Hi, all, Just as my previous post(http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/103076-Possible-Scam!-Be-careful-!?highlight=) mentioned. I have tried to solve this problme in private, because I always believe people here are trustworthy. However, till now I am sure I have lost US130 because I didn't use "Purchase" in paybal and trusted others without discretion. Therefore, I would like to share my story here to help the new comers as well as some BCer's like me to deal safely. ID involved: deltad (me) edwina59 (Edwina Sims, the new ID I mentioned in my previous post, BC registered email address ericsoojung@gmail.com) ggman8898 (An old ID in this forum. I paid to his account using paypal. ) Timeline: Sep 23: A new registered ID edwina59 posted the following link (http://www.badmintoncentral.com/for...ONEX-nanospeed-9900-(BOTH-UNSTRUNG)?highlight=) tp sell two rackets. I think probably most of the persons here would agree that this is a good deal provide that the two rackets are real. I contaced her and she reserved the rackets for me and asked me to pay her to ggman8988@hotmail.com through paypal and she also asked me to not use "Purchase" to save her transaction fee. Having been in this forum for more than two years, of course I am aware of new ID. edwina59 is a newly registered ID which makes me doubt whether I should continue to deal with her. However, after she sent PM to me to ask me pay to ggman8988@hotmail.com, I eliminated my doubts. Because I searched this email and found that ggman8988 is an old ID here that have several transactions and have friend connections with several other trustworthy ID in this forum. Thus I paid to her by following her request, paid in "Personal" rather than "Purchase". (This is the most serious mistake I have made. I traded with several IDs here and always follow there requirmetns and never got problem. I know there is difference between "Purchase" and "Personal", however, I never took it seriously). Sep 24: I felt something wrong and emailed to her to confirm the authenticity of the rackets. Because edwina59 didn't give me her contact email and her PM box was full. I sent email enquiry to ggman8988@hotmail.com. Immediately I got response from ggman8988. He said he and edwina59 are friends and edwina59 is a 44 year old woman with kids. He and she paired in a tournament in Japan and won those rackets. He said the rackets were from their tournament in Japan and definitely there should be no problem unless the organizer bought those fake rackets. I trusted him. Sep 27: I received the package. When I opened it, I can tell that they are definitely not authentic Yonex JP rackets. Here are some pictures of those two rackets http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/img4109f.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/594/img4108vd.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/838/img4107j.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/img4106qp.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/17/img4104tn.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59/img4103j.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/718/img4101d.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/193/img4100r.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/822/img4099um.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/img4097ca.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/94/img4096l.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/717/img4110ao.jpg/ I contacted ggman8988@hotmail.com immediately. He was surprised by this and asked me to check whether they are really fake rackets. Then he asked me to directly contact edwina59 and said he didn't want to be involved into this. When I asked my payment, he said he had left his paypal username and password to edwina, she withdrew money already(later in our email communications, he said he deposited the money into edwina's account). He gave me edwina's contact edwina22@hotmail.com and cell number 905-785-7394. However, the cell phone was not in service and I haven't received any response from that email. Then I contacted ggman8988 again. He said he was leaving for vacation and won't return by the mid of October. He communicated with edwina59 only through email for tournament. He also guranteed that edwina will give me refund once she knows the rackets are fake. OK, I trusted him. I continus sent emails to edwina22@hotmail.com and still no reply. I found her last entry in BC is 09-28-2011 09:26 AM. I belive she had read my email. Since she didn't reply to me, I contact ggman8988 again ask for more details about the source of those rackets and the way to contact edwina59. ggman8988 told me that he couldn't remember the Japan tournament name because he has bad memory. He also cannot provide me with edwina's other contact. He said they only communicated through email for the tournament. Sep 28-Oct 6: Later, I had no choice but to contact forum administrator and got edwina's registered email in BC is ericsoojung@gmail.com. I kept sending email to ericsoojung@gmail.com and edwina22@hotmail.com, and still no reply. At the same time, I contacted ggman8988 and asked him to help find edwina. He said he hadn't contact edwina for a very longtime. He also asked me to show the rackets are fake. Fortunately, I was able to find some so-called "JP class G" rackets' pictures on website with exact cone numbers as the two fake rackets I got. It is really ironic. They are made in China and only sell for around