My Porsche 959: cheated by ebay member, Austria

[audionutter]

I am sharing my sad tale with Tamiya club members and if anyone who lives in Austria is willing to help me, help is gratefully accepted.

First of all, I live in Malaysia now, although up till 3 years ago I was in England. Whilst in uK I had registered with Ebay and slowly built up my 100% feedback and continued to use Ebay when I moved to Malaysia. I recently won an Ebay auction item #7332884586 for a Porsche 959 complete chassis from a guy with the Ebay username of "eggerson" in Vorarlberg, Austria. The winning bid was Euros 71 and total came to Euros 105 including airmail shipping. As the seller had a 100% feedback (176 items), like me, I had no reason to be suspicious when he said he cannot accept PayPal and wanted me to send the payment as Euros cash. I therefore sent him the payment in an insured, registered letter which he received safely. Herein lies the sting: "eggerson", real name XXXX XXXX, said he did not receive the cash but since I took down the serial numbers of the Euros before I sent it to him and the letter was insured and registered, I challenged him on this. The letter was also signed and stamped over the flap before it was sealed, hence if the seal and letter arrived intact nobody could have opened it in transit, which is what he's claiming. I can copy and paste all my emails with Egger Andreas onto here for all to see.

Just today, the latest email from him says he will send me the Porsche 959 anyway, despite "not receiving" my money. Of course, I no longer believe that he will send it to me. If any Tamiya club memebers are anywhere near this guy and is willing to help me get the car and postage costs back from "eggerson"/Egger Andreas, I would be extremely grateful. His contact details are:

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DO NOT POST PERSONAL INFORMATION - ESPECIALLY OF OTHERS THAN YOURSELF. THERE IS A THING CALLED EMAIL SHOULD OTHER PARTIES WANT TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION.id="red">

I should have seen this coming when he refused PayPal and insisted on cash, but since he had 100% feedback, I trusted the ******. Money down the drain, huh?

[hornet69]

Sorry to hear about that, thats a really lousy situation. I hope you end up getting the chassis and everything is OK!

[jocktheglide]

sometimes the mail folks are always tricky I know here in the states a mailman sent accidently sent something to another state I used to live at, but here is the kicker the letter was register and insured and signature confirmation which means no one non can sign for it except for me, but guess what dummy mailman handed it over to the first perosn who answered the door didnt check the who the person was or what just let that person sign it under his name. So this person had my mail lucky enough I knew the neighbors they went over and got it from him he was a nice person though just a dummy mailman.

[larbut]

Hi 'nutter:

You should be able to trace back whether Egger signed for receiving the envelope or not. If he has signed, then the car should be yours, if he has not signed, your postal service should refund your money.

Right ???

Isn't that the point of registered/insured letters ??

(I am getting nervous now, I just sent €60 to Germany for some 959/Celica parts...)

Lars

[audionutter]

Yes, he had signed for the letter so the letter was delivered. The Post Office therefore will not allow any insurance claims as they will only pay out if the letter was delivered. In this case, the postman was not at fault.

Now the ****** is ignoring all my emails. Any Tamiya club members in Austria that can help???[V][?]

[larbut]

Does the guy claim he has signed for an envelope wich had already been opened ?? Is he blind ??

If I had lived in Austria (which I don't) I would have looked him up for you !

Hope you get your chassis !!

Lars

[BugFreak]

How about we all send him a mail... telling him to get his lazy *** to the post-office and send you your car?? Show him not to mess with the "Tamiya-world"... [?]

[smallman28]

I cant see this being allowed when a mod sees it.

Posting someones name and addresss and phone number is a bit off,maybe you should edit your post before someone else does.

[RETRO R/C]

You are right!!

Cheers

Darryn

[WillyChang]

How reliable is Malaysia Post these days?

(Does Tower Hobbies trust them again yet, or still on the banned list?)

[audionutter]

Thanks for all the replies, I had en email from the mods telling me the thread had been moved here from its original place on the Tamiya vintage section. The name and address ahs been edited but if anyone is interested to find out his name, address and copies of all our email correspondence, just drop me a line.

The Post Office is not at fault here, as the registered, insured letter was delivered intact, sealed and unopened. This was admitted by "eggerson" himself. The only thing I have is the serial numbers of the Euro banknotes and I have told him this, but is probably of limited value since he's likely to have spent it all by now. Anyway, I will be including all this info when I make my police report and send a copy of that to him. I should've insisted on PayPal instead of listening to him and sending cash, because 100% positive feeedback on Ebay means nothing to me now.

He has since broken off all email communication and my last 2 emails have gone unanswered. Just before that, hs last email to me said he would be sending me the 959 anyway, despite him "not receiving" my money but somehow I don't believe that. His actions speak louder than words.

