Bartertown.com

Here is a bad trader report that i really don't want to do. I'd rather have the figures than the money or this hastle.

I started a trade a couple of weeks ago and everything seemed decent then communication dried up. If i jumped the gun on this sorry but i thought i should get the ball rolling and hopefully get this resolved.

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Wed May 13, 2009 4:03 pm
by LadyAnara
hey there, i am interested in afew of your big clix

Galactus, Spectre, and Fing Fang Foom.

galactus is the big one correct?

how much for all 3 including shipping?

out of curiosity do you Happen to have a sentinel or a sinestro?

thanks in advance..


mk

Subject: Selling off my Heroclix
greezy wrote:Father of two out of work and needs cash, selling my Heroclix to help pay bills. Paypal only, and shipping for single figs is 1$. If I hear anything from this I will post more. Thanks in advance.

Old Galactus (no box) 25$ (15$ shipping)
Spectre (no box w/tokens) 25$ (15$ shipping)
Fin Fang Foom (W/box and terrain) 30$ (15$ shipping)
Starro (w/box and tokens) 30$ (10$ shipping)
Dark Phoenix (w/Box) 50$ (8$ shipping)

Buy all four for 180$ total

KC Set (Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Batman, Bat Sentry, Shazam) 195$
Sue Storm Chase 125$
Shazam Chase 135$
Alfred Chase 100$
World's Finest 65$
Clown Prince of Crime 35$


Ares (Marvel) 8$
Ult. Hulk (Avengers) 8$
Winter Soldier 8$
Iron Spiderman 8$
Cap/Bucky 8$
Powerman/Iron Fist 8$
SR Superman (JLA) 8$
SR Batman (JLA) 8$
SR Flash (JLA) 8$
SR Wonder Woman (JLA) 8$
buy all four SR's for 25$ and 2$ shipping
Set of Galactus Heralds 25$
set includes 4 CoG Heralds, Nova, and Chrome Nova
Set of Starro Slaves 12$
Mighty Thor 5$
Dark Knight Detective 5$
Hulk Buster Iron Man 8$
Cosmic Zombie Wolverine 8$
BiBtB Mandarin (in Box) 10$
Kraven the Spider LE 10$
Ultron LE 10$
________________________________________
Top

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Wed May 13, 2009 5:21 pm
by greezy
I'll do all three for 110$. that's 15$ dollars off of my asking price. What do you think?

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Wed May 13, 2009 5:38 pm
by LadyAnara
sounds pretty good,

but before i give you a 100% yep or nope can i get conformation it is the big galactus and the big spectre?

thanks

mk

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Wed May 13, 2009 7:29 pm
by greezy
Oh, sorry. Yeah they are they big ones. 12-14 inches tall (or something like that).

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Wed May 13, 2009 9:19 pm
by LadyAnara
Sounds like a deal

To summarize:

I am giving you $110 for Galactus, The Spectre and Fin Fang Foom.

can you give me a paypal address to send the money to? and if it is cool with you can i pay you on friday morning? i get payed on midnight on thursday.

i look forward to getting the models.

oh and one more thing which fing fang foom is it? is it the green one with purple pants? green with no pants? orange with pants? orange naked? or the super rare fing fang foom created out of a glowing crystal that fell to earth on the night of a full moon carved by craftsmen from the center of the earth by candlelight?

either way i am buying it.

thanks in advance

mk

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Thu May 14, 2009 6:47 am
by greezy
The address is IWAfan1978@aol.com. The foom is green with purple pants. Thank you very much. Is there any other clix in specific you were looking for?

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Thu May 14, 2009 8:53 am
by LadyAnara
cool.

nope not interested in any more i have about 15 pounds of them in a few boxes at home. i just wanted the big guys for a mutants and masterminds game.

i will send you the payment first thing tomorrow.

here is my address

(personal address removed for privacy)

how will you be sending priority? parcel?

thanks

mk

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Fri May 15, 2009 7:58 am
by LadyAnara
i sent you the money this morning.

i hope to see the figures soon.

thanks
mk

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Mon May 18, 2009 11:24 am
by LadyAnara
any word on when i should be seeing these sitting on my front porch?

thanks


mk

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Tue May 19, 2009 6:13 pm
by greezy
Just waiting for Paypal to clear the cash then they will be sent.

Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Tue May 19, 2009 6:39 pm
by LadyAnara
wow, that is taking a while.

but fortunately i know i am good for it.

thanks for the reply

mk


Re: Selling off my Heroclix
Sent: Mon May 25, 2009 1:29 pm
by LadyAnara
hey there, i am just checking to see if paypal cleared.

is it too late to ask for delivery confirmation? it is a nice bunch of models, i don't want them to get lost.


thanks

mk

The copy of the email I sent him on the 26th

Big heroclix‏
From: (address removed)
Sent: Tue 5/26/09 8:02 PM
To: iwafan1978@aol.com

Hey there.

it has been over a week since our last communication on bartertown. and you haven't logged in since then. the 19th. and paypal says the money has been transfered.

honestly i am getting a bit worried. Have the Clix been sent?

please reply to this email by friday or i will have to start steps that i really don't want to take. like a paypal dispute and a bad trader report on bartertown.


i hope this all just a mistake.

thanks

ladyanara

according to his personal info he loged in the day after he got this email, but not since. I have regretfully not gotten a responce via bartertown or email. so i have to stick to my guns and open up this report. if i get a reply i will gladly drop this. i don't want anyone who needs the money to go with out or to ruin the barter town experience for a new person due to some email difficulties.

You probably are not going to like to hear this, but I think you have been scammed. He is ducking you and not providing updates or status. That is *not* acceptable.

You have a rating of 18, for 9 trades completed. He has a zero rating. As the higher-rated Btowner, you should have demanded that he follow Btown ship before you paid. Particuarly as this is a largish buy of $100+. If he needs shipping money, I'd have fronted no more than $20 with the balance to be paid within 48 hours of delivery.

If it has been more than 48 hours since the money transferred, I would:
1. send an e-mail demanding that he provide proof of shipment within 48 hours. As it is his delay, I would require that he ship Priority Mail - his delay is his fault, not yours.
2. contact my credit card company immediately as a disputed charge, in preparation for chargeback, if he has already transferred the money out of PayPal. This is most effective way of getting your money back.
3. open a PayPal dispute and have them demand that he ship. This is the least effective way of getting your money back, as PayPal loves scammers...

Also, you are free to forward a link to my post here, for him to dispute things. Let him prove that he isn't a scammer.

/John

PS. Process-wise, you need to work on your Btown contract (that's what this is, BTW). In all of your trades / buys, you should require that all shipments provide tracking at the shippers risk, not yours. That is, if they choose not to ship with tracking, any loss is on them. You also should set clear timelines for return shipment. I recommend 2 business days after receipt of payment / goods, maximum. That gives *plenty* of time for someone to ship their half to you.

Some good advice from John there.

I won't argue against him, but I do want to offer a slightly differing opinion on something:

You also should set clear timelines for return shipment. I recommend 2 business days after receipt of payment / goods, maximum. That gives *plenty* of time for someone to ship their half to you.

You definitely SHOULD set clear time lines but, IMO, you should be a bit more lenient with your time requirements. Especially in the face of current economic times.
The USPS is cutting back its' hours. My local USPS is closing at 5:30. That pretty much eliminates ANY chance I have of shipping during the week, unless I'm only sending a M.O., which I can send from work.
MY only ship date is Saturday.
If they can give you something solid (like, the first Saturday after payment is received), you should be willing to accept that.
I think I know John well enough to know that, if someone offered him something that solid, he'd probably accept it... but he didn't specify that, so I wanted to.

As for your BTR... technically, I couldn't argue ... okay.... WOULDN'T argue with anyone whosays you jumped the gun. It sounds like you paid via e-check. You're looking at 4 to 5 business days for it to credit the account (PayPal likes to hold onto the $$ for a day or 2 of interest), plus you paid on a Friday. That means 6 to7 calendar days for the money to credit his PayPal account.

You paid on 05/15. Pushing it to the extreme, we can estimate that he had the funds on 5/22.
If you give him a (I think) reasonable ship time of 4 business days (including Saturday), that leaves him shipping on the 27th... Two days isn't a long time for delivery.

Keep in mind that I'm STRICTLY playing "Devil's Advocate" with the above situation.

My OPINION is that it's not looking good for you and that you should go ahead and file for a return with PayPal. More than likely, he's already spent or transferred it, but the sooner you act, the better. If he's still running scams (assuming he ever was, of course), he might still have $ coming in that you can get. If you get your stuff, you can always cancel your claim or send the $$ back.


