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Da Piper and I had agreed to swap some stuff, a haul of Space Wolves from myself in exchange for some Ogre Kingdoms stuff from him. Due to low finances on my end, I asked if he would mind waiting a week till payday, and he agreed. We were to pay for our own shipping, and insurance/tracking numbers were to be used.

The deal was finalized in early March, and I shipped my parcel on the 7th, after confirming with Da Piper that this deal was still solid. I supplied him with a tracking number.( RJ850218515GB)
On the 12th, Da Piper messaged me to say that my parcel had been shipped, and had given me a Customs number (#CR122238579b) which IIRC correctly is NOT a sign of insurance, or tracking.

Since then, these has been 0 contact with Da Piper, he has not been posting on Dakka since the 12th. I have tried PMing him multiple times, and no response.
I waited till now because I have had parcels take up to 4-5 weeks to be delivered (both ways) when dealing with the states, and I always try to give someone the benefit of the doubt, but since this deal I have had three separate parcels arrive, all from America, and no sign of any Ogres, and my parcel has apparently been delivered.

Urgh

-japehlio

Unfortunately, in the terms of trades its hard to get any action taken if the other party renegs on their side of the deal. Unlike with Paypal where you can get your money back, on pure trades there is no garuntee that if your scammed or something you will ever see anything.

Keep all PM's and Emails you have with him before and after the deal was struck, they are your only proof of the deal. The tracking number also is important, and just as important, you should have had a receipt of shipping, keep that as well. Make a pic of it in case the Mods here want to see it.

Other than that, I cant think of anything other than you took the first steps to solve it, and also bring to the community attention for future references if this guy pops up again.

exactly my thoughts, there really isnt much that I can do. Which sucks.

Where is he located. If he is in the USA and he shipped by USPS you can put that customs number into there package tracking. If the form has been scanned it will show its movement within the system right up till it leaves the country.

I ran that number through Fedex, USPS, and UPS. None of them match. Those are the most common means of shipping for the US.
I would dare say he made that number up.
Good luck. Hope this gets sorted.

I am betting that happened is it is held up in customs. That CR number is a customs number. It is not showing up in the USPS system because the mail clerk did not scan the bar code like they are suppose to.

Have you tried to contact your customs office yet?

His last post on Dakka was on 04/14. So you can try and PM him again and ask for a photo of the receipt if he has it still. It will have the customs number on it. I know when it comes down to used minis these always seem super slow when it come to making it through customs especially when the customs forms are just labelled toys or models.

I am not sticking up for the guy. I am just trying to figure out what you have done yet so we can help point you in the right direction to get your minis.

I had a very long wait on a parcel from the States recently - sometimes they do get stuck in customs. I also heard that when there is a backlog, Customs officials from both countries will put packages on ships rather than air freight meaning they take longer to arrive.

I have heard stories of parcels being stuck in the RM sorting center for 1-2 months.

If it becomes 2 months, go turn him into a red smear. If it is before then, just wait it out.

Im not jumping to any conclusions, and as Iv said I know/understand that there can be huge waits r.e international packages.

I have PMd him at least once a week for the past few, asking for a photo/receipt/actual tracking number, even delivery confirmation of my parcel I sent to him. I checked the White Pages, his name is listed as being at that address, he didnt come across as a scammer, Im just a bit concerned at the minute. Its fingers crossed time...

I had a similar experience with a member of another forum, I sent him my figures and never got anything back from him and he stopped posting on the forum. To make matters worse he registered a as a new member and tried to sell me back my own figures. Pure cheek

Based on information I received from the OP, I offer this, as it might be important:

http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=146429

If the possible link holds true, this speaks VOLUMES regarding Da Piper opening a Transaction report against tmac.

...and, contrary to what tmac's flag said on Dakka, BOTH of the accounts that were banned on Bartertown were from US IP addresses.


Eric

MagickalMemories wrote:Based on information I received from the OP, I offer this, as it might be important:

http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=146429

If the possible link holds true, this speaks VOLUMES regarding Da Piper opening a Transaction report against tmac.

