Negative feedbacks for traders and Tips for fair trading

[RMSMajestic]

Issue resolved Dec.28 2016

[hwattys]

Unfortunately I have to report that excal32 aka Sh** Alt*r** has scammed me for $52.65 based on this

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 24#p790224

I should have vetted a bit better, there was prior warning there but this is a major act of deception unlike anything I have experienced in the Forum.

Very disappointed and depressed, but also planning how to (maybe) deal with it.

[JPOESQ]

Unfortunately I have to report that excal32 aka Sh** Alt*r** has scammed me for $52.65 based on this

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 24#p790224

I should have vetted a bit better, there was prior warning there but this is a major act of deception unlike anything I have experienced in the Forum.

Very disappointed and depressed, but also planning how to (maybe) deal with it.

If he scammed you like that, then he should be permanently banned from the forum.

[rkawakami]

Hang on to your pitchforks, tar and feathers. Give some time for excal32 to respond.

[hwattys]

My last PM to him accusing him of never shipping it has gone out of my outbox so he got it. Not a word from him.

[RealBlackStuff]

Early November I bought a T9300 CPU from Excal32, paid and three days later it arrived, well packed. No complaints.

[excal32]

Wow. I just logged in today to see this. I've offered him a refund even though the item has been shipped. It can be seen i've had plenty of great transactions here without a problem and this is a first.

hwattys, I offered a refund if no update on tracking in 24 hours which is very unusual as I shipped many other packages out the day I shipped yours and they all got to their destinations fine. However, now I see you have posted in this thread, so my offer is now that you can claim your refund any time on the grounds that you do let me know if it arrives and pay me back or return it to me. Thank you and i'm sorry for the trouble.

[MikalE]

I once ordered a much needed flight manual from a company in Georgia. They sent it Priority Mail and took three weeks to get to me. They were just about to issue the refund when it finally showed up.

[excal32]

Thanks all. I have just received a reply from hwattys over PM and it seems like we will be able to work this snafu out amicably.

[Cigarguy]

Looking at the dates given by hwattys, seems to me hwattys really jumped the gun. It's not unusual for posties to make mistakes or something just happens in the process. Many a cigar and computer packages got delivered to my house (late) while tracking information is still a week behind. Other attempts and a bit of patience to contact the seller before accusing him of "not shipping" would have been prudent in my books. In the end the buyer will most likely end up getting the product and a refund.

[hwattys]

I did get the package today...November 22 label created to December 5 arrival by priority mail. The usps tracking sat with no change for over a a week. And I did contact the seller and only came here when I did not get a response. Attention paid by seller and usps tracking started moving after that. So all is good and forgiven.

[Brad]

I apologize for the delay in response.

Doesn't matter but a little background. This transaction began on June 18th 2015 when I sent a PM in response to a WTB. We concluded our transaction on September 19th 2016.

I have offered the buyer a full refund once the item is returned.

I haven't looked here in some time.

I only knew that the new unused board didn't work when Paypal sent a note of an open case on November 16th. I responded that day as soon as I received the Paypal notice.

I haven't received any forum notifications since September 28th so I didn't know I had any PM's.

As soon as the item is received and inspected a refund will be issued.

I just happened upon this thread when I saw the buyers note.

I apologize again.

Brad

UPDATE: Motherboard was returned by UPS on Friday 12/16. Refund issued Tuesday 12/20/16.

[RMSMajestic]

I apologize for the delay in response.

Doesn't matter but a little background. This transaction began on June 18th 2015 when I sent a PM in response to a WTB. We concluded our transaction on September 19th 2016.

I have offered the buyer a full refund once the item is returned.

I haven't looked here in some time.

I only knew that the new unused board didn't work when Paypal sent a note of an open case on November 16th. I responded that day as soon as I received the Paypal notice.

I haven't received any forum notifications since September 28th so I didn't know I had any PM's.

As soon as the item is received and inspected a refund will be issued.

I just happened upon this thread when I saw the buyers note.

I apologize again.

Brad

UPDATE: Motherboard was returned by UPS on Friday 12/16. Refund issued Tuesday 12/20/16.

Feedback changed and refund received, thanks.

