Bad classified ad RC purchase, what would you do?
 

I recently bought a truggy body on another forum. It was listed as brand new and the picture looked fine. When I received the body today it was beat up, cracks/tears in the mounting holes, and the side was heat-warped from a nitro exhaust pipe.

So the question is, should I leave negative feedback? I'm trying to give a chance for the guy to make it right, however he knowingly listed it as brand new when it obviously wasn't, and I almost feel like for that he doesn't deserve a chance to make it right. It wasn't a simple mistake or accident, he made a conscious decision to be deceptive. The body was cheap and I don't really care about the money, I just have no patience for sympathy or dishonesty.

What would you do?

If it was under ten bucks I would just leave it as is, too much grief for something small. If it was closer to twenty I would bring it up in PM first, if he doesn't do the right thing than I would bring it up in a public place. Make sure that if it goes that far to keep record of all communications for evidence when brought to the attention of others.

It was about $15-20 if I remember correctly. I'm not looking to post about the experience to other members of the forum, just deciding whether to leave a negative feedback on his trader rating. I have already brought it up in a PM and will see if he offers a refund, but as I said I almost feel like he doesn't deserve a chance to make it right for being intentionally deceptive.

I would say if he doesn't do the right thing then leave some negative. If he takes it poorly it is obvious he was being deceptive.

This was his explanation: "i posted that it was brand new before i got the body then i got it and used it but forgot to change it to used. Im sorry about it and i didnt do it on purpose."

To me that seems like BS, but I'm not sure.

If he won't refund than I would leave negative feedback. Its one thing to have a miscommunication, oversight, or shipping issues, but if the seller won't make things right then you should warn others.

No your right, ever heard of the refurbished law. Retailers have to label if an item is refurbished, even if it was restored to almost brand new.

I know he is not a retail store or anything, but I think it is a load of BS that he never once mentioned that he had used the body. Bad karma on his part, plus a negative on his seller rating.

Bottom line
 

Look the bottom line here is this. He deceived you by lying in his add, and following through with the sale as if nothing had changed. He scammed you and needs to be brought to justice of some kind. First I would file a complaint at some level with the forum owner. Then I would post a thread letting everyone know what this PoS did to you. Leave negative feedback, and force this idiot to refund your money. This is not a case of oh I am sorry for the mistake. I forgot. Bullcrap!!! He lied to you and thought he was going to get away with it, and he will if you let it happen. This is why we all come to these forums in the first place, is because we want to be able to trust our R/C friends that we talk with and deal with in here every day. Here on RCM we have a pretty good open line of communication with most of the regular people and can trust doing business with each other without fear. Call this schmuck out and put him on the rack.

He straight up jacked you Jason, his excuse was ultra lame and obvisously a freakin' Lie.

Fire him up w/a NEG Feedback and forget about getting your money back. If he's that much of a POS to try this kind of Shiz then he has no intenions of refund either.

Still
 

I would still harrass him as much as possible to let him know that he might not want to try anything like this again. Otherwise he might think that it was tooooooo easy and do it again to more people. No response at all or just a "I'm really really mad" letter is what creates repeat offenders. You were raped and you need to drag this idiot through whatever mud you can create for him.

How long was it up for sale???? He's trying to tell you that in that short time period he bought it and got it all beat up but decided to sell it anyways like nothing happened.

Like Tourettes Guy would say: "B*lllllllllllllll Sh*t!" :lol:

Do you have a link to the Ad he placed?

I'll have to look and see if I can find the ad, wouldn't be surprised if he edited it though.

Thanks for the input everyone. As I said before I'm all for giving people the benefit of the doubt in the case of accidents, misunderstandings, etc. but this was just a straight up lie on his part. Negative feedback it is.

Definitely something that I would never say.
Why would you mention that you bought it brand new? Well, I mean, yeah, some people get em used, but is it really that necessary?

The fact that he "forgot" to change the "New" to "Used" is quite a dumb excuse.

What board is this?
What was the picture as on the listing?
Did he have feedback before?

Also, the grammar and spelling usually gives me a hint whether it's a guy that did it on purpose (sorri mang!), or on accident, with REAL grammar and spelling, and NAWT LIEK DIS and such.

May be rambling on, but $15-$20 is something I'd rather get back..

Here is the pic, described as "-Brand New Truggy Body with custom clips" Now I knew that there were the cooling holes cut in the body, and I was fine with that, but I still assumed it was never used and in new condition and that was not the case at all. He obviously used it after this pic was taken. I don't know what was meant by custom clips (body clips?) but those weren't included.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...MVC-018S-2.jpg

Pics of how you received it?