Although Bartertown does NOT have an official policy on it (and has no plans to EVER have one), my personal opinion is that cash is just another form of trade material and buying is no differnt than selling... Lower rating should ship first.
Like I said, though... that's just the common custom, NOT the official word.
I find it to be the safest method for exchanging sides, though.


Eric

MagickalMemories wrote:Some good advice from John there.

I won't argue against him, but I do want to offer a slightly differing opinion on something:

You also should set clear timelines for return shipment. I recommend 2 business days after receipt of payment / goods, maximum. That gives *plenty* of time for someone to ship their half to you.

You definitely SHOULD set clear time lines but, IMO, you should be a bit more lenient with your time requirements. Especially in the face of current economic times.
The USPS is cutting back its' hours. My local USPS is closing at 5:30. That pretty much eliminates ANY chance I have of shipping during the week, unless I'm only sending a M.O., which I can send from work.

Eric

You don't have APCs (Automated Postal Centers) in the POs where you live?

I have at least 4 APCs that I can get to conveniently, 3 of which are easy to go through on the way to work. I do roughly 90% of all my shipping via APC after hours. And I actually prefer NOT dealing with the counter staff, so I could care less whether the Post Office is open or not.

I pop into the Post Office with a sealed box, pre-printed addresses, and clear packing tape. Throw the box on the APC, buy postage with DC, slap on the label, tape addresses on it, and I'm out the door within 10 minutes.

Post office hours are not a good excuse, IMO.

yeah i agree i definataly dropped the ball on the process here. i sholda asked him to send first, *sigh*

it looks like paypal is saying that the money was processed on the 15th

Original Transaction
Date Type Status Details Amount
May 15, 2009 Payment To George Himes Completed ... -$110.00 USD


Related Transaction
Date Type Status Details Amount
May 15, 2009 Add Funds from a Bank Account Completed Details $110.00 USD

and yes i opend a dispute with paypal before i posted here.

i have a similar issue with MM when it comes to the post office. I live in a rual area and my post office closes at 5 and is not even open on weekends. there is no automated dropp off anywhere near me. i have to do all my shipping on weekdays off. ans try to schedule my posts and replys around that.

i really would not have posted here is i had any communication. because the communication stopped cold i got worried. i have had trades here that took about 3 weeks to get to me after the deal closed. i left positive feedback because the communication wsa good. i am willing to wait. I would rather not think ill of the guy andand just think that something just popped up un expected. but thought i should cover my bases.

APC's aren't in every office. Some offices have them, but the building doors close at 5, or aren't opened at all, say for example weekends.

Also, APC's can't handle everything. NO mail for foreign countries. No money orders. No media rate. You must use a debit card or credit card only. ONlY boxes small enough to fit in the actual APC drop box.

BUT.. always remember, USPS.COM.. You can look up other post offices, with the locations and hours; to see where else you can go. You can also set up a FREE USPS shipping account. Yes you need a scale, but for priority mail, [which is anything over 12 ounces], its calculated by pounds, after the 1st pound. You can buy postage and print it out from you computer. Also, when you buy postage online at USPS.COM, you get a small discount on postage, [like .10] and FREE D/C.
Then, if you know you can't make it to a certain post office on that day, say after work; you print out the postage with the next days date, and give it to the carrier at you work. [or the guy in the mailroom to give it to him.]

So not being able to make it to an open post office, isn't a good excuse.

Remember when TDZ said he couldn't ship? I posted, based on his zip code, all of the post offices and their hours, within 15 mile radius. Someone here jumped him for it.

JohnHwangBT wrote:

MagickalMemories wrote:Some good advice from John there.

I won't argue against him, but I do want to offer a slightly differing opinion on something:

You also should set clear timelines for return shipment. I recommend 2 business days after receipt of payment / goods, maximum. That gives *plenty* of time for someone to ship their half to you.

You definitely SHOULD set clear time lines but, IMO, you should be a bit more lenient with your time requirements. Especially in the face of current economic times.
The USPS is cutting back its' hours. My local USPS is closing at 5:30. That pretty much eliminates ANY chance I have of shipping during the week, unless I'm only sending a M.O., which I can send from work.

Eric

You don't have APCs (Automated Postal Centers) in the POs where you live?

I have at least 4 APCs that I can get to conveniently, 3 of which are easy to go through on the way to work. I do roughly 90% of all my shipping via APC after hours. And I actually prefer NOT dealing with the counter staff, so I could care less whether the Post Office is open or not.

