Be Careful - PayPal Scam at R&S Tactical Gear?

HighDesertWalker

HighDesertWalker

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On Nov.24 I placed an order for two sheaths, paid the vendor via PayPal, and received the following confirmation:

Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:37:40 -0500 (EST)
From: R&S Tactical Gear <decicco@bdstacticalgear.com>
Reply-To: R&S Tactical Gear <decicco@bdstacticalgear.com>
To:
Subject: Your Order, 18152 at R&S Tactical Gear

****************
R&S Tactical Gear
****************

To:
Order ID: 18152
Date/Time: 12:37:35 Mon 24 Nov 2008

Your order has been received and you have selected to pay via online credit-card payment. Your credit card has not yet been charged and will not be charged until your order has been entered into our internal system. This proccess could take up to 3-4 business days most of the time the same day. If this order has an urgent time frame please call us at 888-770-9990 and speak to an operator to expedite your request please do not abuse this service we understand every one needs their gear ASAP. Please print out this page for your own record. Your order is being processed and will be sent to you shortly.

*** If you have any questions about your order please send all E-mails to sales@rstacticalgear.com ***


Yours sincerely,

R&S Tactical Gear
R&S Tactical Gear
http://www.rstacticalgear.com
mailto:decicco@bdstacticalgear.com

-----------------------------------------------------
Items Ordered:
-----------------------------------------------------

-- 1 X Spec.- Ops. Brand Combat Master (Combat Master) @ $34.95 = $34.95
- Color / Size:Coyote Brown (Short) SKU:100420111
-- 1 X BlackHawk Tactical Airborne Deluxe Fixed Blade Knife Sheath @ $29.95 = $29.95
- Color / Size:BlackHawk Airborn Deluxe Knife Sheath 7 OD 44AK01OD


Subtotal: $ 73.35
Shipping: $ 8.45
Tax: $ 0.00
Total Price: $ 73.35

The next day I received the following email from the vendor:

Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:50:42 -0500 (EST)
From: decicco@bdstacticalgear.com
Reply-To: decicco@bdstacticalgear.com
To:
Subject: Sorry, your order at R&S Tactical Gear has been voided

****************
R&S Tactical Gear
****************

Hello ,

Please note that your order with Order ID - 18152 which you ordered on 24 Nov 2008 has been voided.

we do not carry this item no longer you have not been charged

If you have further inquiries, please email us anytime at decicco@bdstacticalgear.com. Thank you for ordering from us, we hope that you will shop with us again in the future.

R&S Tactical Gear
R&S Tactical Gear
http://www.rstacticalgear.com
mailto:decicco@bdstacticalgear.com

Problem is the items were paid for by PayPal. The $73.35 price was transferred from my account to R&S, and the vendor will not respond to my emails. No refund has been issued. When I try to call using their toll free number a recording asks for my name before connecting me with a company rep. Then no one at R&S ever picks up the phone. I've called repeatedly and a fellow finally answered (apparently by accident). After he determined who I was he claimed the phone lines were screwed up by the recent holidays and that he was not the person I was looking for.

I filed a complaint with the Resolution Center at PayPal but no action has been taken yet. I'm afraid I've stumbled into a PayPal scam at R&S. Is anyone else familiar with this outfit?

I'll keep you folks informed concerning how this case progresses through the PayPal system.
 
I filed a complaint with the Resolution Center at PayPal but no action has been taken yet
Click to expand...

PayPal gives the other party so many days to respond before taking action. I forget how many. 2 weeks maybe?

Also if the other party doesn't have the money in their balance, you're screwed either way. I'm still owed money from a couple years ago from a scammer on Ebay. They won't let him receive money through PP anymore, but that's as far as it went.
 
If you used a credit card to make the initial payment to paypal, contact them. They can still do a charge back even though the (insert an unkind word of your choice here) at paypal won't.
all da best,
rats...
 
kiahs said:
PayPal gives the other party so many days to respond before taking action. I forget how many. 2 weeks maybe?

Also if the other party doesn't have the money in their balance, you're screwed either way. I'm still owed money from a couple years ago from a scammer on Ebay. They won't let him receive money through PP anymore, but that's as far as it went.
Click to expand...

Not good. :(
 
ratstuph said:
If you used a credit card to make the initial payment to paypal, contact them. They can still do a charge back even though the (insert an unkind word of your choice here) at paypal won't.
all da best,
rats...
Click to expand...

I used an instantaneous transfer from my bank account. Had a bad feeling about this transaction. It was off eBay. Last time I'll do that. Hopefully the guy will lose his PayPal account and won't be able to repeat the scam.
 
Did you email them?
*** If you have any questions about your order please send all E-mails to sales@rstacticalgear.com ***

I sent them an email inviting them to contact you and clear up accusations of theivery.
 
