GeneL

This seller (camaroinmotion) advertised a pedal assembly...as he put it in "great cond 75.00". It sounded like what I needed for my '83 so I purchased it from this seller through PayPal on April 18, 2016. The item was sent to me and in showing it to techs with extensive GM experience who would have installed it, said the bushings were so bad as to make it unusable. They said the one in my car now is even better than this one. I contacted seller who invited me to send it back (which I did at my expense) for, as he put it, full credit to my PayPal. Once he received it I have had nothing for the past two weeks but promises and excuses to credit my PayPal. After back and forth communication with him since I sent it back, my repeated demands in the past few days to pay are met with no answer to my calls and no response to my messages. I feel I've been scammed and I'm out over $100 that I'll never see again. He also used PayPal and the USPS as part of this fraud.
Here's the link to the item as advertised:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/engi...ro-manual.html

I won't see that money again, and I'll certainly be more cautious about whomever I am dealing with on this site. "Lesson Learned"

BOTTLEDZ28

iTrader: (9)

Open a claim through Paypal. hey will pull the money from his account and then both of you can hash it out with paypal as a moderator.

BOTTLEDZ28

iTrader: (9)

And that user has absolutely ZERO post on this forum which would make me stay away. I only do business with the regular members.

gt4373

He In Fact Has Many Posts But His Profile Says He Has Zero,How Can That Be?
274 Posts To Be Exact,Maybe One Of The Moderator's Could Explain.

GeneL

I noticed that myself when I first opened his thread at the start of the "transaction".

Ty92Z

iTrader: (11)

The beauty of paypal is that you have some protection. You should have opened a claim before you returned the item to him, but all is not lost if you have a paper trail showing you returned the item. File a claim and as BottledZ28 said paypal will freeze the money and moderate a silution.

GeneL

The money has already been transacted, he has the money, AND the pedal assembly which I returned with his promise to credit my PayPal.

There was no reason at the time for me to mistrust or disbelieve him since he was telling me everything I wanted to hear, hence, there was no reason for me to contact PayPal before I returned the part. His promise to credit the money back to my PayPal was good enough for me (at the time).

With that being said, I just got off the phone with PayPal an hour ago and they promise to review the claim and they also said they would send the seller a notification of action pending on his PayPal account.

Realistically, I don't think I'm going to get much satisfaction or resolution from PayPal basically because it's over and done with.

Gene

my82roc

iTrader: (101)

Here ya go from way back.I believe this is the exact same guy.His name is Mike Robaey.He also sells parts on Facebook under the name of Mike Firebird

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/clas...orward540.html

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/clas...continued.html

GeneL

Wow! That's just incredible.

Kudos on your research 82roc.

If I knew any of this back on April 18th I wouldn't have had to go through the torture of dealing with this guy. And yes, why was he still able to continue his con at this site all the years up to now after those 10 year old transgressions, which were way too similar to my own recent adventure.

Now the GOOD NEWS.

I am holding my breath as my call to PayPal this morning has seemingly borne fruit.

Shortly after giving to PayPal the information you're all familiar with by now, I received an email (about an hour after talking with PP) from the seller whom I had not been able to contact since Saturday morning when he told me he told his wife to pay my PayPal (just another lie):
When I say holding my breath, I mean that literally because this is the same kind of promise I've been hearing for the past two weeks, until he stopped communicating at all.

Now, I have PayPal on my side, here's a message I received on my account from them:

Payment is supposed to be made this Thursday. I actually received two messages from PayPal where they said if I did not receive a confirmation email from them that the money is in my account to give them a call.

Will it? Or will MJR find a way to weasel out of this one?
---------------------------------------------------------------
"Once his paycheck comes in"
"Oh, sorry PayPal, I won't get paid until next week now."
----------------------------------------------------------------
The clock is ticking and I won't be comfortable until the money is safe and secure in my own PayPal account.

