Help - scam?

Well here's another turn in the story: he sent the lenses back without even telling me.

I'm assuming he just wanted to use the lenses for the wedding he shot on saturday? Which explains why he wanted it there so fast and why he waited until monday to ship them back.

wow, that's pretty terrible.

tested both the lenses and they seem to work fine. I called him and no answer.

I will only trade within driving distance ( a 1 state circle around mine ) just in case I need to deliver a good ole country ass woopin.
He would have to pay me for shipping and lens rental.

louieabellera wrote in post #7868905
Well here's another turn in the story: he sent the lenses back without even telling me.

Wow, that really is low. I guess you were right in your initial assessment of him as a scammer, and I apologize for criticizing you for it. And I'm guessing he didn't include anything to cover your out-of-pocket costs to ship the lenses to him.

You said in your initial post, it was a member here. At this point in time, I would out them for sure.

Nope. Nothing. I messaged a mod and asked what I should do.

louieabellera wrote in post #7869230
Nope. Nothing. I messaged a mod and asked what I should do.

I believe they tell you that you use the buy and sell portion of the forum at your own risk.
However I will tell you that it would be nice of you to divulge the name so others can stay away.

Although you did get your lenses back so I would say the person merely had a change of heart about ditching the Iphone. At least you got yours back

Well I'd love to out him, but a mod contacted me a couple days ago about 'lynching' other people on the forums. So I'll wait to hear what he says.

louieabellera wrote in post #7869262
Well I'd love to out him, but a mod contacted me a couple days ago about 'lynching' other people on the forums. So I'll wait to hear what he says.

Well I have seen first hand that you can not please everyone all of the time so I suppose they do not want to interrupt someones deal because of a run in with a jerk.
There may have been countless transactions that this seller has had with great result and this is an isolated incident.
i have a ton of online feedback and even I have had to back out of a couple of deals. One recently, I was trying to sell a lens but while packing it there was a little issue. The lens still abides by the laws of gravity and floors do not get softer just because something is coming at it, so I had to refund someone their money. They could have been pissed off about it and called me endlessly (HINT) but instead they understood and they were very nice.
There is an old saying, all is well that ends well. You have your lenses and they are in the same condition right? So be happy

Steps to follow when dealing with forum sales/trades:

1) What kind of post count and history does the member have? (content and longevity)
2) What kind of feedback on the forum does the member have?
3) What other feedback can they supply? Verify those, like if ebay reference given, use the contact member option to talk to them through ebay.
4) Check out their website(s).
5) Google their email address or forum ID to see if you can glean more info from other sites.

Just some of the steps I go through when deciding on a deal.

I definitely think in this case it would not be very bad to divulge the ID because at this point, I also agree with all the emails and the final result, it was nothing more than "I want to use some lenses this weekend".

Based on the information you've provided, I would hardly call it a 'lynching'. Post it up objectively, as information, and let other members make their own decisions. I really don't know why we're not allowed to leave negative feedback for someone, if we can document why we're leaving it.

Yeah I dont either.

Pete, the mod, just told me not to publically out him. So I dont really know what else I could do.

I agree with Mk1Racer - all should know about this person. You are only as good as your word and this guy is no good. Buying through the internet is risky, but POTN is a community and all should know.

But in the end, we should abide by the moderators word.

Mk1Racer wrote in post #7869369
Based on the information you've provided, I would hardly call it a 'lynching'. Post it up objectively, as information, and let other members make their own decisions. I really don't know why we're not allowed to leave negative feedback for someone, if we can document why we're leaving it.

It may well have turned into just that had the other side of this transaction been named publically and then turned out to be ok. Bad reputations tends to stick regardless of the actual events.

As stated before, transactions on POTN are on a "buyer beware" basis (the same as craigs list/eBay/whatever).

We don't allow negative feedback here because people may be tempted to complain about pretty much anything (not responding to emails within a few minutes, not sending goods quickly enough, not giving tracking numbers, etc, etc). Unavoidable events do get in the way of personal lives on occasion. If we gave people the option of leaving negative feedback, then they invariably will do so (jumping the gun in many cases).

But, you may say, in this case, it's an open-and-shut case. But as with many things, there's no telling when the end of the story is (it's sometimes later than you first assume).