I would warn others of his dishonesty, leave negative feedback every chance you got.

Doubt
 

Benefit of the doubt does not even come into play in this case. That is for people who accidentally send you the wrong item because of multiple sales and promise to make good on the matter. This guy lied straight up with false advertising trying to decieve everyone hoping to get just one sucker to bite, and you did. So don't be fooled into thinking this guy feels sorry for what he did to you. Lower the hammer and let the cards fall where they land. Sure it was only $15 or $20(this time), but I don't throw my money away, and like I stated previously if he gets away with it once he will do it again to more people. He has to be shown that this kind of behavior will not stand, and if his name is smeared all over the thread and other places it will help to prevent him from cauing more damage in our hobby with false sales and rip offs.

Most definitely Negative!

Here is where I took issue: the rear mounting holes are shredded, and the side is all melted and warped from a nitro exhaust pipe.

He also said this: "the warpness on the side was like that when i recieved it." And that was BEFORE making the excuse that it was new and he forgot to change the ad after using it. It was never new at any time in his possession but he still listed it as such. Those two conflicting stories basically prove he's just BSing.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...3/P1020888.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...3/P1020889.jpg

Yeah, I'd definitely fight that.
Where was this lised?

Hell no
 

OH HELL NO. If he would have sent me something like that after listing it as new I would have gone through the roof in anger. You need to post that pic up in the forum where you purchased it and share your story with everyone there so everyone there will know that this guy is a scum bag. I cannot believe that you even felt the need to come here and ask what we thought. I would be pissed and looking for blood.

It was listed on RC Tech.

The only thing that concerns me now is that we know people like this are jerks. So if I leave him a negative he will most likely leave me a negative too in retaliation even though I did nothing wrong. I was in a situation on RCU one time where a guy made an offer on my item, then refused to pay, and when I threatened negative feedback he said, "Go ahead, I'll just leave you a negative too." I don't want a negative on my profile just because some idiot wants to retaliate.

Do this...go to the trader feedback section and detail the original thread as well as your pics of the body. Then post in his seller thread linking to the bad feedback thread. It's not quite a negative, but it'll get a lot of folks attention.

Ooooh yes.
Good ol' RC Tech.

Leave a thread open in the Trader Feedback, and in the sales thread, put for sale pics, then received pics.

Make note of everything he put in the AD (FIND THE AD AND TAKE A SCREENSHOT).

Make that proof, write everything down, toss it in the Trader Feedback, last comes to last, he doesn't cooperate, send the thread off to good ol' PayPal.

I sent him a PM not too long ago, I'm kind of hoping he replies with more BS and lies just so I have more ammunition for showing people he is dishonest.

If the original thread hasn't been tainted yet make some screenshots of it. More or less he will probably change it if you post a link to the original.

I went as far a fighting a guy for almost 9 months on a deal gone bad on Traxxas forum. I had all my ducks in a row, including screen shots. He had a receipt from a UPS store stating that he shipped me a RC Car, paypal sided with him. Paypal likes to side with sellers for some reason. 9 months down the road, I kept tabs, more pictures of his Slash showed up on his Photobucket account, BAM. Got him for everything. I went as far as ensuring Paypal closed his user account. Paypal refunded my money and I had some high up guy from Paypal call me directly to apologize for the error.

Idiots like this can't hide. I would ensure that he gets bad publicity. If you fear the bad feedback get the moderators involved they usually have enough common sense to suffice who is right and who is wrong. Go as far as asking them how to post information regarding the bad deal, mods like it when you include them, because it is usually them who have to clean up most of the crap said in one of those threads.

Try googling his screen name, if he really is retarded he most likely uses the same screen name on more than one Forum, you can get so much info on the web without really trying. Google Suzuki2903 or Christopher Saldusky and see what comes up. That bastard better burn in hell.

Now that I see pictures from both parties, I have to be honest- If that picture of his was taken from the original ad, then he sent you exactly what he had in posession. I can see the tears in the body post holes in his picture. If he had posted pics of a *new* body, it would be different.

There is still the problem of him stating it was "brand new" in the ad. You should still ask for your money back because he misrepresented the item.

That quote of his I used in my previous post makes even less sense now... He said he bought it new, then listed it for sale, THEN used it, and forgot to change the ad. Does the ad show if it was edited? If so, when? How could there be a picture of a used body in the ad if he didn't have a used body on hand when he created it? Do you follow me?

