Hey, "The Drop Zone"...

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**Delephont**

The more I read the more I wish there were better safeguards against this sort of crap!

**tesseract**

Posted By Breotan on 04/06/2007 11:34 AM
Good luck with the credit card. My experience is that if you authorized the CC transaction, you're screwed.

It depends on the card. Merchants use merchant codes that can be tracked by the credit card company... who can then red flag bad vendors or handle their accounts differently. This allows some cards to offer payment protection. The card I have now offers this. Note: It's no less irritating than using PayPals similar service for verified accounts (I think you have to use a cash transfer for the PayPal service to kick in).

In a sea of crummy options, it's the best one if it's available to you. It's not like these people get put into jail. In fact bad-faith businesses can use the courts to legally protect their personal assets. The worst thing that can happen is Chapter-7, but in a long list of creditors refunds hardly ever make it to frauded customers.

Ironically, the more pressure you put on a marginal business, the harder it is for them to conduct business, and the less likely you will see what you purchased or a refund. It's a funny catch-22.

**moe the great**

The worst part for me is the Lack of communication. If he could have replied to any of the emails, messages etc.. Would have made a diffrence.

**Da Boss**

Good luck guys.
I hope you get your money or your models.

**Ozymandias**

Posted By Breotan on 04/06/2007 11:34 AM
Good luck with the credit card. My experience is that if you authorized the CC transaction, you're screwed.

Well, not really. You authorized a cc transaction, meaning that you said "I will pay you 'x' for 'y' products." If they don't supply you with the products, then really, there was no transaction. You didn't say, "I will pay you 'x' and you can ignore me and take my money."

Call your cc company and get them to issue a chargeback.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

**General Hobbs**

Posted By knthrak on 04/05/2007 3:31 PM
I also reported him to the BBB, they're already investigating. I highly recommend you report him now, rather than wait.

The BBB is a con game. They get complaints about a company and put them on a list. Then they goto the company, show them a list, and get paid a fee to take them off the list. Don't waste your time.

**STARSLAYER**

Posted By General Hobbs on 04/09/2007 6:20 PM

Posted By knthrak on 04/05/2007 3:31 PM
I also reported him to the BBB, they're already investigating. I highly recommend you report him now, rather than wait.

The BBB is a con game. They get complaints about a company and put them on a list. Then they goto the company, show them a list, and get paid a fee to take them off the list. Don't waste your time.

Better than sitting on your thumb doing nothing when you get ripped off. Call the BBB,FBI,PD ,anybody that will listen.

**Flagg07**

The BBB is a con game. They get complaints about a company and put them on a list. Then they goto the company, show them a list, and get paid a fee to take them off the list. Don't waste your time.

Good. An additional kick in the ding dong for Robert the thief.

**Nuwisha**

I heard the same thing about the BBB back when New Wave was still in business, or rather still stealing everyone's money.

**General Hobbs**

Posted By Nuwisha on 04/09/2007 8:36 PM
I heard the same thing about the BBB back when New Wave was still in business, or rather still stealing everyone's money.

It took New Wave six months to get me one figure. I do miss the sight though....they had pics of everything under the sun.

**knthrak**

What else am I supposed to do. Paypal hasn't managed to do anything so far, I've had no reply to emails, haven't had him answer the phone and live 16 hours or more by plane away.

**carmachu**

What else am I supposed to do. Paypal hasn't managed to do anything so far, I've had no reply to emails, haven't had him answer the phone and live 16 hours or more by plane away.

I think it might constitued mail fraud....

**Delephont**

Posted By knthrak on 04/10/2007 2:15 AM
What else am I supposed to do. Paypal hasn't managed to do anything so far, I've had no reply to emails, haven't had him answer the phone and live 16 hours or more by plane away.

I'll be honest with you, if The Drop Zone hadn't come up with my army, and Paypal hadn't agreed that I'd been hard done by I would have had to write the money off. There would have been little else I could have done....I would have lost $198!

Give Paypal a chance, they do say it may take up to a month to recover your money, I'm not sure what the FBI can do, yeah they could bang Robert in chains and get him on a Texas road gang, but that ain't gonna get you your money or your miniatures.......

**Flagg07**

You could take solace in the fact that his name is poo poo and his business could be going down the tubes.

**knthrak**

Posted By Flagg07 on 04/10/2007 1:57 PM
You could take solace in the fact that his name is poo poo and his business could be going down the tubes.

Even still, i'd prefer my Emperor Battleship.

**moe the great**

I also contacted the above agencies as well as eCrater the company who does his online business. Hopefully his account will be removed. After giving him 2 months to reply I am done being nice. I wil be driving down to See him next weekend with papers to appear in small claims court. failure to appeare or respnd will mean a felony warrent. Sure they won't drive down to get him or anythign but if he ever gets pulled over.. files papers, gets a new license.. this will be on his record.

