It's pretty clear there is a problem with jake21... it's well into the 'preaching to the choir' zone and on its way to the 'flogging a dead horse' zone. Personally I doubt he's going to make reparations, and I suspect that the only good that will come out of this whole thread is the catharsis it brings those who have been burned and the warning it leaves to prevent others from joining their ranks. BUT their is also an element of lynching that appears to be less than objective.
Heres how some of this looks to someone who isn't a part of the drama:
1. jake21 does some stuff that upsets people, nobody says anything.
2. ndrew2505 has a number of group-buy sales that go well, everyone is satisfied, and people like ndrew2505.
3. jake21 sets up a group-buy sale in direct competition with ndrew2505, undercutting ndrew2505's price.
4. In response to 1, and perhaps spurred by 3, a number of people express their concerns about jake21. This is a good thing... it's what makes communities like this one work.
5. ndrew2505 joins in on this thread and the other one, and makes a series of posts that start with casting doubts on jake21's sale (could be a good thing... warning others of possible scams helps everyone), calling jake21 out for past behavior (where most of ndrew2505's complaints are actually about things that happened to other people), and then escalating into increasingly angry and emotional outbursts that include skirmishes with other posters and a couple of implied threats of physical violence (unless "p.s. dont forget i got your addy and i dont mind makin a road trip" and his offer to share jake21's address with people in the other thread means something other than what it sounds liek).
6. ndrew2505 says that jake21 has no sense of what the word "character" means.
I was behind ndrew2505's efforts at first, but as he got more and more upset about events that didn't seem to personally affect him very much I began to doubt. The problem is that it looks like he only started getting visibly excited about this issue when jake21 directly threatened his business by undercutting his diode sales. This (however valid) conflict of interest calls his behavior into question - at first it looked like he was protecting the community, now it just looks like he is protecting himself. Theres nothing wrong with protecting yourself. but I'm going to suggest that ndrew2505 consider the issue of character and let this thread proceed without the increasingly confrontational outbursts. That way the focus will stay on jake21's character, where it belongs right now, and not on his own.
I watched this same thing happen with another forum member and never said anything... but from my own experience and talks with other members I know that this person lost sales and respect when his defense of his own operations turned into attacks on other people's operations. It didn't matter how valid his stated altruistic concerns were, or how true his statements were: when the existence of other more (however valid) selfish concerns was known to the group his efforts no longer had the intended effect... they backfired.
so i wanna know also about all the ppl that said jake had excellent "customer service"? did you guys even deal with jake or did you just say that to help him scam ppl...?
