Because so many people on this board have trusted me, right from the beginning, really, I send an instrument off to another person on the board trusting that he would pay for it. After a couple of “the check is in the mail” responses, followed by no response to e-mail, I’m beginning to believe there is no check. The person has also not posted to the board since right before receiving the instrument. I have no idea if he’s still reading C&F.
In any case, if you’re about to send something off to someone who has posted, say, often enough but less than a hundred times, you might want to check in with me first. If this fellow isn’t going to pay his bills, I’d hate to see anyone else ship an instrument off to him.
I’d vote against a public naming. If people want to know, they can contact you. But these posts stay around in Google for a long time, and if it turns out that s/he didn’t intentionally rip you off, a public naming could make legal problems for Rich and Dale…
Is this a C&F first? It would be amazing if it were. I’ve only bought here, never sold. I don’t expect shipment until my cheque clears and wouldn’t dream of asking.
Unless you know the person, or there is a long history on the board, I sure wouldn’t send anything without payment in hand. Most of my dealings have been Paypal, and I have a terror of a check being lost in the mail and someone getting upset.
The other thing is being reasonable. If you haven’t gotten what you expect in what, 10 days?, reoffer the instrument.
Tery - This is an interesting topic, because I’ve been amazed at how “lucky” I’ve been on this Board with all transactions - definition of lucky is that everyone I’ve dealt with has been honorable, fair and trusting. In line with my former profession, one doesn’t trust strangers or even known people to do other than they would ordinarily do (don’t expect the junkie to return your money just because he’s your friend).
There are a large group of Boarders I’d send whistles to first at this point. The best whistles in my collection were purchased from people who trustingly sent me the whistles before I even decided to buy them and really high end stuff to boot. (They’re still waiting for the checks - just kidding.)
The dealers and makers can’t deal that way; they need verified credit card number or money order or a wait for checks to clear prior to shipping, and that’s expected. With people who are not known to us we should I guess do close to that (maybe not wait for a personal check to clear though). At one point I was asking as a matter of procedure for money orders, especially if from oversees from unknown folk. Once I did that, and Jessie rightfully shamed me saying it would take her hours to get to the post office. I didn’t know she’d be the buyer and of course I can take a check from her. What’s more I would send whistles to her, Loren, Paul, Stuart, Jim and many others without first receiving payment at all (do not begin calling and asking me to send you my Copelands and O’Riordans).
I’ve given whistles away here and gotten the same in return. It’s been really nice, but you do have to guard against the occassional scam with reasonable procedures with those not known to you.
I suppose first you have to cancel out the unforeseen, like something actually happened to the person or a mail delay, etc. That notwithstanding, I wish there were a way to out such scammers on the Board, but that can be tricky business and a real level of certainty and qualification of language needs to be attained.
Anyway, sorry this happened to you. Once you’re sure, please let us know how this turns out.
I’m also for identifying the culprit. Like has been said, if he/she ends up having a legitimate issue (sickness, death in the family, mail eaten by their dog, inadvertatnly locked in their basement for a few weeks, etc.), that can be cleared up later.
No public lynching before making sure of the truth first, plz.
Snail-mail IS snail-mail. At times, and especially in this season, what with the overwork and winter holidays…
I sent recently over $300 Travellers Chq’s to the US; it’s only after a 4 weeks wait the seller and I decided they would probably never arrive. It was priority, sign on collection int’l mail. I sent other funds, and I’m now going through red-tape to get reimbursed for the 1st mailing.
[ This Message was edited by: Zubivka on 2003-01-17 11:40 ]
I made two seperate transactions over the Christmas period ~ one buying and one selling ~ where myself and the other person sent the money and whistle at the same time - absolutely no problems either time.
Even with this news I would do the same again.
P.S. I also think you should name the culprit…
Cheers
Gerry
Think before you Think before you Talk!
[ This Message was edited by: WhistlingGypsy on 2003-01-17 11:44 ]
Right Zub. Recently I was off board and away from email for three weeks. I returned to find an anxious email or two from people who’d sent me whistles. I’d told them, I think, but people forget. No danger of a serious breach of trust involved here but two people (at least) had an anxious wait that wasn’t anybody’s fault.
Correct T : we constantly exchanged e-mails to try and trace our lost mail problem.
You have no telephone number for your suspectfully silent buyer ? You did keep his address, though ?
[ This Message was edited by: Zubivka on 2003-01-17 11:57 ]
Wombat, the fellow was away when I shipped the instrument. I knew that and didn’t worry. He’s back – not on the board, I don’t think, but he has received and sent e-mail since he returned. Since he returned over 2 weeks ago . . . well, maybe it will still work out.
Yes, Z – I have his work address, e-mail, and C&F handle. At the moment, I’m just going to keep trying to contact him and wait to see what happens. I just wanted to be sure that if this is not a mixup, no one else takes a hit on it, that’s all.
That’s the main reason I don’t want to name names – at least until I’m absolutely certain this isn’t just a mixup.
Tery;
I’m responding to you here because I’m at work and I can’t read your most recent e-mail because it’s a Hotmail account and Hotmail is blocked at my work. I can only access this account at home, and I don’t check it daily. I’m all for naming the culprit; it’s me. First of all, let me apologize to you for the delay in getting the money to you. If I were trying to stiff you I wouldn’t have even acknowledged receiving the instrument in the first place, and I certainly wouldn’t respond to you now. At the same time you sent me the instrument, I bought an instrument from Tomcat. Ask him if I stiffed him. Fortunately, I was able to get a check to him before I left the country. I’ve bought other instruments from fellow board members (jim stone) and I’ve never stiffed anyone.
As I told you when you shipped the instrument, I went to Mexico for Christmas and I had to return work immediately as soon as I got back. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to the post office to buy a money order for a few days. Also, unfortunately, I gave the money order to my very unorganized wife to mail. She misplaced it and by the time I found out I wasn’t able to mail it 'til Monday. I personally put it in the mail on Monday. I know this sounds like a “check is in the mail” story, but it’s true! Fortunately, I sent a money order and I have a copy of the receipt. If it doesn’t get to you by tomorrow, I’ll eat the $30.00 and send you another one.
In the future, I would advise you, or anyone on this board, not to send anyone an instrument without having the money in hand first. I really wish you hadn’t sent me the instrument before I could get you the money. Again, I apologize to you for the delay. If you don’t have the money order by tomorrow, please send me a private message.
Now bring on the lynch mob!
[ This Message was edited by: Bartleby on 2003-01-17 12:39 ]
Me too. And Bartleby, I would not have said anything except you disappeared from both here and e-mail. And with different dates flying around, I thought you’d mailed the check about 5 days ago. Since whistles sent 1st class make it here in 3 days, I didn’t quite know what to make of the combination.
In all honesty, I figured if anyone was going to try a ripoff, they would choose something fancier than an inexpensive flute . At the same time, I thought, well, maybe the guy ordered like 10 things from different people, and some of them really might be expensive. I just wanted to give folks a heads up, not to name names or point fingers (which, of course, also meant I couldn’t ask if anyone had sold anything to you personally before).
So the world is back in order after a difficult day on C&F. And I am very glad this turned out to be a misunderstanding.
I bought a whistle from a fellow C&Fer over Christmas too and it was a pleasant experience - no problems - it took me a while to send out the cheque, but we’d agreed beforehand that the whistle wasn’t to be sent out until the cheque arrived.
. At the same time, I thought, well, maybe the guy ordered like 10 things from different people, and some of them really might be expensive. I just wanted to give folks a heads up, not to name names or point fingers (which, of course, also meant I couldn’t ask if anyone had sold anything to you personally before).