Getting robbed by a fellow forum member!

[Wmacky]

I'd be miffed too, not so much over the amount if that small, but since you were taken advantage of. However, if it makes things better, I'll pay 20 bucks just to lighten your angst. PM me your paypal addy.

That's a nice gesture, but I can't accept!



The bigger loss is I that no longer feel comfortable with forum based purchases due to less recourse. The feedback forum is apparentlly not a big enough stick. This hurts as I'm big into DIY electronic hobby stuff, and did alot of various forum based purchases over the years.

 

[rhd]

The bigger loss is I that no longer feel comfortable with forum based purchases due to less recourse. The feedback forum is apparentlly not a big enough stick. This hurts as I'm big into DIY electronic hobby stuff, and did alot of various forum based purchases over the years.

It's too bad you feel that way. For what it's worth, I don't think that's a necessary conclusion / message to take from this.

You transacted with a member who had only 6 reputation and barely a year of time here.

The impact of forum feedback / community chastising is directly related to the degree to which a member is actually an active part of the forum / community. This guy wasn't. There are thousands of members of LPF, and you can't expect them all to be good citizens, nor can you extrapolate the behavior of one individual who barely had a presence here onto forum members in general.

A member with 6 rep points and very little connection to this forum is someone I would treat essentially as a complete stranger, and cut zero slack to in the first place.

 

[IsaacT]

I don't do business with low rep members for a reason. Some might say I am paranoid but it serves me well.

 

[Rifter]

I don't do business with low rep members for a reason. Some might say I am paranoid but it serves me well.

Yeah unfortunately it pays to be paranoid nowdays. Sad that its come to this but it has.

I've been burned before myself, probably for 500 dollars total over the 15 years or so ive been buying stuff online. I consider myself lucky its not more than that but its because I try and only deal with known members on forums or known companies with a long track record.

Honestly dealing with a member with such a small connection to the forums on such a large value item was a bad idea.

I still think the fastest way to deal with this is to go to his house in person, maybe plan a vacation in his area(I don't know much about the US so don't know if that's feasible)?

 

[Bionic-Badger]

That's a nice gesture, but I can't accept!

I haven't really got into it in this thread, but the loss was much greater. The item I bought was absolutely not as described, so the total loss is closer to $350

The bigger loss is I that no longer feel comfortable with forum based purchases due to less recourse. The feedback forum is apparentlly not a big enough stick. This hurts as I'm big into DIY electronic hobby stuff, and did alot of various forum based purchases over the years.

Honestly, this incident speaks more about your naiveté than anything. You had dealings for an expensive purchase with someone with very few reputation points (which isn't a great metric either) or even presence on this board (never even heard of that guy). You don't manage your Paypal dispute very well ("absolutely not as described" -- why didn't you push that angle in the dispute rather than fight over the remaining $100?). Then you complain about the feedback forum not being a big enough stick for someone with obviously little investment in belonging to the forum anyway (what do you expect?).

I'm not going to blame you for being the victim here, but don't act like it's the forum's fault for not providing you with recourse for a situation you were chiefly responsible for.

Yeah, maybe forums really aren't your thing and you can go buy via eBay or other places.

 

[rhd]

Honestly, this incident speaks more about your naiveté than anything. You had dealings for an expensive purchase with someone with very few reputation points (which isn't a great metric either) or even presence on this board (never even heard of that guy). You don't manage your Paypal dispute very well ("absolutely not as described" -- why didn't you push that angle in the dispute rather than fight over the remaining $100?). Then you complain about the feedback forum not being a big enough stick for someone with obviously little investment in belonging to the forum anyway (what do you expect?).

I'm not going to blame you for being the victim here, but don't act like it's the forum's fault for not providing you with recourse for a situation you were chiefly responsible for.

Yeah, maybe forums really aren't your thing and you can go buy via eBay or other places.

Very strongly agree.

Again, it feels a little icky to victim blame, because I recognize that you were acting out of good intentions throughout. However, carelessness is a big factor here. You chose to do a bank transfer rather than a credit card funded payment which would have given you charge-back recourse. You also were careless in entering the amount of payment. Paypal confirms the total with you at least once, so not only did you key in the wrong amount, but you also must have confirmed that wrong amount on the confirmation page(s).

Again, I hate to victim blame, and your own contribution to this situation CERTAINLY doesn't absolve the seller of moral responsibility for being a jerk here himself. But it's important that everyone approach their own finances more carefully/cautiously when dealing with complete strangers who have no strong ties to any community. That's just common sense.

 

[KRNAZNBOY]

This happened to me. I lost my money... Paypal's protection really hates us laser hobbyists....

BTW this is like my first post in like, months. School sucks, thats all i can say...

 

[hakzaw1]

good bye Greedbay and PooPal
hello E-Bid and Google Wallet

On tonights news
Paypal will soon require a 180 day 'hold' on money paid to sellers as the 30 day return deal has become 6 months now-- Again the small guys get the shaft-- big time Ebayers are not effected as much IMO.

add that to the ban both already have on lasers over 5mW and yer pretty much screwed with paypal.


hak

 

[Sigurthr]

Yeah if they start putting a hold on payments I'm probably going to stop taking non-gift payments. That's just ridiculous.