Good points
 

Some very good points have been made. Get one of the forum moderators involved and share the info with them first. Request advice and assistance in getting the issue resolved. That way you have the backing of someone in power. Anyone can see up front that this sale smells to high heaven. Sorry for your hardship and I hope that you can get something right done for this. If he truly is a Deuschebag he will gith you tooth and nail unless you have your ducks in a row with evidence. Good luck.

Yeah, but that's looking at the picture after the fact already knowing they are torn. At the time I was viewing the ad it just looked like a mounting hole. And the melted/warped side was not visible at all. The pic is pretty grainy, I suppose my lesson should be always ask for better pics (which I usually insist on, but it was a low dollar item so I took his word that it was new). I am inclined to believe he still used it more after that pic because it seems more beat up now, but that again could be the grainy pic.

That was my point. It looked OK because there was nothing to compare it to until you got it, then it turned out to be the correct item, however, it was wrongly labeled as a "new" item.

Tell him to get a new phone so he can take better pics next time... Or, wth, go buy a camera! :lol:

I agree with Jerry 100% on this, and I also want to add my $0.02...

You said you don't want to leave him negative feedback because you are afraid he will turn around and leave you negative feedback. Well, do as Jerry mentioned and get a MOD or ADMIN involved beforehand...let them know EXACTLY what is going on, with full details and pictures, and let them know that you want to leave the seller negative feedback and they can make sure the seller doesn't retaliate with negative feedback, or at the very worst, they can remove any negative feedback the seller leaves you since you are clearly the victim here.

The last message I sent was as follows: "You first said the body was already used (melted/warped side) when you received it, then you said you just forgot to change the description to used after you ran it. Those are two conflicting stories. I don't believe you are being honest."

I am waiting to see how he replies.

Go ahead and get a MOD or ADMIN involved, and just let them know what is going on, and that you are trying to work things out with the seller...but you want them to know what is going on in case you need them.

pm me his address and I'll send him a box of manure:intello:

Out of all the suggestions, that's the best so far Harold!

He did reply today: "the warped side was on the other side of my muffler since i had it on my tmaxx. I paid $22 shipped for the body, it wasnt in great shape so i reduced the price to the $15 shipped. I bought the body on rcuniverse from "********" he has some bodies on there still for sale."

So now he is basically saying he knew it was used when he bought it, and is somehow trying to bring this other guy into from RCU as if he has anything to do with it?!?!?

So now I'm going to email the RCU guy and ask if he wouldn't mind showing me the listing/pics he had for this body when he had it.

Honestly, I think you are going way out of your way on this, and being WAY too nice to this guy...he screwed you and didn't use lube, so treat him like what he is, a piece of crap scammer! Just speak with a mod/admin so they know what's going on, talk to the seller and demand your money back & you will send the body back, or you will leave him negative feedback and ruin is name/account. He clearly screwed you over, so you will have the support of the mods/admins, so go ahead and go after this punk.

I know, I know. That is one of my biggest flaws is I'm too nice to people when I should put my foot down.

I had a similar ordeal with someone on rctech. Unfortunately a bit more complex of a deal with higher dollar items. (Trading my MERV for a MMM/2200+ cash). What I did was compile all the PM's into a .PDF and forwarded it to a mod along with a formal request for my MERV back. I refunded the extra money he paid on top for the deal minus the shipping I had to pay for both my car and then to return his beat to hell MMM/2200. You can bet he wasn't happy when it was all said and done. The guy had the audacity to threaten me with a paypal claim. Hah. Anyways i would definitely contact a mod and post up a thread about his dishonesty.

Screw that man, he is playin you!!! How did you pay?? If through PP then dispute it!! Then you dont have to worry about the neg. feedback coming back to you for nothing

Get all of your proof together, PM's, screenshots, pictures, etc. Set up a claim in Paypal, item significantly other than described. Before you do this get a PM or e-mail out to the seller asking for a resolution or refund. If he refuses, submit the claim. One thing about Paypal is they suck at disputes so ensure you have your ducks in a row, as well as have made it very clear to the seller that you would like to come to some sort of an agreement. The first thing Paypal will say is, "Did you try working it out with the seller?" Trust me I have been there. You need to get the seller on the same page, it sounds like you haven't raised the idea that you want this fixed. Your playing more detective than concerned shopper. Call him out and see how he replies. Be nice so that once in someone else's hands, Paypal, they see you as the victim not the enemy. The longer you play into his innocence game, the more your letting the prick win. Kick him in the balls!