The Firing Line Forums

Go Back   The Firing Line Forums > The Firing Line Gun Show > Retail Deals and Feedback

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old February 2, 2008, 05:55 AM   #1
Lloyd Smale
Junior member
 
Join Date: February 11, 2005
Posts: 822
I think ive been ripped off

I think ive been ripped off for the first time on the internet. I bought a marlin cowboy to have customize and a guy on the castbullet forum (not here)RvPilot wanted an original stock as he had put a pad on his and wanted to trade. I sent him my stock over a month ago and after a week he emailed me and said that he didnt like it. The deal we made was that he was going to send whichever stock he didnt like to Clements as hes building my gun. Now he doesnt answer emails or pms. Hes been logged on to the cast bullet site at least twice in the last couple days. He logs on quickly and leaves. Others have tried to pm him too and he wont respond. Hes even got his own website http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endid=28814066 and ive left messages there too and no replys. I guess theres actually people out there that would risk there name for a 150 dollar stock!!!!
Lloyd Smale is offline  
Old February 2, 2008, 10:01 AM   #2
Tom2
Senior Member
 
Join Date: June 23, 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 5,676
Well if you feel disappointed at not being ripped off online before, join ebay and you can lose alot of money and stuff. It is like buying in the blind, sometimes. Then gunbroker has lots of guns with poor dark fuzzy pictures that someone wants you to send them lots of money for. So why would he risk his online identity for 150$ stock, because he can change it any time. Good luck with that but I suspect you have sent your stock out into a black hole. Maybe you can contact his local PD online and make a fraud complaint but it would cost you in time and money as much as a new stock to even try to get it back, I suspect. So it is an expensive lesson. I have a few of those too.
__________________
Your gun is like your nose, it is just wrong for someone else to pick it for you!
Tom2 is offline  
Old February 2, 2008, 10:12 AM   #3
Creature
Junior member
 
Join Date: April 8, 2007
Location: Virginia
Posts: 3,769
I have learned the "buyer beware" lesson several times myself. I have seen people risk their name for a lot less.
Creature is offline  
Old February 2, 2008, 10:37 AM   #4
Hawg
Senior Member
 
Join Date: September 8, 2007
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 16,175
I guess I've been lucky. I've bought quite a few guns online, some of them didn't even see a pic of. Haven't been burned yet.
Hawg is offline  
Old February 2, 2008, 11:21 AM   #5
Alleykat
Junior member
 
Join Date: July 26, 2007
Posts: 3,668
Contact the authorities in his home town and file a complaint. That's about all you can do, reasonably, in an out-of-state transaction/ripoff.
Alleykat is offline  
Old February 2, 2008, 11:50 AM   #6
WIL TERRY
Senior Member
 
Join Date: July 6, 2000
Location: BLACK HILLS
Posts: 1,322
If You Sent It Via The Usps You Have Him Under Mail Fraud.

The USPS has no sense of humor about such things atall. They are mighty nasty folks to have on your tail as their success insures an all expense paid vacation at the Graybar Hotel in Leavenworth Kansas. Sic the feds on him !!!
WIL TERRY is offline  
Old February 2, 2008, 11:59 AM   #7
UniversalFrost
Senior Member
 
Join Date: February 20, 2006
Location: Ohio
Posts: 2,300
USPS money order or credit card transaction only. Avoid paypal because they have no guarantee that you will get your money refunded and if they find out it was a firearms related purchase you will have your account locked and never get your money back.

With gunbroker, auctionarms or gunsamerica and other internet gun sites, I ask for tons of photos and if they can't or are unwilling then I pass on the deal. When I do purchase gun I only send USPS moneyorder or a credit card. With USPS money orders you can track it and the person that cashes it at the post office must provide proof of identity. If they take your money and run you have their address to give to the police and it is wire fraud, and several other federal offenses that will have not only the local PD and post office on his tail, but you can file a complaint with the FBI and treasury (had to do this once on a shiloh sharps custom grade rifle that the guy grossly exagerated and submitted false photos. Got the money back after the local FBI folks and ATF made a few visits to him.

With a CC you need to watch out for what CC vendor you have. Citi is suddenly anti gun and will close your accounts and put a hold on your funds (they almost ran CDNN out of business). But when a gun is either not received or grossly mis represented then you can file a claim with the CC company and the recipients PD.

Now you only have so many days to file claims with a CC company or the post office, so know your regulations before completing the deal.

Gunbroker has a good buyers section that details all the do's and don'ts of firearms purchases online and also a shipping directory.

ONe thing I hate is an FFL or non-FFL that likes to make up regulations. I recently won a really nice springfield 03A3 on gunbroker and the guy (non FFL) said that he could only ship UPS or fedex and wanted to ship only to a 01 FFL (I have a 03 C&R FFL). After I sent him the gunbroker info on the ATF rules and sent him the BATF website links and regs and showed that the gun was in fact on the C&R list (you can download the C&R catalog from ATF) he still would not budge. He even said that he spoke with the local BATF and they said he was right. I politely asked him for their number and he gave me the run around and never gave me a number or the agent he spoke with. AFter this call I told him I would not be following through with the order and instead filing a complaint with gunbroker. Well the deal finally went though and he sent the gun USPS (with tracking) and accepted my C&R FFL.

Know the regs (BATF and financial) before selling or buying online!!!!! That way you won't get burned or look like a dumbass.

JOE
__________________
Lifetime member VFW and NRA

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" (when all else fails play dead) -Red Green

UniversalFrost is offline  
Old February 2, 2008, 05:37 PM   #8
Shane Tuttle
Staff
 
Join Date: November 28, 2005
Location: Montana
Posts: 9,442
Quote:
I guess theres actually people out there that would risk there name for a 150 dollar stock!!!!
Well, there's actually people out there that risk their name for a die set "worth" $20, too.