[NorrisCell]

Unfortunately I need to add a current issue with excal32. Towards the beginning of January I purchased several barebones machines from him. As of today, 2/21, I do not have the purchased machines. Some of the delay wasn't an issue (Snowstorms in his area kept him from driving, plus we discussed whether he had any other items of interest, which added a few days of back and forth), but my last contact with him was February 8th, when he said he would finally ship that day. I've sent several messages requesting an update since then, and have not received a response. He was active last week on the 13th.

To be fair, I told him I was not in a hurry early on and not to stress if he couldn't make the post office the first few days. That time has long passed though, as six weeks have passed in total.

I will update if i hear from him.

[jaspen-meyer]

Unfortunately I need to add a current issue with excal32. Towards the beginning of January I purchased several barebones machines from him. As of today, 2/21, I do not have the purchased machines. Some of the delay wasn't an issue (Snowstorms in his area kept him from driving, plus we discussed whether he had any other items of interest, which added a few days of back and forth), but my last contact with him was February 8th, when he said he would finally ship that day. I've sent several messages requesting an update since then, and have not received a response. He was active last week on the 13th.

To be fair, I told him I was not in a hurry early on and not to stress if he couldn't make the post office the first few days. That time has long passed though, as six weeks have passed in total.

I will update if i hear from him.

excal32 did the same thing to me. I ordered, waited 6 weeks, and nothing showed up.
He hadn't sent me a tracking number...
So, a month into the transaction, I asked him to check on the package and he had the excuse that he'd look in his drawer 'tonight' to find the tracking number and send it to me the next day.
Several days later, I again asked for the tracking number.
After a few days he sent me a USPS tracking number, only it was bogus.

I made a formal complaint through paypal, citing the fake tracking number, the stalling and the missing package.

[UMPC2024]

I was really hesitant to point out excal32 since the first package did arrive with some poking and prodding...

So I ordered 50 floppies, two slim UltraBays, and an R500 from him. The R500 was fine, but he said he forgot to include the rubber hard drive rails and that he'd mail it on 28 January 2017. The rubber rails still haven't arrived yet. Right before shipping he one box, it turned out it was only 40 floppies in the Staples box, so he said he'd thrown in another 10 to make it up before shipping. Cool. There was only 7 in the box of 10, making a total of 47.

(I assume that NorrisCell ordered his barebones ThinkPads the same time I did with the R500 from this thread http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=122693).

The UltraBays were also dented when they arrived, so he said he'd ship me three floppies to make up for the three that were missing and replace the two UltraBays (at his expense). That was on 3 February 2017. Then I had to remind him and on 8 February 2017, he said he was walking over to the post office and would have the tracking number that day. I didn't receive it so I assumed he sent it, but forgot. Waited until 15 February 2017 and sent a follow up PM with no response yet. Still no second box of two UltraBays and three floppies yet either.

[TuuS]

I too have been waiting over a month for a couple cpu chips from excal32, tracking shows never received by usps since label was created back in January.

[hwattys]

TuuS sorry to hear about the problems but I guess I feel vindicated for being accused of "jumping the gun" on excal32. All ended well on my dealings with him but only after significant prodding and posting a complaint here.

[NorrisCell]

I too have been waiting over a month for a couple cpu chips from excal32, tracking shows never received by usps since label was created back in January.

I received a response from him toward the end of February, apologizing for not contacting me sooner. He said he had tracking info for me, and would look for it when he got home that day. I've received no response since.

[UMPC2024]

I received a response from him toward the end of February, apologizing for not contacting me sooner. He said he had tracking info for me, and would look for it when he got home that day. I've received no response since.

I have received responses via personal email where excal32 said he would ship two UltraBays and three floppies at 0900 AM, Thursday, 9 March 2017. One week passes and on 16/17 March 2017 (his email timestamp is set to something weird), I was promised a tracking number shortly. Saturday, 18 March 2017 rolls around and he says he's shipped and would let me know my tracking number shortly. I sent a reply on Monday, 20 March 2017 asking for the tracking number again no reply to that either. Sent an ultimatum email saying that I'd dispute part of my PayPal payment ($16.60 because two UltraBays at $8 = $16 and three missing floppies at $10 for 50 floppies = $0.60) if I don't hear a response from him by this Friday, 24 March 2017 at 8 PM Pacific Daylight Time.

