soured me on the forum. I don't log in every day, sometimes it is just once a week.

Anyone have any ideas how I can get my $'s back or the item shipped to me.

Thanx,
Scott

[buymesome]

Who's the deadbeat that wont ship it ? is he on here ? Maybe I should call him for ya

[F1nut]

Time's up, out the offender.

I don't know that doing so will get your item shipped or your money back, but it will help prevent anyone else from having to go thru that BS.

[george daniel]

Time to go public,I have confidence that it will get worked out to your satisfaction.

[NotaSuv]

3 months plus is MORE than enough time to make things right.....time to turn them over to the Polk Mob or worse yet the.......................................








Kracken

[Tony M]

It's been long enough and you've been way more than patient.!

The person has an issue and maybe we can help him out. Maybe his son, if he has one did the deal and he(club member) has never even spoke to you. An imposter scenario....

It happened to my daughter years ago on an Ebay deal..Their local Distric Attorney helped my daughter get her money back!

The local DA can serve warrents for fraud related deals if the person still lives in the same place and can be located to be served.;)

[Pauly]

[devani]

wow, storm!

[leroyjr1]

You've been waaay too patient. After a couple weeks I'd been on his a$$.

The mob is assembled and ready for action.

[george daniel]

Someone needs to alert "Our Man in Pittsburgh",, he'll know what to do.

[dudeinaroom]

out the sucker. It wouldn't have been this deal would itLINK. I don't think it is, let us know.

[Jstas]

Dude, you waited far too long. Too long for the second change in September and way too long to bring it up.

If the guy has a problem, he should have worked something out with you. He helped you out by waiting, why would he not ask for the same? Nobody here is out to get anybody else. Things happen and people have to bail. I've had to send the email of shame a time or two myself only to have the seller turn around and offer to work out a different plan of some sort.

But dude, December is 2 weeks away and you did this deal in August. This should have been taken care of before October was even a thought in anyone's mind.

But you've given this person plenty of time and chances as well as a chunk of your hard earned money. Like F1nut said, it's been long enough, out the person.

[dudeinaroom]

Oh yeah, if you need to physically find him let me know. My wife can find just about anyone on the internet. I don't know how she does it. She had found a few people I had been looking for for years in a few weeks.

[beardog03]

That`s just wrong...

We want names !

Do not let this sour your involvement in the forum.......most of the folks here are nothing like that.
We make our deals public so everybody can see that it is a fair trade and all is well

This is ur forum, and a safe bet when it comes to trading, buying, or selling.

we are a family here, not a bunch of losers trying to get over on each other.


Give me a name and I will get maxwells silver hammer and get your goods for you !!

We need to know who this turd is so we don`t let it happen again

[BIZILL]

even if this man/woman or whomever makes things right due to reading this thread, we should still be informed who this culprit is. don't use this thread in a way to coerce him/her into making things right and then leave us hanging.

[steveinaz]

That's rediculous, give up the name.

[thuffman03]

After 3 months of waiting I would be on a road trip to his house to have a face to face talk.

[gdb]

Has this "seller" been posting here the whole time this has been going on? When did they join the forum and do they have a previous sales rating? The MSN site has a reverse phone directory where you can get an address from a ph. number. Good luck!


http://msn.whitepages.com/reverse-lookup

[gdb]

One more thought......I don't think that I'd use the gift option on paypal again, it might be better to pay the addl. 3% and still be able to make a claim to stop/return payment. Have you contacted paypal at all about this? I'd assume that you no longer care to receive the item and just want your $$ back at this point?

[DaveHo]

I hate to say it, but this is how the typical scammer works things. They string you along making promises until it's too late to file a Paypal claim or dispute the charge with your CC company. I hope you get what you paid for.

-Dave

[Jstas]

We don't tolerate scammers here.

Whether the "family" idea here is literal to you or symbolic, it's the same for everyone. The idea behind it here isn't even that you'll get a discount. The idea is that family don't screw family. Period. The "family" idea means that whomever you ask someone for, whether it's a favor or a business transaction or even just an extra helping hand, it gets done, without hassle and correctly. If not, it gets remedied quickly. Not everyone can be relied on for such things and thankfully they don't volunteer for such things very often if at all. But there is a very large portion of this "family" here that does follow the idea.

Gadabout is one of those people that picked up on that here very quick. People are chiding him for waiting so long only because it will be more difficult to get him the help he needs. He did nothing wrong and acted the way everyone here wants everyone to act. With confidence in the character of his/her fellow club members. The offending party violated that trust and Gadabout now feels that this is a hostile environment and the offending party is free to go unpunished. That makes me and quite a few others here not only sad but embarrassed as well.

It's time that this person be brought out and confronted. If Gadabout doesn't want to make the confrontation himself, he has friends here that will do it for him. This isn't about feelings. This is about right and wrong. Gadabout was wronged and it's time to show some solidarity and help him get it fixed.

The offending party, as always, will be given a chance, with a deadline, to make good on the transaction to Gadabout's satisfaction. If they don't, they will be ostracized and anywhere else this offender pops up and there is a Club Polk member, those interested in doing business will be warned about past transgression. It happened before and still happens to this day. Just ask wonderful fellows like Scott Trigg. If the transaction is made good, all will be good.

[reeltrouble1]

An alleged crime has been committed and it is not "too late" for a victim to be appropriately compensated and the perp punished.

please keep any correspondence concerning this issue, the ball is in your hands, but for the sake of the forum the seller needs to be outed, use the forum feedback at the very least it is what it is for.

RT1

[Bernal]

Very interesting

[heiney9]

It sure would be nice to know who did this? 1) it seems they come out of the woodwork to try and defend themselves 2) keeps others aware of who might flakey for future sales.

[vlam]

That sucks and you are very patience. I could understand if something came up and it's 1-2 weeks delayed but we are talking about months here. The least that the seller could do is to refund you immediately.. weeks ago.

You definitely should out this person. Is your hesistation because it's a more "senior" member? I think I may know who you are referring to but either way, it's time to go public.

[Ricardo]

The name must be shared, no matter who this person is.

[Gadabout]

I had a long post typed up and then ditched it. I have been debating and rewriting things for about an hour.

I have waited long times before for items. Real life happens from time to time and I understand that. This transaction has out lasted that one by a couple weeks. Part of what gets to me is that I told the seller, in one of the phone calls, that my need wasn't immediate for the item. He didn't have to run right out and ship it today. I even said as long as it doesn't take a month to get to me, I don't care when it goes out. He laughed and said no way it would take that long. He would ship it within the week. It was already crated and waiting.

After reading all your posts, I have come to the conclusion that the forums need to know (and my needs) are of a greater concern than being politically correct or being concerned about the sellers reputation / future experience on the forum. I'm not looking for a witch hunt. I just want some kind of resolution.

Refund the $'s, ship the item or tell me I got ripped off. Let's just be done with it.

Here is the link to the FM - For Sale Thread.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86400

Post number 108 is where he marks it sold.

So if any of you have a special in with him, see if you can have better luck than I did.

Thanx for your opinions and support,
Scott

[Pauly]

Im sure it will get cleared up. I cant speak on this one.


Pauly

[dkg999]

Time for the seller to man-up, cut the crap on extenuating circumstances and get the item shipped or $'s refunded. It should be the buyers choice on the resolution at this point in time.

[Sherardp]

I'm sure it will get cleared up OP, a few guys here know him personally I think. Lightman, wake up bro, get ya a$$ over to FEDEX for this polkie.