 

[trencheel303]

Six months, that's a bit much is it not?

 

[Encap]

There has to be more to it--nobody is going to wait 180 for their money when selling something---is insane---will be the end of paypal.

Who would want to sell something today and get paid in March 2015?

 

[ChaosLord]

Wait... when i got that email about their policy change, i thought it said they changed the time you have to open a dispute. So instead of having 45 days to open a dispute, you now have 180 days.

 

[Wmacky]

Honestly, this incident speaks more about your naiveté than anything. You had dealings for an expensive purchase with someone with very few reputation points (which isn't a great metric either) or even presence on this board (never even heard of that guy). You don't manage your Paypal dispute very well ("absolutely not as described" -- why didn't you push that angle in the dispute rather than fight over the remaining $100?). Then you complain about the feedback forum not being a big enough stick for someone with obviously little investment in belonging to the forum anyway (what do you expect?).

I'm not going to blame you for being the victim here, but don't act like it's the forum's fault for not providing you with recourse for a situation you were chiefly responsible for.

Yeah, maybe forums really aren't your thing and you can go buy via eBay or other places.

Never claimed it's the forums fault. Never once. But thanks for the insult anyway. Anyone can make a simple mistake. And I really don't see were what I did really matters as it comes down to this:

He currently has $100 that belongs to me, and won't give it back. What else could possible matter?

The purpose of this sub forum is to report bad sellers, and thats the case here!!!!!!!!!!!!


Again, this is something that I would have rectified with my buyer within seconds without blame for a typo, where as I'm now at months, Months! this under age seller that hasn't learned the proper way adults conducts business.

Say what ever you will, but I feel I don't deserve to be punished for a typo. If you put a wrong amount down on a check to your mortgage company I bet you would be on the phone working to get it right back and wouldn't accept "to bad" you shouldn't had F'ed up as their response.

Anyway he better pay as he's just made my bucket list of loose ends to tie up for I go and I have his address................

 

[crazyspaz]

There has to be more to it--nobody is going to wait 180 for their money when selling something---is insane---will be the end of paypal.

Who would want to sell something today and get paid in March 2015?

That coupled with ebay's ridiculous "customer is always right" basically means the death of small sellers. Unless ebay ditches paypal (which isnt going to happen), i can see the ali___ sites greatly increasing in popularity.

 

[IsaacT]

It isn't a 180 day hold but a 180 day period during which a dispute can be filed. All the same processes for that too. So when you sell, use both delivery confirmation AND signature confirmation if possible.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Never claimed it's the forums fault. Never once. But thanks for the insult anyway.

You stated that the forum's rep and feedback forum is not a big enough stick, which would imply that to you it fails to prevent incidents like what you've experienced.

Anyone can make a simple mistake. And I really don't see were what I did really matters as it comes down to this:

He currently has $100 that belongs to me, and won't give it back. What else could possible matter?

The purpose of this sub forum is to report bad sellers, and thats the case here!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, the feedback forum is for providing feedback on buyers and sellers, which is not just some black and white rating the OP gets to leave -- and have the final say. Taking the OP's word at face value is at best naïve, and does everyone involved a disservice because there are always at least two sides to every story involving more than one person.

This forum is also about dispute resolution. Many of the replies here are to help people work through their problems with buyers or sellers. Sometimes, for example, buyers are too impatient with their sellers, or perhaps sellers forget to communicate adequately with their customers.

There are also cases where someone has little experience with dispute resolution and needs a different viewpoint on how to best shape outcomes. In your case, for example, you might get something-more-than-nothing if you're willing to compromise with the seller on a longer-term payment plan -- rather than just throwing up your hands and leaving an angry post about someone hardly anyone knows.

Say what ever you will, but I feel I don't deserve to be punished for a typo. If you put a wrong amount down on a check to your mortgage company I bet you would be on the phone working to get it right back and wouldn't accept "to bad" you shouldn't had F'ed up as their response.

In the grown-up world of life, sometimes you don't get partial credit for the mistakes you make.

So deal with it.

Don't assume I haven't make mistakes and paid for them too.

I got screwed out of $600 or so because eBay/PayPal wouldn't take anything less than an online delivery confirmation despite me having a copy of the signature proof from the post office. It was a $600 mistake: I didn't realize that signature confirmation didn't mean online tracking and delivery confirmation. The person on the other end exploited it and I was out $600 with nothing to show for it.

I did what I could through disputes and obtaining proof from the post office, but PP wouldn't accept it. While I was extremely pissed for a while, after some weeks I soon realized all the angry emails in the world, and all the sympathy of the customer service rep at PayPal, wasn't going to change my situation and just accepted the situation and moved on.

Lesson learned. Two lessons actually:

- Always ensure the package has online delivery confirmation info.
- I'll do what I can to fix the problem, but after some point my time and stress level is worth more than some (unobtainable) money.