There are some weird people out there and if you want to meet one read on.
I bought an old acoustic guitar from steve25. He claims to be a drummer, but if you Google him on New Zealand pages all that comes up is a reference to him on www.scambusters.co.nz where he was taken to the disputes tribunal for selling a broken chainsaw to the wrong guy.
I won the auction and emailed stevie25 asking if he had any secure way of shipping the guitar. He replied straight away that he didn’t. I emailed back saying I’d look into getting a college from my racing contacts to see if they could get it home for me. After a couple of days I learned this wasn’t going to work out so after getting a text from the seller to say that he had got a guitar box from the local music store and it was all packed and ready to go I sent through a payment which included $27.50 for shipping.
Immediately after making the payment the seller, who had been quite chatty via texts and email suddenly went quiet.
After not hearing from him or seeing any guitar for 8 days I emailed him asking if the guitar had gone yet.
No reply.
I gave it another day and sent him another email. No reply. I rang him and the seller went into a 10 minute expletive laden tirade.
His story was that his mate, a drummer in the band Rockface, had contracted hepatitis from a blood transfusion in Queenstown and he was required to urgently travel to the South Island to cover for him on the drums. Once there he had become trapped by the snow. He had left instructions for his sons to ship the guitar but could not explain why they hadn’t done it as he had no way of contacting them. Practically every second word in this conversation was an eff word. I told him that all I wanted was a guitar sent and if that was proving to be a task that he was going to not be able to do then I would be happy for him to refund the money and get on with sorting out his problems, of which there seemed to be many.
At this point the seller ranted and raved about how I was being unreasonable and with the toll call looking like it was going to end up costing more than the guitar I quickly ended it by asking that he send the guitar as soon as possible and email me when that had been done.
He claimed he couldn’t do that because he was computer illiterate and wasn’t really very good with email.
Suddenly.
But he did promise to get his wife to send me an email once the package was shipped and on it’s way.
I sent him a text the next day to see how he got on. No reply.
I Google the seller and got his scambusters story.
I went on Facebook asking if anyone knew of the band Rockface.
I got a message back straight away from one of my Facebook friends saying the drummer from Rockface was her daughter’s father. Private messages followed which determined that while the seller was telling me he was the drummer for Rockface in fact the band hadn’t performed for over a year. While he said he was in Christchurch he was in fact at home in Featherston.
The seller was lying to me.
I sent him a text saying I had found the real drummer from Rockface. Nothing back from the formerly chatty seller. I sent another text. Still nothing. I mentioned the police. Bingo.
The seller replied in a series of abusive texts but eventually fessed up to lying over the trade. I told him that being the case I was voiding the deal and wanted all my money back and that was the only thing that would be acceptable.
Several more texts have followed that are both abusive and threatening and I will be referring the matter to a collection agency and the police.
As the scambusters posting shows Trademe are aware of the kind of dealings that this seller inflicts on people he sells to. Trademe are also aware that even after members take him to the Disputes Tribunal their members are still ripped off. Despite this they allow him to be a member and carry on like this.
I have been in touch with Trademe about this ripoff and they have encouraged me to take the matter up with the Disputes Tribunal as well, knowing full well about this seller’s previous Disputes Tribunal issues as I told them about it,
It makes you wonder who the real villains are doesn’t it?
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UPDATE: 22/08/2011
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The seller has now posted retaliatory feedback on my Trademe account.
Avoid this trader hes a Pompous Buffoon. A real control freak. Even went back to 27.2.06 & changed the good feedback he placed on me to what now appears! If you don’t want 50 texts & 10 emails in 4 days avoid this clown. He bought $100.guitar 1 hour. after it was listed! Took 8 days to pay for it! I took 8 days to send it! So what? But do read about me if you want a laugh. He threatened me with his daughter who is a N.Z. Police Officer. Even gave me her e-mail address!
27.02.2006 Trade: He listed a snare drum for sale. I bought it. His initial emails were all good and straight forward so I sent the money. After not hearing from him again he replied that he was selling the snare drum on behalf of a ‘mate’ who had now decided to keep the item. I eventually got my money back .
Payments for item: Initially because of the traders feedback and my previous experience with him i asked if he minded me trying to sort out a colleague to collect it from him for me and bring it up on a trip. He was fine with that. it took a few days to find out that it wasn’t going to work, but all the time I kept the seller in the loop and informed of where I was at with it. Auction closed on Thursday afternoon August 5th. He was paid on 8th August, not an unreasonable delay considering and certainly not the 8 days he lies about. Further, I paid once he advised me the guitar was packed up, looking good and ready to go. Obviously more BS from the seller.
Sending the item: The seller claims he sent the item 8 days after being paid for it. 8 days after the money was transferred was when I rang him and he gave me this cock and bull story about being called in to fill in as the drummer of Rockface, The fact that he told me a story that was so easy to check shows that this character doesn’t even consider that the lies he tells can easily be checked. For example, ten days after he was paid I asked him to tell me if the item had been sent and for a tracking report. I never got it. If he had sent it after 8 days why not say so at the time and provide a tracking certificate number? Why lie again? Answer = because he is a compulsive liar.
I do not have a daughter who is a police officer so there is no way I would tell the seller I did. More lies.
And there will no doubt be more to come.
In the meantime I have posted a pdf of his current negative feedback.
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UPDATE 23/8/2011
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Trademe have advised me that they have edited my feedback, because it breached their rules. Clearly Trademe are capable of upholding their rules when the buyer has been ripped off. Why do they side with the ripper off rather than the ripped off?
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