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  #1  
Old 09/20/2007, 03:51 PM
VegasMike VegasMike is offline
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Buyer Beware Only4fudge

Beware and make sure he gives a live arrival guarantee. Even if he gives you one though, be wary.

His packing skills leave a bit to be desired, but, more inportanly, he does not care about any problems once you receive the package and will just say "tough luck", it was FedEx's problem, not mine. While the blame may lie partly with FedEx, the total blame does not, and, most certainly, not entirely on the buyer.

If you want any more details, please send me a PM.
  #2  
Old 09/21/2007, 07:09 AM
hoyta hoyta is offline
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That sucks... I thought he was a man of his word?!
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  #3  
Old 09/21/2007, 11:30 AM
VegasMike VegasMike is offline
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In case anyone wants the details. I have had numerous PM's, some asking for the details, others relaying similar experiences. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS GUY !!!

I bought two fish from him, a Sohal Tang and a Mystery Wrass. The box came in wet with no obvious physical damage other than dripping wet. I opened the box and discovered one large bag with the Sohal still alive and one much smaller bag with the dead Mystery wrass under the larger bag. There was no other packing in the box to keep the two bags from banging/rolling around in the box.

First, they were not in a cooler, but a box lined with 1/2" styrofaom sheets. I have never received fish/corals in anything other than a cooler inside a box and I have received literally dozens of shipments, albeit mostly from Reefermadness.

The seller assured me that he packed "exceptionally well". That was most certainly not the case. The water was very cold when I received it, probably due to not being packed in an appropriate box. There was a heat pack in the box, but it was just laying on the bottom of the box with the bags directly on top of it.

Given the small water volume of the wrass, it would obviously affect it the most, heating the water to a greater degree and then having it cool much quicker and to a greater extent.

So, the wrass either died of being subjected to temp extremes or beign crushed by the larger bag. The bags were Kordon bags packed with no oxygen. That, in and of itself was not the problem as these bags are supposed to allow for that, but the smaller bag had the water volume of two coffe cups and could flatten out very easily which made it very prone to beign crushed by the much larger bag. There was still enough water in either bag to have sustained life had they been packed appropriately. The water leaaked out of the top of the bags due to them being sealed only with a nylon zip tie and not being double bagged in sealed bags. All the seller had to do was to seal the second bag with enough air in it to prevent the two bags from banging/rolling around/leaking, that is if the temp didn't kill them. The fish should also have been in a cooler packed with shipping materials (balled up newspapers) to prevent shifting and to provide space between the water and the heat pack.

The Seller claims absolutely no responsibility whatsoever. I have asked for either a new wrass or half the cost of the total purchase, which I think is reasonable. The wrass had a much greater value and should justify a larger amount refunded. The way I look at it, if he refunds $150 (half of total), I paid $150 for a Sohal tang which would have cost $100 locally (more like $89, but giving the benefit of the doubt) and shipping of $50 (again, a high number). I think this is completely reasonable as the packing deficeincy was more likely the cause of the fish's death.

The only blame I accept fully is not asking if he had a live arrival guarantee. He will state that he told me that, but I challenge him to prove that by providing any written evidence. All of our communication was via e-mail, which I can provide and which shows his assurances that he packs "exceptionally well".

His packing skills leave room for great improvement as do his people skills in how to deal with others and treat others how he would expect to be treated.

Mike
  #4  
Old 09/21/2007, 11:59 AM
Engine 7 Engine 7 is offline
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I added him to my list. Thanks for the heads up.
Sorry to hear what happened to you.
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  #5  
Old 09/21/2007, 12:35 PM
Thhitman Thhitman is offline
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I had a problem with this seller, found out from another user here on the forums before I recieved a package I had bought we both had paid for some of the same corals.

When I got my coral package, only out of 15 corals in the package I made a deal for, I recieved a leaky package of 10 corals and only 6 of these were what I had made a deal with him for. 4 of the corals were DOA out of the package.

He actually called me ungrateful for the deal he gave me, and never once apologized for trying to decieve me or the other user in the deal (I spoke with the other user on the phone, I am very sure about selling the same pieces to both of us, they were distinctive pieces). Made the statement he had went to a lot of trouble and spent a lot of money to get replacement pieces of coral to substitute for some of the pieces I was supposed to get, of course without telling me he was doing this.

I did get part of my money back through a paypal dispute I filed, $125 out of $400, but what a PITA.