I had hoped that Tamiya club members in Austria may be able to help me but I guess there aren't any Austrian members near to Höchst, Vorarlberg, Austria. The only thing left for me to do is to report him to Ebay and leave him negative feedback.

[supergreg]

What I don't get is: In your first post you say he would send the car anyway, despite "not receiving" your money. That was 29 Jul 2005. On the same day you decided not to wait one more day if he fulfills his promises, but decided for posting a rant in the forums publishing his postal address and asking subtle for other members to give him a visit! Sadly enough you actually found some abettors who would be willing to "have looked him up for you" if they only lived near.

IMHO this is not the way things should be handled! By your posting from yesterday evening (02 Aug 2005) we can see that the package did not arrive yet. I may be wrong in the end, but how long do you expect a package from Austria to Malaysia take? 3 days? How do you expect him to have it send? By rocket??

Instead of waiting let's say a week you again decided for a post in the forum again with a subtle note of his location and further details that can be sent by email. As a conlusion of your actions I can only say: I'm glad you did not buy an item from me!!

Don't get this wrong: You may be right in the end (time will tell) but: Please give it some time before posting things in the forums which are definately overhasty and even are against forum rules!

[RedFrits]

Audionutter, I have to agree with Kai. You always have to give it some time. this package will take at least two weeks to arrive in Malaisia.

Last week I won some parts on ebay from someone in the uK. Shipping it to Holland will take 4-5 days. After 6 days I sent him an email asking when he would ship it out. He answered he had been gone for a week and forgot the auctions etc.. I give it one week and if the parts don't arrive take action/mail again. Just be patience..

[audionutter]

Redfrits and Supergreg,

I don't think you understand. After his email that said he was going to post it to me, he has not replied to any of my further emails to ask about the shippingof the 959 to me. If you are me, do you really believe that this seller will send me anything? Actions speak louder than empty words. Look at it this way, who stands to lose if he doen't send me anything? It's not going to be him, is it?

I will post again after 2 weeks, which is plenty of time for it to arrive if he had actually sent it.

Redfrits and Supergreg, if both of you are not in Austria, that's not much help to this issue, is it? Just imagine what you will do if you are in my situation before commenting further, OK?

[RETRO R/C]

Hello Audionutter,

While I, as a buyer, completely understand your apprehension, as a seller I also understand where he is coming from too. Give the guy a chance before worrying to much.

I think supergreg and RedFrits are more concerned, (like me), that you freely posted someone elses personal name, phone number and address.........just not on I am afraid.[V][]

When you post back here in two weeks, I am most hopeful that you will have good news. Be patient, I have had items coming to Australia that have taken over 4 weeks via airmail from parts of Europe.

Cheers

Darryn

[larbut]

quote:Originally posted by supergreg

Sadly enough you actually found some abettors who would be willing to "have looked him up for you" if they only lived near.

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Supergreg:

Just a short comment:

I do not know what you read in the sentence "have looked him up for you", but you surely have misunderstood !

I still would visit the seller (if I could) and find out what was going on, and as you also seem to think, I am sure I would discover that everything was ok !

I am not in the habbit of "crushing knees" or "breaking legs" when I visit people, as you insinuate my intention would be.

Lars

[RedFrits]

lol, I know some guys who would do that actualy!! But serious, I know it is frustrating and if I was in your shoes I would also be worried. That is the disadvantage of trading on the net. It is based on trust and rotten things happen.

I hope the 959 will arrive since it is also one of my favorite vintage cars. If it does not arrive in two weeks, I won't go to Austria anymore on holliday

[audionutter]

An update.

It's been well over a month now and nothing has arrived. As previously mentioned, all my emails have been ignored and unanswered, for over 3 weeks now, despite repeated emails/perseverance on my side. Ebay has been pretty useless and of no help, other than the standard computer generated replies. Ebay's advice is to wait for a longer time! Maybe by then it'll be out of the Ebay time period and they can close my file/complaint. [!]

I've done all I could have, including leaving the eggerson/Eggars Andreas ****** negative feedback on Ebay. By now, hopefully no one else will get conned by this ******. Looking at his Ebay profile for completed transactions, most of them have been for very low cost items anyway, prior to my Porsche 959 transaction. He hadn't offered many Tamiya stuff previously. [V]

After this experience, I was after another Tamiya car - Hotshot this time, from Australia Ebay and was the high bidder with 16 hours to go when I was contacted thru Ebay by another user warning me that the Hotshot seller had "done him in" the same way that I was "done in" by Eggerson. Once bitten, twice shy and that warning was enough for me to cancel my bid. The guy who warned me wasn't a bidder on the Hotshot auction so I believed him. Anyway, it seems that Ebay is now full of scammers/dishonest sellers! Even in the Tamiya r/c section, which I would have thought was not prone to fraud as it is a hobbyist type of market. I now know better. []