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Opinions Please

Will York

Will York

Joined
Jan 21, 2000
Messages
8,888
Hi guys,

Just wanted to get some fresh eyes on a situation I’ve happened into.

In December I had a response to a for-sale thread of mine from someone saying he’d take the knife. He also emailed me and said he’d send me a money order the following Monday, to which I responded that sounded fine and to please email me his shipping address so I could box up the knife. I emailed him again on that following Monday, asking for his shipping address—no reply. I emailed him again the following Thursday saying I was leaving town Friday, but if he’d shoot me his shipping address I’d get the knife boxed up and ready and if the payment came in before I left I’d send the knife. No response.

At this point, I thought the lack of response to three emails running, asking for his shipping address, was strange. I’ve dealt on the forums for seven years, and usually I’ll get at least an acknowledgement back from a trading partner after that many emails.

When I hadn’t received payment or email from him by December 26, I dropped him a courtesy email saying I hadn’t gotten payment yet, and asked if he had sent it. He replied that evening as follows (verbatim):

“yes Will i sent it you should have gotten it bye now!!!!”

I replied that same evening, asking if he sent it Priority Mail or First Class, and what day he sent it. He did not reply.

After another week, I began doubting that he had sent payment at all. Not because I hadn’t received it--obviously, it could have hung up in the Christmas mails, especially if it had been sent first class. But the tip-off to me was that he was being unresponsive to my emails and very vague about when and how he had sent payment. I prepared myself for him to say the payment had been lost in the mail, but kept my fingers crossed that maybe he was just not very communicative and the payment might come in after all.

By January 6, I was struck by the fact that it had been more than ten days since I’d last heard from him, and that if he really had sent me a money order, surely he would have emailed me by then to see what was going on. Everything in my past experience on the forums was telling me he never sent payment and was just waiting for me to say something so he could say it was lost in the mail.

I emailed him and, sure enough, this was his response (again verbatim):

“will, i sent the payment a long time ago this is why I dont like money orders,i wont be sending it again paypal is safe and secure looks like deal is off and im out 300.00”

He still ignored my request for details about what date he sent payment and whether he sent it First Class or Priority Mail.

I replied that same day, asking for the serial number and date of the Money Order so I could check to see if it had been cashed by a thief. He did not respond. I later emailed him again with the same request, again no response.

Now another week has gone by with no response, and I thought it was time I got a “community view” on the subject.

So what’s your take? Am I a paranoid cynic or is this guy probably just a lying flake?

Happy New Year to All
…and to All a Good Knife!

Will
 
Will, no response and the type of communication he had tells me that he never had any intention of sending you anything, he just strung you along. Why? I have no idea. I have had 1 encounter like this long ago. I finally gave up on him and said that I sold the knife to someone else.
 
Yes, I'd forget about this guy and move on.

You've done what you had to, and even more IMO.
 
Thanks, guys. Funny thing is, if he’d just emailed me and said he had too many Christmas bills or whatever and needed to back out, I’d have said no problem. I don’t care to participate in any deal if it’s not a win-win for both parties. But the fact that he’d apparently rather lie – actually planned to lie—instead of manning up, sticks in my gut. If this was ebay or some other venue, I’d just laugh and shake my head, but to me Bladeforums has always been a special kind of place—I hate to see this kind community polluted with that kind of crap.
 
This person is a liar. If I had sent the money, and you stated that you didnt get it, I would be finding something out and getting back to you. He never sent the money and I would let everyone here know who it is so the rest of us dont have to go through this crap. I'm Sorry about your wasted time with this asshole. Hopefully you'll have better dealings in the future.:thumbup:
 
Will, I think your supposed "customer" is an idiot, a crook, and now he's trying to **** you. Sounds to me like you have bent over backwards trying to be fair with this individual. I would just write him off at this point. He's full of "fertilizer."
 
Will

Trust your gut and trust the facts that you have. You are a stand-up guy and folks around here know it.

Sounds like very poor communication on the other party's side.

I think your words about this being a "special kind of place" are very true, and that fact accentuates the contrast between the predominant good guy ethics here and some of the cyber-pollution that seeps in sometimes.

Just my 2 cents. :)
 
Unfortunately there are a certain percentage of folks who would rather rely on a "little" lie instead of just telling the truth, even when the truth is not so bad.