US120 each on website. After I show those pictures to ggman8988, and probably due to the interference of forum administrator, ggman8988 agreed to refund to me. I paid US405 in total to him (two rackets US380+ shipping US25). He said he recieved them in CAD$397.84 because of the exchange rate, and now US405 would be CAD426.80 if he pays back to me. I said that's OK, just pay me CAD$397.84. Later I sent two rackets back to him and cost me USD36. Because I never sent package to Canada, the package was taxed about CAD60. Finally I received CAD337 from ggman8988 and converted to 311 USD. So my total loss is US405-US311+US36=US130. After this, ggman8988 said he would try to contact edwina 10 times after his vacation to see whether he could get his money back. I emailed to him yesterday and he said he had got his money through edwina. I asked edwina's contact again, he said he didn't want to be involved into this and asked me to contcat her directly. Now it is obvious, edwina lost nothing, ggman8988 lost nothing and only me lost US130 in this process. However, there are some doubts I couldn't figure out and ggman8988 never explained them to me. 1. It is really ridiculous that you attended a tournament in Japan and got two fake rackets as trophies. 2. ggman8988 never provided me with the name of this tournament? He said he had bad memory even after I mentioned that AZTH was released in last year and the tournament should be in 2010 or 2011. 3. ggman8988 confirmed that he sent those rackets to me. You sent the rackets to me, and I mailed them back to you. I also paid to your account. Why did you use your own ID ggman8988 to post at the very beginning to save your friend - edwina's trouble? 4. He also said he had stopped to talk with edwina after the tournament. That's really strange. When and where did you get those two rackets from edwina? 5. ggman8988 confirmed me that ericsoojung@gmail.com belongs to him, and said he doesn't know why edwina's registered email also uses this email address. 6. there are still a lot ... I don't want to list them one by one. OK, I am tired with this thing and won't waste my time on this after this post. Acturally, I was hoping edwina or ggman8988 could say "sorry" to me and said they didn't know that those rackets are fake. That's all. US130 is not a big sum of money to me. I can afford it. However, edwina never replied to me. ggman8988 never formally admitted that those two rackets are fake in our email communications and said "sorry" to me. Therefore, I think it is better to publish this here for the references of BCers in your later transaction. During these two years in BC, I have dealed with several very good sellers, TigerSmash in UK, skywalker in US, verybadplayer in Canada, etc. All of them are good sellers and I never had problem like this even if I paid using paypal with "Personal". But this time .... To GaryC: I really appreciate your kind suggestions in my previous post. I cannot dispute because I paid in "Personal" rather than "Purchase". Please forgive my stupidity. Finally, my suggestions to BCers here: Always use "Purchase" in paypal transactions to protect your own interest!
this is very very ridiculous. unless ggman8988 gives some reasonable excuse, he and his mystic partner should be forever banned here.
sad to hear people would do this, unfortunately, banning a member on this forum, although easy, doesn't stop the banned member, from setting up another account with a different email address at a different place. So in theory the same person can do the same thing again. I have verified rackets from ggman8988 before, and they were all legitimate, i ran the codes through the system anyway, and I can confirm what you already know - that these rackets are indeed fake. don't let this put you off buying rackets from BC though, stick to sellers who are reputable. I would never buy a racket on this forum from a "New Member" or someone with 0 posts, for me I would only buy from people i trust, or where i can personally inspect the racket or item in person. sorry that you've been ripped off...
WOAHHH I'm kinda scared to buy from ppl here now...and the thing is that i was about to buy a BS 09 from him not long ago...i know he's not a bad guy...but all this story with the "edwina" scares me Thx for letting us know bro
It is best way to do deal is : face to face meet and check the racket use your eyes, knowledge, and sometimes gut feeling!
Sorry to hear about this unfortunate story. I've had a similar experience dealing with ggman8988 and only reached a resolution with the intervention of Kwun. He almost took my money and my racket... and still blatantly denies this fact; even though I confronted him 3 times about it with the evidence. Anyways it sounds like edwina is just a made up profile by ggman8988 to carry out this scam, and I would urge people to beware of ggman8988. Prior to dealing with him he said stuff like I would never rip you off, I'm a trust worthy person with a good rep. etc etc. but you can never be sure these days.
Dang, sorry to hear there was nothing that could be done and you lost the $130.. I am pretty new to the BC community but I've dealt with many great people in my short time here...but it really earks me that this ggman8988 gave you such a BS story and gave you the run around. BTW I called phone number and it comes up as not assigned which is worse than not in service argh!! I hope this person doesn't play at any of the clubs I play at our I might have to give him a piece of my mind.
