WATSONTONY- An Update!!

Well, following on from this entertainining but ultimately disappointing thread from chochop- http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anybody-know-watsontony, I have an update.

Having sent Watsontony a letter enquiring as to the whereabouts of my £30, chopchop’s £30 and wysiwyg’s £15 and was somewhat surprised to get the following text on 12th May-

“Hello andy. It has taken me far too long to get in contact with you. I have no real excuse for what has happened but i would like to try and explain. I was out of work and skint so was selling my used stuff that i no longer needed i sold a few things but ran out of unwanted stuff and needed to pay a bill so put my forks on ebay and put my shiny bars on stw two people ended up paying for the bars but this was unintentional and i should of refunded right away but i did not and for that i am sorry my next mistake was selling the bars for cash to a friend for that i am also sorry intention after this was to send both refunds as soon as my forks sold but either you or the other guy bought them and i can understand why you would but due to that the forks did not sell and i had no cash for a refund. I have recently started a new job and i get paid on the 31st. I am really sorry about this mess and i should not of just tried to hide from the matter but i do want to resolve it but i
do need until the end of this month and then i would be able to refund with a bit extra for being a complete and utter tool. Please accept my apology i know what i have done is wrong and i have regretted and tried to hide from it since but you have my word that it will be sorted. Tony watson”

So, being the reasonable chap that I am I waited til the end of the month but, true to form, no money arrived. I made another enquiry to the elusive Tony and got this reply from him-

“I should hopefully make it to the post office today but their is a chance i wont make it and in that case it will be next saturday i know this is taking far too long to sort out but i am working with bricklayers and we only get paid every 2 months and i get my share in cash. But saying this i should hopefully get to the post office today. I will let u know later either way. Sorry for taking the piss sorting this out.”

then this-

“I cant go to the bank mine is closed on saturdays and cant get time during the week plus i am overdrawn. I know this has taken the piss and you have waited but if there was anything i can do i would. The only other thing is if i go to my mums and see if she will let me use her pay pal i want this sorted as soon as now its just another thijg hanging over my head. Will let u know whats happning”

……and then…nothing, since the 1st June.

I think it is now safe to say that Watsontony is nothing more than a liar and common thief!

Well you now have evidence to take to plod.

TBH from the first email etc it sounds like a snowballed cash flow issues coupled with embarrasement and probably now wanting to walk away from the mess. £75 isn’t a great deal to many working age/fulltime decent-jobbed people but if you have no money at all even this amount might be too far off.

I remember a lad on here who was a Plumber? A good bloke, rode with him a few times but he ended up mired alittle in a classifieds mess and had to sleep in his van for a while. Hope hes ok.

I’m NOT defending WatsonTony by the way. Just saying. Sometimes its a horrible murky-grey than black and white thievery.

Edit: Those that set out to intentionally defraud (especially IWH….idave falls into the former-camp as he kept taking money even though he had a rough patch?) deserve stopping asap as they’re modus operandi is to carry on milking the cash flow. Then there are those where its a one-off/never meant to and hopefully its a bad part of their life gone.

Saying that if I’d lost £30 I’d be pissed on principle. So you’d be within your rights.

Sometimes its a horrible murky-grey than black and white thievery.

Sounds like that’s the case to me too. I think he’s just stuffed himself and dug a hole, now struggling to get out of it.

Me personally, i’d wash my hands of it and move on mate. The money isn’t worth the hassle, anger and thoughts involved in continuing.

+1 hora. The boy has done wrong but his life sounds to be in a shit state, it’s unforunate you’ve lost money through no fault of your own but I’d bet you’re in a much better place than he is.

Whatsontony….a hod.

Bet he owes money all over the shop,i’d be miffed at what he’s done but it seems better just to wait and hope he does the right thing when he gets his head above water a bit.

I think expressing your anger and grief and fury over the hassle is perfectly justified. Then wash your hands and move on.

Anecdotally,

I’ve been in that position. Out of work between jobs with debt piling up, credit card and overdraft maxed and borrowing money of friends to pay the most pressing bills; when I finally got back into work, the week before I was due to be paid I was raiding the copper jar to buy food. I’m pretty certain that if at that point I owed refunds to people, they’d simply have to wait.

Lack of communication is a different issue, but it’s not wholly shocking that there’s bigger things to worry about in that situation.

I don’t know the guy, but it sounds like he’s in a scrape and trying to pull himself out of it. Maybe I’m biased because I know all too well what that’s like, he could be a lying sack but I’d be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt I think.