I pop into the Post Office with a sealed box, pre-printed addresses, and clear packing tape. Throw the box on the APC, buy postage with DC, slap on the label, tape addresses on it, and I'm out the door within 10 minutes.

Post office hours are not a good excuse, IMO.

Honestly, John... I don't know if we have the APC's.
To be honest, though, even if there are, I won't use them. I refuse to.
I don't use the "Self checkouts" at the store, either. I'm one of those people who feel as if they put people out of business. I'll wait a half hour in line for a person over 5 minutes in a self-checkout every day of the week.
That's just me, though.
Also, I live in a small town south of St. Louis. I ttoally wouldn't be shocked if they DIDN'T have them.

----------------------------------

As for having the USPS account... I could probably do that... but I won't spring for the scale. I have other things I'd rather spend my money on ( for the cost of a good scale, I could buy, like, two metal GW figures. lol).
Even if I did have one, some how, I am WAAAAY too paranoid to leave it on my porch for the mailman to pick up, so I'd HAVE to do the mailroom thing (not that this is a deterrent. Just in there for completeness' sake).


Eric

OK, I just thought the APCs were more broadly available, like ATMs. No biggie.

Though the sheer convenience of those things is just awesome.

Once you print the postage on USPS.COM, or from PAYPAL, you can drop it in any mail collection box.

I suggest using indoor ones, since down here, it can start to rain, turn into a downpour, soak everything, and stop in 3 minutes. Which is less time than it takes to open a collection box, and empty the mail from it. {I've been soaked before doing it}

Oh yeah, as far a s a scale.
The cheapest I've seen are at USPS, they're even cheaper than th office supply stores; about $20.

Once you go over 12 ounces, you weigh by the pound, so a mostly accurate bathroom scale will work.

Well i got a reply from paypal

After careful review, we have concluded our investigation of the BuyerComplaint described below.

We have decided in your favor, however, we were unable to recover any fundsfrom the seller's account. As stated in the PayPal User Agreement, recoveryof funds associated with a Buyer Complaint cannot be guaranteed.

Please know that we will make our best effort to recover the funds inquestion if they become available in the seller's account in the future andwill take appropriate action against the seller. Such action may includeissuing a warning, a temporary restriction, or terminating the account.Keep in mind that PayPal uses a number of factors to determine when to takeaction, including member complaints. Due to privacy laws, we cannot discussthe details of any action taken. We hope you understand our policy and thatit assures you that you are safe using PayPal.

i am not terribly supprised by this. especially after reading a bunch of the BTRs here. well this helped me refine my trading practices.

this is the sellers info, i am posting it just incase he attempts something like this again here

Seller's Name: George Himes
Seller's Email: iwafan1978@aol.com

needless to say i am going to post negative feedback now.

If you haven't left the feedback yet... please, put a link to this post in there.

Eric

LadyAnara wrote:Well i got a reply from paypal

PayPal wrote:After careful review, we have concluded our investigation of the BuyerComplaint described below.

we were unable to recover any fundsfrom the seller's account. As stated in the PayPal User Agreement, recoveryof funds associated with a Buyer Complaint cannot be guaranteed.

We hope you understand our policy and that it assures you that you are safe using PayPal.

needless to say i am going to post negative feedback now.

And this is a perfect example of I (and many others) refuse to transact using PayPal. They assure you that "you are safe using PayPal", but they refuse to make good. Pretty hollow assurance.

Clear out your PayPal account.
After you have your cash in hand, contact your bank / credit card company and force a chargeback.

JohnHwangBT wrote:

LadyAnara wrote:Well i got a reply from paypal

PayPal wrote:After careful review, we have concluded our investigation of the BuyerComplaint described below.

we were unable to recover any fundsfrom the seller's account. As stated in the PayPal User Agreement, recoveryof funds associated with a Buyer Complaint cannot be guaranteed.

We hope you understand our policy and that it assures you that you are safe using PayPal.

needless to say i am going to post negative feedback now.

And this is a perfect example of I (and many others) refuse to transact using PayPal. They assure you that "you are safe using PayPal", but they refuse to make good. Pretty hollow assurance.

Clear out your PayPal account.
After you have your cash in hand, contact your bank / credit card company and force a chargeback.

You CAN do this. Just be prepared for PayPal to decide they no longer want you as a customer afterwards. (Which is fine if you decide you don't want to put up with their "safe" dealing practices and you don't use eBay.)