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Marc ***WORST SELLER EVER!!!!!****

Discussion in 'Buy/Sell/Trade' started by xroads, Aug 18, 2009.

  1. xroads Veteran Reefkeeper Vendor

    La Porte City, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,014 / 6 / -0
    Bear with me this is a long one.
    I responded last week to Marcs post on "240 tank, $1000 takes all".  I called him like he asked & said I would be down that night & if it was as described I wanted it.  Trent & I went down & looked everything over.  I told him I wanted it & gave him $200 deposit.
    The plan was to get the livestock, rock, & sand on Wednesday & then Thursday get the tanks & equipement.  As we were walking out the door he said "Dont worry I am a man of my word"
    Then he calls me the next day & said the skimmer wasnt part of the deal anymore.  He said he didnt mean to put that in the deal even though he showed me the skimmer & was bragging how plankton friendly it was.  Obviously I was pissed & he said he had other people wanting to give him more for it so take it or leave it.  He allready had $200 of my cash & trent really wanted the tank so I said we would still take it.
    So wednesday afternoon he called & said his wife wouldnt let him miss church class we would have to push everything back a day.
    Thursday he calls, I have to cut 2 kids hair tonight. 
    Friday he calls, said he couldnt do it again.  I started getting pissed.   Then about 2 hours later he called back & said come get it.
    I go down & pick up the rock & fish.  When I got home it didnt seem like all the rock was there so I weighed it & there was only 135 lbs.
    When I left friday I left him buckets & a barrel so he  could get all the sand out.  We were supposed to come down Monday to get the tanks & equipment.
    So last night Trent & I got there to pick it up & he didnt even have all the water out.  He handed us a sawzall & pair of channel locks & basically said "there you go"
    He actually thought we were going to carry a 250 gallon tank to the truck with 2 inches of sand & water in the bottom.  He didnt even think we should take the bulkheads out of the bottom of the tank.
    Needless to say this is my worst experience in the 7 years I have been a club member.  Of course he isnt a club member & doesnt even have the decency to put "sold" on the thread.  People are still inquiring about it & he just ignores them.
    One of the other members that inquired about the tank pm'ed me & said "He told me he was going to break his deal with you because you couldnt pick up the tanks for 3 weeks"  He also told him he would throw in the odyssy light that we was trying to sell a couple weeks ago.    I called Marc back & asked him if he would throw in the light since he screwed me out of the skimmer.  he said "ya I can do that".  So last night when I got here he told me sorry, he sold the light on Craigs list.
     
  2. wolfman1973

    wolfman1973 Inactive User

    292
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    craig,i am very surprised you remained so calm,i would have went off the deep end and offered to buy him a drink !!!
     
  3. nick

    nick Well-Known ReefKeeper

    754
    Ratings:
    +5 / 0 / -0
    sorry to hear about the bad experience with him and thanks for the heads up, i must say that is why i only do business with a select few anymore.
     
  4. Newbeme

    Newbeme Inactive User

    122
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    Sorry to hear of your bad deal. I use to see dealings like this all the time when I raced RC cars with my children.The difference being I was dealing with 13 -18 year old people that had the "you can't do anything to me" attitude that is so common these days. So they would sell you junk or never send it. You rolled the dice every time you dealt with someone. I guess every hobby has their bad apples. Thanks for the heads up.
     
  5. AJ

    AJ Inactive User

    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    Just reiterates the need for a buyer/seller feedback forum. It's really sad to see people have problems with sellers here lately. It's very troubling.

    --AJ
     
  6. tgauger

    tgauger Inactive User

    69
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    What amazed me throughout this whole deal, was the fact that the deal changed with every word from his mouth. Oh i want to keep this, i want to keep that, you can have this... oh wait no i want that. And to top it all off the first words out of his mouth when we showed up to get the tanks, was a demand for money. I guess he wanted to make sure after his preaching, we didnt do unto others, as he did unto us...
     
  7. Marc

    Marc Inactive User

    117
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    well I'm braking my silence... none of your guys know what really went on or what was communicated between craig and I... secondly, he could have backed out at any point... why didn't he... I tell you why... HE WAS GET A HECK OF A DEAL!!!... I offered his money back several times and then at the end even offered to give them WHOLESALE PRICING ON ALOT OF STUFF THAT I ABLE TO GET WHOLESALE PRICING ON ONE OF WHICH IS ICE CAP stuff, i am actually goin to which draw...I actually had someone else offer me 200 more if i sold it to them... (I wish I would have taken them up on it)  it would have been a better experience I'm certain...
    so you guys can make these assumption and feed into the drama... but what i find ironic is when i got screwed on a deal and posted on the forum... they pulled that stuff ... here it is reversed and now its ok... this GIRS organization is A JOKE and nothing more than a click...
     
    Marc 
    p.s. what he posted isn't completely true... some is but not all...
     
  8. JB Veteran Reefkeeper

    Marion
    Ratings:
    +3 / 0 / -0
    Craig,

    Thanks for the heads up and I'm sorry you had such a bad experience. This is why I prefer to deal with club members as I know that if someone values the club enough to actually join it, then they are a lot less likely to pull this kind of stuff as it can them to lose their club membership permanently. When you deal with non-members, we have little control over what happens.

    I've been really resistant to locking down the Buy/Sale/Trade to members only, but I'm getting close to changing my mind when I hear stuff like this.

    I'm going to solicit ideas in the club business forum on how we should deal with issues like this.