Lack of communication

One thing that we all take for granted.

Communicating with people involves staying connected to the internet/going into an internet cafe and paying or simply paying a monthly bill. All things that involve spending money that you wont have. Especially if its food or phone bill. What would you chose? Although its been taken out of your hands that choice if things are really tight.

Sorry for veering off on your topic OP.

if he owes £75 to the OP etc then you can bet he owes a lot more to other people and companies. It doesn’t sound like he has set out to the scam people, more that his financial situation has got out of hand and he hasn’t been capable of resolving it. Like Cougar, I’ve been in that situation and its not a healthy or happy place to be.

If he owed me £30, and I got a text that like from him, I’d tell him not to worry about it TBH.

From my (admittedly, limited) understanding of the situation, if what he says is true then the money he owes is probably yet another seemingly insurmountable burden to him; debt is a heavy weight to carry when you have no way of paying and even more so if it is a personal debt to someone else under dubious circumstances.

If it was me, I’d write the money off, and if he gets back on his feet in a few months then you can pat yourself on the back for giving a guy in trouble a bit of breathing space – you might even get your money back.

If he’s lying – well you’ll likely never know anyway.

I don’t know the guy, but it sounds like he’s in a scrape and trying to pull himself out of it.

Wow I have been out bleeding heart liberaled

Strikes me as more Idave tbh

Constant plausible excuses /apologies /admissions but absolutely nothing whatsoever on the remedying of the error /crime and absolutely limited commms which is not exactly hard. Basically he has your money and has done very little to sort it

Maybe I’m biased because I know all too well what that’s like, he could be a lying sack but I’d be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt I think.

I would be inclined to think he did it deliberately [ out of desperation if you like] feels bad but wont do **** all to sort it

What you do is your choice but you have an admission of fraud from him
I would probably let it go tbh and hope he learns a lesson but who knows he could learn it is easy to scam folk for little sums

Sounds like he needs a payday loan to me and let him worry about the 9000% apr once he’s paid his current debts…

davosaurusrex – Member

+1 hora. The boy has done wrong but his life sounds to be in a shit state,

Perhaps. But obviously you can’t trust him when it comes to money so why start from the position of trusting him on his excuses?

I wouldn’t trust him with my money with hindsight and I’d be pissed off bigtime. I’m not in this situation though so can’t answer 100%. Shitty alround.

His reply on the last thread tells you everything you need to know:

wow guys i have had NO internet access for nearly a week! The pedals have been sent! Two of you have paid for the bars so do one of you want a refund or both? and the pinkbike ban was from selling a bike and then the buyer wanting a refund after two months because a crack had appeared. I could of probs used a friends or public computer to contact you guys but to be honest i didn’t think it was such an issue. wow how i was wrong. Bit of an over reaction! i defo ain’t a scamer why the **** would try and rip the stw massive off for some freaking pedals and some bars. let me know weather u want bars or refunds!

right im off to spend my millions

If you’re skint and can’t pay folk back, you tell them, apologise and try to sort it. You don’t stick your brass neck out, have a go at them for daring to question your integrity, then go quiet and try to get away with it. It’s only the persistence of the OP and others which have forced the latest grovel, and there’s still no sign of the dosh.

Slippery character.

The boy has done wrong but his life sounds to be in a shit state

So? So you’re allowed to shit on others then? Yeah. OK.
No matter how shit your life is, shitting on others is never, ever gonna make it anything other than worse, is it?

Sounds like he deserves all he gets TBH.

Theoretically he still has my pedals as ive not seen them sold elsewhere..

Agree with Poddy fully on this one.

That’s not to say we can’t empathise but theft can (should) never be justified.

If he’s as slippery as it seems then you’ll not see your money and I’d be surprised if plod would be interested for the sake of £75. If he’s genuinely in financial difficulties then writing off that £75 might give him some much needed breathing space.

So your choices are:

a) Chase him for the money, costing you time, angst, etc, and eventually give up with nothing to show for it.
b) Take the moral high ground (as every good STW’er loves to do), write the money off, wish him luck, and sleep well.

Seems to be a lot of forgiveness on this thread for what is basically theft. Okay he had an excuse but so do most thieves, whether that’s drug addiction or whatever.

Remember that the next time someone posts on here asking people to look out for their stolen bike, the bike that’s been stolen by someone with a ‘good excuse’ to do so. That should make a change from the usual ‘hanging’s too good for ’em’ posts.

