guess it was my turn to get burned by a guy on craigslist

i was going to trade my model a with a guy that had a chevy, he lives in washington and i'm in texas. quite a far distance, but we were both looking for eachothers cars so it seemed a perfect match. normally i would use a hamber for transport as i've done in the past, but this was such a far distance and we really didn't or couldn't spend much but were determined to have it work out. long story a little less longer, i found a local mover on craigslist that said he could do it. i met with him in person, wrote up a contract, gave him $100.00 deposit and all was good. the day of the move, he calls and says he calculated the trip and would only be making $100.00 by the end of the deal and that he was sorry but he just didn't calculate it until the night before...even though we had a contract with the price already written up!! i said fine, just bring me my deposit. he said he was busy that day(apparently he hadn't even planned on leaving) and would call me tomorrow. he never called, i had to call him, and after several excuses, traffic, shopping, church, he agreed to meet the next day. i had to meet him across town and he only had half my deposit. he said he was waiting on a check in his bank to clear and he would get me the other half. what kind off ass can't come up with 50 from a friend or family member and just pay them back? anyway, weekend comes and no call, i call him and he wouln't pick up. i tell my wife to call from her phone and he picks up. he gave her the same runaround. "i don't have the 50, i'm busy working i'll call my bank and call you later". no call. she calls him later that night and arranges a time to meet the next day...he calls her phone(wouln't talk to me anymore) and i pick up. he says he doesn't have the money..i was real polite, i said dude just ask a friend or your family for a loan, or pawn something. he said "ok, i'll call you right back." never heard from him since. he wouln't answer my phone, or my wifes. the only reason i felt ok with him originally was because he said he was ex-military. he's young in his 20's...kinda young to be ex-military i would think. anyway, his ad was EPT Safe Moving, his name is Roger. if anyone knows of a free reverse phone lookup so i can find out where he lives, i'd appreciate it. i'm not violent, i just want my money.

 

Is $50 really worth all the stress and anger? Yeah it sucks, but it's not worth all the toxic emotions.

A scene from A Bronx Tale comes to mind, but I'm too lazy to find the section on YouTube.

Also, paragraphs or cliff-notes would really help you out.

 

I feel for you, but it was a CHEAP lesson/mistake/learning experience. Maybe small claims court is the way to go.

 

Feel lucky you only got screwed for $50 bucks. He could have picked up your rig and it could have disappeared forever.

 

Your thread was extremely hard to read!

You got half your money back and learned a valuable lesson,,I thank you came out ahead if you learned from it.

It's possible he may still re-pay you but if you have a BBB in your area I suggest you get in contact with them.

A car hauled that distance for 100 bucks you and he both should have known better. HRP

 

thats how i though this story was going to end. glad that's not the case.

 

Craiglist has a disclaimer/warning that says, "Offers to ship a vehicle are virtually 100% fraudulent."
Maybe you didn't see or read that but either way live & learn. Some of us always learn the hard way.

 

bungle, Lesson Learned, and a cheap one at that. $50 doesn't even buy a tank of gas- barely. craigslist like evilbay must be looked at with the same type attitude. Think positive, could have been MUCH worse. Last month on C.L. was a really great condition vintage Weiand single 4 tunnel ram. I scarfed it for $125. These sell all day long on evilbay for $200. My point, you'll get that money back, move on and dont give up, TR

 

Hey buddy, I can feel for you getting burned that sux a fat one. What is the BBB going to do, unless he is a member of that club. And by the way I did a check, there is about 300 Roger Chavez's in El Paso, Texas LMAO.... Good luck
Chuck

 

No, after everything paid, gas etc he would have only made a hundred bucks. and yhea i know it could have been worse, but just knowing he took money from me... i could have used that for my 5yr olds bday next week.
i do know the quote from a bronx tale, so basically the guy's out of my life for 50 bux. it doesn't help that i'm sicilian and half my family would make this punk pay...but i've got a good life with a wife and kids now so yhea it's not worth it.

 

$100 was just the deposit.

Lesson learned? Only you can decide.

I work my ass off for my $$$. $50 aint much but thats not the point. The point is the guy is a thief, and will get whats coming to him one day.

 

Craigslist lesson learned.......$50, kiss your 5yr old on thier Birthday.............PRICELESS.

 

el shad, you hit the nail on the head, he's a theif and not a man. if you can't give your word to someone then you've got nothing.

traditions racing
your comment made a sense of calm come over me, thanks.

 

Your very welcome brother.

 

I never give any craigslist person ANY money untill what I want is in my hand.

I dont do anything on craigslist but search/buy things. I never use services or anything else.. place is full of scumbags and is too risky!

