Well, I’ve started (just) posting on the classifieds when I’ve had a successful transaction. Easy and everyone can do it with no need for the STW guys to have to get involved or do any work.

That thing about 2 guys coming to his mothers house was Bullshite anyhow

Shame if it was, because this guy needs a good slap. Sorry, but having been scammed/mugged/robbed in the past, I know how much it hurts. I have nothing but hatred for such people. Time to go for a run and relax now 🙂

Avforums have a classifieds section and they are very stringent, feedback system, bans for pm out side of the thread etc… seems draconian but it works

I would leave it just as it is – you’ll never legislate for these type of people & – reassuringly – they are few & far between.

Personally, I don’t think I’d part with much over – say – £150 & then wait for the parts to arrive.
I may be biased as I drive all over the country & can easily pick up from most places without cost.

I’ve never yet be done on STW
I’ve given loads of stuff away & even paid the postage & on a couple of occasions they’ve never even said thanks – but I’ve never been scammed here.

what’s their view on cheeky advertising? 😉

yes the AVF classifieds are a fairly safe place to trade (I have a number of times), but they’re pretty heavy on moderator time, which I suspect wouldn’t go down well here. There’s also the issue of whether the software will support such a feature. I reckon the headfi.org solution is the best I’ve seen…a separate feedback forum, with a separate thread for each trader into which feedback is posted. Simple, works.

There’s a Paul who is down £800 to add to the running total. So nigh on £2k missing.

I guess you can get a nice trip to Sea Otter for that.

Classifieds days are numbered then, as this isn’t the 1st time.

If its getting up to the thousands of pounds missing it might be worth seeing if the Police fraud unit are interested, as its not as if you don’t have enough evidence or his address

There’s a Paul who is down £800

Mary and Joseph, sweet child of mine 😯

I’ve bought a few bits off the Classifieds and never had a problem. If I was buying something for a decent amount of cash from someone I wasn’t sure of I’d probably arrange to meet up. It all comes down to trust.

If I’d bought something of IWH and not received it, say an £800 frame, I would be well down the legal path by now.

I would be well down the legal path by now.

It’d be the garden path for me 😀

All my forum purchases have been fine. A bit wobbly on one set of skewers but as I had spares I was okay. The only significant purchase I made the exchange in person as it was local but then again, if he wasn’t local, I wouldn’t have bought the frame.

hi mum!!! : waves :

uplink – Member

I would be well down the legal path by now.

It’d be the garden path for me [:D]

Class.

thepodge:

I would think its more likely that STW will close the classifieds. much less hassle for them

….and lose all the advert clicks that the extra traffic to the classifieds section must add? Nah, cannot see it myself.

Sandwich – Member

There’s a Paul who is down £800 to add to the running total. So nigh on £2k missing.

Isn’t that the Blue_CBRXX chap from BM? In the quoted text on Page11 it said £450, I couldn’t be bothered to go back and read the BM thread.

I would think its more likely that STW will close the classifieds. much less hassle for them

I dunno if it’ll be the death of the STW classifieds. That part of the forum must bring a lot of people to the site. Also, if it was too much hassle wouldn’t this thread have been closed by now? TBH I’m suprised that this type of thing hasn’t happened on this scale a lot more often.

I’ve bought plenty from the STW classifieds and never had a problem. Though I’d never chance more than a £100 without meeting the seller in person or getting the goods first.

I wouldn’t like to speculate to deeply about what exactly has happened to IWH’s online money making plans, but selling on futures and then getting into grief sounds like a fairly plausable explanation rather than a large scale plan to obtain money off STW’ers with no intention of providing any goods. After all, IWH/BigDutch has given a lot away about himself over the last few months on the forums as well as his address and I’d of bought stuff of him on the classifieds on the strength of that and the fact he’s fairly local to me (although I’ve never knowingly met him). Luckily I didn’t.

Anyway, for his own mental wellbeing if nothing else he should come totally clean about the whole thing and tell people how he ‘intends’ to pay them back instead of perpetuating myths about having posted the goods, etc. Probably not likely to happen though, he’s more than likely gone to ground.

Also, I’ve noticed from one of his classified posts that he was selling a lot of golfing equipment. Has anyone checked any golf forums to see if a similar thread is co-existing? Personally, I’d rather perform oral s*x on a leper than go anywhere near a golf forum although I’ve ridden across a few golf courses in my time 😉

Big Dutch is in a Big Ditch and the water’s rising!

this is a shame. i really like the community feel of the (majority of the) ads here, but it does seem that recently, with episodes like this, some abuse i have received by email and people actively scouring ads to then sell on for profit things are going awry.

Few days now and no reply from IWH.

I take it he’s ‘gone to ground’?*

*Not in that sense! 😉

580.

If you send money as a gift through paypal, it would make things tricky wouldn’t it?
This is probably been said before on here, but haven’t a spare week to read the thread.

If you send money as a gift through paypal, it would make things tricky wouldn’t it?