Gene Thank you PayPal!

my82roc

iTrader: (101)

Good luck...Hope it all works out for you

JT

iTrader: (1)

Again, I point out the following:

1) Up until today, after I pointed out to you the seller's iTrader score not showing any negative scores, the seller's iTrader didn't show any issue. The iTrader is similar to eBay's feedback system (one large difference is that iTrader allows Negative ratings toward a Buyer - something eBay took away to make it less neutral for both parties). If there is no pattern shown in the iTrader, how are we (staff and members) to know there's a problem?

2) Until this thread, you hadn't posted in this Classifieds feedback section about this seller. Additionally, I didn't see any other warning about the account in question. Do you? Again, if there is no pattern shown by posts in this Classifieds Feedback section, how are we (staff and members) to know there's a problem?

A few more things to add:

1) Notice the account my82roc referenced is inactive.
2) my82roc linked the two accounts but didn't provide evidence that linked the accounts. It sounds like my82roc had some information that he didn't share?

So it's not like there was an allowed continuance to "con" the site.

The Classifieds are provided to members at their own risk. That's pretty standard across similar community-based tech sites like ours. We provide some tools, as referenced above, to help the community by giving notice to the community of good and bad sellers. When we have been given evidence of bad sellers that aren't isolated incidents, we have taken action. But again, if the community doesn't use the tools then it's pretty hard to expect better results.

GeneL

(1) It does now, since you informed me this morning of that procedure I have posted a negative with explanation (go check it out). I wonder how many others with similar experiences with this guy, as attested to in those links, simply were unaware of this negative iTrader thing.

(2) Again, I only began participating in this forum once informed by you just this morning. Had I known about it I would have begun posting long ago. (My bad for not researching and finding it, but it is what it is)

Sir, have you actually taken the time to read through the links provided by my82roc? The name of the seller in question (MJR) is the very same as the one I have posted this thread about, including the city where he lives (Spring City Pa.) and involvement by his local PD, and his modus operandi in all cases is exactly how I was treated. So, he has a history here going back at least 10 years.

Unless you are acting as his legal defense, his activity of scams, frauds, and yes, CONS, needs to be stopped before there are more victims like myself and those seen in those links.

Gene

JT

iTrader: (1)

There is a sticky thread for the iTrader in this Classifieds section and has been since 2008.

I think you're missing my point. You asked "why was he still able to continue his con at this site all the years up to now after those 10 year old transgressions" as if you believe we stood by, knowingly, letting it occur. Perhaps you should ask my82roc that question, because he appears to have known but didn't make staff aware. Until this thread, it was not known to us that the two accounts were linked until my82roc noted it in this thread. That was information that was not shared, nor brought to our attention, for some time until this thread.

I have to say I'm very surprised. You are the only person who has reported an issue with this seller after these years of this seller operating another account. I don't really need re-read the links provided by my82roc because I was here during that time and know what happened. Note that while under the other account, he had quite a bit of negative reviews. That's not the case this time and could also be why it went under the radar.

GeneL

(1) Yes, as I've said, my bad for not reading that sticky.

(2) The fact that this is the same person, as you yourself admit to, having "quite a bit of negative reviews" "while under the other account" begs the question: why can't those negative reviews be applied to this (or any new account) he might create? It's like a criminal moving to another state, changing his name.

Should this criminal now be allowed to move on seemingly living as an upright citizen (ready to pounce on his next victim) just because he changed his name and moved to a different location? He is still a criminal, and if identified as such is still subject to the laws of the land and can be prosecuted for past fraudulent and deceitful activity once exposed for who he really is...as is clearly the case here.

Or does he get off, scott-free, on a technicality?