    -JB
     
  9. xmasia

    xmasia Well-Known ReefKeeper

    376
    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    Posted By JB on 08/18/2009 09:20 AM
    Craig,
    This is why I prefer to deal with club members as I know that if someone values the club enough to actually join it, then they are a lot less likely to pull this kind of stuff .
    -JB
    not 100% true,i when first joined tried buying from a paid member and got shoved off because i wasnt a paid member.i was first to pm he said it was mine then after a few days of trying to contact him to come pick up with no reply i get a pm saying he sold to a paid member.this is the only reason i havent paid.
     
  10. AJ

    AJ Inactive User

    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    Hey Marc,
    You're right, I can't confirm all of the conversations that went on between the two of you, but I do know what was documented on the site in the postings.  As far as why he didn't back out, I can't say for sure, but I would guess he probably wanted to follow through on his commitment.  I've been in situations where I committed to buy something, changed my mind after the fact, but completed the sale and re-sold the item so that I didn't inconvenience the seller.  Now, I'm glad that you had the integrity not to sell it to someone else after you had already agreed to sell it to one person...but your previous posts clearly indicated that the skimmer was part of the deal.  When you advertise stuff at one price, then try to charge something else when they arrive to pick it up, or change the deal after taking a deposit, that's just wrong.  Also, if you felt like you were giving the stuff away, maybe you should have priced it at a point where you would be happy with the price to begin with, rather than changing the deal after it was posted.
    I'm not trying to feed into any drama or take sides here, but I am trying to spell out what's right and what's wrong.  And I stand by my comment that we should have buyer/seller feedback forum here.
    I'm sorry that you find our organization a joke.  I've only been involved for a year and I think it's great.  I've learned *a ton*, met great people, bought corals really cheap, and enjoyed the friendship of others in the club.  I do what I can to make sure that it stays that way which includes, getting involved, paying my membership, helping out, and treating others with respect.  Like it's been said in the past, you get out of this club what you put into it.
    --AJ
     
  11. Troy

    Troy Experienced Reefkeeper

    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    Honest is the best policy, for both buyers and sells.
    It is a shame that we haft to even have post like this. I think AJ is right we need to have a Buy/Sell/Trade feed back spot.

     
  12. varner

    varner

    39
    Ratings:
    +1 / 0 / -0
    WOW that sucks! must say dont think i would of handled it as well as you have.
     
  13. jtesdall

    jtesdall Expert Reefkeeper

    Ratings:
    +1 / 0 / -0
    Great response to Marc AJ. One note for all, I texted Marc the night after Craig put the deposit down. Marc tried to sell everything to me for the same price without the skimmer. He told me "someone" had put down a deposit. At first I thought well that is between Marc and whomever the other guy was. Then I came to my senses and told Marc he had to call the other buyer and offer him the same deal. After this I asked Marc who the other buyer was. I am so glad I came to my senses. It would have been terrible to steal this from anyone but especially a great guy and terrific asset to GIRS like Craig. Whew that was a close one, sorry Craig I almost did you wrong.
    Atleast Mark admitted some of what Craig said was true. From my perspective and from what Craig told me personally during the deal it is all true.
    Marc emailed the Board this morning and I replied stating quite professionally that I believed everything that Craig said to be true and stated what happened between himself (Marc) and I, that he knew to be true. He proceeded in 3-4 succeeding emails to call me every F*&^% ing name in the book and went on to threaten me and the club with legal action because I told him that was not a very religous way to act (He had told Craig and I how committed to the church he was, which is great). Now he is threatening legal action based on Religious discrimination. You be the judge, I am happy to show any of the board these emails since he is threatening us. I have told him by all means have his attorney contact me.
    Marc, this needs to stop. You should not have:
    1. backed out on the skimmer after taking a deposit for it
    2. tried to sell the stuff to me after taking a deposit and making a verbal contract. (I should not have been considering it after I knew someone had bought it, my bad.)
    You should have: Admitted you were wrong.
    Its over, move on with life.
     
  14. JB Veteran Reefkeeper

    Marion
    Ratings:
    +3 / 0 / -0
    Posted By xmasia on 08/18/2009 10:45 AM
    not 100% true,i when first joined tried buying from a paid member and got shoved off because i wasnt a paid member.i was first to pm he said it was mine then after a few days of trying to contact him to come pick up with no reply i get a pm saying he sold to a paid member.this is the only reason i havent paid.
    Xmasia, I'm certainly not saying that it never happens with members.   I'm just saying it's less likely and we have a better way to police it.  In most cases,  if a member does that once and it gets reported they are going to get a warning.   The second time they'll lose their membership and forfeit their dues.   Non-members come and go around here all of the time.   If you see someone with the member badge by their posts, you at least know they have some skin in the game.
    For the record, I don't see anything wrong with a member giving another member first shot at something, but if the person had already told you that they were going to sell to you, they should have kept their word.
    -JB
     
  15. xroads Veteran Reefkeeper Vendor

    La Porte City, IA
    Ratings:
    +1,014 / 6 / -0
    Its all good. I talked to my lawyer & he is sending Marc a present via the sherriff.
     
  16. JB Veteran Reefkeeper

    Marion
    Ratings:
    +3 / 0 / -0
    Well, it's lame that it had to come to that.

    Hopefully people will realize that GIRS is a fairly tight-nit community of users and you can't pull this kind of stuff without it coming back to haunt you...

    -JB
     
  17. Guest

    Guest Guest

    Ratings:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    Posted By xroads on 08/19/2009 08:05 AM
    Its all good. I talked to my lawyer & he is sending Marc a present via the sherriff. He got served... no really, he's gonna with papers lol!
    I love his well thought of defense consisting on one sentence with many ellipses and commas. I'll assume he meant clique not "click" too!
     

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