Doug looks a bit like Ray Barboni from Miami.

Ray bones? He of the broken nose?

I can sure relate to being stiffed. I've been stiffed a few times by members here. A couple of times I just let it go, but recently I was pmed by a well know somebody who was willing to make a trade with me. We were to mail our items for trade using a tracking number.

He provided me with a tracking number. After about a month I still didn't recieve my item from him. I checked the tracking number to find out that he had only reserved the tracking number by phone and had not gone in to mail the parcel.

I knew he had received the item I mailed because the tracking number I got for it showed it had arrived to it's destination. I pmed this person to find out what was going on with my parcel. He tried to assure me that he did mail it out to me. At this point I knew he was lying to me, but I gave him the benifit of the doubt.

He said he would send out another one for me as he didn't want me to wait any longer than I had. He would mail out a new one the following day, and provide me with a new tracking number.

He hasn't done anything he said he would do. Now he is ignoring his PM's from me, and I have even emailed him at his personal email address.

The value of my loss is only around $40.00, but I am very tempted to expose this fellow to the magic community. I believe he purposely set out to rip me off, and unless these kind of people get exposed, more will do it thinking that they will get away with it.

My faith tells me to forgive, but it tells me to not throw my pearls to swines either. I can forgive him, but that doesn't mean that I am a guy who can be takinen advantage of because of it.

I think Chance hit the nail.

After lots of thought, I'll try and contact one more time and then drop it.
My following is miniscule compared to this person and I don't want to expand my 'fame' as the one who outed and disparaged so&so. The $200 ain't worth it.
Down the road, folks don't remember the WHY.

What I will do is keep my ear to the ground and peel an eye for this 'so&so' pulling any future fast ones.

However this thread may continue to be valuable for a collection of thoughts on the matter.

Destiny...developing a concience would preclude any overwhelming feelings of entitlement. Probably ain't gonna happen.

Low morals seem the standard for some of the newer so-called "Magicians". It's pretty sad. We (my generation, Dr. Higley's) and many of you) will be allowed some minor payback when all of their DVDs turn to crap in 10-15 years. The poor "Visually only" oriented slobovens will eventually have to learn to read. Paying their bills would be nice too. Maybe we need a DVD about that?


Sorry this happened to you.


dsalley13

Al, Peter White was always one to trust magicians concerning his beautiful silks.

Doug,

You gave this person a good deal. He has not paid you. You have tried contacting him. He has not responded. Mentioning his name here is not libel if you just use the book-chapter-and-verse method: date you shipped him the piece, date he last contacted you, and two or three dates you contacted him. Period. Just the absolute dry facts.

If there are extenuating circumstances and he has a legit reason for having disappered, then once he appears again he may contact you and pay up, in which case the incident is over. If he doesn't appear, then your post will be a warning to others.

If I sold stuff to make a living, I'd certainly want to know if there are stiffers out there.

This type of thing really gets under my skin. Nowadays we don't want to upset the guy who causes a problem, 'cause it's not PC, but yet we seem to think it's perfectly PC to let everyone else -- those who are affected by the problem -- get upset. I see it at work, I see it socially, I see it all the time. I don't buy it.

I appreciate that George but I'm the last person I know who would ever be PC.

I have chosen another path other than Whistle Blower. It will be just, if not more, efective.

Doug
Excuse me for going way off topic.

Santa
Peter White is a friend of mine, and I was ready to drop my gloves (a hockey expression)

I agree with you Doug. In fact I feel badly about our behavior and think we owe them an apology. So just give us the name and we can, if we choose, send them a quick note saying how we didn't embarrass them.

Haha...I'm glad you're my friend Santa...(even though)

I did just reveal the name to a close friend and he agreed with me that I would look the bad guy in the long run.

This means Karma will need to engage gears over time.

I'm sort of wondering if the person is a girl and not a guy?

Anyway, I would recommend an attempt at a voice contact if at all possible.

Emails and PMs can and do go missing / get undelivered. Even if they apparently do get "delivered", an email service can start filtering them as "spam" and hiding them from the recipient's view.

I tried to arrange to buy and pay for a collector's edition magic book through email a few months back. I thought the seller was ignoring my repeated emails but as it turns out the email service at my end was acting up and filtering all of their replies from my view. We only ever sorted it out because the seller had my phone number (I did not have his) and finally called me up one day.

Once I got a bad check from a woman. I complained to her and she sent me a second bad check, so after paying for two bounced checks I decided that I would actually save money if I let her go.

All is SOLVED...MAGICALLY...a mere mis-understanding. Check in the mail. (tongue in cheek)

Ignore the CASE but think about the issue.

Thanks All.

Balducci: Phone was disconnected.

Amazing how well things can work out

Oh I see... It was Destiny, and she didn't see your emails because of that cloth over her eyes.

Cloth? That's COLD Hard Steel man.

He was talking about over the eyes . . .

Landmark - you guys gotta stop it - my stomach hurt already from something I saw Santa get away with, and a song he sent me - then I read this.

and no - only way I've ever robbed Doug is all the valuable advice I've gotten free.