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SkyBell

macrumors 604
Sep 7, 2006
6,603
219
Texas, unfortunately.
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There exist no words in my vocabulary that could come close to describing how this thread makes me feel. I'm not sure I've ever been more dumbfounded.

Squilly. Just... Squilly. :(
 

Squilly

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 17, 2012
2,260
4
PA
If you used a middleman to protect from being scammed, how is it you ended up being scammed?

We (buyer and seller) met on a forum and I requested a middleman. We agreed on a highly trusted middleman on the forum and he added him to the chat. There were two usernames that popped up on Skype, which is a common tactic. He added the wrong one. He seemed completely legitimate as a middleman too. There's no way the seller was apart of it. His Bitcoin was taken and my PayPal funds were taken, both now in the hands of the fake middleman now.

----------

When this first started I never imagined saying this... But its WASTELAND time.

How does one say this nicely?
.

We were both playing it safe. But the mindset when a middleman gets involved is "I'm protected, I can't get scammed".
 
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Scepticalscribe

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Jul 29, 2008
63,957
46,414
In a coffee shop.
Gosh. Words fail me. The 'wrong' Skype name chosen, apparently by accident, when two, equally similar ones are listed there? Ah, I see.

Appreciation and enjoyment of theatre is said to be based on the concept of 'the willing suspension of disbelief'. In other words, you know, logically, internally, that what you are seeing is, or are, a person or people pretending to be somebody else but you tell yourself that you must believe they are the person they are pretending to be or it won't make sense to you. Sometimes, sadly, despite willingly suspending your disbelief in the whole process, it still doesn't make much sense. This whole thread is a bit like that.

Reading this thread this far.....this far, up until now, has left my facial expression somewhat pained; sort of, not unlike that depicted by the Norwegian artist, Edvard Munch, when he painted a picture (well, he painted four versions of it, actually) which he called 'The Scream'.
 

Koodauw

macrumors 68040
Nov 17, 2003
3,951
190
Madison
I applaud this thread. I dont think we've ever come together to rally against any one thing like this before. Way to take one for the betterment of MR squilly.
 

tdiaz

macrumors 6502
Feb 7, 2006
477
73
Stated before: only two pallets can be shipped to one address at a time. That's why they're at different locations.
..and in what amounts to about 25 years of being exposed to shipping in one way or another, with a vast amount of years dealing with container loads, LTL, a few pallets, odd shaped stuff, etc.

I have -never- once, -ever- heard of ANY kind of limitation on what quantity of units I can deliver -anywhere- based on anything other than the actual facility itself where the delivery is taking place.

If they can unload one pallet, they can unload 10 of them. That's what they're paid to do. Deliver stuff. If there's a surcharge for lift gate, there's a surcharge for it. But once the pallet is off the truck, on the ground, the delivery vendor has done it's job.

There's no ordinance restricting deliveries. What if you bought a swing set that came on six pallets? Some do. "nope, sorry, you gotta bring two of them to one each of my neighbors."

Two pallet limit? Fine. Deliver two today, in another couple days.. since it will take you that long to break it down and re-label for shipment, because if not, why is the "limit" an issue in the first place, since you could just be using freight forwarding, which any volume seller knows full well that they can deliver straight to the dock of whoever is the next shipper.

Which brings me to the $900/mo UPS holding fee? That's another -never- heard of it. The only holding UPS does is fulfillment. As an example, ever wonder how you can order a phone from Sprint until insane hours of the evening and still get it in the morning? Because the phones are actually stocked at the UPS hub, pre-boxed for individual dispatch. Slap a label on it, inject the parcel into automation, just like if it got there on the plane from the pickup location. Otherwise.. anything else, they're not in that business. They'll accept freight, and forward it. When it gets there.

They don't want to store your stuff. They want to deliver it. They are not called United Parcel Storage.
 

Shrink

macrumors G3
Feb 26, 2011
8,929
1,727
New England, USA
Selling/buying an intangible, completely anonymous product designed so that it cannot be tracked with someone you met on a forum. What could possibly go wrong?

You forgot the High School Security Officer who is a partner in a 40 store chain in Poland.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,448
43,369
[MOD NOTE]
Thread closed for moderator review and possible clean up

After reviewing the thread ,the decision to keep it closed was made by the moderation staff due to the continual personal remarks, insults and off topic derailments.
 
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maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,448
43,369
Squilly provided an update and I wanted to pass it along. I know many members are interested in the final disposition but here's where things stand as of now

As a final update, I talked to my brother and had a brief discussion for an update. The Poles have no idea that he's getting $20,000 in profit from this, it's simply tied into the price of each iPhone and iPad. It was never deliberately stated. I do not know why they don't bother going through Apumac. He met up with the security guard again, although I don't know what was said during the conversation. It's been a nice thread, overall. Maybe another update soon, if the mods allow it.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,448
43,369
This is the latest update that Squilly PM'd me. At this point we can consider this topic fully closed since the product that was purchased was sent to Poland.

New update:
3 pallets have been shipped and delivered to Poland. My brother released the pallets from UPS in California to them. I haven't been told how much he made but there are 6 on hold by UPS. My brother is apparently being paid via Citadel (don't know what happened with PFCU). That's the very latest.
 
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