Well after 12 years of online buying, selling and trading archery gear i finally got took on a deal. Ive been planning on getting myself a longbow built this year for my 30th birthday. Well i had the money saved up but used it on supplies for my broadhead test this year. I wasnt worried as i had my last compound setup up for sale which would easily cover the cost of a longbow and give me extra. Well i sold it a few weeks ago online to a guy from another country. I had left the money in my paypal till delivery was confirmed. Delivery day came about and that evening i found that there was an $720 hold on my paypal account and there was a case opened on it. According to the buyer he received a cardboard box weighted with trash in it and no bow. I have no proof that the bow was shipped within that box and his claims are that the package had no signs of being tampered with. Paypal has sided with the buyer so now im out the bow i sold, the money for shipping and the money from the bow. Im sick to my stomach as that was the funds to finally get myself a bow built how i want. Make matters worse now i cannot find anything on the guy i sold it to on facebook nor the archeryshop he "owned" which tells me right there i got scammed. So now it looks as i will be shooting my el cheapo longbow for another year.
I hate thieves!!!
Sorry that happened to you!
Bisch
That's about as blatant as it gets! :(
I think PayPal makes it too easy for an unscrupulous buyer to rip a seller. What are your options going forward?
I have no options. Paypal sided with buyer so im just screwed on the deal
There's a special place in hell for these kinds of people.
Sorry that happened to you man.
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Dang, that stinks! Would have it made a difference if you would have transferred the funds to your bank right away? Just wondering for future deals.
Iff i would have withdrawn the money from paypal i would have had to reimburse it. Thats the sad thing about paypal. Its great that they protect the buyer but it makes it easy to get scammed as a seller
I have found it easier to just give old bows away. I have heard of this buyer scamming the seller. Crooks will try anything once. It may come up for sale again, from the crook himself.
Man, I am sorry to hear that! This worries me enough that I think I'm just done with buying and selling anything unless it's from the TradGang Classifieds!
Im not done buying/selling but it certainly will be done more carefully and i will not do it with someone out of the U.S. again.
Yep, I always state US sales only on my adds. I know there are a lot of good people around the world but, it makes it harder to deal with issues when it's outside the US.
I'm not done buying/selling either. Just everywhere else but here.
Usually the only way i sell internationally is if buyer pays shipping. I have 4 or 5 guys from europe/parts of asia that ive had repeated sales with normally of parts for old bows that they cant get over there. Those guys have always been great and normally pau even more than what i quote for shipping and are very friendly. This guy though started causing issues in less than a week from the start of the transaction asking why it wasnt there yet. He said shipping never takes more than 4-5 days. I dont know what service he is use to but for me when i order something from half way around the world im happy to get it within a month. Lesson learned though i guess and a big thank you from those who have offered to help. Goes to show the trad world is truely a brotherhood
Ouch that hurts. Your experience is one of the reasons I'm not fond of Paypal as a payment option.
Being Canadian or having a Bow shipped here provides some extra attention to details, so I generally shy away from social platform Buy & Sell Groups and stick to reputable Forum Boards, Archery Shoppes or Bowyers
However, before I commit to a deal I try to do some background checks on the seller ie; post count, recent activities and reputation etc to ease any doubts. Hard to do on the social platforms like facebook etc.. Once all of that has been done, I always offer the Postal MO or Intl MO is U.S. Funds as a payment option over Paypal due to it's traceability.
Having said all that, I did have an experience with a reputable Bowyer in the last two years, where an order was placed, deposit confirmed then all communication became sporatic to non-existant. I waited a year and a half before I was finally able to get in contact with the new Bowyer and basically give up a fair chunk of change ($400 Canadian at time of conversion rate) I had deposited initially because of the bad tatste I had with the whole experience. Even following my own rules above, i ran into a situation that shouldn't have happened even with a person having a solid "online" reputation. Not the new Bowyers fault and they were more than willing to make the situation right, but based on principal I won't be looking at that particular product anytime soon.
In the end it's always a risk, communication and gut instinct are key. If you have any doubts, it's better to walk away.
Sorry to hear that. I was took on a deal years ago involving a transaction on a guitar. I think I was out around $700. I was a dummy and bought it online and wired the $. Lesson learned. I can't understand how people can feel good about themselves for stealing. Hope it works out for you.
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Ive had little issues over the years in trades. Usually it was when multiple items were suppose to be together and something small was missing or a bow was supppse to come with something and it didnt but its never been anything to lose sleep over. This was my first big hit on a deal. Ill be sticking to the forums where i can actually research who im dealing with in the past and see how their feedback is. Its sad there are people like that in the world.
Two biggest hits I've had were from "friends". One was for around $1,000, another for over $2,000. On the bright side, I've had much more good luck than bad.
Oh dont get me started on friends lol. I had a very close "friend" get me on a vehicle he sold me. Bought a 1978 ford high boy off of him several years back just to find out he didnt even actually own it. He got the money from me and when i went to go pick the truck and title up i found out him and his wife had split and he left town. The truck belonged to his ex father in law.
I hired a young man to pressure wash my siding the other day. Of course I showed him by bow making operation and my tools, I knew his family, all good folk.
A couple of days ago I picked up an older drawknife from my dad's house after his funeral and took it out to my shop to clean it up.
Now, I have a bunch of drawknives, some junk, some with special meaning, one was old but looked almost new and unused that I picked up at a flea market.
Dang if my best flea market find drawknife was gone from the pegs I had it displayed on. So many goodies in my shop and the thief (possibly the kid pressure washing) zeroed in on my drawknife and nothing else, it doesn't make sense.
My loss is a pittance compared to you guys but the feeling of being robbed is always the same. I have had two cars stolen, car broken into twice, house twice and a brand new 20 Merc outboard stolen off my new boat. Yep, the feeling is always the same.
