Help! Need advice! Ebay item not shipped: Jimmy Page / Tom Murphy $$$

[JimmyAce2006]

Does anyone know the name of a good attorney who has experience wrangling deadbeat sellers on ebay? I bought a 2004 Jimmy Page (Tom Murphy aged) Les Paul on ebay on Thanksgiving, nearly 2 weeks ago. I paid the guy via bank to bank wire the following day. I have been told by his bank and my bank that it cleared that day. His terms for the deal in the auction state that he will ship as soon as the payment clears. Apparently that does not hold true. He is 1-2 days delayed in replying to emails. He gave me two phone numbers; both go straight to voice mail. One of them is the number on file with ebay. And he won't return any calls. He did call me once - a week after I bought it - right after I threatened action against him. His feedback is perfect with nearly 500 feedback score. He has recently sold a few other guitars / items. I contacted a few people who left him feedback & nobody had any trouble. He told me he is going through a divorce and has been real busy and is out of town. Said he would ship the guitar via UPS overnight when he gets back Monday (today). Got an email this morning at 11:30 stating that he was flying back in 30 minutes (flight is not long from where he is coming from). Said he would go to the bank to get the guitar out of a vault, then ship the guitar today. I have not heard back from him. Called both of his phone numbers & left messages. Did not respond to any emails. I opened a case with ebay. I think I may need to hire an attorney. Anyone know someone good? Any other advice?

[dwagar]

yikes!
keep your fingers crossed that it's not all bullshit and that it actually gets shipped.
How far away from you is he? You might need a lawyer from his state, etc to sue.
You might try the police first. I don't know if this'd be civil or criminal (fraud, theft, whatever)

[JimmyAce2006]

I think it would be a 5 or 6 hour drive.

[Boleskinehouse]

From a fellow Ace fan... STOP! Think about this for second, man.

[guitar_randy]

Originally Posted by dwagar

yikes!
keep your fingers crossed that it's not all bullshit and that it actually gets shipped.
How far away from you is he? You might need a lawyer from his state, etc to sue.
You might try the police first. I don't know if this'd be civil or criminal (fraud, theft, whatever)

I don't think police could do anything.

[diceman]

Originally Posted by guitar_randy

I don't think police could do anything.

They could give him a call.

I've called Ebay sellers in our county (while working detectives) and simply told them that I'd gotten a call from a buyer who is concerned that their item had not arrived yet - and that they were thinking about making a report. Both times I was assured that the item would be sent immediately, along w/ a BS excuse, of course. The buyers never called me back, so I'm assuming that having the cops call was just enough to get these slow-shippers or potential scam artists back in line.

One of them was the same deal as yours - no good phone number, no email replies. On a hunch I looked up our seller through the probation/parole roster (bingo!) - thats usually a good place to find a current working phone number.

Best of luck brother - I don't know what size city your seller lives in, but if it isn't a big city w/ detectives who are backed up w/ homicides and rape cases, I'd bet that they'd be willing to make a quick phone call to help you out.

[GooCart]

Any news?

[JimmyAce2006]

Not yet. He has not responded.

[LPV]

Wow. Good luck. And thanks for bringing this up, its a good heads up for the rest of us.

[155]

youll be alright there are some sellers like this guy, not as concerned as you are to ship stuff

[frankthomson]

someone w/ 100% pos @ 500 won't screw you.

...unless it was a hijacked acct/auction

relax...take a V

[jomo]

My guess is he's telling the truth. With 500+ 100%s he's not "wanting" to damage that. If he is going though a divorce, that can cause major brain damage.
On another note, is there any protection with back transfers like with PayPal? Prolly not huh? Good luck, if it's not resolved by tomorrow, I'd open a case with ebay.

[ellem52]

You have no idea how much of your life a divorce takes up.

I'm with you a 100% in the sense that "Your problems aren't my problems - send me my product."

But being as it's "the season" - give this guy 1 more day. He's probably a wreck and not looking to screw anyone - he knows what it feels like.

[Nicky]

This incident makes me think twice (or maybe three times) about laying out $2-$3K for a guitar on eBay. I did just that a few months ago for my 2003 Les Paul Supreme. My seller only had 80 ratings, all positive, plus he was located across the country. However, the transaction went smoothly as promised. Was I lucky, or is JimmyAce's situation an unfortunate exception?

[JimmyAce2006]

Originally Posted by jomo

My guess is he's telling the truth. With 500+ 100%s he's not "wanting" to damage that. If he is going though a divorce, that can cause major brain damage.
On another note, is there any protection with back transfers like with PayPal? Prolly not huh? Good luck, if it's not resolved by tomorrow, I'd open a case with ebay.

I initiated a recall of the wire transfer with my bank. My bank told me his bank is leaving it up to him as to whether he gives me the money. But that was a week ago before Thursday's promised to ship yesterday. He did offer a refund at the same time if I did not want to wait for the shipment. But who's to say I would not still be sitting here waiting for the refund?