That’s exactly how I got skanked on the classifieds, and why I won’t do it any more.

Hope this doesn’t discourage site regulars from using the classifieds though, because I don’t recognise many of the sellers’ names as it is and it’d be a shame if classifieds became more detached from the rest of the forum.

Civil matter

Small claims court

All those who’ve lost money file a claim together

He gets served with court papers

Meditation will be proposed before the court date. If that doesn’t work then it’s off to court

He can turn up and defend himself

He’ll lose or not turn up

He has 28 days to pay

He doesn’t pay

The baillifs get sent in

The baillifs get sent in

Living with his mum so I can’t see that bearing much fruit
He may just pay up though

Sorry but after my terrible experience with IWH I won’t be buying anything off the classifieds again unless its local or I know the user name is at least 4 months and a known seller.
Just too risky now if you ask me as I aint got a clue who half the names are in the classifieds now 🙁

Meditation will be proposed before the court date.

I think you probably mean mediation, but it would probably help to sit quietly and chant before going to court.

😉

(starts chanting in corner now wife is out the room)
Ummm ba ba ba ummm ba ba ba 🙂

In light of this monster of a thread we’ve had a bit of a chat about possible feedback systems for the classifieds. I am scheduling a more focussed meeting with the tech guys on Wednesday and we’ll see what we can come up with.

Excellent 🙂

Seems what you need Mark is some “tough guys” to implement a “feedback system” 😆

I’m of the same view as others above, STW classifieds, Ebay or whatever classifieds, I’ve never parted with more than £100 unless I was doing cash on collection. If that means driving 100 miles for something I really want then so be it (that cost would have to be factored in), or I just won’t buy it. The only exception would be people I know or trust, that might include people I’ve never met that are obviuosly trustworthy from their posts (Ton, would be a good example).

Regards the future of the classifieds, I suppose it’s a case of buyers being more vigilant and asking for more pictures (dated) to prove the seller at least has the item (someone mentioned this previously). Maybe the seller should ask the buyer to leave feedback on the FS thread for that item, so they can refer future buyers back to their old FS threads to build a sort of history.

Why not use iTrader?
Its a direct plugin to the forum.

Description:
iTrader has evolved from Trader Ratings for vB 3.0.x which evolved from Buy/Sell/Trade User Rating System for vB 2.x. This is a rating system for when members buy / sell / trade items from each other (presumably on a FS section of your forum). It is somewhat based on the honor system since there is no automatic way to truly tell if they did engage in a transaction. iTrader came about because it was a pain to try and maintain a single thread listing good / bad traders and so far has worked out quite well.

Features:

* Rate another member: Positive / Negative / Neutral
* Specify in each transaction: Buyer, Seller, or Trade
* Leave multiple comments about the deal
* Dates & IPs are all recorded to prevent abuse
* Specify a thread URL to the deal
* Advanced URL checking
* Display ratings over time
* Filter based on Buyer/Seller/Trade/or feedback they left for others
* Users can edit/delete ratings left for others (time based limitation)
* iTrader Admins can edit/delete anyone's ratings (just incase)
* PM notification when new rating or comment is left
* Per-usergroup permissions
* Lots of admin controllable options

There are various mods available as well.

Only just seen this thread not been on hear for a bit, sounds like ive been done too!

One set of XT cranks 50 quid, apparently lost by royal mail. Posted begining of April apparently. Still not sorted out a refund. I’ll be collecting only from now on i thing…

Like B.A.Nana’s idea that could work…

To keep a running total for all those affected:

PK-ripper – £80
Daffy – £75
MrMan – £225 (iphone – post 3, page1)
fatblokeattheback – £250 (forks, page 1)
tinribz – £35 (page1)
Blue_CBRXX – £450?? (BM thread and Page 11)
Stupot – £50 (XT cranks – page 15)

Running total – £1165

I’ve been following this with some interest as I too have been had on classified forums although never on here !

One forum I was part of many years ago did have a trader rating system and on the whole it worked quite well although I still eventually lost out on a transaction on that although I did manage to get the guys home and work address via another forum and get it all back !
Trader ratings at least help people make an informed decision on who they trade with.

Guys get together and get round his house and sort it (him) out, it’s the only way.

I’d slap him silly if it was me being ripped off.

Can’t you pay by paypal and have it as a purchase? then they refund you if it is a no show? or perhaps even mark it as an ebay purchase

Lee has been in touch with me and offerd a refund to be paid this week.

If it happens, then all wil be fine with me. If not…..I dunno really.

S’pose a personal visit may be in order…not a threat in any way, just it’s harder to fob people off if you’re there in person.

The eternal optimist – Daffy.

Hey Daffy, I gave Lee my account details and guess what? he said I gave him the wrong account number! then when I recited it back to him he said he had paid cash in so I checked my account every hour and guess what? nothing showed up!
Getting cash is the only way mate 🙁

Hmmm, I’d like to see some results…

600 – which is less pounds than he’s run off with 🙁