Donations to those ripped off

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deuce42

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 31, 2008
Messages
645
Location
Sydney, Australia
Gday

I have read at least two threads now in the black market that have emanated from people that have paid money to a seller but not heard anything back. It fills me with disdain and leaves me with a very empty feeling. Its a feeling of sadness for those who pay money in genuine good faith and now find that their only remedy is to post threads trying to illicit responses from other members whom may be able to advise of the seller's whereabouts or of their previous transaction experience.  

The majority of people here in my humble experience are really great and totally committed to diy electronics. As with any internet marketplace, a buyer always takes a risk when buying online from an unknown person - and - there will always be a small element of rip off whenever you have lots of trades.  I accept that every once in a while one of the trades will be a scam by the sheer law of probability, but I realised that this still ads little comfort to the buyer who's just been ripped off.

It made me wonder what the rest of us could do for the buyer thats just been scammed? Probably not a great deal in reality I guess. I then wondered how a buyer ever ends up being re-compensated and if there was anything I could do. Clearly I don't have the money to pay everyone for the amount of money they been squeezed from someone else. But  I then started to wonder about the donations that are often made to prodigy, sometimes made as a % of sales from a seller. Whilst I am really grateful to prodigy for this forum and am happy for a PCB seller or similar to charge a few bills extra to donate something to prodigy, I wondered whether something similar could be done for ripp off victims here. Kind of like a donation fund for black market scam victims.

Perhaps I am very naive and idealistic. In fact I may be the only person on this board that cares about this issue, but I feel like discussing it here if only for the sake of discussion and because I want to express my feelings on this issue.  It may well not be practical or realisitic and more importantly it may really not be wanted by this group but its something I wanted to say.

Thanks and peace out:)

 
I have Experienced this twice now , as a disturbing trend ?
[ sending a couple hundred each time ]
[ a third time getting something that didn't work ]

Having made deals with individuals before , there
is some trust and experience of how things will go , but

some Red flag /Warnings  are when people are MOVING
and or , if they haven't been active on the grp recently
but come out of the blue selling things .
It seems like trust should not be relaxed and let NO time
go by before protecting yourself

maybe there is some overwhelming personal family stuff , but still
no excuse to ignore or rip anyone off

Do we keep a running list so others can see it ?

Billy , enthalpystudios[ @gmail.com ] had taken 250 approx for parts
and i never heard from again  after one of the payments .

Others had problems with nate ? i had gotten a cd burner that won't finalize

Not sure what we can do , post list ? post warnings ? cross post  [ and recieve ? ]
to other grps possibly to trk these people and help others out ?

Start an unresolved deals thread in B.M. ? or maybe it needs to be a sticky so
there aren't constant posts bumping it up [ and diluting ] all the time

Moderators , what say thee ?












 
The "rip off's" are a blight on an otherwise great on-line community and it makes my blood
boil that some here have been stung.
I've had no problems and have had great dealings with members here so far.

One strategy that I tend to keep to is to buy from either "known" sources in the BM/WM
or look carefully at the length of time sellers are here and how active they are,
I wouldn't buy from say  "Bob Bollox44" who's posted 12 times  ( phantom example )  !!!

EVEN if he's selling something that I REALLY want ....

MM.
 
i was fortunate enough to get back $100?? (or close to it) from, a bad deal on the forum. others are not so lucky. as for the community reimbursing them, this will only lead to another type of scam.
i think your safe if you order from long time members and trusted members in the white market. i always see how many post a member has, how long they've been a member and read a few threads to see if they are consistent with each other. for example the member who tried to rip me off had a small number of threads. mostly in feeler threads for parts that had nothing to do with each other. like buying neve knobs when he never had a ? in any neve build threads. you get the idea.
rip offs will happen. nate was quite a suprise. he was a member in good standing. then saw an opportunity to steal some cash and took it. i still love this place. its filled with great people from all over the world who are all about helping one another. (this is where we all hold hands and sing Kumbiah) ;) ;) 8)
 
Mentioning no names but there have been some recent posts from new posters with only a couple of posts to their names offering goods & / or services for sale  :eek:

Maybe there should be a post count mininum or / & new forum member mininum qualifing time period before anyone can offer up any items for sale?

Could be an idea anyway?

I got ripped off last year on another forum ::)
 
never been ripped of for know... ::)

Maybe there should be a post count mininum
I think (no offense) that's common sens...never buy something from a perfect stranger with 3 posts.
maybe just a sticky with some warning.

as for the community reimbursing them, this will only lead to another type of scam.
yep, so after who cares cause the forum as some kind of "insurance"

if you've been scammed by a longtime member (or not so long but active member), it's a shame but hey...shits happen!
if you've been scammed by a 2 time poster, you've been careless...shame on you.

the first time I bought from the black market, I was so scared for my 350€ that i pissed off the guy by sending too much email..Pete if you read me...I'm so soooooory!!  ;D

 
I've been riped off by the well known N*****.I'm reading this thread attentively , but do not want to express myself deeply at the moment.
I just fear a kind of insurance would just attract ***** men/sellers.
 
Again  , how about a sticky in the B.M.
of unresolved dealings
No one will want to have their name there
if they intend on doing more business
 
Caveat emptor.  My dealings in the market have been great because of those on both sides of the transactions.
If anything, there should be a limited liability sticky protecting the host from thieves.
Anyone can have a personal shock and be able to disappear for a time, but eventually you have to start communicating and finally honor a transaction.
Mike
 
I have never had a problem with buying stuff from the B.M. here - PCB's, mic capsules, transformers have all gone swimmingly well, and nearly all the transactions have been international. But it only takes a few bad deals to leave a bad taste in the mouth of many.

I have a piece of vintage equipment that I sent to a reputable (and well known, which is why I'm not giving any details) tech to refurbish. He has now had it for 3.5 years, and has given every excuse in the book as to why it has not been completed. The bigger shocker is the fact that he had previously done good work for me with refurbishing another piece, so I had no qualms about sending the gear to be fixed. 3.5 years. His original estimate was 4-6 weeks.

All that by way of saying that there is flakiness everywhere. Sadly.
 
Perhaps the BM sticky is a good idea. Hopefully it will be legitimate rather than turning into a witch hunt without basis. Who polices it???  Can one shamed by one of the stickies get it removed if it turns out to not be their fault?  Its a similar thinking to the complaints sellers on ebay have about one way feedback.

Still a really good idea, just throwing a few thoughts up about it.
 
one of the tricky parts could be self policing a sticky
so it doesn't get vindictive [ sp ? ]
Although some may pop up to defend others if it
becomes unjustified

Still as a warning so others don't get sucked in AND
maybe be able to provide info to help ,  could prevent
some new abuse .

Another good thing about the W.M.
 
okgb said:
Again  , how about a sticky in the B.M.
of unresolved dealings
No one will want to have their name there
if they intend on doing more business
I like this idea since bad business has been rearing it's head more and more around here.

The best way to keep people in line is accountability.  This also keeps buyers well informed.
 
Something that really bothers me here is the thought that there have been some money  rip-off happenning from the same person.I have no direct proof, but the notion leaves a sour taste in my mouth.  :(
 
Sell something:be responsive.

If no goods within (a few weeks) reasonable time: report fraudulent charge with bank/card.

Paypal is nearly useless for recovering funds, your bank has no problem doing it if the seller does not seem like they intend to deliver.

Sellers must understand that buyers need to protect themselves. Took me 'til the second rip-off to realize paypal is a waste of time.

now back to DIY
 
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