Sorry to hear about your terrible experience. However, this really serves as a good reminder to all to be extra careful. Hopefully this will deter those intending to sell or trade fake rackets more from here onwards. Your $130 is not a complete loss. Thank you for sharing. Go for a good round of badminton and smash away this bad experience...
Thanks for those who showed their care in this thread. To - иεvvεи٭т -ツ: I am really sorry to hear your story. It seems that I am not the only one who had problem to deal with him. To GaryC: Thanks for your help to confirm that number is not assigned.
To JTGOH: Thanks for you comments. Would you to share my loss of US130?. I am just kidding. Happy smashing !!
What a sad story n well documented over there Come visit Penang I spare you my unused racket.. Let's cheer up from a very bad day...see how they sing out the bad day song...
What a sad story that is. I can understand your feeling. There are always some dead branches on a large tree, but don't let that discourage you. I still believe most of BCers are honest people ... right? I hope you will find your next real good deal soon on the forum. anyway, it's good he refunded you but his side of the story sounds very fishy to me. if they won the tournament together. shouldn't he get a copy of the same 'fake' racket ? The story doesn't stand.
I think there are still some things need to be cleared up. Question for deltad... How do you know edwina59 is registered with ericsoojung@gmail.com? Which moderator (or kwun himself) give you this information? If ggman is registered with this email, it is impossible for edwina59 to be registered under the same one. BC does not allow email registration with multiple names. Why did he refund you the $300 when he can just run away *since his reputation is ruined anyway? You claim that you lost $130, but something is weird about this: Did you not ask him to include the $30 return shipping in your compensation? If not, why? If you thought he was a scammer, why would you pay the shipping fee, hence, risk your money again? Same thing for the tax: I assume he claimed being taxed and asked you for the additional $60; What made you trust him at this point?
I don't mean to be speaking on deltad's behalf or anything but I know that ggman8988 is registered with a hotmail account through our previous dealing. I was in the same position as deltad so I can understand the situation she was in, if you've lost a large sum of money isn't some compensation better than none? At least that's how I feel... As to why he refunded the money I don't know?_? Shouldn't that be a question directed to edwina/ggman8988? But in my case he said because Kwun had given him a warning and told him to... whether or not it's true I dunno, prob. his conscious caught up?
Thursday BUMP! Thanks for those who replied this thread. To blindrufy: Firstly, thanks for your reply. ggman8988 mentioned you are his friend, and even asked me to validate his credit with you. Fortuangely, I didn't do that. Since your ggman8988's friend, the easist way to find answers to all your questions is to ask him show all our email communications and put yourself in my position. Thanks. However, I would rather to take trouble to answer your questions here, but ONLY once. As I said, I won't waste my time anymore. "How do you know edwina59 is registered with ericsoojung@gmail.com? Which moderator (or kwun himself) give you this information?" 1. edwina59's registererd email in BC is ericsoojung@gmail.com, this is from a guranteed source. I don't want to disclose here because I don't want to involve those who helped me at this step. "If ggman is registered with this email, it is impossible for edwina59 to be registered under the same one. BC does not allow email registration with multiple names. " 2. haha, please ask ggman8988 his registered email in BC under ID ggman8988, you can also ask him the registered email under ID edwina59. "Why did he refund you the $300 when he can just run away *since his reputation is ruined anyway?" 3. Please ask ggman8988 directly, I am not him and I don't know. Your are his friend, probably he will tell you. "Did you not ask him to include the $30 return shipping in your compensation? If not, why? If you thought he was a scammer, why would you pay the shipping fee, hence, risk your money again?" 4. Please put yourself in my position. Suppose you put your money in others pocket, do you think you have bargin power? Frankly speaking, I doubt the existence of edwina59 from the very beggning after I found the rackets are fake and ggman8988 never tried to contact her. However, I still want to believe this is a misunderstanding and edwina59 and he didn't know the rackets are fake. Obviously I was wrong. I would like to risk shipping fee to have a chance to get more than US300 back. "Same thing for the tax: I assume he claimed being taxed and asked you for the additional $60; What made you trust him at this point? " 5. Please ask him to show the email he replied to me when he found there is tax problem. Sorry, I trusted him only at the very beginning. After I found the rackets are fake and he never tried to contact edwina59, I always highly doubted him. However, I still hoped this is a misunderstanding. Just as I said US130 is not a big sum of money for me. I would like to risk this to get US300 back. OK, blindfury, please recover your friend connection in BC with ggman8988 in your profile. During this process, I noticed that you have friend connection with him untill two days ago. Now, your ID is not in his friend connections. Is this a bug? Please fix it.
