A crazy story

[umheint0]

Forgive me for posting this here, it's just with the traffic here I wanted people to see it.

So, here I am, surfing around E-Bay, looking at some deals, when I see a new Radeon 9700 Pro retail, in the box, still sealed, for $250. I think, "$250, that doesn't sound right."

So, I look up the guy's profile. 100+ sales, and only one negative feedback which was a difference of opinion. So I say, "This guy is safe. Let's do it."

I talk to the guy, and to get it shipped to Canada I would have to double the S&H. No problem, that's still $300, and with tax at the border that would still be less than what I would have to pay here. So I do it.

I send the buy the money via Pay-Pal, and then don't hear from him again. In my naivete, I think the card is on it's way. Later that week, yesterday actually, I go back on E-Bay, just to see if I got scammed. The guy's feedback has now received about 30 negative feedbacks in the last week and his account has been cancelled.

I think, "F**K!!! I got taken!!!"

So, I look at some of the feedbacks. One guy said he is contacting the FBI because he has the guy's phone number and address and everything. I send him a message, and this morning he gets back to me. Here's a quote:

"The guy apprarently commit suicide on monday and decided to leave his family a little gift(our money) before we went. The local police did confirm this. they said they cannot press charges because he is dead so the money way you'll get your money back is by paypal, ebay or square trade. i already filed claim with paypal but i can only get my money back if the funds are in his account. he did have 5 whole days to clear it all out tho. this sucks."

So it turns out the guy is not only a dick in life, but in death as well. I'm going to contact my credit card company and get a credit to my account so I don't have to pay this dead bastard's family anything.

Now doesn't that just beat all? You can view the guy's feedback <A HREF="http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback&userid=adeptpet" target="_new">HERE</A>. I think it's all pretty crappy, but mainly because I got taken in. Oh well, live and learn.

What experiences have you guys had with E-Bay or other shady businesses? I would post this in the appropriate board, but again, not much traffic. I'm just so pissed right now I want people to actually read it.

XP 2500+ Barton
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
ATI 9700 Pro
16x DVD-ROM
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Onboard audio

 

[jihiggs]

well, thats not that bad. i got took when i thought i was buying a couple hard drives. it was on cnet auctions. a guy that had no rating was selling them and a bunch of proccessors. his story was convincing as to why he was selling them so cheap. so i bought them. he wouldnt accept credit or paypal, just check or money order. i sent him the money, a week later still no hard drives and no reply from his email. i went back to the guys remarks page, a long list of the auction winners saying "caution, scam artist" some had contacted the police but becuase he was in another state we had to contact the fbi. i knew how far that would go, the fbi is going to actually do anything about a 300 dollar scam artist. oh well. i guess you have to get scammed once to respect the addage "buyer beware"

my computer is so fast, it completes an endless loop in less than 4 seconds!

 

[umheint0]

The funniest thing is this guy did all this work to put together a parting gift for his family. That's what bothers me the most.

So, hooray for credit cards.

XP 2500+ Barton
A7N8X Dlx
2x512MB Corsair PC3200
ATI 9700 Pro
16x DVD-ROM
2x80GB 7200RPM Maxtor
Onboard audio