Defrauded out of $1500., WWYD?

Getting even in this case may be impossible. I generally leave revenge to God; He's better at it than I am anyway. OTOH ... the IRS can do as a good substitute if you're an atheist.(LOL) They nailed Capone; they can get a two-bit fraudster.

 

Well now after concluding that more voicemails and emails to the proprietress would just be a waste of time, I've completed the online complaint filing with the MO attorney general. I have also posted my warning on various discussion forums and Facebook pages, which as I mentioned is being shared widely.

So I'm satisfied that I've done all I can do and have certainly put an appropriate amount of effort into my attempt to get either the goods or a refund. The State AG can do much more than I can so I look forward to a good resolution, with the exception of losing a vendor I've been dealing with for many years. All our previous transactions were in person, cash and carry. I guess the temptation to keep the goods and our payment, since we're about 900 miles away, was just too great for the woman. I think "familiarity breeds contempt" was at work here too. I feel a bit hurt that someone I've known and dealt with over a long period would decide to treat me like that. She must deal with a fair number of people who give up easily when defrauded, and mistakenly assumed I was one of them because none of my follow-up voicemails or emails had the least hint of anger or emotion, I just state the facts in a pleasant voice and ask them to please get back to me.

 

Agree. Since she insisted I pay cash and after I came up short, wrote a check for the rest, which she had me write to her personally and not the business, you can be sure she isn't paying her share of taxes. She also didn't charge sales tax as required for a MO retail transaction. I did check the block "investigate this business" as well as the block "obtain the goods" for the resolution I wanted. I think the AG and the MO Dept. Of Revenue will find plenty to do in this case.

 

Red flags....!! 4 both payment methods !

 

Major. No tax and a check to a personal account? Odds are they're going to land on her with both feet.

 

But they would only be out to fill their coffers, not get John's money for him.

 

True, but odds are the money is gone anyway. When a reputable company goes bad like this, there's often an addiction at the bottom of it.

 

I guess I should have turned tail and run away as soon as I saw her huge, black, bad-luck cat!

 

I'd say he was a good luck cat, for her anyway. No blaming fur babies for the humans' antics! Black cats make the best mousetraps, and the best tripping hazards....

 

Springfield, sounds like there were already problems before your "problem" came to light.

Below is quoted material from a "review/complaint" I just now found on-line. It shows a date of "2 months ago." I

"I purchased 500 .300Blk brass and 100 clips from RVO. I received the brass and it was amazing at first glance. Very thoroughly cleaned. The problem started when I went to reload this brass. My batch apparently had missed the swaging process or wasn't done properly. I could only get a primer to go into 1 out of 10 brass I tried and it took way more force than I am comfortable with to get that 1 to go in.

They asked me to send them back and they would throw in a handful extra for compensation. Sounded great. Till 1 week went by, then 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 weeks before I finally got a reply to all my e-mails asking about the status of my order and got them shipped back. (They threw in about 30 extra brass, yay. Cost me $19 to ship them back.) So I throw one in the press and success! Primer fit in perfectly. Then I picked up the next brass and it resized a little funky. Took it out and looked at it and the mouth had been trimmed at an extreme angle. I set the brass on my perfectly level bench, mouth side down and it just kept falling over it was cut so unevenly. Remember, this is .300blk brass, it has a huge mouth and should stand easily on a level surface. I checked the rest of the brass and at least 50% were damaged beyond use. Either the neck had a crack in it, the neck was collapsed all the way down to the shoulder, the trim on the mouth was so uneven it wouldn't stand on a flat surface and even found one piece with a hole drilled through it!

At that point I was done and asked for a total refund. They asked me to ship them back, again. So I did, another $19. Here we go again. 1, 2 ,3... finally 8 weeks later after multiple e-mails I received my refund of $80...

$95 for the original brass, 2 returns of $19 each comes to a grand total of $133 out of my pocket and only received $80 back. Not to mention this whole ordeal cost me 5 months of sitting around with no .300blk to reload. Of course, multiple e-mails later I have never received one back about the rest of my refund."

Do yourself a favor and forget you ever heard about this company. Actually I'm not sure I would even consider it a company. More along the lines of a scam."

 

There is tons more problems reported with them on various message boards going back to 2006

 

This sounds like my local Stop & Shop. You can trust the dairy sections and the meat (if you can stand the quality) but watch the pull codes on packaged goods like a hawk. You can't trust those jokers not to sell expired goods; I've found things already past code in three trips out of three.

 

maybe the cat was trimming the brass....

 

All cats are of course bandits; mine is a pen thief and a breakfast mooch. They don't tend to go for the financial stuff, unless they want some paper or metal to bat around the kitchen floor.

 

Yesterday I was in my wagon-fixing mode. She does one very lucrative show where I'm good friends with the operators, and I let them know of her recent conduct.

 

Good. This kind of fraudster only understands one thing - financial pain. Don't smack 'em in the face, hit them in the pocketbook.

 

If you want to see a typical 1901 vintage warehouse, kind of interesting. Many pix of the creepy old place. Where she stores her merchandise. https://propertiesbypenny.com/mobile/?dspMLS=16002453@maris#ListingDetails

 

That looks amazingly like the "office" space I was employed in until recently. It's all the rage here, but in order to rent you must own a "TECH" startup, and you have to be under thirty, have both arms covered with "sleeves" of tattoos, have not shaved within the past two years,and wear nothing but cargo shorts with a plaid shirt and red sneakers..........it's now a LAW. But wanna be's seldom pay attention because they are usually walking off the end of the loading dock whilst texting their friends about the cool new cocktail called a whiskey sour that they just found on instagram.............

 

Whiskey sour.......Ooooww...we used to pound those at our friends Bar Mitzva's......