After that initial mail (reposting here), I did some email tag with the 'ol scam artist. I think something may have gotten him worried.
07/07/04 9:08 PM
Jeremey,
Look man, I've come to my senses. Last night I had a dream about you. I dreamed about the stress I put you through and felt that pain during my dream.I am not typically like this. Usually I am a legit person, hence why I was on eBay for 5 years with positive feedback before I decided to pull this.
The truth is that I was laid off and was very tight on money. I depleted my entire bank account paying off bills and had to come up with something to prevent myself from going homeless. As Darwin said, "survival of the fittest."
I know my personal problems should not have affected you, but I made a bad decision and it really did affect you. I apologize a million times for what I have done for you.
PayPal is going to send you a refund for the laptop. Since you will get your money back, and be able to purchase the laptop you really wanted, can you send me back the laptop so that I can find a way to legitely sell it for the condition it is in?
Let me know. I really am sorry. I should have known better, but desperate situations make you irrational sometimes.
I hope you can accept my apology.
So I fire back:
Dear Sir/Madam,Your previous lack of willingness to resolve the situation has forced me to persue resolution through external agencies. I will discuss the situation with you directly if/when these agencies recommend that I do so.
Jeremy Thornhill
And around we go:
Well any agency will encourage that we resolve it amongst ourselves, rather than clutter their resolution system. In any case, things will be resolved, I will see to that!
Yeah, I'm sure you will. I reply:
While I am encouraged that you now express a wish to resolve the situation, your long silence and prior record of dishonesty in relation to our transaction has convinced me that dealing with you directly is not in my best interest. Once my funds are returned, be it by your actions or by those of another agent, I will re-evaluate the situation and act according to the advice of the agencies which have been assisting me in this matter.
Shazaam. He shuts up after that, but last night I decided if he was serious about returning the money I'd better give him a chance:
I have come to the conclusion that the unit may be returned to you if all of the following conditions are met beforehand:1) My money is refunded in full by you. It can be returned via another agent, but you must be the source of the transaction. I will verify this.
2) You pay for all shipping/handling/processing fees
3) You communicate with me directly via telephone
4) You provide correct information and are honest in all future communications with meIf you truly desire to resolve the situation, I am reachable via telephone (919-413-8480).
You should be aware that this situation has cost me a great deal of time and effort, has tied my finances up for months, and has prevented me from acquiring the proper unit as I await resolution. If you are not serious about correcting the situation, please do not waste my time with more dishonesty. Should I feel at any point you are lying to me, I will return to the other avenues I have been persuing.
This is my absolute last gesture of good will and the last chance I will give you.
More then generous, isn't it? I get back this flaming pile of poo:
This is fine. Can you give me sometime to earn the money to pay you back. Currently I only have $1000 available in my savings to give you to. However, if you can wait about a month so I can put the hours into my job to acquire the money to give back to you, then it could help me a whole lot. As i mentioned before, I was in a tight financial situation earlier due to a lay off at my previous job. I do have another job now, but I havent worked long enough to acquire more than $1000.Let me know if this will be all right.
Yeah, let me think about that... um... no?
If you cannot provide a refund immediately I will rely on external resolution. No other alternative is negociable.
I noticed today that the paypal chargeback is no longer "under investiagation" and it's listed as "closed." Amex doesn't tell me anything new though when I call.
My thinking is that Paypal lit a fire under his ass with their inquiry, which is why he contacted me initially trying to get the unit back. Paypal made up their mind on what to do - either give me the shaft and let him slide, take the money back from him, or some other form of resolution. Since neither paypal nor amex is telling me jack, all I can do is speculate and keep my fingers crossed. Even if all of the financial institutions fail me, there's still the IFCC and the USPS to contend with...
Comments
Chris @ Sat Jul 24 12:30:02 -0400 2004
Hey man, I think you should be aware of this. Sheyhyar and his wife/fiance have now been scamming several of us on the TranceAddict forums. I mystelf paid $900 for a mixer, that took 2 weeks of no contact and harassing emails and bullshti excuses to finally ship. A package has arrived at my house but I will not be home until Monday to verify that it is EXACTLY as descrbied and not different/damaged like your powerbook was. here's the link to the thread, my username is tegu. please, stay in touch with me and send me an email back as i hav ea feeling i've been a victim of fraud from the same person and i would really appreciate your hlep in clearing this up.
on a side note, none of us bought our stuff through ebay. i paypaled an intermediary the money who accepted it on sheyhyar's behalf becuase his paypal account had been disabled (I KNOW WHY NOW). i didnt' get the paypal guarantee though taht i had the option of. does this mean that paypal won't protect and help me at all like ti did you? if so, that really defeats the point, i mean paying $50 to have their support? if they dont help people like us, no one will be using paypal in the future. anyways man, stay in touch, there are serveral of us who will need your help.
http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/showthread.php?s=bea1b3b2749909a0918f78a7161eec73&threadid=194526&perpage=12&pagenumber=1
also, you may or may not want to post this as a comment, it was just the first way i saw of contacting you sense its moderated.
Norberto Valladares @ Tue Mar 20 15:17:54 -0400 2007
I can't believe he did this to you guys. I threw a party with him back in July of 2003. Oddly enough all my receipts disappeared that night and he tried taking me to court because I could not prove that our party lost money. He was there and saw the entire unsuccesful event. So I repaid him $2500 to get him out of my hair. If I would have known he was like this, I should have taken his ass to court for being a felon at large.