TonyG

So... I see I'm getting slammed! Ouch!

First off, I've been in and out of town for work a lot more than usual. I just walked in the door today.

I posted lots of parts for sale in late November. I expected a couple of parts to sell. They all sold same day.

I don't have a shipping/packing department like the people here that are vendors.

Nevertheless, all the parts that sold, were shipped in December except:

Ian: Intercooler pipes. His check was not received until late December. No biggie. He asked me to hold them until he got the funds. I said OK. His check was received, and cashed, in late December.

At that time I told Ian, that I was waiting for some replacements from SFR, and when I received them I would ship his stuff. Well this and that happened, and I still don't have my stuff from SFR (not that it's SFR's fault.. it's the fabrication time thing). I offered, a stainless muffler to Ian for having to wait. He said OK.

I recieved another email today from Ian asking for his money back. I replied that I would send him back his money. Nothing I can do but to refund Ian's money.

Ian... if you're listening... and I'm sure you are, I sent you an email when I got back tonight to that effect. I will also send you the stainless muffler at the same time. At least you money was working for you :-) (ie., interest)

There were two other people that bought stuff, one of which asked me to hold onto it until they can come and pick it up. No problem! The I get an email to send it out because they would be in the area for some time. Fine. But, I couldn't get around to packing it up and sending it off until this last Monday (two days ago). I also called that person at the only number I had (his work number) and was told that he was on vacation. I left a message at his work that it wouldn't be sent out until this week (which it was). BTW... I also didn't charge that person any of the shipping charges (FYI which was like a whopping $15.00) :-)

And there was one other part that I was really at fault... which was a powersteering pump/resovior. That thing was boxed up, but was stuck next to 40 bags of cement which were moved in due to rain (I'm currently doing a 1500 sqft addition to my house). I saw it last week, and set it out Monday. For that I'm sorry. Definitely my bad.

So there it is... I'm a bad guy!

Ian.. you check (USPS Money Order) will be sent tomorrow via regular mail. I have no ideal how long it will take, but consider it on its way (along with the muffler).

And for the record... if anybody has a problem with contacting me, just use the phone number that's on the bottom of every post that I've sent out for the last several years... Email might not get to me the way it should since all the archsoftware email goes through out email server and is routed through out internal service que (for work purposes) We have a pretty strict set of spam filters in place and it's possible that emails don't get to the place that they should. It happens from time to time (more than I would like.. but I don't run the email server).

CurlyDE

steve g

A cautionary story about internet escrow companies: About 2 weeks ago I saw an ad for a 1995 993 on Roadfly.com for $16500 (unbelievable) listing a vin number and an email address carzone_2003@yahoo.com. I emailed the guy with my name and number asking for more info about the car. He sent me pictures of a gorgeous black 993. He called my house and left a number with my wife. I called the number back several times - a few timees got a voicemail box but twice a guy answers with a very strong Russian accent. Its real difficult to understand him and he says he needs to sell the car fast and will accept 'escrow service' for payment. "its easy" he keeps saying "7 days to inspect the car, then pay" He sends me an email with the link to a company callled Western Escrow. I start the process - I put in my name and password and then it asks me for my bank account. Thats when I figure that this is a kind of suspicious deal.
I send him several emails trying to get him to reply as to the whereabouts of the car. He says in New York City in one email and ups the price by 10% if I dont do the escrow and bring him a bank check or cash. Now I am getting a little concerned about really going thru with this especially travelling to New York City and meeting the guy alone somewhere. Sounds like a episode of Law and Order. I send him a few more emails to confirm my flight and where I meet him to see the car but the guy just stops responding to my emails and the phone number still goes to a voicemail box. End of story - be careful there are definately some bad guys out there.

Steve Lavigne

I got $20,000,000 from a guy in Nigeria. All I had to do was loan him $5,000. What a deal!

RAPID944

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by Steve Lavigne:
<strong>I got $20,000,000 from a guy in Nigeria. All I had to do was loan him $5,000. What a deal!</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Which one sent you email? <a href="http://www.priveye.com/Nigeria.htm" target="_blank">http://www.priveye.com/Nigeria.htm</a> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="frown.gif" />

ian

Well to be fair to tony, and because I was not trying to blast him, I just wanted an explination. I didn't call I just used email, because I'm not really able to make a lot of outbound calls all day (I work in a investment call center).

But anyway, this whole process just never ran smoothly, one because I took 3 weeks for my letter w/ check to get to him (I have no idea what the post office was doing, other than using the pony express) and then there were the problems that we have faced getting his replacement parts.

I just feel communcation could have been better, thats all, and when it comes to the matter of money we all get a little stressed out (magnified when your bank account looks like mine).

But this will be resolved from my end shortly, and again I was not trying to vent at tony, I just was looking for an explination, and he gave it.

