Royally messed around by seasoned boards user!

cormie

I'd been considering whether to post this or not but decided it best to put this up to show that even someone who you think you can trust based on their online history, can still mess you around considerably

It started when I posted this thread on boards considering upgrading my current XPS Dell laptop: <SNIP>

The user in question responded and PM'd me offering an as new laptop for €1,300. It was about €90 less than he paid for it and decided to sell it after thinking he'd prefer a smaller one for college. He ordered it with a student discount from the Dell Outlet so got a good price on it and this type was rare enough on the outlet so it seemed. He also said he'd throw in a laptop bag/case. I decided to go ahead and we agreed I would pay half before he sent it by courier, tracked and insured, and I would inspect it by benchmark software, for dents, scratches etc and if I was happy with it, would pay the remainder and if not, would send it back for a refund. We also agreed I would pay €20 extra for postage.

I sent payment and understood it was busy coming up to Chrismtas but there was still plenty of time to get it sent to me.

What happened next was a complete joke. At first I thought it was just because of how busy it was at Christmas, but as the communication progressed, it just seemed like he was coming up with excuse and lie after lie not to send it to me, including telling me that days after he was meant to send it, that he JUST DISCOVERED it actually had less ram and a smaller SSD than it was supposed to, that he was stuck in work for 15 hour shifts so couldn't make it to post office between 3am and 6pm, that he was just after contacting Dell who said the warranty wouldn't be supported in Ireland, then failure after failure to make it to the post office on time.

On top of all this, I see he had <SNIP> on what I think was the day, or after the day I sent payment, it's hard to tell exactly with adverts, but while he had my money, he was bargaining with people over adverts on the same laptop. I knew it was on adverts but didn't mention this until I saw a deal was close to being agreed there so came to let the new potential buyer know the story, who respectfully pulled out. The ad was subsequently withdrawn by the seller.

After all this he then tells me he doesn't want to ship it without receiving full payment first and then tells me he will if I agree to pay an extra €90 so it's the same as what he paid. I tell him I'm not paying him any more than we agreed but I'd happily pay €90 to a dog santuary and he then asks for €45 instead. Read the transcripts below, it's unbelievably painful!

I didn't fear I wasn't going to get my €670 back, but I did want the laptop and wanted him to stick to our agreement.

We first communicated by PM on boards.ie, and then by email and then everything was over WhatsApp. Both of us had our boards.ie inboxes very full and I had to delete a lot of the PM's to make room for more

These were the emails:

Mod snipped - Nody

cormie

The conversation then moved to WhatsApp:

Mod snipped - Nody

cormie

continued

Mod snipped - Nody

whoopsadoodles

Why on earth would you waste so much time with such a dick?

You should have taken the refund weeks ago.

sparrowcar

You were very patient over a long period of time IMO.

The guy messed up somewhere along the way and probably spent your money over xmas and sold the laptop as well. Basically buying himself time at your expense.

Complete joker it would appear and very stressful for you. It's very hard sometimes for people to understand how frustrating and stressful things like this can become.

Is there a resolution since the last post?

cormie

I wanted the laptop plain and simply. I posted about the deal on facebook and I had my techy friends telling me it's a fantastic deal and to go for it and Christmas is the best time for me to do things like switching to a new laptop or phone as I'm not expected to be responsive with calls and emails to my business. After that, it kinda switched to a matter of principle, but I still wanted the laptop

In the end, I found out that there's a new XPS being released in weeks and I saw a few similar spec ones to what he was selling appear on the UK Outlet store and at the time, I hadn't had a BSOD in a good 2 weeks or so, so decided I could hold out a little longer and just to get my money back.

He sent me a PM over boards and I replied via email as my boards inbox was almost full again (start from the bottom of the quoted text)

Mod snipped - Nody

Barry Badrinath

That seller is a timewasting, dishonest, amateur extortionist.

No honor or respect and a pure lazy attitude.

