Unacceptable Member Behavior

[Russell J]

Hi Folks,

I struggled for a while about the idea of even posting this because I don’t like to see any negativity on these boards, however…I also do not want anyone to be taken advantage of either, so I felt that I was obligated to at least make this mention. I'll keep this brief.

On May 5th, I sent a printed circuit board to one of our members on the site, Aurelio Landeros who lives in Tucson Arizona. He had reached out to everyone in a post http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =8&t=83152 that he was in need of a circuit board and could not afford one for $100 off EBay. I agreed to sell him my spare for $40.

Unfortunately after several PM’s to him, he has not compensated me as promised. In fact, the last PM I sent him is still sitting in his Inbox, unread.
I simply wanted to put this post out there as a warning to other members that they should really think twice before doing any business with him.

Russell

[Mancar1]

It may be rare, but over 4 years ago I shipped a original head liner to a fellow member. All I wanted in return was a few old black Ca plates he promised to trade.
Yup I got ripped off. The head liner shipping was around $130.
Live and learn.
I still ship and wait for payment. A bad apple now and then will not destroy how I choose to be.
We are all judged in the end.
I just smile and keep on Trucking............John

[eggman918]

It may be rare, but over 4 years ago I shipped a original head liner to a fellow member. All I wanted in return was a few old black Ca plates he promised to trade.
Yup I got ripped off. The head liner shipping was around $130.
Live and learn.
I still ship and wait for payment. A bad apple now and then will not destroy how I choose to be.
We are all judged in the end.
I just smile and keep on Trucking............John

Well said

[ddcrim]

Hear Hear!!!!!!! Just happened to me on Ebay, never got my part. Just one consolation, as they say, "once
a shyster always a shyster", and they never really get very far in life.

[1972hiboy]

Its regrettable that these things happen to people who are trying to help someone. Hopefully he will be back and able to explain himself. Or he may simply slip away never to check his mailbox again like WOODS did. Either way you were being a nice guy and trying to help him out. I am sorry to hear this happened to you. I would recommend going forward to insist on payment before shipping, just because now you have a good reason for asking this. BTW thanks for the heads up about said member.

[crazyhorse]

Thanks to each one of you for taking your time to warn us.

I see this as a heads up by The Fordification Family .

I think we are good natured and want to help each other & some times we get burned but as Mr Mancar said , it is not going to change who I am .

I will just be more careful in the future.

[66f250cs]

The days are gone when a man's word or handshake sealed the deal. I'm glad I am old and won't see the ugliness that I suspect will continue.
This has been a terrific board for general information and parts. To those that have been ripped off, sorry for your loss. If it happens to me, God help the person that does it to me.

[ultraranger]

If you order something online ....say, from Summit (or from most any individual) for example, you have to send them your payment BEFORE they're going to send you the product you're wanting to purchase from them.

I've sold several F600/F700 instrument clusters but not before I received payment for them first.

Unfortunately, there are enough shady characters in the world that ruins the trust factor for everyone else.

In the future, if you're selling something, have the payment in your hand before you ship out the item so that you don't get burned again.

A. Landeros may be dodging you or, possibly he has suffered an illness or severe injury preventing him from getting back to you (?). Whatever the case, one thing is certain, if you had the payment upfront, you would not be put in the situation of having to make your post about this incident. I hope that he's a stand up guy and that this gets resolved.

[Wilfred of Ivanhoe]

As many have said, it is always wise to revive payment before shipping anything. Even if you have done business with them before. There will always be those who cheat. I have been cheated too, but we can't let the "bad guys" win. I still believe the good people out there outnumber the bad. Even if they don't, i'm still stupid enough to think we can make the world better.

[DuckRyder]

First off let me say:

There really isn't anything the Administrator or Moderators can do about this, so just to reiterate all deals are between the individuals involved.

Speaking for myself, I have done a lot of selling and buying on Internet forums and have only had a couple of bad experiences. I've probably done hundreds of transactions.

I tend to look at folks history on the board involved - if they are quality contributing members then that is a fair indication they will follow through. Flakey posters or those that appear to only buy/sell warrant additional caution.