Ed T said:
Did you email them?
*** If you have any questions about your order please send all E-mails to sales@rstacticalgear.com ***

I sent them an email inviting them to contact you and clear up accusations of theivery.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ed T. I did email them back to the address on the communications I received from R&S. However, I did not try the address you cite above. I'll give it a try.
 
They apparently also do business as:

cqbgear.com
bdstacticalgear.com
tacticalgearstore.com



Your experience has not been unique: http://couragewithoutfear.typepad.com/courage_without_fear/2006/01/this_company_su.html

Always Google any company you do not have a good track record with.

Always use a credit card to pay through PayPal as PayPal/eBay does not give two hoot in Hell about you.

If the items were to be shipped by USPS contact the nearest U.S. Postal Inspector to file a Mail Fraud report. Any fraudulent transaction where solicitation, payment, or delivery involve USPS is subject to a federal felony statute.
 
Thomas Linton said:
They apparently also do business as:

cqbgear.com
bdstacticalgear.com
tacticalgearstore.com



Your experience has not been unique: http://couragewithoutfear.typepad.com/courage_without_fear/2006/01/this_company_su.html

Always Google any company you do not have a good track record with.

Always use a credit card to pay through PayPal as PayPal/eBay does not give two hoot in Hell about you.

If the items were to be shipped by USPS contact the nearest U.S. Postal Inspector to file a Mail Fraud report. Any fraudulent transaction where solicitation, payment, or delivery involve USPS is subject to a federal felony statute.
Click to expand...

Thanks for directing me to the links TL. It looks pretty clear at this point that I have been scammed. It will be interesting to see how PayPal responds; I'm not optimistic there either. I got an email from them with the following recommendations:

Now that you've opened a PayPal dispute, we'd like to offer a couple pointers to make this process as easy as possible.

1. You'll find useful tools to answer most questions at the Resolution Center, including the Dispute Tutorial for Buyers that covers:
* How to negotiate a resolution.
* How to close a resolved dispute.
2. Don't let disputes get out of hand. Keep in mind:
* Many disputes result from basic misunderstandings.
* Start by giving the seller the benefit of the doubt.
* Make it clear to the seller that you see the situation as resolvable.

Not very encouraging. I hope at least to get these crooks kicked out of their PayPal account.
 
Update:

R&S still advertises the sheaths they say they do not have in their online catalogue.

I submitted a complaint to Internet Crime Complaint Center at http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

This is a partnership between the FBI and two other government agencies. I would imagine they are awfully busy, but it's worth a try. I emphasized that R&S seems to be targeting members of our armed forces.
 
ratstuph said:
I hope they get a good stick-whackin'.
all da best,
rats...
Click to expand...

Thanks rats. Looks like they got a whackin after all. PayPal won a full refund on my complaint. Still, after 216 transactions with all positive reviews, this is the first time I've ever had to contact PayPal to get paid or win a refund. Judging from other posts on this thread, not everyone has been so lucky. I'll never do business with R&S Tactical Gear again.

Thanks to GBU on bladeforums for helping an ordinary bloke win justice. :thumbup:
 
So is the consensus that the best way to use Paypal is a transfer of funds from a credit card as opposed from a bank account?

(sorry to piggyback on you thread, HighDesertWalker, but it seemed like a good place to ask......I'm glad your problem worked out OK)
 
If you're paying somebody you know well and you're sure you won't have to do a chargeback then it doesn't matter. If there's any chance of difficulties, though, your credit card company is going to give you better protection than you can rely on from PayPal.
 
They are in Ocenside Calf, from their website. Not far from you desert walker. You are out west too. Go there and get your money back.
 
Thomason said:
So is the consensus that the best way to use Paypal is a transfer of funds from a credit card as opposed from a bank account?

(sorry to piggyback on you thread, HighDesertWalker, but it seemed like a good place to ask......I'm glad your problem worked out OK)
Click to expand...

No problem at all Thomason. It's worthwhile to learn some lessons from our mistakes.

Cougar is correct that you have more protection using a credit card. In fact, I could have charged to my credit card directly w/o going through PayPal at all. But, if the seller wants an instantaneous transfer, you have to go with your cash balance or a bank account if you use PayPal.

The safest way to use PayPal is on an eBay transaction, because you are insured against loss in most cases.

I generally feel safe using PayPal on most bladeforum transactions, because I can check out the sellers review record and posting history and make an evaluation. You can also google a user name to get additional information.

Finally, as Thomas Linton pointed out, always use google to check out an internet seller you are not already familiar with. That would have saved me a lot of trouble, because R&S has an easily obtainable bad record.

Thanks all for your interest. :thumbup:
 
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