Edit: 24 March 2017, 23:20 PDT. Well I guess I made a fool of myself since it's not actually a thing to dispute from PayPal for money sent via friends and family. Long story short, I personally think that excal32 has sullied his reputation on the Forum, so that's his price to pay. Hopefully the other members who've had issues can get it resolved.

Also, his shipping address for the original package said it was from Cambridge, Massachusetts while his forum location tag says New Hampshire.


Link to two UltraBays http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=122705
Link to floppies in question, box of 50 http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 0+floppies
Link to R500. Before the edits, he had an R500 with 802.11 ac and 8GB RAM, received as noted on my 23 Feb 2017 post http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=122693

*Email and PM correspondence available upon request.
**Pictures of damaged UltraBays that were shipped originally and intended to be replaced available upon request.

[BillMorrow]

i just learned of this issue and others preceding this one..

if he is banned it will be hard to communicate or force his compliance..

what is your verdict, please.. PM me..

[TuuS]

I paid him for a cpu chip on Jan 20th after ending negotiations over the purchase because of existing problems here in the forum. After that was resolved and the chip hadn't sold, I sent him payment and he then offered to include another part for $3. I sent another $3 and he replied it had been shipped giving me the following tracking...

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmA ... 7287364136

He also said he included another "surprise", which I'm guessing I figured out lol so unless he died or is seriously ill, he was just scamming us.

Anyway, I'm only out less than $30, could really care less about that, but wanted to make sure no one else sends him money.

Here is the info I have on him, in case he tries to scam someone under a different name.

Paid with
PayPal balance
Transaction ID
9NV04989TC268263N
Sent to
Shea Alterio
krusete@gmail.com

I must add if he's trying to scam people, he's not very effective at it, had he offered some things that were more inticing he may have taken someone for much more. I'll also add that after trading here for close to 7 years I've never had someone scam me and couldn't conceive it was actually happening, which is why it was well over a month before it occurred to me that I wasn't likely to get what I paid for. His loss really, because if he needed the money that badly I would have given it to him, and it's certainly not worth taking legal action over <$30, but if anyone is inclined to report it to the police or small claims court, paypal records are verified, so the name must be real, and I'm sure our administrators could supply the IP addresses used and paypal has to cooperate with law enforcement, even if they didn't collect a fee on the transfer.

I hope this one member won't have an effect on the trusting nature of our honest members here.

[Omineca]

Hi Bill,

I notice that in the for sale ad guidelines post, you've cautioned people against using Western Union moneygrams. The post also mentions that you might make amendments based on suggestions, so here's mine:

I would move the payment advice to point number one (other forums, like head-fi.org do this), and add PayPal gift and PayPal Friends and Family transfers to the list of bad decisions.

If someone asks for PayPal gift (or a Friends and Family money transfer), buyers should protect themselves by offering to add the PayPal fees (30 cents US plus 2.9% of the sale price), and paying as a sale (using the "Pay for Goods or Services" option), not a gift or friends and family transfer. If you purchase as a sale, you have a recourse in situations like these. PayPal will refund your money. It's cheap insurance.

If you purchase as a gift, or a transfer of money to friends or family, the money is sent, with no legal expectation of anything in return. It's gone and you're dependent on the goodwill of the seller at that point. You've also violated the terms of your PayPal agreement (as has the seller by asking for gift payment), so reporting a fraud could have repercussions on you.

Having said that, I know there are a lot of great, trustworthy sellers here. I don't think any of them would object to the buyer offering to negotiate a price that includes the fees.

Sent from my BlackBerry Q10 using Tapatalk

Edited to add information on friends and family transfers.

[theterminator93]

it's not actually a thing to dispute from PayPal for money sent via friends and family.

It's unfortunate that there are some here who have had to consider going this far. I have had only one occurrence where I've had to invoke the buyer protection programs and dispute transactions, and it is both frustrating and infuriating as it is time consuming.