I have all the PM's and email's that back all of this up. I only spoke up now because I thought maybe we just had a bad deal, but sadly it doesn't seem to be the case.
  #6  
Old 09/21/2007, 02:24 PM
SteveOhh SteveOhh is offline
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I think it may be time for the mods to reconsider this guys status as a RC member............
  #7  
Old 09/21/2007, 03:15 PM
VegasMike VegasMike is offline
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I would not have supported that given just my experience, but given the reponses since, I think it might be warranted and required.
  #8  
Old 09/21/2007, 03:22 PM
VegasMike VegasMike is offline
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Oh yea, be careful about using Paypal as well. They rejected my claim due to my argueing about an attribute of the product. I guess they think "live vs. dead" is not an important attribute. Let's carry that one a step further. Buy anything with Paypal and it comes damaged by shipping must not be an attribute they care about.
  #9  
Old 09/21/2007, 07:30 PM
berniekyle berniekyle is offline
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I am the other person along with the thhitman who ended up buying the same package. The right thing to do would have been refunding one of us our money. Instead he threw together two crappy boxes of dead and leaky corals and expected us to be happy with this. I paid $350 and only rerceived $125 of that back. He actually tried to sub a coral with a mangrove. Was rude and also called me ungrateful. Think twice before buying anything off of him.
  #10  
Old 09/21/2007, 07:35 PM
cello cello is offline
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Thanks for the "Heads up"

Cello
  #11  
Old 09/22/2007, 01:10 PM
Elmo18 Elmo18 is offline
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I hope this gets resolved.

He's in another forum as well, and I am glad i did not deal with him.

Best,
Ilham
  #12  
Old 09/22/2007, 06:01 PM
foltzcd foltzcd is offline
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Thanks for the heads up. I was looking at something from him
  #13  
Old 09/24/2007, 07:09 AM
hoyta hoyta is offline
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He posts all the time- too bad he didn't post here to stick up for himself...
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  #14  
Old 09/24/2007, 07:24 AM
VegasMike VegasMike is offline
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Elmo18 - What other forum? I would like to refer people here to get real feedback. This will not get resolved as he has already told me to pound sand and has not contacted me at all since I posted this feedback even though I have asked him to and even given him my cell phone number.
  #15  
Old 09/24/2007, 10:30 AM
dc dc is offline
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We are limited as to what we can do here. People need to know who they are selling/buying to/from.

For the record, while he has been on, he's not posted since before this thread was started, so making false statements is jumping the gun here. Stick to facts.

I have pm'd him asking him to address this thread.
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  #16  
Old 09/24/2007, 01:18 PM
only4fudge only4fudge is offline
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Part of what VegasMike saying is true, yet some is false.

I will level with those who are angered and have a hard time understanding, I will put it in terms a 5th grader could understand. No Puns intended, only a figure of speech.

Its kind of hard to swallow when he yet to provide me a picture of the deceased shipment.

The concept of the kordon bags is that there should be no air left inside the container to prevent sloshing and motionsickness for the specimen.

www.google.com >>> Kordon Bags >>> Click >>> Read >>> Win

I double bagged everything, left fragile stickers on them, and left a heat pack inside the container. I covered

He paid $125 for each the Sohal,the Mystery Wrasse, and only $50 for shipping, the rest of the expenses were out of my own pocket. Total shipping and supplies cost, not to mention labor, gas... were $90, $40 came out of my own pocket.

He filed a report on Paypal for "Item Not As Described" and didnt win, so now he is letting the world know about a lot of it, with his falsified information.

I offered him a full refund provided he send everything back to me, including the wrasse that is assumed to be DOA.

I am not offering a refund, on top of you keeping my corals, or fish that I shipped out. It doesnt work that way when you're doing business with me. I offered partial refund so we can share the damage, but you disaggreed and wanted all or nothing. Then you filed a report on Paypal and loss the argument.

Just like everyone else that bought something from me, I offered you all a partial refund, if you were totally dissatisfied, I did state that you should just send everything back to me and I will refund every penny you spent. But apparently, you know how bad the shipping so so you would very much prefer keeping everything and get money from buying livestock.

You are never wrong, if you know how to argue.

Hoyta, we had a deal going, until you said you had something come up and you were in urgency of money. 2 Days later, I see you spending your money on some Zoos and other corals. I am a man of my word what about you?
And about the broken skimmer you were selling, I found one locally for half the price and it was an upgrade from yours.
I was excited about this transaction that I went to the FedEx station and paid for a shipping label that cost me $75, soon to find out at the day I send the fish out, you no longer want it. You left me in the hole by $75 and the fish was never to be found. I didnt complain until now.