All because he is not smart enough to admit he messed up.. then again.. the man is a thief. (he will get all of this headache all because he stole $169 dollars from me..)

**Flagg07**

I wil be driving down to See him next weekend with papers to appear in small claims court.

Record it please.

**Lorek**

You should dress up in a cheap suit, get some cheesy sunglasses, and a baseball bat. Then wail on a random car in front of his shop and scream, "This is what happens, Robert! This is what happens when you EDIT a stranger in the EDIT!"

(For those of you who don't get it, it's a joke. Go about your business, or rent The Big Lebowski).

Much as I love the Big Lebowski, watch the language.

**moe the great**

Now that's funny...

**knthrak**

Could you please ask him about the money he owes me (Tim Huggins) for some BFG stuff, or preferably if he could just post it?

**STARSLAYER**

Do you want to screw this guy over for about $20??

Get a list of bad deals and people TDZ has ripped-off, along with all the items and money he owes people. Go to your local Office Depot and get a 100 copies. Send one to every Hobby/Gaming/Comic store in his area. Find a person who is near his Game shop, put a copy under every car windshield wiper in a 3 block radius.

I'm sure the other local Hobby shops would love some negative information on the competition. With all the flyers in his area,word of mouth will do the rest.

F^@#^$# the Drop Zone!!

**MagickalMemories**

I started a thread in another section of Dakka. I knew this thread was here someplace, but I couldn't find it.

Some were so kind as to criticize me for not posting here. Others were kind enough to actually give me a link.

I posted the following info in my thread.

You'll note that, if you follow my link to Bartertown, my thread there lists his home phone number.

Here's the info from the other thread:

=========================================================

As you may be aware, The Drop Zone, an online and brick & Mortar retailer has been accused of scamming NO LESS than 9 gamers.

Here is a link to my complaint on Bartertown.com.

http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewtopic.php?t=44035

If you have been scammed by him, or know someone who has, follow this link, or provide it to them to follow.
It has important legal information on Robert, as well as numerous phone numbers (including his home number).

Additionally, here is a link to a post that has compiled a list of the traders there who are complaining, as well as a link to each of their threads:

http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewtopic.php?t=42937&sid=f3317f987cbde2cc7bffe07a3a740282

If you think he's scammed you... He probably has.

I am posting this in hopes that
a) It stops him from scamming more people out of their money and
b) It helps anyone scammed to find Robert and file legal complaints to the appropriate authorities.

Eric

**Breotan**

Here's some info I dug up on the web site:

EDIT: Erroneous info removed.

Looks like he's due on the 9th. Anyone feeling frisky enough grab his domain name via some service like Godaddy.com and park it to an empty page?

**Deathwing_Adam**

Only problem is that his website is http://www.dropzoneonline.ecrater.com/

**Breotan**

Stop trying to confuse me with the facts, damnit.

**MagickalMemories**

I finally received an email from Robert. We went back and forth a few emails, so far... but this is the one that started the exchange:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<table id="oTableE" style="TABLE-LAYOUT: fixed; DISPLAY: block" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" class="Content"> <tbody> <tr id="oRowSubj" style="DISPLAY: block"> <td class="CaptionE" nowrap="nowrap" unselectable="on">Subject:</td> <td class="Subject" id="oCellSubj">Re: SEND ME MY MONEY OR MY STUFF -- Important Info Inside.</td> </tr> <tr id="oRowDate" style="DISPLAY: block"> <td class="CaptionE" nowrap="nowrap" unselectable="on">Date:</td> <td id="oCellDate">4/26/2007 12:37:27 PM Central Daylight Time</td> </tr> <tr id="oRowFROM" style="DISPLAY: block"> <td class="CaptionE" nowrap="nowrap" unselectable="on">From:</td> <td id="oCellFROM">thedropzoneonline@gmail.com</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Eric

i didnt answer you as i was on vacation for the last 15 days i will check on it when i get to the store

R

you do what you feel you have to do

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hopefully, this means that everyone who is waiting for stuff from him can expect it any day, now... Now that Robert's back from his extended vacation, he will start sending people what is owed.

[/sarcasm]

Eric

**Breotan**

It makes sense with that death in the family business. I mean what better way to deal with grief than going to the Bahamas on all the money people sent him?

**STARSLAYER**

More excuses to buy time. Well, Im sure he had plenty of extra cash(from all the people he ripped-off) to have a nice vacation.

**ancientsociety**

What a d***! Must be nice going on lavish vacations with everyone else's cash!

**nyarlathotep667**

"Better spend it now before I get sued for scamming all those folks! Oops, I meant for messing up all those orders!"