I suppose this may be a good point to mention that sending money as "friends and family" payment for goods and services over the internet is risky for this reason. Personally I will avoid purchasing from someone online I don't already know personally when they require that I send payment through PayPal as "friends and family" at the benefit of the their being able to sidestep the merchant's fees. On that note, the fee rate is 30 cents per transaction plus 2.9% of the total. I think it's even more entertaining when I see sellers demanding that for buyers refusing to send money as friends and family that the buyer is required to add 4% or more to offset the fees. It's against PayPal policies to do that, and if the seller wants the fees covered by the buyer or wants a particular net profit after shipping and fees, they should do their homework and include that in their listed sale price. There are plenty of online fee calculators to help sellers choose their sale price with the fees in mind. (edit: it seems I agree 100% with the previous post!)

In the end, it's the buyer's choice and money - and I'll just reiterate what I said at the start of this post/rant - it's unfortunate that anyone would have to go so far as considering (or actually trying to) file a dispute.

[TuuS]

I can see there are many issues with paypal that many aren't aware of. For someone that has a business that uses paypal as a gateway, any payments coming in appear on your government reporting, so if you make widgets and sell them using paypal, you deduct your costs on the raw materials and expenses from the 1099 and pay tax on the difference, but then you sell your laptop that you paid $2000 for and get $500 and the person sends you a paypal commerical payment for the $500, even if he pays the extra 4%, you then have to pay income tax on the $500 even though it's a loss, not profit. The only way around that is to get a business license to sell computers, then you can deduct what you paid for it. You may be able to get away with claiming it wasn't related to your business AFTER you get audited for not paying taxes on it, but once they drag you in they tend to go on a phishing trip to find any mistake or anything that you don't have sufficient proof of, so it's a guilty until you prove yourself innocent thing, so most just pay the tax. Also once you are audited once, they tend to audit you every year for several years. I survived this once and they never found a single penny I owed, in fact I had over paid, but didn't stop them from a repeat audit three years in a row. Also to demonstrate how crazy paypal is, if you refund that payment you were sent for $500 and tell the person why, he understands and sends you the money the correct way, it will still be on the 1099 because paypal won't remove it and refuses to issue corrected documents, so you either pay taxes you aren't required to pay, or risk an annoying audit. Many people aren't aware of this but paypal is really a horrible company and makes up their own rules as they go. Many people have used them as a bank only to find out that they can refuse to give you access to your money at will and your only option is to hope they change their minds, or spend a fortune suing them in court. I recommend everyone visit the "paypalsucks.com" website and read some of the horror stories. I'm not saying no one should use paypal, but if you do use it you should make sure you understand the risks, and if you are buying something from someone you don't trust, then I'd recommend you either buy from someone else, or perhaps use a credit card instead of other options in paypal that way you can dispute the payment even if it was a FnF payment. As long as you have something to show the money was to pay for an item and paypal will make the buyer pay fees if using a credit card on a FnF payment, but I'd take credit card protection over paypal protection anyday. Paypal protection (outside of ebay) is pretty much worthless and puts the burden on you to prove fraud, of course the only exception is if you are a long standing customer and a small amount.

For those of us that are heavily into the the hobby and trade here a lot isn't going to want to deal with this nonsense from paypal and the only way around it is to use the Friends and Family option. I prefer to use direct bank transfers, they are free and the most secure way to transfer small amounts of money and virtually anyone with a usa bank account can do it for free, they offer everything paypal does, but it's actually a legal regulated funds transfer, not some privately held company who makes up their own rules like paypal. Also, you get much better purchase protection here in the forum then a buyer would get from paypal. Unless paypal feels the amount is too small to waste their time and just pays the case, you'll find the buyer and seller protection virtually worhless. It will pay in cases when there is no proof of delivery, but even then it's not a given when it's a person to person deal, not a commercial transaction. Another secure method of payment is a usps money order. If someone is cheated when paying with one of them the usa mail fraud laws kick in, this dating back to laws over a century ago when huge retailers sold mailorder in america and federal agents will investigate any fraud using the us mail system. This is why I prefer receiving bank transfers or usps money orders, but if someone likes the convenience of paypal they are welcome to send via FnF. No one has complained about sending me paypal payments that way, but I've sold to hundreds of members here and would have a lot more to lose than gain by scamming someone, so if someone feels it necessary to make paypal become a "middleman" in transactions then I suggest it only be for new members without a long history of trading in the forum.