Absolute disgrace

whoopsadoodles

And now we know what poster it is!

Barry Badrinath

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

And now we know what poster it is!

Sure I have his address too :pac:

stampydmonkey

Jeez...You have the patience of a saint. He sounds like a 12year old.

Barry Badrinath

It was probably an aul Lidl laptop anyway. All those spanners he threw into the deal must have come from there too.

Absolutely shocking behaviour....and still trying to sell it on another site for more money whike he held onto the OP's substantial deposit for weeks on end.

Jaysis I would have walked to Cork and got it sorted.

booterboy

Some people are just horrible and dishonest when it comes to money.
Have sold second hand electronics including TVs,PCs,laptops,Ipads,game consoles to name but a few over the past 25 years and my number 1 rule was I would not post or sell anything without the buyer fully inspecting the item I was selling.
Have never had one problem with a buyer as I have always dealt with people face to face and cash transactions only.
There are too many people on Adverts/Donedeal/Ebay getting ripped off by rogue sellers.
Dont ever pay good money for something from someone you dont know without atleast seeing the bloody thing.
Anyway hope OP gets money back and learns from this.

amdublin

Very long could not follow it all. Did you get the money back??

cormie

Yep, got it back in the end It's long alright, but it's full of ridiculousness

readytosnap

First up, I cannot believe I read all that.
Secondly, the seller sounds like a right knob. Like others have said, he probably blew the deposit on perlenbacher. At least you got your cash back. Sounds like he treated your deposit as a short term loan, interest free.

Drumorig

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

Why on earth would you waste so much time with such a dick?

You should have taken the refund weeks ago.

Ye wtf, thats crazy... is there gold hidden in this laptop or something ?
Id a bought a laptop online in the 1st place, instead your on a mission to save 90 quid or something...

cormie

I'm on a mission to save €90? Not a chance! It's a saving of about €700 over what it would cost to buy new. They are rarely stocked at the same spec, although there's a few there now, there was nothing on the Outlet site any time I checked over the 2/3 weeks this was all happening. Maybe it's the fact it's after Christmas now that there's a few in stock at the moment, but I'm going to wait another while for the newer model to be available.

As I mentioned to him, I would have happily paid €90 extra had he negotiated a bit better at the start and I was happy to donate €90 to a dog sanctuary if he sent it at the agreed price, I just didn't want to give him a penny extra, he's the one who caused all this over wanting to get an extra €90 which I didn't even know about until the end and who knows if that's even the reason really!

The funny thing is, I don't think he did spend the money, I think he had it ready to refund me the whole time.

JaMarcusHustle

Infuriating read. What an absolute tosser.

Looks like he sold a phone on Adverts too and never marked it as sold too, to avoid the seller's fee. Be a shame if someone reported it

If it were me - being the incredibly petty person that I am and seeing how much inconvenience and stress he would have caused me - I could think of a lot of damage I could do with his name, address, phone number and e-mail address. But maybe that's just me.

Ideo

Surely the guy should be ip blocked due to the above?

TimeToShine

There's still a lesson for you here OP.

Earthhorse

Good luck trying to get anyone to do anything to prevent the user doing this again. But fair play for posting it.

Delacent

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but seems the seller was not as rushed as the buyer.

Buyer put alot of pressure on seller. It sets off alarm bells and seller gets cold feet.

With so much scamming going on, people close to seller probably gave warnings.

Buyer gets more heated, seller gets more worried. Seller wants to refund money - seller BEGS to refund money, buyer doesn't want refund, want laptop and offers extra. More alarm bells for seller.

Sorry, but buyer put too much pressure on what seems to be a young seller - even slyly threw out tyat he had sellers home address and seller just wanted out of the deal and give refund.

I'm on sellers side overall - though agree that fault lies on both sides.

Galadriel

Delacent wrote: »

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but seems the seller was not as rushed as the buyer.