Sounds like you may have run into one of these kinda folks. Regardless I'd write this guy off.
 
Yep,,Sounds like a tire kicker to me.

One of the most valuable lessons new folks can learn about the online knife community is the etiquette of buying and selling.

First lesson,,Buying and selling on the interent is done in minutes,,not in days. When you post something for sale don't disappear for days as someone may want to buy your item, right now. If you don't have time to buy or sell then don't waste the time of those that do. If you have to check with your spouse or take out a loan or sell off some stuff to make a purchase,,no problem,,just don't say you'll take it till your ready and able to do so.

Phillip :)
 
“will, i sent the payment a long time ago this is why I dont like money orders,i wont be sending it again paypal is safe and secure looks like deal is off and im out 300.00”
Click to expand...

Hmmm...

I wonder who it was. :confused: :)

P.S. "Lying Flake" :thumbup:
 
EDCeeker said:
Would you care to identify the individual, so other sellers can look out for him?
Click to expand...

I appreciate that thought, but I have no proof he’s lying other than his behavior, and I still have the knife so I’m not out anything but my time and possibly missing another buyer while it was off the market. I’ve looked up his record here on GB&U, and he has no other negative feedback. But now that this episode has been made part of the GB&U public record, you can be sure if I ever see him pulling similar shenanigans I’ll link to this thread and expose his past behavior. Until then, I’ll just let it serve as a warning to him and to anyone else who thinks about lying to break a contract.

Thanks again,
Will
 
WILL YORK said:
I appreciate that thought, but I have no proof he’s lying other than his behavior, and I still have the knife so I’m not out anything but my time and possibly missing another buyer while it was off the market. I’ve looked up his record here on GB&U, and he has no other negative feedback. But now that this episode has been made part of the GB&U public record, you can be sure if I ever see him pulling similar shenanigans I’ll link to this thread and expose his past behavior. Until then, I’ll just let it serve as a warning to him and to anyone else who thinks about lying to break a contract.

Thanks again,
Will
Click to expand...

This guy should at least thank-you for not exposing him. Anyway, you seem MORE than fair in this situation.
 
i don't know that i'd brand this guy you're dealing with a liar, but his communication skills are definitely lacking and that in itself would be enough to dissuade me from doing future business with him. it's bad enough to have to be frustrated by not knowing if the check is really in the mail, plus having to hang onto a knife you're trying to move on top of that and not wanting to sell it out from under him if he is on the up and up and then he makes you out to be the bad guy.

i did a deal a while ago and i was the sender of the money order. i don't know where it went en route to TX, but it took about a month to get there. i don't know who was more frustrated, me or the seller, but i made sure there was constant communication. fortunately, he wasn't in a screaming hurry to unload the knife and was patient enough to wait until the money order finally showed up. i don't know that he would have been that accommodating if i had ignored his e-mails instead of making sure the communication was there.

one thing i did find out though, was that in order to trace a postal money order you have to have the top portion of the money order and be the original purchaser. i had them trace it after about two weeks and didn't get the reply until a couple of weeks after i had finally gotten the knife. it's not a matter of just giving them the serial number and finding out right then. they don't reply until the money order has been cashed, and won't give a refund unless it's been at least 45 or 60 (i forget which) days. i know that the deal i did would have really pissed the seller off if i hadn't made the effort to maintain good communications, and i wouldn't have blamed him in the least.



Winston
 
Hello everyone it was me Will is talking about in this post,you all may say what you like but im the one out $300.00 and my dealings with quite a few others here i think speaks for it self . Paul
 
Well now that we know who it is, I would say that it is more of a misunderstanding.:thumbup:

I don't believe Paul meant any subterfuge. He's shown himself to be a good guy on the forums and I have not seen one negative thing, so, Will, I am going to go with this being a misunderstanding.

Paul, did you send the MO registered or certified? When near the holidays it's a good thing to do so.

Oh and Paul, Will never brought your name up which was an honorable thiing and typical of Will. But you have also shown good by comming out and saying it was you. Typical skunk would not have done anything until they got named.
 
If you sent Will the MO, why could you not give him the details from the reciept, did you lose that also?

Sorry Pal, but if it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like like a duck, it's a freaking duck!!!

Just man up, it is a New Year for G-d's sake!!!!

Will is a great guy with a stellar reputation and deserved better.
 
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