 

Get his address somehow (trace it via the phone number?), and small-claims court him for $1000. Watch how fast he "finds" the other $50 to settle up.

 

Geez guys, give the guy a break. It's people just letting it slide or learning a lesson and doing nothing that makes easy for these turds. By posting his problem he's alerted me to another scam that I might avoid. I didnt have any trouble understanding his message?

 

a successful small claims court judgement is so sweet. The guy stiffs you for $50. You take him to court....he doesn't even answer the summons (fails to appear), you get a judgement from the court, then they send a constable/deputy/agent to Bank A....sweep for any accounts in his name. No Good - the, the agent goes to Bank B...same thing....No Good. Bank C...ad infinitum, ad nauseam - and every time the agent does this, they add a fee to his bill - in addition to the court costs from the original judgement. If and when they find any money in a local bank, they take it and disburse it (depending on the amount). If they can find no money, you can put a lien on ANY property he owns - in your state or anywhere else. He won't be able to sell that property until the judgement is satisfied. You have to re-establish the liens every year, but that's not much of a headache. I have a dude that failed to pay me $700 for services rendered in Kodiak, AK back in 1984. I put a lien on his house there, a small commercial building and a home he owned outside Salem OR. He never paid....he lost his house in Kodiak (I'm not the only person he stiffed), and I renew the lien every year on the property in OR. He wrote me a registered letter about ten years ago asking me to remove the lien so he could sell the commercial building, and then he'd pay me....I just laughed and told him that's not how life works. The building is transferable through sale/purchase, but my debt has to appear on the HUD-1 form...and the title company would be responsible for mailing me a check. That never happened, of course.

Anyway...go ahead and take him to court, you can make his life miserable. I'd make sure the guy isn't struggling in other ways (sick kid, other adverse conditions). If it turns out he's just a flake and could pay you if he wanted to....jam him up.

dj

 

you can yell it from the mountain tops, but some will have to learn it on their own..

concider yourself lucky it was only 50 bucks.., would I persue it? probably..would I make a federal case out of it, probably not

 

Theres some info on Spokeo, but no address listed. He has a myspace, photobucket, and several IP addresses matched successfully with his email address.

 

how do i find his facebook or photobucket from that site?

 

search his phone number, should pull it up. May have to have an account though. His myspace doesnt have any info on it, but i guess he blogs on Pandora too, using that email address. You could give Mr. Number a try, its a reverse phone number thing.

 

Keep calling him on your cell, and you will waist another $50 is cell phone bills on him.
Kiss it good bye and count your lucky stars.

We were shopping for a suburban once on there, and came across a very nice one.
We emailed the seller, and the deal sounded pretty good. Then he told me he needed
me to wire money to El Paso, before I could get the car. WTF?? I told him that I
wasn't born yesterday, and why the hell would I wire the money to El Paso? I never
heard from the dude again. He was totally scamming us! Later that week, we found
the exact same pictures posted again, with a different story. The dude was just
posting pictures of a car that he didn't own, and waiting for some poor sap to fall into
the trap! On a side note, I've sold many things on CL, and have heard horror stories
from most of the people that I have done business with. It's a predator's playground
sometimes. Just be careful...

 

it cost you 50 buck to learn never to trust craigslist, looks like you came out on top. you should have used a hamber.

 

I'd go the small claims court route. Once you win, you get a "Writ of Execution" which gives you all the aforementioned powers. You can also seize his property (furniture in his house or business), rent checks (his or his landlords), till taps (if he has a business), garnish his wages, seize any and all vehicles, etc.........

There was a guy that owed $600 on a judgment and the plaintiff asked me what he could do because the defendant refused to pay. I told him to get a writ of execution and to seize the scumbags Jaguar. It cost $650 to seize the car which is added to the judgment. Once the car was seized, the scumbag paid the judgment in full in cash that day.

Don't forget to add your time and money to the claim such as time off from work to file, lost wages due to filing, witness fees if any, etc.........Once you file, you can't go back and add to it.

 

This.

 

Traditions Racing ....... Thanks, your post made MY day. Kind of puts everything else in perspective.

 

I've killed for alot less......(jk).
"AND THE BOWTIE ROLLS ON"
I think there might , just might be some haulers on the H.A.M.B.

 

Thank you, that means alot you took the time to say that. You should see what I do with a race engine, have a great day sir, TR

 

Better to be out 50 bucks and no deal than to have him go pick up the car and call you half way back and say that he needs more money for gas because he underbid the job.

My buddy doesn't haul that far but I think the last time he told me what he was charging it was 1.50 a mile.