| Welcome to Do14.com Written by Debbie Skaggs known as Comnonbuyit on Ebay |
| It's really very easy to rip someone off on Ebay. Just ask Jennifer
A. Tanguay (a.k.a. Lee VanCauwenberghe, a.k.a. Lee_vc on Ebay)
of Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada. She almost took me for $500 cash, plus about $500 worth
of Beanie Babies. It was a
close one too. Paypal really protects the buyer more than the seller.
And she knows it, all
too well. Thank God for tracking numbers! And let this be a warning
to all sellers- ALWAYS
get tracking numbers on everything you mail (and insurance).
She's a pathological liar. (For those of you in Palm Beach, that means she lies so much that she believes her own lies.) If it wasn't for all of the obvious lies I might have lost $1000 to this scammer. But, the more the lies added up, the clearer it all became and the easier it became to prove to Paypal, the Post Office and the Winnipeg Police Department that she was a scam artist and I was to be the victim. The reason for the webpage is to make sure she doesn't get away with it next time she tries. If I didn't make this webpage, she would just tell another lie in the feedback and people would be wondering who was really telling the truth. They would consider her high feedback rating and tend to believe her, then her Ebay sales would keep on rolling as she casts her web of doubt on anything anyone says against her. Note: In order to protect themselves, most Ebay sellers are usually the last to leave feedback. Well, who can blame them? The one who gets the last word in is the one who wins the word-war in most cases. I saw several of her past negative feedbacks and noticed she always has a way of turning things around with the last word. Well, she's not going to get the last word this time. I will. I will tell the whole story and back it up with PROOF. After all, there is only so much you can say in one sentence on Ebays' feedback space. |
This was the discaimer in my Ebay ad- This item is being sold for someone else. I took the pictures and saw the item myself. Much of what I tell you was either seen by me personally, or told to me by the consignor. I always stress the importance of telling the truth. I have a 100% positive feedback rating and I really want to keep it that way. But trying to get your money back from a consignor is sometimes a difficult thing. For this reason, all consignment items are sold as-is. Dispite that, AFTER she paid, she had the nerve to ask if I would "hold payment from the owner until all items have arrived and been inspected", knowing full well that it could take 4-6 weeks and that I was selling them for someone else. |
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Ok, here's what happened (everything I state here will be backed-up with proof at the bottom of the page): I listed a lot of about 400 Beanie Babies (393 to be exact) on Ebay for $500 plus shipping, which got no bids. Just before it ended, I got an email from her offering to buy the lot for $500 including shipping. She said it was "for a charity and would make a lot of needy children very happy". Since I was selling the Beanies for someone else, I had to go see the owner of them and explain that it would be given to a charity, so out of the goodness of her heart she let me lower the price. So, on 12-09-06 I relisted them as she wished. Lee_vc then convinced me that since it was a "charity gift" she would save on Customs Fees if I were to list it for $60 and put the balance due into the shipping. This way, her invoice would indeed say she only spent $60 on it. Even the mailing address had "c/o Gift Donation" in it. She also suggested I put them into as few boxes as possible and send them Economy Post to save on shipping charges. She knew very well that Economy Post to Canada takes 4-6 weeks. Obviously, since she lives in Canada and has 1700+ feedbacks, she knows the way things work. But, before four weeks had passed, on January 5th, she filed a claim through Paypal stating she "never received them". In case you people out there don't know, when someone files a claim like that, Paypal automatically puts a "hold" on your account for the full payment ($500). In her claim, she also stated that she "tried to email me at least a half-dozen times". My initial reaction was shock. I never knew Paypal would just put a hold on your money until the buyer receives the goods, even before delivery was due. Plus, I knew she lied about emailing me because I saved every email I ever got from her and I check my email ten times a day, and answer every one. The only thing I was guilty of, and I admittd it, was not letting her know how many boxes it was going to be and when exactly I mailed it. In all fairness, I did tell her I would let her know that. I originally thought it would be about 6-10 boxes, but when I realized how much that would cost to