Buyers have no more guarantee they will get the item if they pay prior to shipping than sellers have they will get the money post shipping. Best advice I have is to follow your instincts, if your spidey sense is talking to you > pay attention no matter if you are buyer or seller.

Much as I hate a thief, I won't let a few bad apples ruin it for everyone I deal with...

[FLASH 1]

Its just not private sellers.. its big companies, here is 2 issues we have heard, One company his employee stole credit card info when ordering off there web site and the other sold to a company all peoples mailing information,, Both Companies sell Ford Truck Parts. as a dealer we get several companies trying to buy customers mailing info which is big money and that's why we DO NOT PUT ANY Customers info in any computer or credit cards and all invoices still hand written

[flyboy2610]

Buyers have no more guarantee they will get the item if they pay prior to shipping than sellers have they will get the money post shipping.

That is so true. The used to be a "member" here whose username was NC F100. I don't know if any of you remember him, but I can't find him on the members list, so I assume he got the well earned axe. He was selling several things I was interested in. I paid him over $100, got 1 of the items. When I tried to PM him or email him, I got the old "I've been so busy, I need to find a box, I'm grieving because my pet worm died, blah, blah, blah."
Every time I hear the old song "May the Bird of Paradise Fly up Your Nose", I think of him.

[thejunkman]

Looks like he is on facebook if you are interested in contacting him that way...

https://www.facebook.com/aurelio.landeros.7

[idaho_cowboy]

Why would you send something without payment? Sorry that he didn't follow through. But this is ABC stuff..

- J

[robroy]

Thanks for the information Russell.

I still ship and wait for payment. A bad apple now and then will not destroy how I choose to be. We are all judged in the end.

Nicely put John! I re-read what you wrote and thought about it a few times.

The days are gone when a man's word or handshake sealed the deal.

66f250cs, I can imagine that you've probably have a lot of experiences which this idea's based on, yet I'll respectfully differ with it. Though I'm only a thirty-six years old whippersnapper, I'd like to think we hold the days in our own hands. Continuing to expect integrity when relating to others is a choice that has to have both ups and downs; 'seems to me that the ups outweigh the downs.

Why would you send something without payment?

Idaho Cowboy, 'sorry to butt in here; I know you were asking Russell. Yet since I'm also in the "ship first" camp, I figured I'd take a stab at this.

People send things without payment because they view transactions as opportunities to exercise a philosophical principle that they like. When they do this, the value they get in terms of enjoyment ought-weighs the risk of losing money, especially when dealing with amounts of money that aren't life-changing. In Russell's case, the $40 which may have been lost probably doesn't qualify as a life-changing amount--yet Russell's choice added a brick to his foundation of real, earned self-esteem. This kind of foundation comes in handy for things like falling asleep at night.

If the $40 shows up, Russell will have won--yet even if it never shows up, Russell will still have won, in a way that matters to him more than $40.

Earl Nightingale said that the basic meaning of life, is to serve; he said that our job in this life's to serve others. (And I sure have been on the receiving end of this service for years, here on FORDification--thank you.) 'seems like this is a widely agreed upon principle (at least in the West), such as Mark 9:35, "Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, 'If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.'" One handy way to serve others is by giving to them. By sending something without payment, Russell was giving the gift of trust.

Well, another day in life's gone, but a positive mark was made on that day about his character in his own mind, because he exercised a principle that he agreed with. When we do things we agree with, it improves our integrity, or wholeness as a person; it makes us less divided. I can't remember where I read this (maybe it was more Earl Nightingale), but I came across an explanation of the word "integrity." Just as integers include only numbers like 1, 2, 3 and not fractions, integrity is the state of being whole, or undivided. The greater our integrity, the less inner conflict we feel, and the more peace of mind we experience. Forty or a hundred bucks isn't even in the same league as this kind of pay-off.

People who ship before payment know that they're going to ultimately win in the transaction; they wouldn't keep doing it if they thought they might lose. The fact that people usually do send the $40's just a bonus.

PS. Of course, there has to be a safety belt on this line of thinking; I think Robert's comments on evaluating a buyer were superb.