Buyer put alot of pressure on seller. It sets off alarm bells and seller gets cold feet.

With so much scamming going on, people close to seller probably gave warnings.

Buyer gets more heated, seller gets more worried. Seller wants to refund money - seller BEGS to refund money, buyer doesn't want refund, want laptop and offers extra. More alarm bells for seller.

Sorry, but buyer put too much pressure on what seems to be a young seller - even slyly threw out tyat he had sellers home address and seller just wanted out of the deal and give refund.

I'm on sellers side overall - though agree that fault lies on both sides.

Eh, the buyer sent €670 to the seller and then seller did not send the laptop? what else is there? the buyer offered to pay €20 extra for the delivery cost, he wouldn't have been hassled if he had just sent the laptop like he agreed to, and don't forget the seller is the one that PM'd the buyer about the laptop in the first place...

JaMarcusHustle

Delacent wrote:

I'm on sellers side overall - though agree that fault lies on both sides.

The fact that the seller put it on Adverts and was negotiating with other interested buyers the whole time doesn't alarm you at all?

Delacent

Galadriel wrote: »

Eh, the buyer sent €670 to the seller and then seller did not send the laptop? what else is there? the buyer offered to pay €20 extra for the delivery cost, he wouldn't have been hassled if he had just sent the laptop like he agreed to, and don't forget the seller is the one that PM'd the buyer about the laptop in the first place...

Did you read the entire conversation?

Seller offered to refund amount on 21st dec.
Seller was also shift working in retail and at Christmas that's crazy hours.

Buyer put a lot of pressure as buyer wanted it urgently - whilst buyer is 100% genuine, the conversation seems to have spooked the seller and buyer came across as too keen.

As i said, fault on both sides, but you need to acknowledge that seller offered to refund paid amount on 21st Dec and wanted out of deal - buyer just wanted laptop and piled more pressure, thus seller lost trust.

Try reading it as if the buyer was a total unknown - its almost identical to many scam threads you read. I think the buyer wanted this too much and this spooked the seller.

Galadriel

Delacent wrote: »

Did you read the entire conversation?

Seller offered to refund amount on 21st dec.
Seller was also shift working in retail and at Christmas that's crazy hours.

Buyer put a lot of pressure as buyer wanted it urgently - whilst buyer is 100% genuine, the conversation seems to have spooked the seller and buyer came across as too keen.

As i said, fault on both sides, but you need to acknowledge that seller offered to refund paid amount on 21st Dec and wanted out of deal - buyer just wanted laptop and piled more pressure, thus seller lost trust.

Try reading it as if the buyer was a total unknown - its almost identical to many scam threads you read. I think the buyer wanted this too much and this spooked the seller.

Ok then, how to you explain the adverts ad? EDIT: Yes the buyer should have pulled out then, but look he was the one that was PM'd about it, bottom line no one will be buying from the seller again in a hurry.

SteoL

Delacent wrote: »

Did you read the entire conversation?

Seller offered to refund amount on 21st dec.
Seller was also shift working in retail and at Christmas that's crazy hours.

Buyer put a lot of pressure as buyer wanted it urgently - whilst buyer is 100% genuine, the conversation seems to have spooked the seller and buyer came across as too keen.

As i said, fault on both sides, but you need to acknowledge that seller offered to refund paid amount on 21st Dec and wanted out of deal - buyer just wanted laptop and piled more pressure, thus seller lost trust.

Try reading it as if the buyer was a total unknown - its almost identical to many scam threads you read. I think the buyer wanted this too much and this spooked the seller.

Honestly, I don't know any scammers that would wire cash to the person they're scamming and any that do don't know how to scam properly!

me_right_one

Who is the poster? Put up his Boards username so we'll all know not to deal with him

nava

MOD: I Removed reference to seller as we only have 1 side of the story

Delacent

SteoL wrote: »

Honestly, I don't know any scammers that would wire cash to the person they're scamming and any that do don't know how to scam properly!