Sorry to hear about your experience. I can officially tell you that I feel your pain. Well, at least to a lesser extent monetarily...
__________________
If it were up to me, the word "got" would be deleted from the English language.

Posting and YOU: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/posting
Shane Tuttle is offline  
Old February 2, 2008, 07:13 PM   #9
Al Norris
Moderator Emeritus
 
Join Date: June 29, 2000
Location: Rupert, Idaho
Posts: 9,660
I would think this thread is a candidate for Retails Deals and Feedback.

Off we go....
Al Norris is offline  
Old February 16, 2008, 12:14 AM   #10
freakshow10mm
Junior member
 
Join Date: January 23, 2008
Location: MI
Posts: 1,398
That sucks Lloyd. Could 45nut on CB help with anything? IP address tracking?
freakshow10mm is offline  
Old February 16, 2008, 02:14 AM   #11
Jim Dandy
Member
 
Join Date: November 23, 2002
Posts: 39
Quote:
Originally Posted by UniversalFrost
With USPS money orders you can track it and the person that cashes it at the post office must provide proof of identity. If they take your money and run you have their address to give to the police and it is wire fraud, and several other federal offenses that will have not only the local PD and post office on his tail, but you can file a complaint with the FBI and treasury (had to do this once on a shiloh sharps custom grade rifle that the guy grossly exagerated and submitted false photos. Got the money back after the local FBI folks and ATF made a few visits to him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WIL TERRY
The USPS has no sense of humor about such things atall. They are mighty nasty folks to have on your tail as their success insures an all expense paid vacation at the Graybar Hotel in Leavenworth Kansas. Sic the feds on him !!!
Wrong. This is one of the biggest BS MYTHS that keeps getting spread by people who don't know any better. The USPS won't do a THING for you. NOTHING. You can file a complaint with postal inspectors and that'll be the end of that. Period. There's not going to be any "no knock" raid, no one's going to jail, and the "feds" aren't going to devote a single resource to chasing down some deadbeat con artist for a couple of hundred dollars. That's called reality. This is a trivial, civil property matter to them.

If this individual is active on various internet message boards, you can apply peer pressure. (Though he may not care.) As far as all of this high-minded nonsense goes about calling the local authorities, no police agency is going to devote a single resource to recovering property in what is essentially a civil matter.

The closest thing to any type of criminal case that can be built against someone in a situation like this is through the local county/district/commonwealth attorney's office. Most states allow an individual who has been duped/conned or whatever to file misdemeanor embezzlement charges against the party who has aggrieved them.

Also take note of the ISP from which this individual made contact with you. If he did it from work, there's a good chance his employer -- specifically HR -- will be quite interested in hearing about his shenanigans.
__________________
[email protected]
Jim Dandy is offline  
Old February 16, 2008, 12:20 PM   #12
74_sharps
Member
 
Join Date: July 27, 2005
Location: ARkansas
Posts: 19
Somethings that may help you are to see what his home states laws are about this sort of thing. The A.G's. office can help there. I would also contact the mods/ owners of the sites where you know him to be and let them know. Some of those folks frown on rip offs and will contact the person and/or delete his account. I know that there have been those that have gone to and are still in prison for doing the rip off through the mail. You just need to find the person at the postmaster's office that wants to do what they're hired for.
__________________

VISUALIZE WHIRLED PEAS

MAY THE HORSE BE WITH YOU!!!
74_sharps is offline  
Old February 16, 2008, 05:00 PM   #13
poe2
Member
 
Join Date: June 6, 2004
Location: Foothills of The Great Smoky Mountains
Posts: 31
Alas...Jim Dandy is correct. How well I know!
poe2 is offline  
Old February 16, 2008, 09:58 PM   #14
Jim Dandy
Member
 
Join Date: November 23, 2002
Posts: 39
Wrong -- Again

Quote:
Originally Posted by 74 sharps
I know that there have been those that have gone to and are still in prison for doing the rip off through the mail. You just need to find the person at the postmaster's office that wants to do what they're hired for.
You know of "those that have gone to and are still in prison for doing the rip off through the mail?" Really? Let's see some names, dates, and case histories on this. I would love to read about something as incredibly fascinating as that.

You don't seem to have a good grasp of this subject or the legal tactics you're promoting. (And it doesn't have SQUAT to do with a "need to find the person at the postmaster's office that wants to do what they're hired for" either.)

The U.S. DoJ and USPS must prove that there was an intent to defraud the public -- not a single individual -- and that claims of goods or services were intentionally misrepresented. No one is going to run right out and secure an indictment based on a single incident or the claims of a single individual. Period. Doesn't happen and it never did.

You have about as much chance of getting the manager of Sears arrested the next time you buy a product from them that fails and can't be returned.

The alleged perpetrator can very easily claim that you and him have an arrangement that lets him off the hook. His word against yours.

This is an EXTREMELY LOW PRIORITY "crime" for law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies. Take a good look at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's -- not the "postmaster's office" -- and note the postal crimes they're investigating: http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/?f...talinspectors/. Parcel bombs, carrier robberies, station robberies, shipment of narcotics, etc.
__________________
[email protected]
Jim Dandy is offline  
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:49 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
This site and contents, including all posts, Copyright © 1998-2021 S.W.A.T. Magazine
Copyright Complaints: Please direct DMCA Takedown Notices to the registered agent: thefiringline.com
Page generated in 0.07977 seconds with 10 queries