Gene

BOTTLEDZ28

iTrader: (9)

Gene, look at it this way, you will be getting your money back which is ultimately what you wanted.It could have been a LOT worse. You could have sent a money order and then really been out the money. Ive been on this site a LONG time and I have seen a ton of transactions that didnt go over so well with the buyer loosing out in the end either due to not using paypal or not doing their homework.
Ive been there myself. Long before paypal existed, we would have to send checks or money orders in the mail to complete strangers. Talk about sketchy. I did that very thing back in 2001. A member here was selling a pair of Edelbrock heads and some other smaller items. I sent him a money order for $1200 and never heard from him after that!!!!! Apparently there were a few other members that also sent this guy money at the same time and never heard back from him. There was no way I was loosing out on $1200 of my hard earned money so I got in my car and drove 600 miles to this guys house!!!!!! The "guy" was a college kid who wasnt home and his father threw me off the property and threatened to let the dogs loose if I didnt leave. I went straight to the police station and filed a report. I got my money back about a month later after he was forced to hire a lawyer. His sister needed a lawyer as well since she signed the money order. Lawyer called me and said if I dropped the charges then I would get my money back. Well, thats not how I work and told them I wasnt dropping "crap" until I had my money back in my hands. A certified check showed up at my door a few days later with a letter.
I was the only member here to get my money back which I felt bad about but there was nothing I could do for the other members.


I do NOT suggest anyone do what I did but I was pi$$ed!



Paypal makes it so much safer to buy and sell in forum classifieds now. Use it every chance you get.

GeneL

Glad you were finally able to resolve that mess you found yourself in BOTTLEDZ28.

I don't have the money back in my account yet, not until "promised Thursday" has arrived. Until then I am quite skeptical that I will really get it based on the seller's frequent ability to lie. It's only $90 bucks but, like your experience, I refuse to be ripped off and will do all that I can to ensure that doesn't happen to me (or anyone else if I can help it).

Having PayPal involved is certainly a big plus but not sure just how far they can go to enforce his promise to pay. No doubt using PayPal was a good move on my part, I don't think I would have gone the way of a check, money order or cashier's check simply because of the risk involved, as you so poignantly point out.

As I mentioned before, as he told PayPal:
"Once his paycheck comes in" (smells fishy to me)

Then Thursday comes and it's:
"Oh, sorry PayPal, I'm not getting paid until next week now."

With all the money he's already ripped off, plus his job (he says) as a truck driver, he certainly has $90 in his bank account (not his in the first place) to send to his PayPal account to quickly resolve this. It took me 3 minutes to pay him for the part, it's taking me 3 weeks to get it back and all I have is a "promise" from a documented cheat.

Perhaps I'll be proven wrong, I certainly hope so. But, we'll see come Thursday.

Thanks for posting!

Can't be said too many times: "Buyer Beware!"

We learn from our own experience, and that of others.

I urge everyone who has been a victim on this site to read the Sticky "Using the iTrader System" at the top and give those you purchase from your feedback and rating and perhaps save potential buyers on here the grief of dealing with unscrupulous sellers.

Gene

my82roc

iTrader: (101)

I only figured out he was the same guy because he also posts a lot of this stuff on craigslist.I live in bucks county PA so he is sort of local and that's why I see it.I know how this guy words his posts as he appears to have some sort of problem with the useage of words and that's how I put 2 and 2 together.

GeneL

jmd

iTrader: (4)

Was it really necessary to do an internet call-out with paragraphs versus just a bit of derusting and an (expected at this age) set of bushings on parts nearing 35 years of age?

Let's look at this briefly in another light.

According to your post Gene, the pedals needed pedal bushings. And that's the only item you note.

The OEM paint on the pedals looks unmolested. I really dislike "spray bomb rebuilds" and consider the lack of one a plus when buying used parts.

Further looking at them, the pedal pads aren't terribly worn. The pushrod looks to be in functional, used shape (Maybe worn as most mech. linkage is; it's hard to tell in pictures. But it doesn't look junked or "very worn" at least.) The pedal bumper looks to be good shape. I am not familiar with the 83 F neutral switch to judge. But I do know mechanical clutch pedals.

I'm pretty sure the pedal bushings can be replaced for under ten bucks shipped. And you completely lacked anything to substantiate the condition of the pedals. Pictures sell parts and show credibility. Were your anonymous mechanics really necessary to quantify a simple bolt, sleeve, & bushing assembly?

GeneL