Alan C.

No doubt there are a lot of internet scams out there. But escrow.com worked well for me. I think the buyer paid 4-5% for the service.
BTW, escrow.com never asked for any bank account information. They only wanted to know if I wanted a certified check or money order and how quick.
Alan

Perry 951

I have been presented multiple cashiers checks for my motorcycle, usually about $5000 more than the price I am asking. It is that Nigerian scam... got another e-mail today!

I just fwd them to the FBI.

Curly... holding your tounge?????

icat

There was a report on the news not long ago concerning web escrow accounts. The FBI has been shutting down several escrow services because they were nothing but scam operations. The "seller" sets up the web site, makes it look legit, gets the buyer use only this one service (where the seller is comfortable), has the buyer give bank info, then cleans out the account. Steve G, I think you just missed out on becoming another victim. The news report even mentioned the 10% surcharge if you wanted to use a different service.

MachSchnell

I'd like to mention that I had nothing but a great experience with TonyG in the past...he had, throught a bit of confusion, double sold his Forge BOV. I sent him my payment by check, waited a few days, and when he received both checks and realized what had happened, Tony took the time to call me, apologize, explain what had happened, checked the times sent on both of our emails to figure out who had committed first (not me), and send back my original check uncashed. I thought that was a very appropriate and considerate move, particularly to have taken the time to call, explain, and reassure me, then get the check back out to me immediately.

MachSchnell

And, a bit more off topic, while we're talking about 'escrow' scams, we, as an exotic car dealership had a bad experience with paypal of a similar nature...a buyer hit "buy it now" on ebay, emailed and said "send me your wiring instructions and I'll send two test payments...when they hit, let me know and I'll complete payment"...this is, unfortunately, a sure sign of someone trying to get your account info fraudulently withdraw funds, so we proceded with caution, told him to only send one deposit, and we'd be good. Well, he disappeared, then apparently got our dealer ID from public records, opened an account on PayPal with our account info as the draw account, using only our dealer ID and easily obtainable public records. Once this was done, he withdrew 1000 from our account, presumeably as a test. Thankfully the owner picked it up immediately, closed the account, etc. We now use a sweeper account which is always kept empty for our wire ins. As it turns out, Paypal admitted that "this is not the first time this has happened"

Be careful about giving people your account numbers is the moral of the story!!!

Mark G

Alan C.'s experience with escrow.com mirrors mine with a $2500 transaction with me as the buyer. Clean, professional, and worth the peace of mind. The seller and I split the fee. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just a happy customer.

nik

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by CurlyDE:
<strong>Ask me how I know?!? No names will be mentioned, but just be careful buying from your fellow Rennlisters.

I lost a small amount of money at the end of November (checked cleared on Nov 29th) and still have not received the two items that I paid for from someone on the list. I sent several emails and pms and never got a response until I posted something a few weeks ago on a thread ... was told it would be sent out immediately (in the thread). An unanswered email and pm and a few weeks later still nothing.

I'm glad it wasn't much money.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Give us his name like Danno did, if it's a missunderstanding he'll speak up!

People doing these kind of things deserve tar and feathers, like in the old days...

Wachuko

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by Perry 951:
<strong>I have been presented multiple cashiers checks for my motorcycle, usually about $5000 more than the price I am asking. It is that Nigerian scam... got another e-mail today!

I just fwd them to the FBI.

Curly... holding your tounge?????</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Dear Jaime Diaz,
Thank you for your submission of information via the FBI.Gov Web site. In as much as the FBI receives reports of this type of activity on a regular basis there is no need to forward any such additional emails to the FBI.

A review of the information you provided revealed that you are being approached over the Internet to participate in one of many variations of an advance fee scheme being perpetrated by individuals from various West African nations, particularly Nigeria. Victims have lost substantial funds in the past and all requests for travel to foreign locations should be ignored. The United States Secret Service (USSS) has developed an excellent, detailed description of this fraud scheme, which can be accessed at

<a href="http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml</a>

If you have been victimized by one of these schemes, please forward appropriate written documentation to the USSS, Financial Crimes Division, 950 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20223, or telephone (202) 406-5850. We encourage you to share this Web page with family and friends. Your continued cooperation in this and other matters is greatly appreciated.

You do not need to forward the emails to us. If you have not, simply delete them from your computer. Also, if you know that you are receiving spam mail, it is advisable not to open them, because even if you do not reply, your email address has been validated by the sender. And, you may get other spam mail.

Sincerely,

David N. Rushing/rwh,
Supervisory Special Agent
FBI Headquarters
Washington, D.C.

CurlyDE

I am holding my tongue, sort of. The power steering components would be what I was refering to. I've primarily just been looking for a response and email and pms did not seem to be working. Well ... I got a response and it would seem that everything is going to work out.