ship, I found the biggest boxes I could and managed to get it all into two very large boxes, which I mailed on December 15th, six days after the auction had ended. So I apologized for that. Of course I knew she never emailed me because I saved all of her emails, plus, I literally check my email all day long. This is what I do for a (meager) living. In the meantime, I can't pay my Ebay bill because these funds are on hold and my livelyhood is being threatened (but that's another story). I also learned that Paypal WILL refund the money to her if I cannot produce tracking info! On January 9th, I discovered that the packages could be tracked through the Customs form numbers. (Whew!) I checked the tracking and found out that the very day she filed her complaint, she received the first of the two boxes! The second box was due that day. So, knowing that she lied twice already (saying she never received them on the day she got them and still not admitting it four days later, plus saying she emailed me a half-dozen times), and, seeing all her feedback which proves she is very well versed in the system, I began to smell a scam. Well, I posted the tracking info on Paypals Dispute Panel and mentioned the fact that she received one package four days ago and the other one should be there today. But she still didn't admit she got them. The third lie- A day or two later, she said she "picked them both up at her post office, but they were ripped wide open and almost empty". And, she emailed me two pictures of the boxes ripped wide open and ONE was almost empty. Knowing now that she was a complete liar, I bit my toungue and informed her there was insurance on both packages. Then she asked me for a full refund. I reminded her of my disclaimer, that there would be no refund, and that we had insurance for this. The fourth lie- She claimed she only receved 163 Beanies out of 393. Right off, looking at the pictures, anyone can tell that one box looked full, so a little math in the head would tell you that she must have over half of them, or, at least about 200. That was, if the pictures were real. Of course they couldn't be. After all, how foolish would a mailman feel handing someone an empty box? Plus, how foolish would she be to accept it? When confronted with that reality, she finally had to admit lie #3, that they were indeed delivered, not picked up at her Post Office like she said. Could you imaging picking up an empty box at the post office? Ripped wide open? So, I bit my tongue again and assured her they were insured for close to the actual price (about $474 total insurance). I had to wait until January 16th to file the claim with the Post Office because they have a policy which states that you have to wait 30 days from the date of shipment. So, on that date, giving her the benefit of the doubt, I filed the claim for damage in the mail. In the meantime, Paypal policy states that as long as tracking can verify that delivery was made, they would rule in my favor. But she would have to click on "cancel dispute" for that to happen any sooner than Paypals 30 days or so before they decide. Of course she would never click that, she had her sights set on that $500, not to mention all the Beanie Babies. I made my case to Paypal by January 9th, and finally on January 25th, they ruled in my favor, releasing the funds back to me, 20 days after it all began. It's still not over yet. On January 27th, eleven days after the claim was filed, she had the nerve to email me asking "when she could expect her refund!" I reminded her that the Post Office said it would take 30-45 days. I had already reminded her once that there would be no refund, refering to my clearly posted disclaimer. Again, there was insurance for mail damage.
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This was copied from Paypals Dispute Resolution Center (read it from the bottom up)- Total Messages: 9 Show AllFrom PayPal: PayPal on 1/9/2007 18:33 PST Seller escalated this dispute to a Claim.
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| This was copied and pasted from the Paypal invoice-
Please let me know when payment is received and you will be sending the items, and in
how many boxes. The payment needs to come from my Canadian account for customs reasons. |
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This was the original correspondence that led up to the sale (read from the bottom up)- From: "Jennifer A Tanguay" <texasmbcan@hotmail.com> Add to Address Book Add Mobile AlertTo: debbiejskaggs@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Question for item #190057499338 - Huge Lot of 400 Ty Beanie Babies 1993- 97 all Retired Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:13:23 -0600 That would be fine. When you get the auction made just let me know the item number and I'll bid on it. Thanks >From: Debbie Skaggs <debbiejskaggs@yahoo.com> |