Looks like its all hearts and flowers for the guy because he was ‘one of our own’.

I can’t believe no one is prepared to doorstep him. He claims he gets paid in cash, so why not pop round to his house with a few quid in your pocket just in case he needs some change….
A lass once asked me to sort out a small financial matter with an ex of her’s. It was about a pair of spds that he owed her for. It was amazing how quick the money appeared when I knocked on his door.

pebblebeach – for me it’s more about facing up to the reality of the situation. Would you waste your own time trying (probably unsuccessfully) to get the money back, or just write it off now?

Doorstepping is a good option but didn’t someone already try? I thought I read something along those lines in the original thread.

pebblebeach – for me it’s more about facing up to the reality of the situation. Would you waste your own time trying (probably unsuccessfully) to get the money back, or just write it off now?

I’d be paying them a visit.

Re above, i was going to go round, but someone got it the way…

Im annoyed at the lies, if he’d have manned up originally instead of saying theyre in the post ida written it off. Now…

Astonishing that people are defending him…….he’s taken someone else’s money full stop, there’s no justification for not refunding straight away once he’d realised his mistake!

As with a lot of debts, he probably has the money. An ex of mine worked for a debt collection agency, and heard every excuse under the sun. Nine times out of ten they had the money but for whatever reason found it a lot easier to spend it elsewhere

Whether you bother chasing it up is another matter and I can’t say for certain whether I’d go round to see him unless I was in that situation

Kal – Member
Astonishing that people are defending him…….he’s taken someone else’s money full stop, there’s no justification for not refunding straight away once he’d realised his mistake!

What if you don’t have it ? You can’t magically make it appear.

what wilko said. and re martinhutch: the person who would write that sort of email pretending to himself as much as others that everything’s hunky dory when it isn’t, is exactly the kind of person who’s going to slip into spiralling debt problems.

Weeksy but he did have the money, because they gave it to him

wilko1999 – Member
Weeksy but he did have the money, because they gave it to him

Of course, and 30 mins after that he’d spent it in Tescos or paying a phone bill or…. well…something else obviously…

So? So you’re allowed to shit on others then? Yeah. OK.
No matter how shit your life is, shitting on others is never, ever gonna make it anything other than worse, is it?

Sounds like he deserves all he gets TBH.

I can’t tell if this is sarcastic or not…

2 people are down £30 and another £15, hardly shitting on anyone.

Annoying? inconvenient? very much so but seems for the most part unintentional and unfortunate.

As anyone who has ever suffered financial hardship will know it can take a bit of time to get back on your feet even after the money starts coming in. Real bills electricity, gas, debts etc need to be paid first and it can take a month or two (maybe more) before things are sorted.

Being in a shitty situation with money is embarrassing for many (speaking from personal experience here) and it can be hard to face up to and discuss with people, especially strangers.

Did they pay by paypal? Doesn’t it take a few days to transfer it, by which time he would have known there was a ‘mistake’, can’t really spend it in Tesco 30 minutes later. Anyway yes people do get down on there luck, and I feel for them, I’ve had some rough financial times, but I never robbed anyone to pay a phone bill

the person who would write that sort of email pretending to himself as much as others that everything’s hunky dory when it isn’t, is exactly the kind of person who’s going to slip into spiralling debt problems.

That’s one explanation. Alternative hypotheses are available.

Real bills electricity, gas, debts etc need to be paid first

Can’t argue with that. But these are debts we’re talking about, aren’t they?

He could spend the money he’s avoiding paying in tax to refund everyone.

What if you don’t have it ?

It’s long since established that ‘WT’ received payment so how could he not have had it…

He had/has it, he just chose not to refund it and spend it.

2 people are down £30 and another £15, hardly shitting on anyone.

Bless you do you want my Paypal address and what do you not want to recieve ?

Annoying? inconvenient? very much so but seems for the most part unintentional and unfortunate.

put my shiny bars on stw two people ended up paying for the bars but this was unintentional and i should of refunded right away but i did not and for that i am sorry my next mistake was selling the bars for cash to a friend

Indeed how unfortunate and unintentional

Wow I am a proper bleeding heart liberal but I fail to see how you can make excuses here tbh
sold bars he never intended to sell and then sold them anyway for cash – he sold them x 3 – what a clumsy day he was having

2 people are down £30 and another £15, hardly shitting on anyone.

That’s an interesting way of looking at it…If someone took £30 out of your wallet or you were subject to £30 CC fraud wouldn’t you want it back? Obviously you’ve got money to burn.