So if anyone were to do business with you, be aware that he might back out on the last second and screw you over too.

I am just saying what is the truth and what is not. I will not post our email replies in this thread because it is not allowed, so I will just recap everything in a orderly manner.

Here you are spreading all sorts of rumors, ruining my reputation, as well as telling the community to boycott paypal, just because you didnt have it your way. Ive lost a lot, and gained nothing.

Just for the record, any unsatisfied transactions anyones ever had with me, I do not offer live arrival guarantee, but I do offer a "Share the damage" policy, where I will split the cost with you according to what is lost.

But for now, I would like to see those pictures of the dead wrasse that you have yet to provide me. Otherwise your words just go in one ear, and out the other.

I am not here to stir up trouble, but if you start it, I am inclined to carry it on.

If you were patient enough to work with me, we both could have walked away without stabbing eachother in the back of our necks. But instead you took a different route. Now that the damage is done, theres not much we both can do other than to amend things at this point can we?

There were people here that have had a lot of great experiences from me, but do not want to get involved, theres probably more satisfied than unsatisfied.

But right now, I think I ll enjoy being Mister Popular for a while.

The list can go on, but I ll let karma deal with it, there is nothing else I need to say. You should already know.

Have a nice day!
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Last edited by only4fudge; 09/24/2007 at 01:25 PM.
  #17  
Old 09/24/2007, 01:37 PM
berniekyle berniekyle is offline
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I can't help but notice he did not address the fact he sold myself and the thhitman the same package and neither one of us got what we ordered or anything closely comparable. You all have been warned................buy off of him at your own risk.
  #18  
Old 09/24/2007, 06:38 PM
mikekman mikekman is offline
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I wonder why he didn't address berniekyle and his friends problem? Let us know what happened only4fudge.

I'd like to see hoyta come and defend himself from what only4fudge said too.
  #19  
Old 09/24/2007, 07:41 PM
Thhitman Thhitman is offline
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THREAD EDITED

First, I never knew Berniekyle before this and have spoken to him a grand total of 1 time.

Its exactly like bernie said though, he sold the same corals twice to both of us and then scabbed together two packages and sent them to us.

Here's the last Pm's between only4fudge and me before I paid him $400.

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


Posting PMs are not allowed are RC. They are just that.......PRIVATE messages.

Steve
RC Moderator

Last edited by smiller; 09/25/2007 at 10:01 AM.
  #20  
Old 09/24/2007, 08:12 PM
berniekyle berniekyle is offline
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I cannot believe you (mikekman) are implying that the the hittman and I are friends. The only reason we have ever spoke before is because we both got scammed. Sounds like your friends with fudge.
  #21  
Old 09/25/2007, 09:09 AM
hoyta hoyta is offline
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LOL!
Only4fudge- I emailed you Sunday morning about not doing the trade. You told me you took the package to Kinko's Sunday night to ship... I did appologize about the situation, and gave you ample notice. But, who ships things on Sunday night???!!! I've never heard of that before, when you told me you were shipping Monday. I wouldn't have been too happy about the fish being boxed up a whole day extra than you said... Are you a man of your word??!!!
Now, about a broken skimmer?! The skimmer worked fine, and was a good deal (275 shipped for a Euro Reef cs 8-2?!) That was said out of complete ignorance, and shows your maturity level.
If you found a better deal, then great! Good for you, as it was a good deal in the first place.
As for my money issues, I sold the skimmer, took care of it, and had some money left over. I bought the zoas with that, which is none of your buisness, by the way. I know this- If you lost money on the deal, its is straight Karma for the way you've scammed others. I'm definetely glad I didn't trade with you...
Now, why don't you come on here and explain why you screwed over 3 people now?
Mikeman- who are you? LOL- Way to talk about a bunch of crap you don't know about..
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  #22  
Old 09/25/2007, 09:12 AM
VegasMike VegasMike is offline
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If anyone needs to see a mis-statement/lie, look at the line where he said to "send everything back for a full refund". That was never proposed and I challenge him to provide the e-mail. I will copy all correspondence from him since I received the package shortly. He never asked for a picture, another lie. He has also lied saying that I posted this in response to being rejected by paypal. If I could show some sort of date stamp from paypal, you would see that these posts were made before even trying to post a paypal complaint. You will see above the time I got rejected by paypal which was very shortly before that comment about paypal.