You know that, I know that, but looks like the seller is 19 / 20 years old and they are probably listening to people giving loads of scare stories.

Even Joe "whine away" Duffy had plenty of stories very similar around that time.

lawred2

Delacent wrote: »

Did you read the entire conversation?

Seller offered to refund amount on 21st dec.
Seller was also shift working in retail and at Christmas that's crazy hours.

Buyer put a lot of pressure as buyer wanted it urgently - whilst buyer is 100% genuine, the conversation seems to have spooked the seller and buyer came across as too keen.

As i said, fault on both sides, but you need to acknowledge that seller offered to refund paid amount on 21st Dec and wanted out of deal - buyer just wanted laptop and piled more pressure, thus seller lost trust.

Try reading it as if the buyer was a total unknown - its almost identical to many scam threads you read. I think the buyer wanted this too much and this spooked the seller.

Lol

First time ever I've heard of a keen buyer spooking a seller.

Give over.

Delacent

Galadriel wrote: »

Ok then, how to you explain the adverts ad? EDIT: Yes the buyer should have pulled out then, but look he was the one that was PM'd about it, bottom line no one will be buying from the seller again in a hurry.

Seller obviously lost interest in selling to buyer fairly quickly, (offered almost immediate refund) and probably looking for a more local buyer who meet and pay on the spot.

You have to agree that buyer probably came across as far too keen to buy which is typical of adverts / done deal scams - and that would set alarm bells off for many.

Delacent

lawred2 wrote: »

Lol

First time ever I've heard of a keen buyer spooking a seller.

Give over.

Maybe read many of the threads about online buying scams.

lawred2

Fair enough I suppose. I know for a fact that I wouldn't personally sell anything to anyone without full payment.

Galadriel

Delacent wrote: »

Maybe read many of the threads about online buying scams.

Yeah but the seller was the one that contacted the OP through PM to sell the laptop, not the other way round.

cormie

JaMarcusHustle wrote: »

If it were me - being the incredibly petty person that I am and seeing how much inconvenience and stress he would have caused me - I could think of a lot of damage I could do with his name, address, phone number and e-mail address. But maybe that's just me.

I don't think something like this would bring any positive outcome. As long as I can prevent other people getting messed around in the same way and possibly even encourage the guy to change his attitude in future, that's all I want. I wouldn't get anything from any revenge tactics.

Delacent wrote: »

Did you read the entire conversation?

Seller offered to refund amount on 21st dec.
Seller was also shift working in retail and at Christmas that's crazy hours.

Buyer put a lot of pressure as buyer wanted it urgently - whilst buyer is 100% genuine, the conversation seems to have spooked the seller and buyer came across as too keen.

As i said, fault on both sides, but you need to acknowledge that seller offered to refund paid amount on 21st Dec and wanted out of deal - buyer just wanted laptop and piled more pressure, thus seller lost trust.

Try reading it as if the buyer was a total unknown - its almost identical to many scam threads you read. I think the buyer wanted this too much and this spooked the seller.

When I heard the seller was based in Cork I thought it might not be a goer, but they suggested posting it registered and tracked, to quote one of the PM's I still have: "I'd be happy to post it to you tracked by courier? I know you'd like to test it, but I am 100% genuine here and we are both long time users of the site." and that was exactly my thinking. I explained how I am fully traceable and I had his details before I sent the money too, so it all looked good.

By the way, I NEVER offered him more than was initially agreed. When he mentioned €90 extra I told him I would have been happy to agree on €1,390 had he negotiated for it at the start, but he didn't and we agreed a price and I paid €650+€20 postage in the first of 2 payments. I told him I'd donate €90 to a dog sanctuary to show I'd no problem paying €90 extra, but no way it was going to him after all he had done.

I deleted most of the PM's, but I had already said I hoped to get it before Christmas. There was no indication on the 21st that the seller wanted out of the deal, just that they could return the money and we can wait and do it later.