...and, contrary to what tmac's flag said on Dakka, BOTH of the accounts that were banned on Bartertown were from US IP addresses.


Eric

Well, D*mn. Is it just me or is there a growing trend right now with scamming the last year and half?

Can you PM me a list of the stuff that you sent and I can keep an eye on Ebay and Warhammer.Org.Uk for it.

I'll mention it here, as some was distinctive. a full grey hunter squad, 10 blood claws and 10 wolf guard, along with a drop pod, a metal ragnar and metal ulrick. some of the plastic marines had sculpted dreadlock hair, and ragnar had a proper 'mane' of hair.
he agreed to send me an ogre battleforce, a butcher and army book.

Pipboy101 wrote:Well, D*mn. Is it just me or is there a growing trend right now with scamming the last year and half?

With all due respect to Dakka and it's Mods (especially the Swap Show Mods, as I know what a PITA this can be at times), Dakka's rules regarding the Swap Shop make it easier for this to happen.

You can't post personal information in the thread. Even if it's publicly available information, they don't allow it. This would make it easier for people to find out if the guy they're dealing with has a history of scamming people under a different user ID. Since Dakka doesn't have a blanket "no multiple ID's" policy, one IP with more than one ID associated with it does not automatically cause any red flags for the staff, so they can't be on top of that, either.

No proof is required. Typically, people just SAY what happened, and it's good enough. In the case of the thread I linked above, there was no PM string if the Accuser and Accused are the same person.

They have a "hands off" policy. Although the Mods do a good job facilitating in instances like this, the Dakka policy could be pessimistically read as, "You're screwed:"

Yakface wrote:Dakka is NOT a trading site and there are absolutely no safeguards in place to guarantee that your transaction will be successfully completed. In all cases when making a trade or sale set up using this forum, Caveat Emptorr (buyer beware). The owners and moderators of Dakka cannot and will not help you in any way if something goes wrong.

In practice, of course, the Mods do more than that quote says they will, but it's still the "official line" on things.

They keep information secret. On BTown and on other sites, if you can confirm who you are (a Mod or Admin of a well known trade site), and that you have a legitimate need for the information, we/they gladly share information about proven scammers (email addresses they joined the site with, IP addresses, etc). That makes it easier to us as sites to stop these guys early. When one site refuses to do that, it makes it harder for the rest of us to zoom in on the suspected bad trader.

And I'm NOT criticizing Dakka here. It's a good site with good staff. Their rules are there for a reason and, even if I disagree, I respect that (and them). I'm just pointing out some of the holes that help this to happen.


Eric

If I were you, I would attempt to make contact via the phone. If you have a name, you can definitely try and find a phone number via the internet. Also he states he works for Comcast IT, which is a cable company in the US. You can try calling his work to get in touch with him as well. The fact that he is out of Newark, DE should help as well.

You can use Facebook to help cross-reference him. Using the information given might help narrow it down as well.

spokeo.com
whitepages.com

^those are some good websites to start.

From there, you just need to wait and see. I guess you cannot delay/stop your package. So it is merely a waiting game at this point. Goodluck! Let me know if you need any further help searching for information.

Just going to refresh this a bit a and bring it back, as I saw today that Da Piper is once again active on the site, trading, and listing an Ogre Battalion for sale. Also, if you look at his sig, there is a little icon for a Space Wolf army now...
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/477376.page
last post was a week ago, but still.

i was in constant contact with him wanting my dark eldar for dark vengeance starter, kinda glad I waited. this was within the last 2 weeks with a few PMs

Thanks for the warning. I was about to contact him.

japehlio, thanks for bringing this back up.

Da Piper, if you wish to continue trading on this site, you will need to respond to this transaction report.

Disagreement over transactions can happen... what can't happen is to not respond to a report at all, and offer new items for sale/trade.

No problem RiTides, at the time I foolishly left it, chalked it up to 'one of the things that can happen' and decided to cut my losses. Especially as he had gone dark. It was only that I saw him with a new trade thread, with (what I like to think of as) my stuff that made me think, hang on a second. So yeah, id really like to get my stuff back/what was owed me, but I dont want anyone else to get screwed by this......chap.