[kernelofwisdom]

Originally Posted by nsureit

This incident makes me think twice (or maybe three times) about laying out $2-$3K for a guitar on eBay. I did just that a few months ago for my 2003 Les Paul Supreme. My seller only had 80 ratings, all positive, plus he was located across the country. However, the transaction went smoothly as promised. Was I lucky, or is JimmyAce's situation an unfortunate exception?

Not commenting on JimmyAce's situation, because he certainly did due diligence, but there's no way I'll bid on a high dollar guitar without exchanging e-mails with the seller. From those, you can tell a lot about the person's state of mind and intentions. Usually the question I ask is one I already know the answer to, but it's designed really to get an idea of who the seller is. Of course, substantial feedback in the guitar arena helps too. Still, I've been getting more antsy about e-bay, buying and selling.

For JimmyAce's, hopefully (though unfortunate for the seller) it's just a case of the seller struggling to keep it together, and the axe will ship now. Divorce is tough, and makes everything else you do tougher too, but the Seller needs to get that axe on the road.

[Blues Power]

tis why you need to use Pay pal all the time every time. eventually they protect you against this stuff

but with 500 +'s i think youll be alright in the long run but id be losing sleep anyways

it odd though that he'd keep the guitar in a "bank Vault" seems strange

[Nicky]

Kernel, I also had quite an email dialogue with the seller, which made me more comfortable. Good suggestion/observation.

[BCRGreg]

That's not too far a drive for a good beating.

What city is he in? I have friends that may be able to help.

[kingedb]

Originally Posted by BCRGreg

That's not too far a drive for a good beating.

What city is he in? I have friends that may be able to help.

absolutely!! before reading i was going to say hop on a plane. theres is no way i would this slide or stand back while the "law" does nothing.

BUT before you do anything drastic i would wait it out as many people have suggested. if a divorce is going on this guys world could have been flipped upside down. i know how you feel and i don't blame you. i would "try" to hold out before you truly panic.

if i were in this situation and my family is about to implode you certainly would not be at the top of my short term priorities.

[JimmyAce2006]

I wonder how long I should wait before hammering him with negative feedback. I wanted to get the guitar & not leave any feedback. Doesn't look like the gutiar is coming. At least if I did leave it then he would want me to remove it. Seems like I might have a little leverage.

[pinefd]

Originally Posted by Blues Power

it odd though that he'd keep the guitar in a "bank Vault" seems strange

I was going to say the same thing, BP. Not many banks I know of that will keep a guitar in their vault for you. Of course, it's possible that this guy's sister is a manager at the bank and is helping him out, etc.


Good luck on this one!


Frank

[JimmyAce2006]

He did recently sell a guitar that sold for nearly the same amount of money. He got positive feedback for it.

[ellem52]

Folks no believes more than I do that Violence Can Solve All Conflicts - are we at this point yet?

Ace - email this guy, call this guy, leave a nasty-gram on his eBay page complaining about the lateness of the delivery - and don't let up TODAY.

Tomorrow apply violence.

[USP45Tim]

I'm thinking of a few things that you could do.... A guy with 100% feedback usually isn't someone who's going to pull a fast one.

If you have his first and last name I'm sure you could do a reverse telephone lookup in order to find a working number. If you need help, you can pm me and I'll help out. Too bad I can't use my NCIC terminal as it's illegal for me to use it for unofficial business... lol

Best of luck.

[JimmyAce2006]

Originally Posted by USP45Tim

I'm thinking of a few things that you could do.... A guy with 100% feedback usually isn't someone who's going to pull a fast one.

If you have his first and last name I'm sure you could do a reverse telephone lookup in order to find a working number. If you need help, you can pm me and I'll help out. Too bad I can't use my NCIC terminal as it's illegal for me to use it for unofficial business... lol

Best of luck.

I did that but I will have to pay to get the info. I have been waiting to see if he will comply before spending the cash. But today is the time for that. I plan to do it this evening. It is amazing how much info you can get from Intellius. Why would he bother emailing me yesterday & telling me he was going to ship? Is he buying time? Who knows.

[LPV]

Originally Posted by JimmyAce2006

Why would he bother emailing me yesterday & telling me he was going to ship? Is he buying time? Who knows.

Not sure but that sounds like demonstrating intent for future reference ala the checks in the mail. Not a lawyer or know nothing about law, but I find that curious. If this guy is absconding, he won't care about his ebay rep.

IMO, violence will only make this worse.`

[jimmyq]

I'll probably get shot down in flames for this, but I think that maybe you are being a touch paranoid.

I say, give the guy some time, it really doesn't seem like he has kept you hanging about for very long, in the big scheme of things. I'm sure most people here have had experiences of waiting much longer for stuff, and still having it eventually turn up with a legitimate reason for the lateness.

Just my opinion. I know it must be infuriating, but I'd still give the guy the benefit of the doubt.

[JimmyAce2006]

Benefit of the doubt? He won't return phone calls. He has been 1-2 days late replying to emails. His auction states that he will ship immediately after payment clears. I won the auction 12 days ago; payment cleared 11 days ago. If you had $15K on the line, how would you feel?

[USP45Tim]

I found your guy.... PM incoming.