Also, they used the excuse of being afraid to send it before receiving full payment later on, but then they seemed to have no problem to send if if I agreed to pay €740 instead of €650 for the second payment, so it doesn't really apply here.

I'm not sure what I could have done differently to get the laptop other than go to Cork and wait outside his home, or pay him more. I wanted the laptop for sure, but of course after all the time wasted on this, that same time had it been used to actually work for a wage, would have afforded me the price between the asking price for and a new one

cormie

nava wrote: »

MOD: I Removed reference to seller as we only have 1 side of the story

What usually happens here? Do mods contact the user and request their side of the story or should I invite him here to comment?

I mean it would pretty much be a case of asking is this transcript accurate between him and me?

nava

MOD: You can ask him/her to post over to give his side of the story.

Delacent

cormie wrote: »

I'm not sure what I could have done differently to get the laptop other than go to Cork and wait outside his home, or pay him more. I wanted the laptop for sure, but of course after all the time wasted on this, that same time had it been used to actually work for a wage, would have afforded me the price between the asking price for and a new one

I don't think you did anything wrong, just the seller got spooked and you probably wanted to buy it more than the seller wanted to sell it.

As i said above, the Whine to Joe show was full of scam stories at the time too and I'd suspect that someone else was "advising" the seller.

Yes he messed about, but seems at all times he was willing to refund, hence I reckon it was just two people not understanding each other than any purposeful agenda.

Barry Badrinath

The sellers side of the story is quite clear.

He made the buyer aware that he was selling what the buyer wanted.

He agreed a sale price.

He accepted a large deposit on the basis of that sale price.

He agreed to arrange tracked delivery in order to test the equipment.

He had the buyers money for a substantial amount of time.

He did not send the item "due to work commitments".i.e.....15hr shifts with apparently no break....ever.

Buyer extensively offered alternate postage arrangements and calculated timings for the seller.

Seller continued to hold onto buyers money and not send the item.

The items turns out to not be as described with no warranty.

Seller still negotiating the sale of the item on Adverts while buyers deposit is sitting in sellers bank account.

Seller admits withholding item due to wanting an extra €90 on top of agreed sale price and acceptance of deposit.

Anyone defending the seller here, clearly has issues with comprehension and situation analysis.

The only reason the seller offered a refund was because he was refusing to honour his offer of the sale price. Then tried to hussle the OP for more money.....all while looking to sell for a higher price elsewhere.

TLDR:
OP is right....seller was an asshat.....defenders of the seller are idiots.

Earthhorse

That's only true if you don't consider the alternative facts though.

cormie

Delacent wrote: »

I don't think you did anything wrong, just the seller got spooked and you probably wanted to buy it more than the seller wanted to sell it.

As i said above, the Whine to Joe show was full of scam stories at the time too and I'd suspect that someone else was "advising" the seller.

Yes he messed about, but seems at all times he was willing to refund, hence I reckon it was just two people not understanding each other than any purposeful agenda.

I'm not sure, I was suggesting to ask people for advice and he seems pretty clued in to these things himself. I don't think he was afraid I'd try pull any scams, he had all my details and could have easily pursued it legally and lawfully if I tried anything. I think as he said himself, he just wanted more money and didn't want to sell it for less than he bought it?

Earthhorse wrote: »

That's only true if you don't consider the alternative facts though.

Which alternative facts are you referring to?

FAILSAFE 00

Jeez, I could ship a nuclear warhead with less hassle than this

JayRoc

Am I the only one who thinks the OP is probably coming off as bad/worse than the fella selling the laptop?

The seller clearly, for god knows what reason, changed his mind about the sale and repeatedly apologised for the inconvenience, said he wanted to refund the deposit and forget the whole thing.

Hardly ideal, but honestly, the obsessive pursuit of a clearly dead deal comes off as a little weird.

"I know where you live"?