Fly over there and go to the address where it was shipped and poke him in the eye!!
In all seriousness I'm sorry that happened to you. It's a terrible thing!
Quote from: Crittergetter on July 19, 2018, 09:22:00 AM
Fly over there and go to the address where it was shipped and poke him in the eye!!
In all seriousness I'm sorry that happened to you. It's a terrible thing!
That made me chuckle. My wife cant even get me to fly lol. I use to rebuild jet engines, ive seen what condition they get to before they get grounded. Ill stick with driving lol
I share Bisch's sentiment on thieves. They are simply bad people with no redeeming qualities.
I did let a guy know once that I was going to be buying a plane ticket to TX if he didn't get square with me...that was over a hide that was worth less than $50...he sent me a check. That one ticked me off. Hurt my feelings when I was taken by people I thought were my friend.
That's why I deal directly with used bow dealers in person at archery events.
Sometimes a phone call to talk about a deal gives you a clear picture on what to do . I have made many deals that felt better after a chat on the phone.
Sorry to hear it brother...
Just a little follow up on my stolen draw knife; I took a closer look when I took my dad's old drawknife out to the shop to refurbish it. The thief had taken my Pine Cone drawknife and moved my flea market Greenlee up to the pegs the Pine Cone was on so I wouldn't notice it was missing. It worked because I didn't see anything amiss for several months. The Greenlee had been on some pegs behind and hidden by my huge debarking drawknife and was something I wouldn't have noticed if it had been moved.
The Pine Cone was given to me by my friend Buzzy along with all his other worldly possessions when he was sure his life had come to an end, it had a special meaning to me.
I contacted the kid's adult cousin and asked if he could be trusted. The cousin was also an auxiliary police officer in town and said the kid was the best of the best and wouldn't take anything from me. He told me the trailer park down the road was a meth haven now and thefts were on the rise in my area. I have been pretty lax about locking my shop, time for a change to match the sorry times we are in now.
KARMA will get him!
I'm sorry to hear that,it really bites.I have sold four bows to overseas buyers,two to France,one to Austria and one to Singapore.Didn't have a problem with any of them,but I can see how it can happen with the Paypal guarantee.It is so far away,how can you prove it? I now say when I advertise bows,ship to USA only!
I am sorry to hear this also, agree with hogless,karma will get him.
Are you a lefty by chance? Let me know. Ken
Sorry for your loss...I just can't wrap my head around stealing something from somebody else. I've had my house broken into before and also had a friend of one of my kids stealing my power tools one at a time and pawning them...of course, you don't realize it until you go to look for them, possibly months later. It's a sick feeling.
Eric i know how it feels to have personal items stolen from home. Before me and my wife decided to buy the house we are in we had sold my previous home and were renting a bigger house(found out the family was unexpectedly getting bigger than the house could support lol). We were still in the process of moving everything so we were staying with her grandmother except on the weekends we were off then we would stay in the new house and unpack. I was at work one night and she decided to go to the rental with her brother to get a jump on unpacking just to find that the back door had been busted open. We had a bunch of clothing stolen, our winter coats, boots, a couple rifles and various other items. We know it was some meth heads who were squating in a run down house down the road but without visually seeing them with the items the police cant go in to search for them.
I got scammed from Gary Gentry in MT. Sold him a nice Morrison and never got paid. Grr. Out $600.
Sad....
Unfortunately there are a fair number of "I got took" stories out there....I have not had any from the TG community, but did buy a gun on Armslist that apparently didn't exist a few years ago......$500 lesson .......
the only way to handle this is wait a few weeks for things to quiet down,,, then you need to find the address for every archery store, gun and archery club, craigs list, any archery resource available in that area within 100 miles.. you need to send each one pics, a full description, and anything else you have and say the bow was stolen from the mail in that area and you tell them how you worked hard for it and you just tell them your story, trust me people will be thinking bad abotu you getting burnt..
you will render that bow "useless" to whoever has it OR suddenly it will appear.... never forget the power of the people..
you need to do the leg work and spend 20 bucks in stamps but trust me it becomes a thorn to whoever has it,,,, when everything you do quiets down then do it all over again,,,,, its the amber alert for your bow and everyone will have it pounded in their heads...
I've had a few people try to scam me..
Quote from: Tajue17 on August 07, 2018, 06:07:12 AM
the only way to handle this is wait a few weeks for things to quiet down,,, then you need to find the address for every archery store, gun and archery club, craigs list, any archery resource available in that area within 100 miles.. you need to send each one pics, a full description, and anything else you have and say the bow was stolen from the mail in that area and you tell them how you worked hard for it and you just tell them your story, trust me people will be thinking bad abotu you getting burnt..
you will render that bow "useless" to whoever has it OR suddenly it will appear.... never forget the power of the people..
you need to do the leg work and spend 20 bucks in stamps but trust me it becomes a thorn to whoever has it,,,, when everything you do quiets down then do it all over again,,,,, its the amber alert for your bow and everyone will have it pounded in their heads...
I've had a few people try to scam me..
Normally that would work good here in the US but this guy is from Malaysia or ar least thats where the shipping address was for
I think you are right-- I had no recourse (legal) and the guy who sold me the "gun" was in Nevada. I call it an expensive lesson, but maybe inexpensive in the long run..........
Normally that would work good here in the US but this guy is from Malaysia or ar least thats where the shipping address was for
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Yeah I think I'd walk that one off too man I'm sorry, I don't care about reputation or feedback or how long they been around I just won't deal with anyone outside of north America.
Sorry to hear this.
How did you ship it? FedEx? Do you have a tracking number? Perhaps you can file a claim with the shipper. The recipient might not be the thief. It could have been opened.