Legal action for fruadulent sellers?
Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:39 pm
Please excuse me if this thread is technically not allowed in this sub-forum. I thought perhaps buyers/sellers could share advice here where they sometimes purchase items. I found this to be appropriate here, if the mod does not, please move it as you see fit.
I was recently scammed by user 12strang10 (Michael Holman of Meriden, CT.) In August I purchased an SSL buss compressor clone off of him from his post here. I paid by money order (I know, this was the first sign.) He promised that the unit was in full working order and the build was very clean and professional. Weeks later when I began questioning where it was, the excuses started rolling in. Just waiting on a few small parts to finish it, just a few wires to solder, blah blah blah. I got more and more frustrated with his antics and after a few months he said he would ship it in a week or refund my money. That was the beginning of November. Then he started making excuses why he couldn't ship it. Eventually he told me that he was just flat broke and had no money (never mind the $600 I sent him months earlier which included shipping.) I began warning users here in his sale threads that he is untrustworthy and no one should be sending him money. That got a fair amount of attention here from users who don't like scammers. He lashed back verbally several times and finally said that the unit was shipped, although it was never finished. According to him, his tech didn't want to deal with the drama so he didn't finish it and I needed to wire only the input and output xlr connections. He also mentioned that he didn't trust the post office and he expected it to be damaged during shipping, which I found fishy. Oh well, I was happy to just have it and be done with this mess....
Fast forward to last night when I opened the package. The outside looks ok, mounted pots/switches on a custom engraved panel. Then I opened it. It is a messy rats nest of wires showing very poor solder work, lots of cold solder joints, solder bridges and pcbs that are dangling from the chassis. This thing isn't even partially wired up. I've never seen such poor workmanship and I can't believe I paid $600 for this. It would have been easier to build it myself from scratch than it would be to undo this horrible mess and redo it all properly. Obviously not what I paid for. I'm embarrassed that I got fooled by this guys scam.
Of course I shot off an angry email demanding a refund. His response, "sounds like it got damaged during shipping. I'll file an insurance claim." That's it, another part of his scam. Now he's committing insurance fraud to try to cover up his mess. I am fully convinced that he bought this kit as a first time builder, wrecked it, decided to pawn it off on someone else (with profit) and then commit shipping insurance fraud.
I do not plan on this poor excuse of a seller voluntarily giving me a refund. I've demanded it several times in the prior months with no success. If you know the appropriate legal action to take or have any advice, please do share. I'm across the country from him but I'm not going to take this lying down. This is just wrong and I'll fight it on principal if nothing else.
I was recently scammed by user 12strang10 (Michael Holman of Meriden, CT.) In August I purchased an SSL buss compressor clone off of him from his post here. I paid by money order (I know, this was the first sign.) He promised that the unit was in full working order and the build was very clean and professional. Weeks later when I began questioning where it was, the excuses started rolling in. Just waiting on a few small parts to finish it, just a few wires to solder, blah blah blah. I got more and more frustrated with his antics and after a few months he said he would ship it in a week or refund my money. That was the beginning of November. Then he started making excuses why he couldn't ship it. Eventually he told me that he was just flat broke and had no money (never mind the $600 I sent him months earlier which included shipping.) I began warning users here in his sale threads that he is untrustworthy and no one should be sending him money. That got a fair amount of attention here from users who don't like scammers. He lashed back verbally several times and finally said that the unit was shipped, although it was never finished. According to him, his tech didn't want to deal with the drama so he didn't finish it and I needed to wire only the input and output xlr connections. He also mentioned that he didn't trust the post office and he expected it to be damaged during shipping, which I found fishy. Oh well, I was happy to just have it and be done with this mess....
Fast forward to last night when I opened the package. The outside looks ok, mounted pots/switches on a custom engraved panel. Then I opened it. It is a messy rats nest of wires showing very poor solder work, lots of cold solder joints, solder bridges and pcbs that are dangling from the chassis. This thing isn't even partially wired up. I've never seen such poor workmanship and I can't believe I paid $600 for this. It would have been easier to build it myself from scratch than it would be to undo this horrible mess and redo it all properly. Obviously not what I paid for. I'm embarrassed that I got fooled by this guys scam.
Of course I shot off an angry email demanding a refund. His response, "sounds like it got damaged during shipping. I'll file an insurance claim." That's it, another part of his scam. Now he's committing insurance fraud to try to cover up his mess. I am fully convinced that he bought this kit as a first time builder, wrecked it, decided to pawn it off on someone else (with profit) and then commit shipping insurance fraud.
I do not plan on this poor excuse of a seller voluntarily giving me a refund. I've demanded it several times in the prior months with no success. If you know the appropriate legal action to take or have any advice, please do share. I'm across the country from him but I'm not going to take this lying down. This is just wrong and I'll fight it on principal if nothing else.