Also, it might be nice if we had a section in the marketplace where regular sellers can list their terms for things like payments, returns, etc... on a volunteer basis of course and it may make some new members more at ease when buying in the forum which I think is the safest way to buy thinkpad parts and we certainly don't want one person to ruin it for all of us over what surely appears to be either extremely careless mistakes or who knows, maybe the guy is in the hospital or even dead, in which case I'd feel bad for even mentioning this, but it sure seems like if it was a deliberate attempt to scam people then he is the most ineffective criminal out there. This is why I waited over 6 weeks to even mention it and then only after others did.

Bottom line is, I'm not losing any sleep over being out less than $30, but would like it to be resolved

So... let's think really hard before we consider any new rules that would complicate trading in this forum.

[olex126]

I, too, was stung by excal32.

Purchased several DVD burners from him just before Christmas 2016, and paid with Paypal.

I was busy buying and selling laptops and parts throughout the Christmas & New Years period, and didn't realize I hadn't received this particular order until I went to use one of the burners in a build towards the end of January..... Whoops!

An email at the end of January requesting the USPS tracking number went unanswered.

Another email mid-February requesting same went unanswered.

Another email at the end of February was replied to, saying the tracking number would be sent shortly....

So now, the end of March, no tracking number, no further communications from him at all.

I've given up on the exercise. My total costs involved, including the purchase, postage and U.S./Cdn $ exchange ran close to $50 Cdn. I've written it off as a bad deal from an unscrupulous seller, and will have no further dealings with him.

It's not the first scam I've fallen victim to over sixty-five years, and it probably won't be the last.... but it DOES reflect a bit on the forum that I always trusted. I've had dealings with a fair number of buyers and sellers here with nary a problem...( well, except for the time that a certain well-known seller's U.S.bank thought my Canadian Postal Money Order drawn in U.S. Funds was FRAUDULENT and after-the-fact REVERSED the deposit in his account!!!..Boy, did THAT take a few weeks to get straightened out!) [Thank You Canada Post Corporation!]

I still continue to believe that 99.9% of those who frequent here are honest. Perhaps excal32 started out that way too and his circumstances changed...Who knows? For now, and until proven otherwise, I'm afraid I have to lump him in with the other .01%.

Just my 2 cents (Cdn, by the way......so 1.6754225 cents U.S!)

Regards.

Dave

[kfzhu1229]

I, too, was stung by excal32.

Purchased several DVD burners from him just before Christmas 2016, and paid with Paypal.

I was busy buying and selling laptops and parts throughout the Christmas & New Years period, and didn't realize I hadn't received this particular order until I went to use one of the burners in a build towards the end of January..... Whoops!

Wow, I live in Ontario too and I feel bad for you to choose him.
I think the better solution here is to make it serious to him. One of the admins should try to PM and email him via the email address given by TuuS before (even though lord knows if it is a real one or not) and see if that can get him back to resolve his issues

[RealBlackStuff]

Excal32 has been officially warned and he has also received an email, requesting him to settle any and all sales agreements pronto.
He hasn't been seen on the forum since Tue Feb 21, 2017 10:01 pm.

[TuuS]

I received an email asking for my address, stating he will mail in 12 hrs...

Not holding my breath lol

update: Lots of new info coming soon

[RealBlackStuff]

NorrisCell, TuuS, jaspen-meyer, UMPC2024 and olex126 have been asked to report back to me as soon as their disputes with excal32 have been settled.

Any other forum members that are also affected, please let me know via PM.

Status-report (to be updated as/when info available):
- jaspen-meyer settled
- UMPC2024 settled
- TuuS settled (albeit 3 months late)
- olex126 settled (also 3 months late, opened PayPal case and received full refund)

It seems the PayPal case dispute got excal32's attention.
He replied that he would be "happy" to ship the DVD drives now (!?!?), to which I replied that he should have been "happy" to ship them three months ago when I paid for them!

- NorrisCell was contacted on 03/30/2017 but nothing since.
- NorrisCell finally settled (almost 5 months late, excal32 was extremely uncooperative until threatened with police action!!)

On 4/15/2017 I got an email myself from excal32 claiming that NorrisCell's stuff was in the mail. Still waiting.

5/19/2017 This case is now closed, excal32 will be banned for forever and a day.