"I'm gonna post our private correspondence online even though it kinda makes me look like a head-the-ball who can't take a hint"?

A bit much, IMO

ShaShaBear

Unless I've read this totally arseways, I would also be totally spooked if someone tried to convince me to post them an item we agreed was worth almost €1400 for half that price. Especially if I were aware of the "buyer beware" rules in online second-hand selling.
Unless there's something I'm not seeing, there would be nothing stopping the buyer from retaining the laptop and blocking all contact with the seller, leaving him down over €600. And likely someone informed the buyer he was being silly not receiving the full amount before he posted it.

cloloco

JayRoc wrote: »

Am I the only one who thinks the OP is probably coming off as bad/worse than the fella selling the laptop?

The seller clearly, for god knows what reason, changed his mind about the sale and repeatedly apologised for the inconvenience, said he wanted to refund the deposit and forget the whole thing.

Hardly ideal, but honestly, the obsessive pursuit of a clearly dead deal comes off as a little weird.

"I know where you live"?

"I'm gonna post our private correspondence online even though it kinda makes me look like a head-the-ball who can't take a hint"?

A bit much, IMO

Agree, the seller was probably getting a bit scared and wanted no more to do with it. The whole I have your address and posting it up here is a bit OTT to be honest. Buyer you need to let it go....

cormie

JayRoc wrote: »

Am I the only one who thinks the OP is probably coming off as bad/worse than the fella selling the laptop?

The seller clearly, for god knows what reason, changed his mind about the sale and repeatedly apologised for the inconvenience, said he wanted to refund the deposit and forget the whole thing.

Hardly ideal, but honestly, the obsessive pursuit of a clearly dead deal comes off as a little weird.

"I know where you live"?

"I'm gonna post our private correspondence online even though it kinda makes me look like a head-the-ball who can't take a hint"?

A bit much, IMO

Why are you putting quotation marks around things I never said? You're making it look like I'm using the fact he gave me his address as a means of seeking revenge which is completely skewing the reality.

Again, putting things in as quotes? I made this post to try warn others. I have far more information on him that I could have posted but chose not to as it wouldn't bring anything positive.

ShaShaBear wrote: »

Unless I've read this totally arseways, I would also be totally spooked if someone tried to convince me to post them an item we agreed was worth almost €1400 for half that price. Especially if I were aware of the "buyer beware" rules in online second-hand selling.
Unless there's something I'm not seeing, there would be nothing stopping the buyer from retaining the laptop and blocking all contact with the seller, leaving him down over €600. And likely someone informed the buyer he was being silly not receiving the full amount before he posted it.

I didn't try convince him? He suggested it? He contacted me via PM to offer me a laptop he knew I was looking for that he was selling.

cloloco wrote: »

Agree, the seller was probably getting a bit scared and wanted no more to do with it. The whole I have your address and posting it up here is a bit OTT to be honest. Buyer you need to let it go....

You've misinterpreted it also, or else you scanned through it and took JayRoc's quote as an actual quote.

Delacent

Cormie - time to move on. Holding a grudge because a deal didn't go your way is not good.

Would I use your van tasks service if I thought that any dispute would get aired? No.

Sometimes you have to accept deals don't happen.

You did not lose money, you were not scammed. Yes you were messed about a little, but this witch-hunt puts you in a bad light.

Ps, I know you from years back when you played poker. Time to fold.

Mongfinder General

It sounds like the OP has a hard on for the seller. Both are annoying as fcuk.

Killergreene

Sounds like the kid never had a laptop to sell. Buyer sounds like a right bag of spanners.

JayRoc

JayRoc wrote: »

Am I the only one who thinks the OP is probably coming off as bad/worse than the fella selling the laptop?

Absolutely.

OP, that last PM to the seller is just making you out to be obsessive and somewhat scary at this point. It's time to end it; compared to most people who experienced bad deals, you came away relatively unscathed. You've had your 15 minutes.