His sense of double bagging was to put the Kordon bag inside a normal fish store bag with the inner bag sealed by a zip tie(which leaked) and the outer bag not sealed at all.

DC - If you want misstatements, here is a list from above.

He NEVER asked me to send back the shipment for a full refund.
He NEVER offered a partial refund (like he stated).
He NEVER asked for the picture.
The claim that this post was in reponse to paypal's rejection is also FALSE.

I gave him my cell number to call, which he had not done. If he wants a picture of the packaging/dead fish, all he needs to do is give me his cell numer to send it to.

I am actually in London this week and responding to this. I have not gotten cell service since Sunday, but I wil look at my call history when I get back to see if there has been any attemp at contact and will repond accordingly here one way or another.

Mike
  #23  
Old 09/25/2007, 09:21 AM
ct_vol ct_vol is offline
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I have had problems with only4fudge too... I bought 4 fish from him, a blue sided fairy wrasse, a carpenter's wrasse, a mystery wrasse, and a purple pseudochromis... He changed the price on me 4 times before he finally made up his mind... That should have been a red flag for me... But he said he could ship on a day I was off from work and there were a couple of pos feedbacks in the thread, so I paid for the fish... Then after two days of him still receiving PMs about the fish posted in the sales forum, I told him to post that they were sold... He said he would do so when he shipped the fish... The day that he was supposed to ship came and went, and he said he had a problem getting the supplies he needed to ship... I informed him that I was only able to receive the fish on that date we had agreed upon because I am self employed and it is hard for me to take time off to receive live goods... I asked him to refund my money and he said he would 2 days in a row after he got home from work. Those two days came and went and I didn't receive my refund... I ended up having to file a claim with paypal... I won my dispute with paypal because only4fudge was ignorant enough to PM me that he "goes through paypal claims like pancakes, all he has to do is send tracking information, and they'll drop the claim" I took a picture of this PM and e mailed it to paypal... They wouldn't look on my RC account to verify that it was true, so that was the only way I could think of to get around that... I'll post the pic when I get home this evening... BUT BUYERS BEWARE OF ONLY4FUDGE... HE IS DISHONEST!!! The only reason I didn't post about this sooner is because the paypal claim was still under review...
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  #24  
Old 09/25/2007, 09:37 AM
VegasMike VegasMike is offline
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THREAD EDIT

OK, here are all of the e-mails I received from only4fudge other than oneor two short one's that verified address and timing. None of these e-mails ever talk about any guarantee, either way, just as I said. I guess that is another lie on his part. Oh, surprise...surprise, another person that has been taken by only4fudge. This guy is a crook. He needs to be "moved on". You will see where I even proposed a partial refund. He would not take it. He did the same thing the poster above said, gave tracking detail and paypal rejected right away.


Emails and PMs are private and not to be posted here.


Steve
RC Moderator

Last edited by smiller; 09/25/2007 at 10:05 AM.
  #25  
Old 09/25/2007, 10:02 AM
VegasMike VegasMike is offline
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OK, only4fudge, I challenge you to now list in bullet-point format any and all falsified information I have posted. You can't even get your story straight. I paid $130 per fish according to your own e-mail. I don't believe you spent that much for shipping either. It really does not matter what you spent on shipping. You agreed to send the to fish for "$300 shipped", end of story. The allocation does not matter.

You continue to lie and cheat people out of money and as I stated earlier, $150 is a small amount for this lesson" and if you keep treating others like this, it will undoubtably cost you much more in the long term.

There are too many people here that you have cheated for it to be an isolated event.

Again, if you want a picture, let me know and I will send it from my cell phone. Otherwise, does anyone know how to post a picture from thier cell phone to an e-mail. Can you e-mail them directly from the phone. Even so only4fudge, are you going to send me some sort of refund if I send you the picture?

I seriously doubt it as you have continued to lie about the facts. The facts to my case are all laid out for everyone to see, minus the pics, but I have them.

I can honestly say though, it is not about the $$$, it's about being treated fairly and with some level of respect and courtesy. It is now about the principle. I wouldn't bother posting anything in response if I hadn't seen that your response was rife with errors.

It is people like only4fudge that will prevent me in the future from buying anything from a private individual who is listing things on RC. Members like only4fudge only do damage to forums like RC that are striving to provide a forum/service for their members' use.
 

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